Douglas Todd, a highly regarded feature writer of the Vancouver Sun, says that everything we know about the Bible and sex is wrong. This is especially important, Todd claims, because "For good and ill, what we think the Bible says about sex matters a great deal."
Teresa Hornsby's recent addition to the literature on the Bible and sex "Sex Texts and the Bible" concludes that the Bible sends no message, or mixed messages, about divorce, adultery, masturbation, abortion, celibacy, sexual abstinence, homosexual relations and even sex with slaves. In other words, says Todd, the Bible has no justifiable place as the source of all our cultural sexual angst.
Tell me about it, says Dan Agin, a professor of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago. "The crazy religious roots of America's sexuality" with its poor grasp of biological necessity and the complexities of social order, is "America's Sexuality Time-Bomb." A religious understanding of sex, with all its phobias and taboos, will either need to make room for the evolution of sexuality or we will see social order "crack into miserable little pieces."
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2 comments:
i agree and disagree. the bible says a lot about sex, but the interpretations people have taken are most often very wrong and too literal.
the bible speaks about sexual acts and their morality based upon the history of the people of the time that the scripture was written. the trouble is that people have taken to determing that one sexual act and therefore the people who do that act are more sinful or immoral than others.
ultimately the bible says that all sexual relationships can be used in immoral ways, but that God intended for sexuality to be a gift and used for love and the building up of relationship.
(btw, i am very glad to have found this site.)
Hello Cats,
Thank you for your comments.
It sounds as though we may agree on the necessity of understanding the socio-historical context of the Bible.
Where we disagree is when we begin to talk about particular readings being "very wrong" and "too literal" and then concluding that "ultimately the Bible says..." This is a blog that aims to track the diversity in conclusions that people draw about what the Bible "ultimately says" and how they attempt to apply those conclusions to their own lives and others.
I am happy to hear you enjoyed my site. I hope you continue to share your insight.
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