What does a Christian do with Fifty Shades of Grey? Mail it in. 

Feb. 1-14, readers are invited to mail in their Fifty Shades of Grey books in exchange for biblical answers to bondage and love in a free return copy of, Pulling Back the Shades: Erotica, Intimacy, and the Longings of a Woman’s Heart (Moody, 2013), by co-authors Dr. Juli Slattery, psychologist, and Dannah Gresh, sexuality educator.

“Erotica exploits women’s longings rather than satisfies them,” said Gresh, citing the Barna study showing that as many Christian as non-Christian women read the series. “And to the growing number of wounded women, we offer first aid.”

From her public speaking tours, radio shows and private practice, Slattery speaks of women’s natural longing for profound sexuality—and the protracted damage of the harmless-sounding “mommy porn.”

Like Slattery and Gresh, a wave of counseling professionals are warning women about the "Fifty Shades disease."

“As a clinician, the idea that women look at this relationship as anything other than absolute, categorical, profound pathology is more than I can imagine,” television’s Dr. Drew Pinsky said in an interview. “Why women would pick this up as any sort of substitute for intimacy or any sort of model for a reasonable relationship, I find just sort of disturbing.”

Applying biblical teaching to personal stories from readers across the Christian spectrum, both married and single, Gresh and Slattery address women's five core longings:  1) to be cherished by a man, 2) to be protected by a strong man, 3) to rescue a man, 4) to be sexually alive and 5) to escape reality.

From chapter one’s “We Know Why You Read It,” refreshing candor runs through chapters such as “The Sexually Satisfied Woman” and “The Spiritually Satisfied Woman,” Gresh and Slattery talk to grandmothers, pastors wives, missionaries, singles, divorcees and homeschooled teenage girls because, they say, the conversation is everywhere—as is the pain.

“God designed us with legitimate longings and he has a plan to satisfy them,” Slattery says. “We can know our intimate needs and hopes, and the richest ways to fulfill them.”

To learn more, go to pullingbacktheshades.com.

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