John Piper, a pastor and author who says tornadoes are sent by God to punish sin, and who denounced the “Boston Strong” motto adopted after the marathon bombing as “evil” because it was “God-neglecting, God-ignoring, God-minimizing, human-exalting, city-exalting, nation-exalting,” has now decreed that Christians who watch the popular cable TV show “Game of Thrones” are “recrucifying Christ.”

Piper, of course, isn’t worried about the sometimes gruesome violence in the movie, but about nudity, which he says is never necessary for good art.

Piper’s decree came in response to questions he received in an episode of “Ask Pastor John” about pornography, nudity in films, and whether Christians should watch Game of Thrones.

The closer I get to death and meeting Jesus personally face to face, and giving an account for my life and for the careless words that I have spoken (Matthew 12:36), the more sure I am of my resolve never intentionally to look at a television show or a movie or a website or a magazine where I know I will see photos or films of nudity. Never. That is my resolve. And the closer I get to death, the better I feel about that, and the more committed I become.

Frankly, I want to invite all Christians to join me in this pursuit of greater purity of heart and mind. In our day, when entertainment media is virtually the lingua franca [common language] of the world, this is an invitation to be an alien. And I believe with all my heart that what the world needs is radically bold, sacrificially loving, God-besotted, “freaks” and aliens. In other words, I am inviting you to say no to the world for the sake of the world.

The world does not need more cool, hip, culturally savvy, irrelevant copies of itself. That is a hoax that has duped thousands of young Christians. They think they have to be hip, cool, savvy, culturally aware, watching everything in order not to be freakish. And that is undoing them morally and undoing their witness.

Piper encourages Christians who are considering watching anything that might present them with nudity to ask themselves 12 questions, the first of which is, “Am I Recrucifying Christ?”