In the never ending pursuit of what is trending I often check the internet. It’s hard to believe but people identified trends even before the internet. The internet, however, gives us numbers and all sorts of real and faux statistics to back up our assertions.
Google allows an individual to search on a topic using a variety of criteria. I decided to take a look at books most searched for on Google during March of 2015. https://www.google.com/trends/topcharts#vm=chart&cid=books&geo=US&date=201503&cat=
Would you like to take a guess at the most searched?
Here are the five most searched books in March 2015.
- The Bible
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Insurgent
- The Great Gatsby
- Divergent
Hmmmm… The Bible… 50 Shades of Grey…
Does this tell us anything?
I didn’t think 50 Shades of Grey was a trending topic. But some things linger in stealth mode. 50 Shades of Grey is #300 among best-selling books on Amazon. The Life Application Study Bible is ranked #1845. Over 31,000 people reviewed 50 Shades on Amazon. 1700 people reviewed this edition of the Bible. 50 Shades was published in 2011, the Bible has been around longer.
Both books are about bondage.
Curiously both books narrate a perilous journey through hazardous landscapes. There are elements of depravity within both books. I’m not against sex. It is part of the journey of life for all people. The Bible has sex. 50 Shades has sex.
The Bible is about breaking chains that bind people to misery and death. 50 Shades offers a diversion in a world consumed with misery and death. I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that it may not be a terrible thing for adult Christians to be familiar with both of these books. You probably don’t want to read 50 Shades. It’s not very well written. You can get the point at several web site that provide brief synopses of books. The Bible is also a book for adults. The stories that are told within it covers contain plotlines that few parents would allow their children to watch on television. But you don’t have to hide it from the kids or wrap it in plain brown paper in public. I think it’s worth taking a look. They have made a movie based on 50 Shades. They have had made several movies based on the Bible. Every generation has its 50 Shades of Grey. Ask your parents about Peyton Place or The Carpetbaggers? The Bible is a book for every generation. Ask your parents and your grandparents?
50 Shades ends with its main character at her apartment where she curls up in her bed and cries. The main character dies at the end of the Bible. But everyone else lives. Tombs get un-tombed, chains get un-chained, and everything changes. One book is about bondage that does not end and the other is about the end of bondage.
Did you ever go to the movies and see a preview of an upcoming film and think: “That’s all of that I will ever need to see or know.” That’s how I feel about 50 Shades of Grey.
Rev. Fred – 4/11/15
