Category Archives: Sexuality

Sex and culture

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Nestling at the back of what I fondly call my mind has been a reference, by O.R. Johnston (in his 1979 book, Who Needs The Family?) to an important but neglected piece of research which presented evidence for a positive correlation between sexual restraint and cultural achievement.

I was pleased to track down Johnston’s book, and his discussion of the research in question.  Here is what Johnston has to say:

I turn now to the various types of marriage pattern in different societies and ask what advantages scholars have perceived in the different types of sexual regulation.…

Theology of sexuality and gender

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Here I summarise this essay by Andrew T. Walker, entitled, ‘Gender and Sexuality’.

Gender refers to the biological differences between males and females and to the different cultural ways in which creational distinctions are expressed.  Sexuality refers to God’s design for the procreative relationship between men and women and to the experience of erotic desire within that relationship.

Sexuality and gender in God’s design

Several axiomatic truths related to gender and sexuality are found in the Genesis 1–2 narrative.…

Luke 7:2 – ‘Highly valued servant’ or ‘gay lover’?

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Luke 7:2-3 A centurion there had a slave who was highly regarded, but who was sick and at the point of death. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave.

(See also: Matthew 8:5 When [Jesus] entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help: 8:6 “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible anguish.” 8:7 Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”)…

LGBT: what does it mean to be ‘welcoming but not affirming’?

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In the eyes of many, the idea that churches can take a ‘welcoming but not affirming’ attitude towards LGBT people is absurd.  It inevitably leads to treating people as second class Christians, tolerated but not fully integrated into the life of the church.

The perceived absurdity is compounded by the myth that only two possibilities exist: either that of full and unconditional acceptance and affirmation, or that of rejection.  Any kind of middle ground is rarely explored.…

Once again: the slaves/homosexuality trajectory argument

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Sean Doherty writes:

The church is under huge pressure to move away from biblical teaching with respect to sexuality. For example, the New Testament scholar Walter Wink, who is in favour of same-sex relationships, admits that the Bible does rule out same sex sexual intimacy. But he also maintains that the Bible sanctions slavery, which thankfully we now recognise as deeply evil and wrong. Wink therefore suggests that it is quite right to move away from biblical teaching on this matter, in the same way that we have moved away from biblical teaching on slavery.…

Matthew 7:16,20 – ‘You will recognise them by their fruit’

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Matthew 7:15 “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. 7:16 You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? 7:17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 7:18 A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit.…

The myth of a sexually permissive Jesus

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It is often supposed that Jesus was more permissive with regard to sexual ethics than the Old Testament.  The reverse is, in fact the case.

Robert Gagnon invites us, in response, to consider the following:

1. The three stories of sexual sinners

Jesus reached out to sexual sinners. The key stories are: the sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50; 50; the woman caught in adultery in John 7:53-8:11; and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.…

God’s good plan for men and women: our unfinished business

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If the Christian church is to adhere to (or recover) God’s good plan for men and women, then its pastoral care and witness will need some clarification and strengthening in a number of areas.

For example, we need to ask, How can we more effectively

  • witness to God’s good purposes in our own marriages and families?
  • recognise the distinctive roles of husbands and wives?
  • nurture young people who are capable of faithful covenant relationships?
  • honour both married and single people in the family of the church?
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Jude 7 – ‘Unnatural desire’

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Jude 7 – ‘So also Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, since they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire in a way similar to these angels, are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.’

The expression sarkos heteras is, lit., ‘other flesh’.  It is variously translated:-

ESV, NET  – ‘unnatural desire’
NIV, Good News, – ‘perversion’
NASB – ‘went after strange flesh’
RSV – ‘indulged in unnatural lust’
NRSV – ‘pursued unnatural lust’
AV – ‘going after strange flesh’

1.…

Sex in Genesis 2:18-25

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Summarising this, by Martin Davie.

  1. Humanity has always been sexually differentiated.  The man was always a man, and the woman was a woman from the moment she was formed from his side.
  2. Men and women can only fulfil their God given vocation together.  Even as he carried out his God-given work in the garden (Gen 2:15), it was ‘not good’ for the man to be alone (Gen 2:18).
  3. Men and women are suitable helpers for one another because they share in an equal humanity. 
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