Is romance idolatry?

[mathematoons]

Please don’t take this out of context and assume I’m asking if the love between a married couple, or a couple considering marriage, is idolatry. Of course it isn’t, any more than love between family members is. God blessed both those kinds of love by creating the family.

I’m talking about the kind of romance promoted in the movies, songs, novels, and other media of the secular world. The kind where people give each other the kind of adoration that should only be given to God. The kind that calls itself “love” (and has become the default definition of love in our culture) but falls short of the definition given in 1 Corinthians 13. The kind that inserts itself into everything that comes from the media. The kind that presents itself as a new gospel (in violation of Galatians 1:8-9).

I think it’s idolatry, pure and simple. Instead of stone statues, they worship other people. What do you all think?

 

[Veronica97]

Well, actually, yes, I do see what you’re saying and it’s very obvious when you see celebrities constantly looking for their next “love”. It has occurred to me that they are searching for fulfillment in another person that ISN’T POSSIBLE. Of course most people who are single are hoping to find a good match, someone to marry and share their lives with. That’s natural and normal. But to be searching DESPERATELY, going from one “throw yourself into it completely” romance to the next, dumping the person as soon as the “thrill” wears off, then I do think it’s idolatry. These people are hoping to find in other human beings what they will only find in God. And I’ve seen it not just in celebrities, but in people I know. It’s very sad, actually. No one can EVER love us the way God can, not even our spouses. Parents (good parents) come the closest, but even they cannot love us the way God can.

 

[Langdell]

First, greetings from a fellow former atheist! I’d be interested in hearing your story.

Second, in answer to your post, yes, I agree that the kind of infatuation that is glamorized in movies and on TV and in some novels is idolatry – in this case, worship of a human being and also of a feeling.

Your post reminds me of an observation in Matthew Henry’s commentary on the Bible. (Henry was a Calvinist, but his commentary contains some very helpful insights, I think.) When discussing Chapter 3 of Daniel (in which Nebuchadnezzar creates a golden image and commands everyone to worship it), Henry says that “those who have forsaken the one only living God, and begin to set up many gods, will find the gods they set up so unsatisfying, and their desire after them so insatiable, that they will multiply them without measure, wander after them endlessly, and never know when they have sufficient. Idolaters are fond of novelty and variety.”

It’s like celebrities constantly having “love” affairs and switching spouses.

 

[asia53]

I see what you’re saying, but I respectfully disagree. Not idolotry. It’s a false idea of love, inflated to gain our attention.

I think, the romance promoted in movies, songs, novels, and other media of the secular world is unrealistic. It’s a twisted version of love. Unfortunately, young people see it, read about it, try to imitate it, because it’s what they think is love.

 

[erine]

My spiritual director read me this quote about the feelings a man or woman arouses in the other in romantic love are a desire not just to love the person, but also awaken greater desires only God can fill. The idolatry is when we expect that other person to fulfill the longing they aroused, even though it is a longing for God too. And when the other person becomes an end in themselves and our reason for living. When really marriage is a sign (like all sacraments) of God’s love.

And yes, I think pop culture has this idolatrous romantic love all over the place.

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

Please don’t take this out of context and assume I’m asking if the love between a married couple, or a couple considering marriage, is idolatry. Of course it isn’t, any more than love between family members is. God blessed both those kinds of love by creating the family.

I’m talking about the kind of romance promoted in the movies, songs, novels, and other media of the secular world. The kind where people give each other the kind of adoration that should only be given to God. The kind that calls itself “love” (and has become the default definition of love in our culture) but falls short of the definition given in 1 Corinthians 13. The kind that inserts itself into everything that comes from the media. The kind that presents itself as a new gospel (in violation of Galatians 1:8-9).

I think it’s idolatry, pure and simple. Instead of stone statues, they worship other people. What do you all think?

I dont think so.
If the movie is good, it despicts the human drama of voe, like in the past theater.
If the movie is bad, it may mean anything.

 

[Leegal]

Those types of films and books promote a skewed view of love, relationships, marriage and family. This teaches us the wrong thing about real life, depending on one’s maturity and ability to filter. And then when real life does not live up to these skewed expectations of romance and marriage, we are at the lawyer’s office.

I don’t think we improperly worship these films and books (I assume you mean “chick flicks” and “romance novels”). However, I think that the younger we are, the harder it is to separate what might just be viewed as a book or film from a “bad message.”

 

[chevalier]

Romance can cross the lines of idolatry as far as I am concerned. Mediaeval courtly love had that tendency. Especially young men experience a certain dysfunction of both brain and character where they are ready to worship a pretty female because she’s a pretty female. Please note the frequency with which the word “goddess” is used in the romantic poetry of old (perhaps not always in a direct sense but still the thought).