The Gospel & Sex (by Tim Keller)

This is singlehandedly one of the best essays I’ve read on a Biblical Understanding of Sexuality, Marriage, Singleness, Dating and more by Timothy Keller. Though quite long, well worth plowing through to the end.

Essay: The Gospel & Sex by Timothy Keller 

Q&A – What’s the Big deal about Sex?

Q: Why is the Bible so strict on prohibiting pre-marital sex? What’s the big deal?

Pastor Greg Boyd sheds some light on the Bible’s perspective on this sacredness of sex and marriage:

Today in western culture people tend to have a rather “recreational” view of sex. It’s just a pleasurable physical activity we engage in. Even people who don’t consciously believe this are influenced by it , since we’re bombarded with this message every day through movies, television shows, radio, magazines, etc. Because we’re influence by this recreational view, we have trouble understanding why the Bible makes such as big deal about this.

I want to help us see what the “big deal” is. I’ll make four points.

1) Jesus and the rest of the Bible teach that when two people engage in sexual intercourse, they become “one flesh.” Jesus says, “they are no longer two, but one” and “what God has joined together, no one should separate” (Mt 19:5-6). Intercourse clearly involves much more than two people getting physically intimate with each other. God himself is involved in creating a new “one” out of the two. This new oneness reflects the love and ecstasy of the Trinity and is the foundational covenant between humans in the Bible. The welfare of couples and of society hangs on honoring and protecting this new “one flesh” reality that God creates.

2) Paul indicates that this “one flesh” reality is created whenever two people have sexual intercourse. “Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, ‘The two will become one flesh’” (1Cor. 6:16). Even when the partners intend sex to be purely recreational – as when one has sex with a prostitute – it still creates this “one flesh” reality! Something profoundly spiritual, metaphysical and foundational is going on, even when the parties are “just having fun.”

The Bible and Sex: A Response to Newsweek

Newsweek recently published an article called What the Bible Really Says About Sex which begins:

What does the Bible really say about sex? Two new books written by university scholars for a popular audience try to answer this question. Infuriated by the dominance in the public sphere of conservative Christians who insist that the Bible incontrovertibly supports sex within the constraints of “traditional marriage,” these authors attempt to prove otherwise. Jennifer Wright Knust and Michael Coogan mine the Bible for its earthiest and most inexplicable tales about sex—Jephthah, who sacrifices his virgin daughter to God; Naomi and Ruth, who vow to love one another until death—to show that the Bible’s teachings on sex are not as coherent as the religious right would have people believe. In Knust’s reading, the Song of Solomon is a paean to unmarried sex, outside the conventions of family and community. “I’m tired,” writes Knust in Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions About Sex and Desire, “of watching those who are supposed to care about the Bible reduce its stories and teachings to slogans.” Her book comes out this month. Coogan’s book God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says was released last fall.

I have shared many posts on issues of sexuality on this blog but have chosen to remain silent on issue of homosexuality. Why?  Not because I don’t have convictions on the matter.  Rather, because I’m tired of watching each side throw verbal stones at the other side over the internet from the safety of their keyboards.  I believe the best way forward is for both sides is to sit down across a table from “the other” and begin to share our different perspectives face to face with real human beings — people with faces, feelings, families — just like us.  Enough stereotyping and demonizing the other side.  At this point in the heated debate, with lines clearly drawn on both sides, and tempers and sensitivities at a peak, the blogosphere is simply not the best place for this conversation to happen.

However, the Daily Illumination blog is and will always be a place where the Bible is held as the ultimate authority and source of truth on all matters of faith and life. With this foundation and starting point, I feel obliged to address the recent silliness that passed as biblical scholarship in the Newsweek article noted above.

John Piper on Sexual Sin

Halloween and the Sexualization of Evil

Keri and I are picking out our Halloween costumes for this year, and I thought I’d repost this annual reflection. Peace, JB

“Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14).

Christians have always had a tough time with Halloween. The danger usually associated with the message of Halloween was its association with the occult — the glorification and celebration of evil, death, Satan, witchcraft, blood-sucking vampires and the like. Clearly the people called to “live in the light as he is in the light” (1 John 1:7) have no business dabbling in this sort of darkness. Christians living in the bright new day of the Resurrected Son are called to “put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:12).

I have always appreciated C. S. Lewis’ balanced approach to the topic of Satan and the forces of darkness, warning that: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”  So, reasonable and balanced Christians and church leaders have attempted to recognize the real evil standing behind the folk religion of Americanized, materialized, sugar-laden Halloween by offering alternatives to dressing up as goblins, witches and vampires.  The Harvest Party and other family-friendly gatherings that celebrate the true Light’s victory over the powers of darkness have provided alternatives to trick-or-treating.  (Read Ben Witherington on “Should Christians celebrate Halloween?”)

Well, one wonders if even the creative mind of C. S. Lewis who wrote at length from the point of view of the “devils” in The Screwtape Letters could have anticipated the sneaky way our culture (or the Devil) would try to put a new spin and sexy veneer over the dark focus of Halloween’s evil under layer.  Lewis has the senior Devil named Screwtape write to Wormwood, his devil in training, instructing him on how to try to keep humans (called “patients”) from even believing in their existence (since they can do more harm when their “patient” is  unaware of them):

“I don’t think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.”

Well, take a trip to the nearest Halloween Costume Outlet store today and you will find that old Screwtape and his junior devils have taken it a step further. You would have to be blind or living in a cave somewhere to not have noticed the trend in costumes the past several years. The cultural forces at work (driven by the sexual forces within) have managed to add an entirely new kind of darkness and evil to the traditional favorites.  I speak of the overt sexualization of Halloween costumes.

Trevin Wax on Jennifer Knapp & Larry King

Trevin Wax offers his reflections on Jennifer Knapp’s appearance on Larry King Live in an article for the Baptist Press called Jennifer Knapp and Homosexuality: Changing the Questions.

Here’s an excerpt:

I only know Jennifer Knapp — a former Dove Award winning artist who recently announced she is a lesbian — through her music. (Kansas is one of the best albums in Christian music, as far as I’m concerned.) I do not want the rest of this column to focus on her particular story. Instead, I want to analyze the Larry King appearance as a launching pad from which we can think clearly about how we might re-frame this discussion in ways that benefit the traditionalist position.

Here are four ways to get started:

GLBT Safe Place Signs on Campus

Keri and I were visiting Bethel University’s campus recently, and were intrigued by signs posted on certain doors signaling “safe-places” for conversations about same-sex attraction. Is this a growing phenomenon on all university campuses, or unique to Christian institutions where there is more of a stigma against same-sex relationships?

I was therefore very interested when I saw the following letter from my old boss, Dr. David Clark, now Provost of Bethel University.

The following is an open letter that Provost David Clark sent to the Bethel University faculty. What do you think of Dr. Clark’s message?  Agree or disagree? Click below to keep reading…

VIDEO: “Love Is An Orientation” (Andrew Marin)

YouthWorker Journal editor Steve Rabey talks with Andrew Marin about ways youth workers can reach out to gay and lesbian youth, and how in the past churches have failed to minister to those struggling with same-sex attraction in a Christ-like manner. Andrew is the director of The Marin Foundation, and the author of “Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community” (IVP). Learn more at: TheMarinFoundation.org.

I highly recommend Marin’s book and approach to building bridges with the GLBT community for Christians — especially youth workers.  For a taste of Marin’s perspective check out this video:

Teens & Sexting – Why?

Associated Press featured an article this week entitled, ‘Sexting’ Is More Common Than You Think.  The article begins:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Think your kid is not ”sexting”? Think again. Sexting — sharing sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone or online — is fairly commonplace among young people, despite sometimes grim consequences for those who do it.

More than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting in some form, an Associated Press-MTV poll found.

That includes Sammy, a 16-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area who asked that his last name not be used. Sammy said he had shared naked pictures of himself with girlfriends. He also shared naked pictures of someone else that a friend had sent him.

What he didn’t realize at the time was that young people across the country — in Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania — have faced charges, in some cases felony charges, for sending nude pictures.

”That’s why I probably wouldn’t do it again,” Sammy said.

Yet, ”I just don’t see it as that big of a problem, personally.”

That was the view of nearly half of those surveyed who have been involved in sexting. The other half said it’s a serious problem — and did it anyway. Knowing there might be consequences hasn’t stopped them.

Evangelical Dialogue on Christianity & Politics

What happens when 3 generations of Evangelical Christian leaders get together to discuss church and politics in the 21st century?  These videos capture a lively and thoughtful conversation between Chuck Colson, Gregory Boyd and Shane Claiborne moderated by Krista Tippett of “Speaking of Faith” radio program.  Check out some video clips below.  The full program details can be found HERE.

What are your impressions of the conversation and perspectives represented?