It was the first episode of the show everyone has been talking about. Like everyone: from adults my age (I’m old enough to have a 21-year-old son) down to preteens in our Christian home school co-op.
Every.
One.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it, though I was frustrated the powers-that-be felt it necessary to include a scene with teenagers making out in a high school bathroom.
As a father of five, I viewed that scene much differently than when I was the age of my youngest son (who is 13).
For me now, the thought of making out in a public school restroom just sounds gross. Pathetic at best. I mean, it beats making out in a gas station restroom, but not by much.
In fact, here’s my Definitive Ranking of the TOP5 Worst Places to Make Out:
#5: Restroom of the neighborhood Chick-fil-a
#4: Restroom of any other fast food restaurant besides Chick-Fil-A
#3: Restroom at the mall
TIED for #2: Public school restroom –AND– Airplane restroom
#1: Restroom at a gas station
However, when I was 13 and had never made out with anyone in my life, it looked like fun no matter where it happened. All of that to say, my adolescent mind would have replayed that scene more than once, and in my imagination we’d probably go further than the couple did in episode one.
Of course in episode two, the couple went further themselves, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I know it’s a different world now. One where it’s possible the average 13-year-old is simply too sexually exposed to get all that excited over a couple French kissing against a bathroom wall.
But then that thought spawns questions like these:
- Is that a good thing?
- Is something lost in a culture where we can watch a make out scene and be like, “Whatevs”?
- What does making out represent in our world today? Just a little harmless fun? A relationship? A prelude to relationship? A prelude to a “study session” including a round of strip flashcards in an upstairs bedroom?
In fact, my exposure to Stranger Things has produced a lot of questions like these, and so, if you’re open, I’d like to share some thoughts about my experience watching the first three episodes of season one.
However, before I do I want to make two things clear:
1: It is not my goal to brand Stranger Things as a “bad” show.
I may be a conservative home school dad (guilty), but I have not lived in a nuclear bomb shelter under a rock in the Desert of Naivety since the 80s. I totally understand there are far racier shows out there. Probably most shows out there are racier.
However, that’s why I feel compelled to address what I watched. Because, it’s the comparative “innocence” of Stranger Things that makes it a perfect representation of how I fear our individual media choices may be impacting us (on both a personal and cultural level) in ways more profound than we realize.
2: It is not my aim to judge anyone who watches Stranger Things.
I am not interested in that. Instead, I am interested in empowering people to understand the connections between what they allow themselves to watch and how they think, feel and behave based on that input.
Judging is not my role. Instead, my role is one of warning of dangers unseen. Not too different from the unseen dangers seeking to pull the unsuspecting into the darkness in Stranger Things.
Judgement is not my calling. Instead, my calling is to inspire and lead wise individuals into relational wholeness (which requires sexual wholeness). And this calling compels me to encourage practices, perspectives, passions and priorities that will facilitate that end.
Up for the challenge? If so, come back next week! It could be fun! And if you interact via comments below, it could be as insightful for me, as I pray it will be for you.
In the meantime, you can check out our page dedicated to understanding the glorious gift of sexuality our God has bestowed upon us.
Date Night Advice (DNA) series: Sexual Things
Episode 1
Click here for the next post in the series.
DNA: It’s What’s For Dating
Dug this weekend’s DNA? Be a good friend and share with your friends on the social media platform of choice: Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter.
The LoveEd discipleship series, Beyond Sex & Salvation, will empower you to prepare for relational success when it counts: BEFORE you fall in love!
It’s NOT for couples, but for any wise individual who thinks they might want to get married sometime before they die. And would like to learn how to better build healthy relationships in the meantime.
Check out all three study guides in our store. You can walk through them on your own, but it’s more fun with friends (that and it kinda makes sense to grow in relational success in actual relationships with others), so consider putting together an FMU LoveEd small group study.
Even better? And ask a rock star married couple you respect to lead it!
