A New Christian Sexual Ethic
Debates over questions of polyamory, non-monogamy, and open relationships already shows signs of getting stuck in the historical and false dichotomy of licentiousness or celibacy, which has plagued theology since the early days of the church.
I grew up with the assumption that sexual ethics meant waiting until marriage to unleash the dragon of desire. Once I wore a wedding ring, sex was approved by God without any stipulations about how I approached it or how my partner felt about it. The only thing that mattered was that I never gave … Read more
Jesus reinterpreted Old Testament teachings on divorce, claiming it was not intended in the original divine plan. He taught that unless a wife had acted immorally (porneia), divorcing her was tantamount to adultery. Therefore, marriage should not be dissolved arbitrarily, as was common in those times. His teachings marked a significant shift in viewing divorce as a breach of covenant, thus equalizing the relational responsibility of men and women. This concept and its implications call for deeper investigation.
A life of wisdom calls us to understand why we make the moral and ethical decisions that we do…and be able to explain it to others.
Here are some of the complicated issues we have to address in order to do this successfully:
Adultery is about the breaking of a covenant – not necessarily about sex. Throughout the Bible, there are two parallel themes that are sometimes overlooked in discussions about sexual ethics. The First Theme is Sex The first theme is sex – which appears in the first two chapters of Genesis as a part of the … Read more