Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1240 ｜ TikTok’s Spicy Novels Are Warping Women’s Minds

00:00:00.000 The dark world of steamy romance novels is much bigger and more powerful than you think.

00:00:05.980 It is very deeply affecting women psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually, perhaps even

00:00:12.720 politically.

00:00:13.560 We are going to explore the depths of this sphere today and explain exactly why this

00:00:19.280 matters so much to Christians. 0.74

00:00:21.940 If you love this podcast, please make sure you are subscribed on YouTube, on Spotify,

00:00:27.140 on Apple Podcasts, on Google Play.

00:00:30.620 Leave us a five-star review wherever you listen.

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00:00:34.780 All right.

00:00:35.080 Without further ado, here's today's episode of Relatable.

00:00:47.280 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable.

00:00:49.200 Happy Wednesday.

00:00:50.460 Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.

00:00:53.000 All right, I have been wanting to dive into this subject for a while, and that is the

00:00:59.000 subject of dark romance and the hold that it has on so many women and how it is affecting 0.99

00:01:06.660 young women politically, psychologically, most importantly, spiritually.

00:01:12.080 We've been gathering a lot of information and data on this subject for a while, but it

00:01:16.880 was this particular post on X that just stopped me in my tracks and made me go even deeper

00:01:23.340 into this subject because I realized just how disturbing things are getting in the world

00:01:29.460 of social media book reviews.

00:01:32.320 There is a book that is apparently very popular.

00:01:36.520 I thought that it was a joke when I first saw it on X.

00:01:39.600 And let me just tell you before we put the picture up, okay, and before we get into all

00:01:45.820 of this, if you couldn't tell by the title and the subject that I just introduced, this

00:01:50.120 is at the very least PG-13.

00:01:52.420 Okay, like I would actually tell you, if your teenage daughter listens to Relatable,

00:01:56.540 most episodes are great to listen to with the family.

00:01:59.620 This episode, I would say not, okay?

00:02:01.180 And I take no enjoyment from talking about this and you're going to think, oh my gosh,

00:02:09.140 I can't believe that she's saying these titles.

00:02:11.300 I want you to know though what is going on because if you do have a daughter or you have

00:02:15.860 a friend or you have someone that you know in your life who is into these kinds of books,

00:02:20.880 you need to know what is going into their mind, the input that is going in that might be

00:02:25.160 affecting the output.

00:02:26.260 And to do that, we've got to get specific.

00:02:28.140 It's not enough for me to just say, oh yeah, this is a trend.

00:02:30.640 Believe me, I've got to show you what's going on in the world and why women think the way 1.00

00:02:35.240 that they do today in large part.

00:02:37.160 Okay, so here's the book, y'all.

00:02:39.620 It is called Morning Glory Milking Farm.

00:02:42.980 Okay, and I mean, you could probably put the pieces together and kind of deduce what the

00:02:49.920 euphemisms mean.

00:02:50.980 If you are listening to this on the audio side, instead of watching this, first, you should

00:02:54.580 be watching on Spotify or YouTube.

00:02:56.720 It'll help you to see the visuals here.

00:02:58.820 Let me tell you what's going on.

00:03:00.120 Okay, we have what looks like a cow. 0.99

00:03:02.520 Okay, we've got a bull, but he also is human.

00:03:07.700 He's got biceps.

00:03:09.180 He's muscular.

00:03:10.480 And then we've got this woman who is obviously completely in love with this animal.

00:03:17.420 Okay, and she's leaning against him.

00:03:20.140 And this says Morning Glory Milking Farm.

00:03:23.620 You can see that it's sexual right away.

00:03:25.280 This author is apparently a best-selling author, which is disturbing in and of itself.

00:03:31.100 And what also caught my eye at the top here, it says, a monster bait romance.

00:03:36.380 So you're telling me that this is a theme, that there are other books that fit into this

00:03:41.340 theme, into this category.

00:03:43.320 So as we started researching this, I wanted to know, is it real?

00:03:46.980 And is this something that a bunch of people are reading?

00:03:50.020 There is a reviewer on Reddit, which Reddit is just a cesspool of some of the worst opinions

00:03:55.420 in the world.

00:03:56.580 But a Redditor called this book one of the hottest books that they have ever read.

00:04:01.900 This writer, CM Nascosta, claimed on Instagram that she has aphantasia, a condition where

00:04:08.780 someone can't form mental images or scenes in their mind and cannot actually picture

00:04:13.340 the stuff that she's writing.

00:04:15.700 So I'm not sure if this person is saying this as an excuse, like, oh, I had no idea that

00:04:21.220 I was writing really weird, freaky stuff.

00:04:23.680 Or if, I don't know, it's just a strange part of this person's character.

00:04:29.540 And it's just also ironic that you are causing people to picture basically bestiality and

00:04:35.980 weird, dark fantasies, but you yourself aren't able to picture them.

00:04:40.180 The book is very popular on something called BookTalk.

00:04:43.660 And we are going to talk about BookTalk today and how it is advancing some of the worst ideas

00:04:49.600 and promoting some of the worst resources for women. 1.00

00:04:53.720 So this TikTok had a lot of views.

00:04:56.680 It was a part of BookTalk.

00:04:57.820 And I guess this is a trend on BookTalk, where these avid readers and romance readers try

00:05:03.020 to explain the plot of some of the books that they're reading to their husbands or to another

00:05:08.080 person.

00:05:08.860 So just bear with me.

00:05:11.480 This person is going to explain what this very popular book that women are consuming 1.00

00:05:16.620 is about.

00:05:17.640 Sot7.

00:05:18.260 So the book starts off with a woman and she's down on her luck and she sees a job advertisement 0.94

00:05:23.760 for a milking farm.

00:05:26.180 And it's not a normal milking farm like with cows.

00:05:29.140 What it is, is it's big, bulky minotaurs.

00:05:33.360 And it's a special type of milking, if you know what I'm talking about.

00:05:39.660 Okay, so yikes.

00:05:42.580 Apparently, this is the kind of stuff that women are reading. 1.00

00:05:45.720 And it has only gotten worse and worse over the past few years.

00:05:49.960 You remember Fifty Shades of Grey.

00:05:51.700 Do you remember when that premiered?

00:05:52.880 I, of course, have not read the book.

00:05:55.000 I have not seen the movie.

00:05:56.660 But it was a really big deal when this came out.

00:05:59.440 This movie, this book was promoting something called BDSM, which is basically violent and

00:06:05.660 humiliation-based sexual acts.

00:06:08.800 It's supposed to be consensual.

00:06:11.160 And in this world in which consent is considered the only standard of morality, it was seen

00:06:17.300 as subversive but cool.

00:06:19.620 And women were escaping to this fantasy. 0.94

00:06:22.940 And if their husbands weren't giving them everything they needed, then maybe women should 1.00

00:06:26.640 be able to read Fifty Shades of Grey and get the sexual satisfaction that they're looking

00:06:31.540 for.

00:06:31.920 So many different problems with this.

00:06:33.940 But we see that in 2015, when Fifty Shades of Grey was published, that it made so much

00:06:40.400 money, that it sold so many books, that it grossed so much at the box office, that this

00:06:44.900 was obviously tapping into a desire that many women had. 0.80

00:06:49.000 And that this was actually going to lead to a boom of this genre.

00:06:53.860 And as we know, the sexual revolution moves really fast.

00:06:58.740 In 2015, we also saw that the Obergefell decision was made by the Supreme Court, which said that

00:07:06.360 gay marriage is a human right that has to be recognized or that is recognized by the Constitution.

00:07:12.500 And in just a matter of 10 years, we got Drag Queen Story Hour.

00:07:16.200 We have parents losing custody of their kids because they won't affirm that their child was born in

00:07:21.940 the wrong body.

00:07:22.840 So the sexual revolution, whether it comes to LGBTQ or whether it comes to sexual promiscuity, 0.97

00:07:29.440 sex outside of marriage, moves very, very quickly because that is the nature of sin. 0.92

00:07:34.300 That is the nature of chaos and disorder.

00:07:36.800 It accelerates and it breeds more disorder.

00:07:41.500 And so that is what has happened actually specifically in the genre of romance that is targeting women that

00:07:48.120 is so popular among the young women in America today.

00:07:51.940 We'll get into more of that background in just a second.

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00:09:32.340 Okay, let's talk a little bit more about 50 Shades of Gray.

00:09:36.660 This is probably the prime example that still comes into a lot of people's brains when they

00:09:43.280 think of this genre of smut or erotic literature.

00:09:48.880 Now, what it appears, so I am told, what appears on screen when it comes to 50 Shades of Gray

00:09:54.800 is actually a lot more PG or PG-13 than what you read in the books.

00:10:00.580 And that is a very important thing to remember about these books, is that there aren't the

00:10:06.120 same regulations and need for ratings and screening when it comes to books.

00:10:12.400 There are certain parameters that typically have to be followed to be on a streaming service,

00:10:18.880 to be on television, even to be in a movie.

00:10:23.120 Now, of course, the boundaries have gotten looser and looser over time, but that is not the case

00:10:28.480 for books.

00:10:29.040 And I think a lot of people think if something is written down, that it's not going to be

00:10:33.340 as bad.

00:10:33.840 It's not going to be as explicit if I'm not seeing a picture.

00:10:38.220 But the mental picture that is being put in people's minds by this literature is, I would

00:10:44.240 argue, just as powerful, just as brain chemistry altering as watching pornography or watching

00:10:51.960 an erotic movie.

00:10:53.280 So let me tell you some examples of this kind of smut genre that people, according to Book 1.00

00:11:00.640 Talk and according to just the numbers that we see, are really into right now.

00:11:05.760 And you'll see just how dark this is, okay?

00:11:08.560 That this is not just about pornography.

00:11:10.760 This is not just about emotional romantic fantasy.

00:11:14.000 But this is about, in many cases, the dark and demonic.

00:11:18.060 So we have this series called The Lord Series.

00:11:21.260 It's by Chantelle Tassier.

00:11:23.000 Characters mix love with revenge, hurting each other emotionally or through power plays

00:11:27.960 in a secret society before reaching twisted resolutions.

00:11:32.000 Intense relationships feature one partner dominating the other with jealousy and control,

00:11:36.200 creating a tense, dark atmosphere.

00:11:38.480 What's interesting is that this is a common theme, male domination of women, men overtaking

00:11:44.080 women in a lot of these romantic novels.

00:11:47.620 Irony is, is that a lot of the women who just eat this stuff up consider themselves strong, 1.00

00:11:53.500 powerful, independent feminists. 0.92

00:11:55.840 And yet in their fantasy lives, in the literary porn that they're reading, they are looking 0.99

00:12:02.340 for this kind of humiliation and domination. 0.87

00:12:05.540 It's very sick juxtaposition when you think about it.

00:12:09.780 There's also a series called The Highest Bitter Series.

00:12:12.240 The core premise involves men buying partners in an auction-like setup, okay?

00:12:19.220 So this is like a slave auction fantasy happening.

00:12:23.620 It emphasizes extreme control and ownership dynamics.

00:12:27.660 The men exert intense, possessive dominance over their partners, creating relationships

00:12:32.620 steeped in restriction and tension.

00:12:35.000 You know, I'm starting to think here if when the feminists are talking about The Handmaid's 1.00

00:12:39.600 Tale, that they're actually fantasizing about it and not warning against it.

00:12:43.760 They seem to have this obsession with being dominated by men, and they act like that's

00:12:48.900 what they don't want.

00:12:49.880 But the literature that they consume tells me otherwise.

00:12:53.160 We've also got Chicago Ruthless Series.

00:12:55.820 It's set in a crime family.

00:12:56.800 The stories feature violence, possessiveness, and what one reviewer called an unrealistic amount

00:13:02.380 of sex.

00:13:03.040 So I'm telling you, this is just as sexual graphic explicit as any man who is addicted 0.97

00:13:11.580 to watching pornography.

00:13:13.600 There is Den of Vipers.

00:13:15.540 It's a dark romance reverse harem about villains who get the girl.

00:13:20.760 There are a lot of—I'm not trying to laugh. 0.94

00:13:22.340 It's just so ridiculous that someone would be like, yes, I'm going to put pen to paper,

00:13:26.260 and this is going to be how I spend my time and energy and creativity and skill that God 0.75

00:13:31.360 gave me.

00:13:32.060 There are a lot of triggers in this book.

00:13:33.740 One reviewer says, violence, dark kinks, sexually explicit scenes are throughout this entire

00:13:38.940 book.

00:13:39.200 So if that's not your thing, I would steer clear.

00:13:43.720 The Loser Series, it is about a polyamorous dynamic with intense BDSM.

00:13:50.060 Most unrealistic thing here is that according to the cover, these are supposed to be attractive

00:13:54.300 people involved in polyamory, and we know from seeing what polyamorous, you know, polycules

00:14:02.020 look like on social media that that is, like, never the case.

00:14:06.560 Very strange fantasy going on here.

00:14:09.300 Chokehold by Lee Rivers.

00:14:11.000 This is another, like, very popular book.

00:14:13.520 Gosh, it just looks so dark.

00:14:15.600 A true hate-to-love story between stepbrothers who live together.

00:14:19.860 No, no, no, no. 0.77

00:14:22.000 I can't even finish the description of that because we've gone from gruesome to gay, and 1.00

00:14:27.100 it's just too much.

00:14:28.940 Okay, I think that we could probably skip over some of the other examples.

00:14:33.000 You understand.

00:14:34.220 There's violence.

00:14:35.120 There's domination.

00:14:36.260 There's possessiveness.

00:14:38.600 There's BDSM.

00:14:40.160 There's all of these things that can get into your mind, whether you're reading about it,

00:14:44.860 whether you are watching it, and it changes how you think.

00:14:48.980 It changes what you desire.

00:14:50.640 It changes what satisfies you in a way that can lead you toward the path of the demonic.

00:14:57.900 Not only that, but also towards depression, because real life, thankfully, is not like

00:15:04.740 these fantasy books.

00:15:06.280 And I just want to note that, and we'll get into this a little bit more in a second, but

00:15:10.420 whether or not a woman is reading these dark, demonic, violent books still escaping to this

00:15:18.540 fantasy fictional world.

00:15:20.800 Measuring your relationships or your sexual activity against what you are reading in books

00:15:27.220 is always going to lead to discontentment.

00:15:30.440 It is always going to hamper your sanctification.

00:15:33.560 It is always going to inhibit the God-ordained intimacy that you have with your marriage.

00:15:38.500 Multiply that times a thousand when you're talking about the smut that so many young women are 1.00

00:15:45.140 reading today.

00:15:45.880 I guarantee you there's a big crossover between kink talk and book talk.

00:15:49.980 A few years ago, we talked about this horrific trend where you've got the young, young women, 1.00

00:15:54.800 we're talking teenage girls, who are describing on TikTok, liking to be chokes and sexual violence 0.98

00:16:02.340 and things like that.

00:16:03.180 I'm not saying that all of them are reading these kinds of novels, but I am saying this

00:16:07.500 is a culture of self-objectification and degradation that directly flows out of a refusal to believe

00:16:15.720 that we are all made in the image of God.

00:16:17.760 It is all connected and Satan is having a playday.

00:16:23.380 There is another genre within this, and this goes back to what we were talking about at the

00:16:28.260 beginning, that monster bait story, which seemed like a joke and wasn't a joke.

00:16:32.920 There's monster smut. 0.91

00:16:34.620 Okay, so there's smut, there's violent smut, there's monster violent smut. 0.98

00:16:39.280 It's crazy.

00:16:40.500 One of the examples of this is Strange Love by Anne Aguirre, a human pairs with an awkward 0.91

00:16:45.540 non-humanoid alien creating a forbidden dynamic due to their physical and cultural differences. 1.00

00:16:52.120 Apparently, according to one reviewer, this is a sexy book.

00:16:56.500 And then, like, they're not even trying with some of these titles.

00:17:01.580 It's amazing to me that someone would look at this cover and be like, yes, I want to read this.

00:17:07.940 That time I got drunk and saved a demon.

00:17:10.980 Okay.

00:17:12.300 There is a woman named Cinnamon who gets dragged into a demon's violent quest to kill a witch

00:17:16.800 with their attraction growing amid danger and conflict.

00:17:20.420 Okay, this also goes back to what we talked about with K-pop Demon Hunter, the confusion of evil versus

00:17:26.500 good and normalizing demons, making them seem layered and nuanced and maybe inside, you know,

00:17:35.220 able to be redeemed or lovable or loving when we know that is not the truth of real demons.

00:17:42.800 We see a lot of that in these themes of making us think that maybe demons would actually like us if they really got to know us.

00:17:50.980 And, you know, I'm thinking I'm wondering if that is why so many women are completely delusional about crime and criminals 1.00

00:18:00.020 and just completely naive when it comes to the reality of good and evil and bad guys and criminals that really exist and the need to restrain evil.

00:18:10.260 Is that why they vote for these social justice soft on crime policies?

00:18:15.380 Because they're reading books that make it seem like the bad guy deep down inside is good and sacrificial and will finally fall in love with them.

00:18:22.640 I don't know.

00:18:23.860 Something to think about.

00:18:25.020 It's definitely not helping.

00:18:27.220 We've got a book called Soul Eater.

00:18:29.820 A horrid soul eater fixates on one human soldier in this male-male romance. 0.68

00:18:34.860 Blah. 0.97

00:18:35.240 Um, another one, you're not my king.

00:18:39.260 A human man develops an attraction to a lizard-like alien king.

00:18:43.240 And the alien king's possessive claim over the human involves restrictive dominating behavior.

00:18:48.460 Okay?

00:18:48.940 So, again, we see domination.

00:18:50.540 We see LGBTQ.

00:18:52.680 We see bestiality glorified. 0.91

00:18:56.180 We see monstrosity glorified.

00:18:58.620 We see violence glorified.

00:18:59.980 Okay, then we just have the regular spice.

00:19:03.240 Maybe you've heard of closed-door romance or non-spice romance.

00:19:07.560 I would say that that is a category of books that as long as it's not glorifying sin is a category of books that women can read and enjoy and is not pornographic.

00:19:16.600 But then you have spice.

00:19:17.640 And the descriptor of spice makes it seem like it is not bad or explicit, but that's not necessarily true.

00:19:26.560 So, if you hear someone saying they don't like any of that crazy stuff, they just like spice, that's not better, especially for the Christian.

00:19:33.540 We'll get into that in a second.

00:19:34.820 Okay, y'all, if you are looking for none of this stuff, like anti-smut conference, like if you want truth, if you want goodness, if you want beauty, if you want to be around women who care about that stuff too, then you need to come to share the arrows.

00:19:50.080 Because maybe you're listening to this and you're like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm alone.

00:19:54.000 Am I the only one that has the values that I do?

00:19:56.640 Am I the only one that wants to consume only things that are pure and lovely and excellent?

00:20:01.240 Lynn, I need friends who have my same beliefs and values.

00:20:05.800 You've got to come to share the arrows.

00:20:06.840 You can come by yourself.

00:20:07.880 I just want you to know that if you come by yourself, you will not leave by yourself.

00:20:11.420 You will make friends.

00:20:12.480 This is the kindest and the friendliest and the most generous audience out there.

00:20:17.040 Maybe you're not a Christian yet. 0.95

00:20:18.400 Maybe you don't know if you're a Christian.

00:20:19.980 Maybe you want to learn more.

00:20:20.940 Come to share the arrows.

00:20:21.900 Maybe you've been a Christian for 50 years.

00:20:23.640 Come to share the arrows.

00:20:24.820 You will be taught.

00:20:25.720 You will be instructed.

00:20:26.720 You will be encouraged.

00:20:27.520 You will be empowered and equipped by the wisdom of God that is channeling through these

00:20:33.960 women. 0.81

00:20:34.460 I have talked to them about their speeches.

00:20:36.360 Their talks is going to be so good, y'all.

00:20:38.420 Go to share the arrows.com.

00:20:41.240 Go to share the arrows.com.

00:20:42.440 This year's Share the Arrows is brought to you by Good Ranchers.

00:20:46.520 We love Good Ranchers.

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00:20:53.360 All right.

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00:22:03.400 Okay.

00:22:04.560 Let us watch Sot 3 to set up what this spice genre of fiction is.

00:22:14.640 I'm getting a little bit concerned about your guys' level of spice when it comes to spicy books.

00:22:22.500 Now, I'm a little sick right now.

00:22:24.420 So if I sound congested, it's because I am.

00:22:26.520 Mind your business.

00:22:27.280 Thank you.

00:22:27.740 But I asked you guys about a month ago to drop in the comments your filthiest, spiciest, 1.00

00:22:34.340 nastiest book that you've ever read.

00:22:36.120 Like the number one where it's like, whoa, that was like crazy. 0.68

00:22:39.200 And some of you guys recommended as the spiciest, filthiest, nastiest book that you've ever read.

00:22:46.420 Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover.

00:22:48.860 Ma'am.

00:22:49.760 Ma'am.

00:22:51.020 Okay.

00:22:51.800 So she is saying in the rest of that that that is not spicy enough for her.

00:22:56.040 That that's basically too vanilla.

00:22:57.980 Now, I haven't read that by Colleen Hoover.

00:23:01.120 I don't know how spicy Colleen Hoover books get. 0.99

00:23:04.980 I understand that some of them are pretty spicy, what I would consider spicy.

00:23:10.920 However, I have also heard that some of her books actually do get really dark.

00:23:15.540 But this person is saying, nope, that's not what she wants.

00:23:18.900 She wants stuff that is really, really crazy, really explicit, really bad.

00:23:24.720 So Melissa Saavedra, she is the owner of Steamy Lit Bookstore in Deerfield Beach. 0.57

00:23:30.220 She became a fan of the genre when she read The Fifty Shades of Grey.

00:23:35.360 So she created this company called The Steam Box.

00:23:38.220 It became a huge hit.

00:23:40.500 And then she opened that bookstore and she said that her shelves never stay full because she's

00:23:46.020 always got women who are coming in who are trying to buy these very steamy books.

00:23:52.760 Spice is a reader coin term.

00:23:54.980 It refers to the degree of sexual explicitness in romance novels, often rated on a scale of

00:24:01.020 one to one to five.

00:24:04.440 So here is someone kind of explaining that.

00:24:06.600 It's not one.

00:24:07.440 He grabbed me by my waist, pulled me in close and gave me a big kiss.

00:24:12.400 And then we lived happily ever after.

00:24:15.760 He in my and grabbed my. 1.00

00:24:17.940 All right.

00:24:23.820 So that is A Court of Thorns and Roses.

00:24:26.740 And I know that there are a lot of women out there. 1.00

00:24:29.900 I've actually heard of this series.

00:24:31.220 I know there are a lot of women, including a lot of professing Christian women who are 1.00

00:24:35.320 reading that series.

00:24:36.580 I've also heard of this book, Onyx Storm.

00:24:39.220 High Spice, explicit scenes in chapters, several chapters throughout featuring dirty talk,

00:24:43.360 kissing and sex and romanticity context.

00:24:46.380 Here's thought two. 0.54

00:24:47.940 No, because this man is like everything.

00:24:50.700 He goes, me holding back from you has purely been for your sake, not mine.

00:24:55.960 I want you from the second I wake up until the moment I fall asleep.

00:25:00.160 I dream about you.

00:25:03.100 Okay.

00:25:04.160 Just take my heart wide, don't you?

00:25:05.760 I swear this man is going to be the end of me.

00:25:13.220 He goes, I'm never giving you up.

00:25:15.980 You know that, right?

00:25:17.100 You had your chance to run.

00:25:18.980 You should have run by.

00:25:20.440 Okay, so you might be thinking, especially if you're just listening to this, well, that

00:25:25.260 wasn't that explicit.

00:25:26.440 So you kind of have to watch it because she is reading the words that are being said by

00:25:30.960 a man like in a very explicit sex scene in this book, Onyx Storm.

00:25:35.540 So again, if you see your friends, if you see fellow church members, if you see, if you're

00:25:40.260 a relatable out there, you see your wife, and I doubt that this is the case, but reading

00:25:44.620 this book or your sister, your daughter reading this book, then you just need to know it's

00:25:50.160 not like Hunger Games, okay?

00:25:52.560 It's not even like Twilight.

00:25:54.400 Like Twilight would probably be considered now to be low spice, although I should not

00:25:58.520 have been reading that when I was a teenager because even that, even the implication of

00:26:03.620 the stuff in Twilight was not healthy for a teenage girl to be reading, but this is even

00:26:08.360 worse.

00:26:08.720 And I know that there are teenage girls that are reading things like A Court of Thorns

00:26:12.440 and Onyx Storm.

00:26:14.720 And also, I just want to point out, though, in the quotes there that she is reading, like

00:26:19.980 there is this kind of like dominance that women are fantasizing about, even these very 1.00

00:26:26.440 progressive women.

00:26:27.960 Now, the Colleen Hoover novels, like It Ends With Us, very popular.

00:26:31.800 It's been turned into a movie.

00:26:32.940 We've talked about it before.

00:26:34.180 People say that that's moderate spice.

00:26:37.300 But look, I'm just going to say Colleen Hoover books are very unhealthy. 1.00

00:26:42.460 They should not be read or promoted by Christians, okay? 1.00

00:26:46.960 They are not promoting healthy relationship dynamics.

00:26:50.100 They are certainly promoting sexual immorality.

00:26:53.640 And if you are a Christian woman, you are obligated to consume things that are excellent 1.00

00:26:59.780 and praiseworthy.

00:27:00.860 And just on a practical level, it's going to hurt your marriage.

00:27:03.960 Now, when I talked about this last time, I talked about this a little bit in the episode

00:27:08.280 that we did on divorce and what the Bible has to say about divorce.

00:27:11.480 And I asked the simple question, women who are in this situation, like the woman that 0.86

00:27:17.340 we talked about was, they're saying, oh, my husband is great.

00:27:20.340 He's everything that I've ever wanted, but I'm not satisfied.

00:27:22.800 Maybe there's something better out there.

00:27:25.380 If you are a woman who's thinking that, you need to ask yourself before you do anything, 1.00

00:27:30.460 what are you listening to?

00:27:32.620 Who are you listening to?

00:27:34.240 Who are you following?

00:27:35.520 What are you looking at on Instagram?

00:27:36.880 And what are you reading?

00:27:39.440 Because if you find yourself escaping to a fantasy land and comparing your husband to

00:27:45.440 these fictional relationships or these fictional sex scenes, you will continually be disappointed.

00:27:50.860 And I got all of these comments from people saying, oh, this is so sad.

00:27:54.500 This is so prudish.

00:27:56.220 No, this helps my marriage.

00:27:58.780 Sure, it does.

00:28:00.180 Sure, it does, Jan.

00:28:01.480 I'm sure it doesn't.

00:28:03.660 It is holding your husband to completely unfair and fictional expectations in the same way

00:28:10.780 that pornography dies for men and affects their relationships.

00:28:15.680 This is no less sinful.

00:28:17.360 Reading pornography is no less sinful than watching pornography, okay?

00:28:22.260 And, you know, I think that we should be making a big deal about male addiction to pornography

00:28:26.520 and the degradation of society that it causes, but this is no less a big deal.

00:28:30.840 Okay, so we've got this, um, we've got this darker theme that we've talked about and we've

00:28:37.240 got book talk who is promoting all of this.

00:28:40.440 Um, this particular dark romance scene is this clip about it is lighthearted.

00:28:46.020 It's not spicy.

00:28:47.300 Uh, but you can see that how he is demonstrating the scene is glorifying violence.

00:28:53.100 It's top four.

00:29:03.000 Wait, don't actually joke me.

00:29:05.340 Don't actually joke me.

00:29:07.360 No, I don't see it's ours.

00:29:11.160 See, that's not even funny.

00:29:13.100 So they're trying to make it lighthearted, but she's sad at the end there because, okay,

00:29:16.960 so he chokes her, if you're just listening to this, and, like, lifts her up by her neck

00:29:21.480 because, as the text says, he is trying to act out this dark romance scene that she is

00:29:26.940 reading about, and she says at the end, don't actually do it to me.

00:29:30.300 I'm seeing stars.

00:29:32.000 I just think that that is so disturbing.

00:29:35.280 Like, Chief Related Bro, a few years ago, I wanted to play that game where people are,

00:29:40.720 like, slapping each other with tortillas because I thought it would be funny, and he would

00:29:44.220 not even play, he would not even do that.

00:29:46.180 He was like, I'm not going to even pretend to hit you with a tortilla.

00:29:51.360 Um, and so I think it's weird that a guy would be okay with even pretending to do something

00:29:57.400 like this on camera, which clearly hurt his girlfriend or his wife.

00:30:01.980 Okay, here's another example of what these women are consuming. 1.00

00:30:05.440 Sop 5.

00:30:06.380 Why settle when you have your step-uncle and your step-cousin?

00:30:10.240 Why settle when he searches everywhere for you after you were given to him as a gift,

00:30:18.300 but you decided to toss yourself over a waterfall instead?

00:30:21.980 Why settle when you cut him and he makes you lick the cut?

00:30:27.340 Why settle when you get put up on an auction block against your will and you get bought by

00:30:33.580 a demon and both of his friends?

00:30:37.220 Why settle when you come downstairs in the middle of the night and find him deleting your whole

00:30:42.640 family off of the earth?

00:30:46.180 Okay, so this is the kind of stuff that women are consuming, and the New York Times is diving 1.00

00:30:52.600 into this.

00:30:53.440 Also, we looked at Writer's Digest and some other news outlets just to see, like, what are

00:30:57.660 the numbers on this?

00:30:58.740 So these kind of romance novels are the top-selling fiction genre, with sales soaring from 18 million

00:31:03.520 print copies in 2020 to over 39 million in 2023.

00:31:10.000 Romance novels have been the top-grossing fiction genre in recent years, generating $1.44 billion

00:31:16.260 in revenue from 2022 to 2023.

00:31:21.280 Women make up the majority of readers driving this romance, of course, making up 84% of the

00:31:28.740 audience.

00:31:29.120 That's actually very surprising to me.

00:31:30.660 I would have thought it was 99%.

00:31:32.540 Like, what dudes are consuming this stuff?

00:31:36.820 So what women are doing, according to these articles, is that they are getting away from 1.00

00:31:41.860 the kind of happily ever after genre and ending to books, and they're purposely seeking out

00:31:49.900 more disturbing and darker and even demonic and violent elements.

00:31:55.120 Sir Kana, this consumer behavior analysis report, revealed in a June 2025 report that romance

00:32:02.040 readers are craving darker themes.

00:32:04.340 The shift in romance aligns with growing genres like psychological thrillers, dark fantasy, and

00:32:10.080 horror, showing a broader trend toward darker fiction.

00:32:13.940 That book, Onyx Storm, that we watched that TikTok about, sold faster in its first week than

00:32:19.080 any other adult book in 20 years.

00:32:23.700 There are intense themes of violence, death, and dark magic.

00:32:28.800 This is Brenna Connor, a U.S. Books Industry Analyst.

00:32:33.240 She says,

00:32:33.760 This year I'm watching a shift away from rosier romance subjects like romantic comedy and new

00:32:39.040 adult romance in favor of authors and titles with darker themes.

00:32:42.820 Combined with the growth in other more intense fiction subjects like horror and dystopian, a new

00:32:48.200 trend has emerged that's marked by darker escapist themes.

00:32:52.380 These subject matters provide an outlet for readers to safely explore negative emotions,

00:32:59.080 such as sadness, anger, or anxiety.

00:33:01.340 We're exploring too many emotions.

00:33:03.800 We don't need to explore emotions.

00:33:05.900 There are so many programs now for, you know, down to pre-K, all the way up to explore our emotions.

00:33:12.980 Look, emotions are bad.

00:33:14.020 I'm not saying they should always be stuffed down, but sometimes they should.

00:33:17.500 Like, sometimes we don't need to explore them.

00:33:19.520 Sometimes we're just like a basket of confusion in there.

00:33:22.760 And the more you explore your feelings, actually, the sadder you are.

00:33:26.300 We're told over and over again that if you explore your feelings, you'll be a healthier

00:33:29.600 person.

00:33:30.280 Y'all, some of the people I know that focus the most on their feelings and desires, emotions

00:33:34.940 are like really sad and really discontent because the further you dig into your heart,

00:33:39.500 the more disturbed you'll be.

00:33:41.840 Not the opposite, okay?

00:33:43.520 And so all of this just psychological, just whatever, just slop.

00:33:48.860 I expect to see continued interest in these darker subjects.

00:33:53.920 Okay, so this is happening in particular among Gen Z, and you see this driven a lot by book

00:34:02.300 talk, and this is creating a huge industry boom with lots of lots of money behind it.

00:34:08.360 So let's talk about the psychological aspects of this, though.

00:34:11.480 Let's talk about dopamine.

00:34:12.840 Let's talk about loneliness and the impacts on relationship and mental health.

00:34:17.160 But first, let me pause.

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00:35:41.220 So I'm really interested in the psychology behind this and what is so addicting in particular

00:35:49.760 about these books.

00:35:50.840 You would think in an age where we're reading less than we were before that people really

00:35:55.400 have a hard time paying attention for more than 20 seconds.

00:35:58.640 You have to put all kinds of movement into the clips that you post, the reels that you

00:36:02.320 post, because people just can't pay attention for very long.

00:36:06.040 So what is it about these books that are drawing women in in an age of technology?

00:36:11.480 According to Psychology Today, romantic stories trigger a cascade of neurochemicals and hormones

00:36:17.920 that make our brains very happy.

00:36:19.660 The combination of oxytocin, norepinephrine, and dopamine is an emotional roller coaster

00:36:25.180 with more highs than lows.

00:36:27.420 What's interesting about oxytocin, I mean, there are a lot of reasons that our bodies

00:36:31.320 create oxytocin, both men and women.

00:36:34.920 But oxytocin is the hormone that kickstarts labor.

00:36:38.700 It is also the hormone that is released when you and your baby are cuddling after you're first

00:36:45.200 born.

00:36:45.580 And I've talked about this a lot, and I know that this is maybe an indirect corollary here,

00:36:52.900 but as women are getting married later and later, as they are valuing marriage and children 0.98

00:36:57.780 later and later, as they are not getting these happy hormones and these connective relational

00:37:04.040 hormones that are released between husband and wife, between baby and mother, they are seeking

00:37:10.320 them elsewhere.

00:37:12.060 They are seeking them from superficial sources like these dark fantasy books.

00:37:17.460 Nikki Logan, president of Romance Writers of Australia, wrote the book The Chemistry of

00:37:23.720 Reading, Arousing Your Reader, which explains how brain chemistry drives reader engagement.

00:37:30.340 She says that romance writers, she tells romance writers to leverage hormonal effects like dopamine 0.99

00:37:36.140 and oxytocin by building tension and emotional bonds in stories.

00:37:40.200 She provides a practical toolkit for authors to trigger those responses, creating addictive

00:37:44.720 reads that keep readers hooked and eager for more.

00:37:47.520 So it's important to know that when you are buying your books, that you are buying chemistry,

00:37:53.260 that you are buying something that is going to affect you and change you physiologically.

00:37:58.920 Like you're not just reading a book because it's a good story.

00:38:02.020 This is something that is changing you on a physical level.

00:38:06.140 I mean, that should really make you think about what you're consuming.

00:38:09.900 Dr. Anna Lemke is a psychiatrist at Stanford.

00:38:13.380 She is the chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic.

00:38:17.260 She treats patients with various addictions and researches behavioral dependencies.

00:38:22.040 She wrote this book, Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.

00:38:26.540 It was published in 2021.

00:38:28.180 She for Ledebro just read this.

00:38:30.120 And I remember we were talking about this aspect of this book that we found really interesting.

00:38:34.460 And it is about her addiction to romance novels.

00:38:39.420 So this author says that she was addicted for two years to these kinds of books, starting

00:38:44.560 with Twilight and progressing to erotic fiction, which she compulsively read on her Kindle, even

00:38:51.780 in between seeing patients.

00:38:54.040 Here's Sae.

00:38:54.500 I started reading, you know, more and more sort of graphic, erotic, sexualized versions of this novel.

00:39:04.020 And I would, I was embarrassed.

00:39:05.560 So I would hide that I was reading them.

00:39:07.540 And that gets into the whole double life of addiction, where now we're lying about our use,

00:39:12.260 we're using our drug over here, but pretending like we're not.

00:39:15.300 So my kids or my husband would walk in the room and I would be, you know, hiding behind

00:39:19.720 another book, one book behind another book.

00:39:22.340 So it looked like I was reading something, you know, I don't know, more sophisticated.

00:39:29.100 So this is someone, she was a grown woman and she was probably not influenced by TikTok.

00:39:34.920 She's an expert on addiction. 0.67

00:39:36.340 And she realized that she was addicted to smut.

00:39:39.280 And she explains that dopamine produces pleasure and motivation, but quote, it may be even more

00:39:47.380 important for motivation than for actual pleasure, driving us to seek more, even as the high fades

00:39:54.640 in to pain. 0.91

00:39:56.380 She compares her addiction to reading this kind of stuff to a form of masturbation triggered by a 0.96

00:40:03.260 patient's extreme sex addiction story that mirrored her own compulsive Kindle use. 0.86

00:40:08.440 She said that her own habits exhausted her, made her hide from her family, as you just

00:40:13.200 heard, and it interfered with her life, with her roles as parent and doctor, turning a pleasurable

00:40:18.720 escape into a dopamine-fueled compulsion.

00:40:23.080 To overcome her addiction, she literally had to quit cold turkey for a month.

00:40:26.800 She just said, no, she stopped it.

00:40:29.640 She describes this as socially sanctioned pornography for women because it reinforces attachment and 1.00

00:40:36.400 sex themes that really hooks the brain's reward system.

00:40:40.840 Okay, so again, this is basically pornography for women. 1.00

00:40:44.560 And she's not even coming at this from a Christian perspective. 0.90

00:40:47.560 She's coming at it from an expert psychological and personal perspective.

00:40:52.940 Now, I do not think it's a coincidence that Gen Z women, as well as millennial Gen X and baby 0.94

00:41:00.240 boomer women, specifically white women, really struggle with mental health. 0.65

00:41:05.240 The highest rates of SSRI prescription are found in this demographic.

00:41:11.100 But let's look at Gen Z because a lot of book talk is filled with Gen Z.

00:41:17.720 Gen Z women experience the highest stress levels globally, with almost half reporting

00:41:23.660 severe stress they struggled to cope with.

00:41:26.660 CDC data in 2023 showed that 53% of Gen Z high school girls feel persistently sad or hopeless,

00:41:36.260 with 27% considering suicide nearly double the rate of boys.

00:41:40.600 Among Gen Z workers aged 18 to 22, 73% report feeling lonely, sometimes or always an increase

00:41:48.540 from 69% the previous year.

00:41:51.060 We also know that heavy social media use is strongly linked to loneliness, with 71% of users

00:41:58.460 feeling lonely compared to 51% of light users.

00:42:01.420 Now, what do we know about social media?

00:42:04.140 Social media also triggers your brain's reward system.

00:42:08.920 It rewards your brain with very cheap dopamine.

00:42:13.880 You don't have to put effort into getting that high, but you need more and more of it.

00:42:20.020 You need crazier and crazier and faster and faster content in order to stay hooked.

00:42:25.780 The same is true of pornography that is being watched and the same is true of pornography that

00:42:30.980 is being read.

00:42:31.960 And so that is why we see the rates of depression so high among those who use social media.

00:42:39.500 And that is why people who are addicted to this kind of smut tend to also be very unhappy

00:42:46.600 and very discontent.

00:42:49.140 Coping methods such as porn can have addictive effects and also affect relationships.

00:42:55.160 This particular study showed, of course, we already knew that, but there was a 2019 study

00:43:00.240 published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships that showed that adults who feel

00:43:04.240 lack of affection and watch more pornography tend to be less satisfied and feel less close

00:43:08.440 in their relationships.

00:43:09.640 They feel lonelier and they feel more depressed.

00:43:13.000 There are so many reasons for that, which we have already articulated so far.

00:43:18.040 So what does the Bible have to say about this?

00:43:21.240 Like, why should we be confronting this?

00:43:24.880 Why should we be so careful about what we read?

00:43:27.880 Because if you are like, maybe I was in high school and you thought, well, if I'm reading

00:43:32.560 it, which I was never reading this level of stuff, but again, just smut like Twilight and

00:43:40.340 other things like that, cheap teen fiction at the time, which wasn't nearly as dark as it is

00:43:45.120 today, but still, I mean, pretty dark and too sexual for a teenage girl to be reading

00:43:49.420 alone at night.

00:43:51.100 It's just not healthy.

00:43:52.920 But if you're like I was at the time and you think, well, if I'm reading something, at

00:43:57.240 least I'm not scrolling or at least I'm not watching TV.

00:44:00.740 And so it must be right because it's giving me some benefit to my mind. 1.00

00:44:04.980 Well, look, even if reading makes you smart, sin makes you stupid. 1.00

00:44:08.600 OK, and so increasing your dopamine addiction to this kind of smut is not actually helping 1.00

00:44:16.700 you.

00:44:17.100 It's not increasing your creativity the way reading other kinds of books are.

00:44:21.520 It is actually hurting you.

00:44:22.780 It's hurting your relationships.

00:44:24.160 It's hurting your brain and it's hurting your heart and soul.

00:44:27.140 But thankfully, there is a better way.

00:44:29.160 You don't have to give up your love for reading and your love for creativity and good writing

00:44:33.240 because God created these things.

00:44:35.360 He actually ordained his word to be written down and to be read.

00:44:38.920 So we know that words are really important.

00:44:41.460 So let's get into what the Bible has to say about it.

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00:45:49.640 Catherine Butler wrote an article for the Gospel Coalition, and I know we've had, you know,

00:45:59.940 mixed experiences with the Gospel Coalition, but this is a really great article about the

00:46:04.860 release of that book, Onyx Storm, that came out in January and sold so many copies, really

00:46:11.560 dark, really sexual themes.

00:46:13.820 And she writes this.

00:46:15.000 She says, around midnight on January 21st, 2025, bookstores across the United States experienced

00:46:20.880 crowds they'd not seen since the days of Harry Potter.

00:46:24.980 The fervor was so intense that some shops charged admission.

00:46:29.200 Unlike the Hogwarts mania of the 90s, however, most attendees were women.

00:46:33.520 Their costumes often included leather bodysuits.

00:46:37.280 And the book in question featured not only dragons in a magical realm, but also explicit

00:46:42.840 sex scenes.

00:46:44.520 She comments on this trend.

00:46:46.300 She says, Catherine Butler says, influencers often praise the female empowerment they encounter

00:46:51.360 in these books.

00:46:52.180 Romanticity allows women to have it all. 1.00

00:46:55.200 Instagrammer Christina Clark Brown told The Guardian, its editorial staff elaborated,

00:46:59.900 the romanticity heroine speaks to the cultural moment.

00:47:03.340 The strong female-led stories show young women can be nerdy and sexy, vulnerable and powerful,

00:47:09.540 both not that girl and that girl.

00:47:12.480 You can be anyone or anything you please.

00:47:14.840 This is the fantasy.

00:47:16.360 Such remarks hint at women's yearning for meaning and identity. 0.91

00:47:21.380 We crave control over our fate.

00:47:23.720 We desire love to be lovable and yet to be like God.

00:47:28.500 Genesis 3, 4 through 5.

00:47:29.660 If you've been watching this show for any amount of time, you know that everything goes

00:47:33.920 back to that.

00:47:35.220 It's an undercurrent of wayward longing, also evident in the link between romanticity and

00:47:40.620 the pandemic.

00:47:42.280 She says, post-COVID, women are hungrier than ever to fill that Jesus-shaped hole in their 1.00

00:47:46.340 heart that only festered during the loneliness of quarantine.

00:47:49.480 And where men usually gravitate toward online pornography in those moments, women are more likely 0.59

00:47:54.940 to pick up a romance novel or even erotica, said Mary and Jacob's contributor to the Christian

00:48:02.400 fantasy site, Lore Haven.

00:48:05.920 In a small 2018 survey, 94% of the 38, so very small, Christian women who responded reported

00:48:12.580 struggling with lust.

00:48:15.020 And they give in in this way by looking at or reading romanticity.

00:48:20.160 What's interesting about this description of women wanting the strong heroine who is in

00:48:25.740 control and they want to see themselves as that is that, again, in all of these, including

00:48:31.280 in Onyx Storm, there is a theme of the domination of the heroine by a man.

00:48:37.440 So actually, what they are saying is that there is a part of the created order that they want,

00:48:45.620 but they want it to be perverted and distorted.

00:48:48.160 It's like they will balk at Ephesians 5 saying wives should submit to their husbands and husbands

00:48:56.240 should love their wives as Christ loves themselves.

00:48:59.680 They'll say that's anti-feminist and that's fascist or that's like Sharia law, whatever 1.00

00:49:05.460 they'll say.

00:49:06.800 But when it comes to these kinds of themes of violent domination of women in fantasy books,

00:49:13.220 they'll glorify it.

00:49:14.920 They'll love it.

00:49:15.960 They'll want to pursue it themselves.

00:49:17.340 Christian publishers should publish, this person in this article says, last name of

00:49:23.340 Jacobs, should publish clean, God-glorifying romanticity that seeks to lead readers closer

00:49:28.080 to Christ rather than to a life of sexual addiction.

00:49:32.060 Like I would also say you got to be careful about things like redeeming love.

00:49:37.380 I loved redeeming love in high school.

00:49:39.740 I loved it.

00:49:40.560 And of course, it's not like these dark themes.

00:49:42.820 It's not the same as Onyx Storm.

00:49:44.360 I'm not saying that.

00:49:45.760 But did it foster in me at the time contentment and satisfaction?

00:49:50.560 Or did it grow in me a longing to be married, but only for like the sexual aspect of it when

00:49:58.940 I was way too young to be thinking about that?

00:50:01.760 If a book, whether it is Christian fantasy or not, is fostering in you discontentment and lust and

00:50:09.920 desires that cannot be healthfully satisfied, then I think it's not for you, whether or not it is

00:50:16.060 pornographic.

00:50:16.820 Why you should avoid, this is according to Focus on the Family, all shades of erotica.

00:50:22.920 Fifty shades doesn't shy away from the S word, or at least the idea of it. 0.81

00:50:26.620 That's right.

00:50:27.140 It's time to talk about submission and why it's so tantalizing in erotica and sadist sexuality,

00:50:33.040 yet shirked in Western society.

00:50:36.060 And pulling back the shades, Dana Gresh writes that erotica strategically and masterfully

00:50:40.840 pulls you in by exploiting what your heart secretly longs for.

00:50:45.240 And what do women secretly long for? 1.00

00:50:48.800 Psychologist Julie Slattery, co-author with Gresh, identifies five desires that women have. 0.98

00:50:54.240 One, to escape reality.

00:50:56.100 Two, to be cherished by a man.

00:50:57.780 Three, to be protected by a strong man.

00:51:00.120 And four, to rescue a man.

00:51:02.720 And five, to be sexually alive.

00:51:06.420 And they argue, and this is so important, this is just what we were saying, all of these

00:51:10.180 needs are God-breathed since Eve. 0.63

00:51:12.380 The first woman created as a helper for her man. 0.92

00:51:15.620 Genesis 2.18.

00:51:16.680 Yet the modern woman's I-can-do-anything-you-can-do-but-batter attitude casts these relational longings as 0.96

00:51:23.120 antiquated and even offensive.

00:51:27.180 Felicia Masonheimer also has written on how erotic fiction harms women. 1.00

00:51:31.820 She wrote about this in Christianity Today.

00:51:35.140 She and she talks about her own experience with this.

00:51:39.820 She said, there will be people in your life who will tell you that it's not that big of

00:51:43.040 a deal, partially perhaps because they feel convicted by your recognition and you're trying

00:51:47.220 to find freedom from it.

00:51:48.940 She said, when I talk about this online, people get very angry and defensive.

00:51:52.620 It's just a book.

00:51:53.740 There are several biblical responses to this, but let's go specifically to the Word of God.

00:52:06.240 What does the Bible have to say about this?

00:52:08.760 And we'll end on reading some verses.

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00:53:27.860 Philippians 4.8 says this,

00:53:29.380 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is

00:53:34.080 pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything

00:53:38.420 worthy of praise, think about these things.

00:53:42.040 1 Corinthians 6.18-20 says flee from sexual immorality.

00:53:46.220 Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins

00:53:50.920 against his own body.

00:53:52.920 He goes on to say, Your body is actually a temple of the Holy Spirit.

00:53:56.260 It's so important.

00:53:57.960 John Piper for Desiring God says, But the temptation that ruined the whole world in Genesis 3 came

00:54:02.800 through the ear from Satan's voice, and so did the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.

00:54:07.020 The heart is the primary seat of holiness, and the ear is as good a pathway of corruption as

00:54:14.000 the eye.

00:54:14.940 So that means audio books are also off limits when it comes to this smut.

00:54:21.560 Pastor Todd Pruitt says lust deserves our aggressive opposition.

00:54:27.540 It can take such a foothold in your heart.

00:54:30.280 That's why Jesus says, It would be better for you to pluck out your eye than to lust after a woman. 0.98

00:54:39.800 And God has given us, number one, himself as our source of satisfaction, whether you are married

00:54:46.660 or not.

00:54:48.060 The truth is that, yes, sex is a beautiful gift that is to be enjoyed in the context of marriage.

00:54:54.260 But if you are single, you have that desire, but you do not have a holy means by which to

00:54:58.920 satisfy that desire, that is still not an excuse to run to any form of pornography or smut.

00:55:05.020 It is an excuse to run completely and totally to Christ, because He is your full and total

00:55:11.300 satisfaction.

00:55:12.200 And every single one of us, single or married, is called to self-denial and to self-sacrifice

00:55:18.820 and to take up our cross and to get rid with the power of the Holy Spirit of the sin in our life

00:55:25.460 and to follow Him.

00:55:27.320 That looks different for everyone, depending on your relationship, depending on the stage

00:55:31.260 that you're in.

00:55:32.220 But we are all called to pursue holiness in this way, not because God wants to rob us of

00:55:37.700 things, but because He loves us, because He knows what's good for our mind.

00:55:41.740 He knows what's good for our body and our relationships.

00:55:44.380 And one day, in a very short time, we will no longer be tempted.

00:55:50.620 We will no longer have unmet desires, but we will be fully and truly, eternally satisfied

00:55:56.460 in Him.

00:55:57.440 And with our eyes on heaven, we forego all of the sin that wants to hinder us and hold

00:56:03.380 us back.

00:56:04.060 Remember, it goes all the way back to Satan tempting Eve.

00:56:07.400 Did God really say?

00:56:10.020 All right, that's all we've got time for today.

00:56:11.860 Make sure that you tune in on Friday, y'all.

00:56:14.800 Amazing conversation with Raymond Ibrahim about the Islamic infiltration of Western civilization 1.00

00:56:20.920 and what we need to realize.

00:56:23.360 So stay tuned for that.

00:56:24.580 We'll see you guys back here then.

00:56:41.860 Thank you.

00:56:42.540 Thank you.

00:56:43.480 Thank you.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - September 10, 2025

Ep 1240 ｜ TikTok’s Spicy Novels Are Warping Women’s Minds

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