Getting Our Understanding and Conversation About Sex Right Part I

“So God created man in his own image…male and female He created them… And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’” (Genesis 1:27,28)

“And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25)

In his chapter, “The Morally Corrupt: Why Unbelief is So Appealing,” Dinesh D’Souza, drawing on documented statements of self-admission by a number of leading atheists, makes a compelling case that atheistic disbelief in God is founded as much on the quest both from moral bondage and for sexual freedom, as it is on so-called damaging intellectual arguments for the non-existence of God (What’s So Great About Christianity? (Tyndale, 2007), ch. 23).  Christopher Hitchens is quoted as stating, “The divorce between sexual life and fear…can now at last be attempted on the sole condition that we banish all religions from the discourse” (p.273 in text. Cited from God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.” (Twelve Books, 2007) p.283).  In the same chapter similar admissions are referenced from Aldous Huxley, Julian Huxley, Czeslaw Milosz, Friedrich Nietzche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertrand Russell, and Marquis de Sade.

I find these acknowledgements to be shocking on account of the frankness of the admissions, but NOT for the contents of their admissions.  The personal experience of virtually the entire human race across recorded history is that sexuality is a very powerful force that is difficult to channel within conventional boundaries.  Christianity has so far failed to present an enduring, positive, and compelling theological response to the reality of the power of human sexuality.  Instead, our track record is generally limited to the reactionary and the negative.

I do not approve of and neither do I advocate abandoning faith in God for the pursuit of sexual license.  Indeed it is absolutely required that we squarely face the devastating consequences to real human beings (including helpless children) which follow in the wake of sexual irresponsibility.  This damage includes the betrayal of wives by their husbands or vice-versa in the aftermath of breaking vows that were made on their wedding day.  For similar reasons, "living together" results in the insecurity and vulnerability of one or both partners (usually the woman) because no promises of commitment were ever made in the first place.  And who can fully comprehend the damage to children when parents break up so that the leadership “team” is suddenly reduced down to one, single, struggling parent who was never made to be able to “do it all?”

To be continued...