Orange is the New What?

My husband and I do not have regular TV channels, we only have Netflix. It is that time of year where Netflix starts adding on seasons to their shows that have previously been on television. Currently the one plastered all over the spotlight section is Orange is the New Black. I’m sorry but what does that even mean? Apparently after some research it is a fashion term. When did orange jumpsuits become fashionable or even okay to wear? 

Halloween is the only thing that comes to mind. 

Hello, you have to go to jail to get them! Just my thoughts on this, but I personally don’t want to go to jail and I’m pretty sure my friends don’t either; not even to try a new fashion. It seems like in our culture something that we would consider shameful is easily reconfigured in television to make it “OK”. Think I'm joking? Just this week laws have been changed to force society into acceptance. How many of you watch a TV show that displays sex outside of marriage? (Marriage being God's definition of one man and one woman.) I know I am guilty of this. However, if this happened in our actual lives we would have a field day. Some of the most popular shows have the most sex in them for example: Game of Thrones, House of Cards, and Grey’s Anatomy.  I’m going to make one up but I’m sure there is an actual version of this. 

Example:

The show you are watching is about a husband and wife. They are having problems, but the script paints the wife as the cause. The husband tries everything to gain her love but it just isn’t working. The husband is a very attractive man and meets the woman of his dreams. He knows he shouldn’t get involved but his friends tell him that his wife doesn’t treat him as he deserves. So he gives into his desires and starts dating this girl on the side. Throughout the show you have a double life being led; one with his wife and one with his girlfriend. The more you watch, the more they paint the wife as the villain. The husband is of course sweet, and caring; and the new girlfriend is perfect. By the end of the series you are ok that he leaves his wife and starts a new life with the other woman. 

Da da da! What just happened? Slowly but surely over time you got accustomed to the idea. Now I personally have a lot of friends who watch Orange is the New Black and even after reading this won’t change their mind. Part of it will be that we (millennials) cannot stop watching something after we have started. We get into the plot and can’t turn it off. We lye awake at night wondering about the next episode and how the script will use the latest turn of events. Now why does Orange is the New Black bother me? It promotes and idolizes a lifestyle that is harmful. Yes, I am pulling the same sex card. I think as Christians this is something we do not know how to deal with. Our parents, although having knowledge on this topic, are not well versed enough today. They grew up in an age where this was something people didn’t talk about. Now it is on every magazine, social media page even television, and we aren’t allowed to have a say. Why? Because we don’t accept it and in today’s society you must accept everything and everyone, even if it goes against your belief system. The most common thing I hear is "How does this affect your life?" First, if you are posing this question then you are proving that it does. Just because I am not part of this lifestyle or condone it, doesn't mean I can pretend it doesn't exist or become tolerant. How am I supposed to tell my children about society now? Most of us learned the harder things of life and sin once we were old enough to understand them. My husband and I will need to tell our children about controversial and difficult topics before they are in middle school. This scares me, and yes affects my life. However, as a Christian I believe we are to answer people with love, as Jesus did. He never sugar coated life to make sin tolerant. He used scripture and love to inform and change the hearts of those caught in sin. Here are two verses I think help me with this ideology. 

           Jeremiah 29:11

 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

          Hebrews 13: 1-5

“1. Let brotherly love continue. 2. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. 3. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also. 4. Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. 5. Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

There is a lot to take in, but I think this is what we should apply. God is saying that he has a plan for our life that has not been revealed to us; but it is a future with hope! That sounds really good to me. Hope is a powerful thing. It drives people to do wonders. If God has a future for us, that is not of evil but of peace, why then do we do things outside of his boundaries? Because we are human, that simple. Now also notice that God tells us to love continually. This means even those who’s lifestyle is not acceptable to Christ. If you think about it why would someone consider coming to church or even entertain the thought of Jesus if Christians, who are supposed to bare the image of God, do not display love? To quote Alan Jackson, “Faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us, but the greatest is love.” So how can we display love, if you read a little further it says to remember the prisoners as if we were chained with them. People in this lifestyle are prisoners to it and the sin created. We must remember them. Not every person struggles with the same things in life but before you were saved, you were a prisoner in some fashion to sin. Jesus didn't pick disciples that were pillars in the community; He picked ordinary men, with sin in their lives, and showed them ultimate love. 

              1 Corinthians 13: 1-6 
      "1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

                James 2: 14-17
        "14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

Want to be more like Jesus? Be there for those who don’t know him yet. 

Is it a wonder today that our generation has a high divorce rate, or is making headlines in sin? No, I believe it is just a product of our culture. We have allowed this through social media, television and other outlets. If you don’t want to enable this movement, make a difference in your life and the life of others by looking at what you bring into your home. It is cliche, but what would Jesus do? I don’t see him pressing play.