The problem I have with public issues of sexuality:
I recoil from liberal discourse on the topic
but am not conventionally conservative
I feel uncomfortable with the focus on gay rights
but not because I am against them
and I am anti-abortion
but don't feel it is my place to step in to protect unborn babies
but is rather to mourn, and perhaps to speak from my heart, where God gives me opportunity
But moreover, I am angered by the assumption
that I must "have" a position on these topics
These particularly political issues
are raised against a backdrop of non-controversial,
commonplace obscenity
in every commercial, movie and television plot;
there is a dominant discourse in which sexuality occupies center stage
in the sphere of human relations
while I feel that it should rather be something respected, treated as sacred,
and respectfully hidden from view.
Our kids should be well-protected from their parents' sexuality
and friends and neighbors should not be exposed to sexually-suggestive behavior of couples
Rather, we should be able to relate in human ways, from places of our heart
And sexuality should be expressed, celebrated, privately - so it does not need to be repressed
But simply kept in the bounds God designed it to be
We are an oversexed culture
We have no bearing about how to solve the problems of gay rights and abortion
But perhaps we can see that these "problems" are created when sexuality itself leaves the bedroom
And parades on the street
The trend toward everybody's sexuality
Being everybody's business
Creates the problems we cannot solve
The liberal emphasis on liberating sexuality
is one ingredient to the problem;
The conservative audacity to violate what God relegated to the privacy of couples, and committed communities at best,
is the other, reactionary at best.
Both are to blame, and neither is right
More modesty is needed all around,
built on humility
of our own confusion, flawedness, and brokenness
Adam and Eve's problem, recorded in the bible
should be suggestive enough
that we all are going to be confused around sex
None of us has the place to parade sex around,
Neither our personal sexuality, nor our positions on it.
Parents, humbled by their own struggles, and helped by God,
should introduce children to what they need to know, when the time is right
Couples should further explore sexuality together
Only when already committed to each other for life
And seek guidance from elders, and other committed couples,
Once sex has been put in its proper place:
Not the central issue, not an issue on its own,
but one mysterious dimension of human relationship and existence
of which our proper and most healthy priorities and boundaries
have already lovingly been described by God
God's way of treating each other, regarding each other,
Checking ourselves and living in obedience to Him
Must be the first and far more important emphasis,
and aspect of life to be explored and practiced
long before anything about sex is discussed or explored
This is the only way out of the mess
This is the only hope for surviving the confusion
Our particular brokenness must be discovered, confessed, allowed to convict,
and shared in living relationship with God
and then we will be shown what to do with the rest
Afterthought:
Churches should boldly address impropriety, or the desacralization of sex
But only in the context of their charge of shepherding their flocks,
Not as a weapon to wield in general, irresponsibly, doing the same damage
as the impersonal, generalized liberal portrayal of sex.
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