The Bible as Romance Tool
Aug 26
I got a press release this morning that I had to read twice. In any given day, the range of subject matter in the press releases I get is mind boggling. Would I be interested in interviewing the head of the Chilean Fruit Association? National Grapefruit Week is right around the corner. The head of a San Fransisco based gay dance troop is available to talk about dance as a means of promoting tolerance. Would Crosstalk be interested? Another says a new book is out with amazing conversion stories–from Christianity to atheism. Any chance we’d interview the author? You get the idea. So when I got a press release from Christian Newswire this morning I had to look twice. The header reads, “Warning! Romantic Apathy Runs Rampant Among Christians.” With the hysterical election related releases I’ve been getting, I assumed it was a family values group warning about staying home and not voting. But romantic apathy?
It had nothing to do with the election. There’s a new product out, a CD called the Original Love Song that will really jazz up your romantic life. It uses the Bible. Someone has taken the Song of Songs and narrated it over a music bed. Listening to it like that is supposed to fill the terrible romantic void among Christians today. The release reads:
It’s bursting through on televisions, creeping in by email, and now, cell phones make it even easier to whisper words of love without ever having to look into each others eyes.
Noticing the trend, Guy Bickel, the originator of a unique Christian CD for romantic enlightenment entitled The Original Love Song, references a recent blog article entitled ‘Romance in the Age of Irony’, where Urban Survivor writes:
“Love in the 21st Century is a joke…it’s a punch line in a sitcom. It’s an e-mail with a lame smiley face in place of an original phrase. It’s a hasty text message (LUV U) with a hieroglyph where your heart ought to be.”
The Garvey Register further supports Bickel’s claim in the article, ‘The Lost Art of Romance’. “Though our planet may be warming, America’s romantic climate registers fizzle, not sizzle. According to a survey conducted by the Society of American Florists, only 19% of men rank themselves as a seven or higher on a romantic scale of one to ten.”
“Thank God (literally) there is help”, says Bickel. “But it’s powerful stuff! You need something strong to overcome the apathy and the ‘who cares’ attitude. We had no choice; we had to add the warning label.”
“The Original Love Song is a kind of Romantic Enlightenment Course. It is scripture, word-for word from the Bible, but spoken in a manner to stir your emotions and get you thinking thoughts of romantic love. Then we set it all to an enchanting, movie-style soundtrack by an award winning film composer. The music really helps the message touch your heart.”
“God loves romance” says Dr. David Clarke, Ph.D.; a Christian psychologist, marriage counselor, and author. “Spiritual intimacy, bringing God into the marriage and into bedroom will ignite the flame of passion and keep it burning forever. Every couple needs to hear The Original Love Song.”
But be forewarned, The Original Love Song is for adults only. It will open up lines of communication, help foster wholesome, romantic thoughts, and is a most enjoyable step in achieving a spiritual and passionate relationship.
(The bold emphasis is mine.)
To sell a recording of a book of the inspired Word of God and to portray it as some sort of aphrodisiac for couples is disgusting. Someone is actually making money off this kind of treatment of the Bible. “Finding God in the bedroom” is the latest fad among jaded evangelicals who must constantly push the envelope into new and more edgy territory to spice up their boring lives.
One more thing. The website warns that this isn’t the type of thing to listen to in a group setting beacuse it’s too personal. (Are they picturing this used at small group Bible studies?)
The Original Love Song literally whisks the listener off to a very special place of sensual innocence and spiritual passion; a place so deep and so real, that many come away deeply moved, yet spiritually and romantically invigorated.
However, some have told us The Original Love Song is not the type of production to be listened to while driving in traffic, with a group of co-workers, or in any large group of people for that matter. It is a moving and sensual interpretation that deals with intimacy and virtue and is simply too personal.
Well, yeah. I would think so.