When I read this book on an airplane last fall, parts of it made me cry. All of it fired me up.
David Platt. Counter Culture: A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Persecution, Abortion, Orphans, and Pornography. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2015. 34-page sample PDF.
I’m teaching a course on Biblical Ethics this semester, and I’ve required the class to read chapter 5: “A War on Women: The Gospel and Sex Slavery” (pp. 105–27, 255–57). It demonstrates a heart-breaking, soul-terrifying link between sex slavery and pornography—similar to what this video does:
10 excerpts:
- What matters most is not how much you earn, but what you do with what you earn. (p. 36)
- Virtually every other question and every single argument in the abortion controversy comes back to this question: What, or who, is in the womb? (p. 63)
- Men and women who indulge in pornography are creating the demand for more prostitutes, and in turn they are fueling the sex- trafficking industry. … Every time a man or woman views pornography online, we are contributing to a cycle of sex slavery from the privacy of our own computers. (p. 121)
- A husband is to treasure, encourage, build up, and comfort his wife. He is to take the initiative in tending to his wife, not waiting for her to approach him and say, “There are some problems in our marriage that we need to talk about,” but going to her and saying, “How can I love you and lead our marriage better?” I regularly ask my wife that question, and she is usually able to answer without any hesitation! (p. 146)
- Women often find it easier to love their husbands than to respect them. (p. 147)
- I have yet to meet a wife who didn’t want to follow a husband who was sacrificially loving and serving her. (p. 149)
- Sex is good, but sex is not God. It will not ultimately fulfill. Like anything else that becomes an idol, it will always take more than it gives while diverting the human heart away from the only One who is able to give supreme joy. (p. 160)
- [W]e must be careful across the church not to minimize the magnitude of what it means to follow Christ. Yes, this is a gospel that beckons the homosexual woman to stop sleeping with her partner, but it is also a gospel that beckons the heterosexual man to stop indulging in pornography, married men to stop abandoning their wives, and singles to avoid sexual activity until marriage. (pp. 175–76)
- The category of “race” as we commonly use it is unhelpful because it locates identity in physical appearance. … Instead of being strictly tied to biology, ethnicity is much more fluid, factoring in social, cultural, lingual, historical, and even religious characteristics. (pp. 188, 191)
- As soon as I write this, I want to say that my aim is not to be an alarmist. But on further reflection, maybe it is. Maybe an alarm does need to be sounded, and maybe all of us need to seriously consider how to counter a rapidly shifting religious culture with clear gospel conviction. (pp. 215–16)
