I knew that if Image journal ran a piece on the Sex and the City controversy, that I would gain some perspective that I’d been lacking in the heat of the recent debate.
Sure enough, Kelly Foster’s honest, personal testimony, “Why I Watch Sex and the City, has made me wish I’d waited a month or two before responding.
If I had, perhaps I would have responded with the grace (and the admirable brevity) that Foster manages here. I still stand by the things I did write, but I wrote from a place of being wounded and hurt. In short, someone had, in the name of Christ, called a family of fellow believers “perverts,” and that led to a tone of hostility.
So I’m thankful for Foster’s piece here, which brings more light into the conversation. I still have much to learn about responding in truth with grace. (It’s tough enough to speak the truth with eloquence, but when you’re in a state of shock, the grace part is tricky…)
I’m also grateful for this new podcast at Christ and Pop Culture, which brings more illumination and intelligence to a murky debate.
And then, Jason Morehead has contributed his own perspective, which was quite inspiring as well.
I dunno, Jeffrey. I’ve read most if not all of your comments on the controversy, and I wouldn’t characterize any of them as lacking in grace. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
It’s true that Kelly brings some much-needed perspective to the discussion. It’s a perspective that you or I simply don’t have, by virtue of our not being single, or women, and thus not part of the cadre to whom the TV show and the film are addressed. Even if we forced ourselves to watch the stuff, we still might not develop the kind of perspective that seems to come naturally to Kelly.
That doesn’t mean that our own perspectives lack merit.