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.
Questions about masturbation, birth control, premarital sex, homosexuality, nonbinary gender, and even open relationships need more than the unsupportable claim that “The Bible says it’s sinful”… because time after time the evidence does not support the mainstream conclusions. All these things can be sinful, and so can married, heterosexual, reproductive sex. The Biblical teaching about sexual sin does not draw the same lines as the dominant Christian traditions – whether conservative or liberal.
We cannot just dismiss the problem of sexual sin. It just looks completely different than what I expected when I set out to study it!
A few years ago I was teaching a group of students through the book of Genesis and we paused in Chapter 4 when one of them pointed out a fascinating conversation between God and Cain. If anyone has ever been in a conversation that didn’t work the way you want it to, you would probably … Read more
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
As a Christian man, my number one answer to this question would have been “God.” Of course, my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and my sexuality is part of that! But when I got home from church, the answer changed. Theoretically, I knew God was supposed to own my sexuality, but He … Read more