What's Next--An Annual Christianity Today Swimsuit Issue?
12/04/2005 11:46 Filed in: Culture Watch
From the MSNBC article:
German youths offer R-rated Bible calendar
Topless Delilah, nude Eve illustrate Scriptures ‘in a different way’
Reuters
Updated: 1:02 p.m. ET Dec. 2, 2005
BERLIN - A German Protestant youth group has put together a 2006 calendar with 12 staged photos depicting erotic scenes from the Bible, including a bare-breasted Delilah cutting Samson’s hair and a nude Eve offering an apple.
“There’s a whole range of biblical Scriptures simply bursting with eroticism,” said Stefan Wiest, the 32-year-old photographer who took the titillating pictures.
Anne Rohmer, 21, poses on a doorstep in garters and stockings as the prostitute Rahab, who is mentioned in both New and Old Testaments. “We wanted to represent the Bible in a different way and to interest young people,” she told Reuters.
“Anyway, it doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that you are forbidden to show yourself nude.”
Bernd Grasser, pastor of the church in Nuremberg where the calendar is being sold, was enthusiastic about the project which is explained online at [link deleted].
“It’s just wonderful when teenagers commit themselves with their hair and their skin to the Bible,” he said.
It will be officially launched over the weekend.
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10297248/
If this were being reported somewhere other than a newssite, I would think it was a parody of seeker-targeted evangelism. Where do you even begin with something like this? The Bible doesn't say that you're forbidden to show yourself nude? Even if you take the second half of 1 Timothy 2:9 to be culturally conditioned, the theme of the verse is modesty which would definitely exclude nudity. Further, if the calendar is being promoted as "depicting erotic scenes from the Bible" as described above, how could this ever be reconciled with the command to "Flee sexual immorality [porneia]" in 1 Cor 6:18?
By the way...yes, I removed the link in the news article to the German website. I'm not going to be responsible for providing links to pornography on my blog, and I truly believe that this calendar falls into that category. The fact that the calendar depicts biblical scenes simply adds blasphemy to the sin of porneia.
I have no doubt that they will fulfill their desire (pun intended) to "interest young people."
German youths offer R-rated Bible calendar
Topless Delilah, nude Eve illustrate Scriptures ‘in a different way’
Reuters
Updated: 1:02 p.m. ET Dec. 2, 2005
BERLIN - A German Protestant youth group has put together a 2006 calendar with 12 staged photos depicting erotic scenes from the Bible, including a bare-breasted Delilah cutting Samson’s hair and a nude Eve offering an apple.
“There’s a whole range of biblical Scriptures simply bursting with eroticism,” said Stefan Wiest, the 32-year-old photographer who took the titillating pictures.
Anne Rohmer, 21, poses on a doorstep in garters and stockings as the prostitute Rahab, who is mentioned in both New and Old Testaments. “We wanted to represent the Bible in a different way and to interest young people,” she told Reuters.
“Anyway, it doesn’t say anywhere in the Bible that you are forbidden to show yourself nude.”
Bernd Grasser, pastor of the church in Nuremberg where the calendar is being sold, was enthusiastic about the project which is explained online at [link deleted].
“It’s just wonderful when teenagers commit themselves with their hair and their skin to the Bible,” he said.
It will be officially launched over the weekend.
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10297248/
If this were being reported somewhere other than a newssite, I would think it was a parody of seeker-targeted evangelism. Where do you even begin with something like this? The Bible doesn't say that you're forbidden to show yourself nude? Even if you take the second half of 1 Timothy 2:9 to be culturally conditioned, the theme of the verse is modesty which would definitely exclude nudity. Further, if the calendar is being promoted as "depicting erotic scenes from the Bible" as described above, how could this ever be reconciled with the command to "Flee sexual immorality [porneia]" in 1 Cor 6:18?
By the way...yes, I removed the link in the news article to the German website. I'm not going to be responsible for providing links to pornography on my blog, and I truly believe that this calendar falls into that category. The fact that the calendar depicts biblical scenes simply adds blasphemy to the sin of porneia.
I have no doubt that they will fulfill their desire (pun intended) to "interest young people."