Saw this outrageous quote from IRD's website:
"Sexual conduct is surely on the same level of seriousness as eating a bacon sandwich, and we might have hoped that nowadays, given the diversity of human life, the Church would have chosen to shut up about sex.”- Quote from Commentary by A. N. Wilson in 10/19 Telegraph (London)
Wasn't sure I was getting it all in context, so I found another link from Christianity Today's website. Here's the original article. While the context of the quote makes it a little more reasonable than how IRD makes it sound, it's not much better. A.N. Wilson is comparing Biblical injunctions against sexual immorality to laws against eating unclean food, saying that perhaps we shouldn't take the Biblical injunctions against sexual immorality so seriously.
This gets into that awful play I saw last week. I was thinking about it, why I hated it so much, and I remember a couple of lines, and some text from the playbill. It was about the so-called human condition (and I will never again see a play or movie that mentions the phrase human condition in its advertising, it's just a code word for sin acted out in plain view). Love is viewed as something one desires, obtains, and then loses. Love is viewed as solely a sexual experience. Love is viewed as something one can satisfy with anyone they wish. The idea of love being rooted in a total giving of oneself to another person, and letting that love grow through the commitment of each person in that relationship is just not considered, but that's what marriage is based on, not a casual answer to the question, "who will I sleep with tonight?".
Now, is all this talk about sex mere folderol? Considering the impact on godly teaching and godly living, I'd say not. As a future new parent, for example, I want to have my church's support when I teach my child what's right and wrong. I don't want my church to be saying that sex outside of marriage is alright when I'm telling her it's not. And regarding how I'm expected to behave, I consider it important to emphasize everything God wants me to do, what I call a balanced Christian, or godly, life. The line "It's ok, I'm doing fine with A" doesn't work with God when He also wants me to be doing fine with B-Z - He wants obedience in all areas of my life: compassion, integrity, humility, faith, and sexual purity. For any new Christian coming into the faith from a life of sexual immorality, it is important to tell the truth of 1 Corinthians 6. Anything less is denying them the truth about what discipleship entails.
You're exactly right. If the church did change its view on sex as such you might as well close the church's doors. At that point they have turned their back on God and the Bible.
Posted by: Nick Queen at November 9, 2003 11:13 AM