Book Review Revisited: Pulling Back the Shades

First published April 22, 2014

Christian women don’t have to choose between being sexual and spiritual. 
They have legitimate longings that the Church has been afraid to 
talk about, and books like Fifty Shades of Grey exploit. Whether 
you are single or married, sexually dead or just looking to revive your sex 
life, Pulling Back the Shades will address your desire 
to be both sexual AND spiritual. With solid Biblical teaching and transparent 
stories, trusted authors Dannah Gresh  and Dr. Juli Slattery, offer an unflinching 
look at the most personal questions women ask. The book offers practical 
advice for women to address five core longings:

to be 
cherished by a manto be protected by a strong manto rescue 
a manto be sexually alive to escape reality

God 
designed women with these longings and has a plan to satisfy them. It’s 
time for women to identify their intimate longings and God-honoring ways to fulfill 
them.

I knew there would be a Christian response to the “50 Shades” phenomenon. What I didn’t realize until after I read Pulling Back the Shades is the deep need there is for a Christian response, and for every woman and clergy member to read it.

Pulling Back the Shades explains that the Fifty Shades of Grey is about in easy to understand terms. Dannah Gresh and Dr. Juli Slattery go through and inform readers what actions in the book are real, and not. What actions are Biblical, and not. They explain that Christian women ARE reading not only Fifty Shades of Gray, but erotica in general. And defending themselves. Instead of judging women who read these books, the authors explain what is driving them to.

Women, even Christian women, single and married, are lonely.

They long for romance.

And escape.

And right there ready to pounce is the true defeated one, offering what looks like a perfect solution. Instead of having an affair, women feel justified reading erotica. But the after effects, the consequences of taking the mind to those words are far reaching and devastating.

I really was shocked by the grip satan has on women through erotica. Pornography is well documented and spoken about in sermons and counselor offices. But women reading Fifty Shades of Gray and books like it, and that it is causing problems? I was naive. I had no idea how many Christian women are reading these books. How many find the situations real and long for them enough in their lives they are leaving their marriages and seeking satisfaction where they can find it, thinking what they read in the books will be as thrilling as real life.

But devastation lays in the wake.

I applaud Dannah Gresh and Dr. Juli Slattery for tackling the subject, and for Dr. Slattery reading the Shades series. She did so with her clinical background and her faith, but covered herself in prayer as she read. Beyond the clinical things she discovered that I hinted at above, she was taken aback at the spiritual mocking the 50 Shades books takes, so subtle that EL James probably didn’t even realize it as she wrote. The “hero’s” name is Christian. The word holy is misused over and over and over again. Scriptural reference is employed in direct contrast to the Bible. And I could go on.

This book needs to be in every woman’s hands. Christian or not. All clergy should have this book and be ready for the women who will be coming in seeking counsel, or for the sermons they should prepare in an effort to set women free from a stronghold they might not know is destroying them.

Pulling Back the Shades is a must read. I’m sorry that it has to be as much as the authors struggled with writing it because the topic is so graphic. But I’m so glad they did.

To purchase Pulling Back the Shades, please click here.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

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