The e-mail seemed a simple request. In a sermon I'd mentioned seeing Matrix: Reloaded. That had piqued the curiosity of this member, who'd read a review of the movie on a Christian family-values website and now wanted to know if I thought it was appropriate for Christians to see R-rated movies.

I shot off a quick reply—something about there being nothing wrong with seeing R-rated movies if you can handle it, and many mature Christians find such "real-life" exposure helps rather than harms their spiritual walk by getting them out of the Christian "bubble." I hit the send button without another thought.

By the end of the day, however, things had flared into a B-grade horror flick.

Her reply charged me with condoning pornography, violence, and perversity. I was the one "in the bubble," she said, and I needed to consider what the Holy Spirit inside me was thinking while I watched such filth. She ended: "Obviously I'm at the wrong church. ...