Marginal Christianity

Posted by Wesley Hill   My friend Alan Jacobs, a traditional sort of Anglican Christian, wrote this the day after the Obergefell ruling: Perhaps I am soft on sin, or otherwise deficient in serious Christian formation — actually, it’s certain that I am — but in any case I could not help being moved by many of the scenes yesterday of gay people getting married, even right here in Texas. I hope that many American gays and lesbians choose marriage over promiscuity, and I hope those who marry stay married, and flourish. I know what he’s saying. I felt that too.   But I was thinking more today, What is that experience? For those of us like me who hold to a Christian view of marriage that contradicts the SCOTUS definition , what does it mean to be moved by scenes of gay marriage?   Well, for starters—and I’m speaking for myself here, not necessarily for Alan—I think that for many, many (not all) gay people in America today, the options have not been...

The church, as we all know, is hopelessly divided an deadlocked on all manner of issues surrounding sexuality. Quite likely, there will be more and more separation and division among churches and Christians on account of it. I don't have any magic bullet or new answers to this issues. All I have is a modest proposal that will likely not satisfy anyone in the present volatile atmosphere. Yet, I, a hetero-sexual male, keeping pondering an praying over the all this, my feelings and reactions, and the seeming hopelessness of the church enduring no more division. Some are certain they know what they believe – on each end of the spectrum. They will have the most difficulty I'm afraid with my proposal. I know what I think, but I'm not a zealot for it. I'm more interested in discovering what the “in love” part of “speaking the truth in love” is all about. And it seems to me ironic that the vast majority of churches have found ways to live with deep divisions over war an...

  June 4, 2015 by Michael F. Bird Leave a Comment These days, we are hearing about the evils of hetero-normativity, the prejudiced and intolerant view that heterosexual relationships are somehow normal. But coming to a theatre near  you will be mono-normativity, the prejudiced and intolerant view that monogamous relationships are somehow normal. Australian activist Simon Copland has an article on Same Sex Marriage Has Been Won: But The Real Fight is Only About to Begin  which is really quite disturbing. I used to think the claim that LGBT activist want to legalize same-sex marriage just so they can completely deconstruct it was just right-wing fear-mongering. But this is exactly want Copland wants to do. While monogamous marriage still works for many, our society is increasingly questioning whether it should remain as the only option. The question is where will the newlywed gays and lesbians stand? For years now the more promiscuous in the queer...

  by Carl R. Trueman 6 . 2 . 15 A n article in the  Washington Post last week (“How to break free from monogamy without destroying marriage”) described the dynamics of an open marriage and the various “apps” now available for facilitating extramarital relations. The amorality might have been shocking twenty years ago but today such well-traveled territory likely provokes little more than a yawn. Yet the article is still instructive for what the author’s analysis (or lack thereof) tells us about contemporary culture. Indeed, it is a classic example of what happens when your side in the debate is utterly dominant: You become lazy and put forward obvious stupidity as if it were compelling argumentation.   Take, for example, the attempts at offering evidential support for the incontinent sexual promiscuity described. All the usual tricks of persuasion are on display. Tendentiously selective history is wheeled out to make it seem that the idea of love as p...

   3/26/2015 Branson Parler      1. Their straight orientation will most often be a source of life-long temptation and struggle.   Although straight Christians should grow in holiness over the course of their life, they will most likely never reach a point where their orientation ceases to be a source of temptation in one way or another. So we must demand life-long vigilance against the temptation to simply do what feels natural based on their orientation.   2. Straight people have been told that their sinful lust is just a normal part of human sexuality.  It's not. Humans have been created by God as sexual beings. But proper sexual desire is not the same as sinful lust that uses another person as a means to the end of pleasing oneself. Lust is a problem across the board. Straight lust does not somehow have a privileged standing with God because it's straight. If the statistics are correct, around  2...

Wed, 28/01/2015 - 06:54       This is not going to be a conventional review of James Brownson’s book on gender and homosexuality in the Bible. I’ll begin with two very broad assertions, then look at the texts, and finish with some cautious and increasingly opaque conclusions—be warned. For a summary of Brownson’s argument see this post . For a detailed critical evaluation of the book see Andrew Goddard’s essay . Two broad assertions First, I think Brownson overstates his case. On the one hand, I don’t think it is as easy as he suggests to eliminate gender complementarity from the biblical notion of being “one flesh”. Same-sex union, therefore, would have to be parallel or analogous to the “one flesh” union rather than an emerging facet or subset of it. On the other, while it seems reasonable to claim that the biblical texts cannot be made to pass judgment on the apparently modern notion of loving, committed same-sex relationships, I rather doubt...

Corey Widmer Oct 03, 2014   I looked nervously across the table, fidgeting with my coffee cup. Do you realize what you’re asking of me? he questioned. We’d been meeting for more than an hour, talking about his struggle with same-sex attraction and his decision about whether to enter into a more intentional relationship with his boyfriend. He’d been part of our church and community group for a couple of years, always intelligent and effervescent, exhibiting many marks of a mature Christian. Yet my friend’s dark internal struggle had finally reached its culmination, and here we were together in a coffee shop, grappling with the reality of his decision. Do you realize what you’re asking of me? I did. I was asking him not to act on his same-sex desires, to commit to a celibate lifestyle, and to turn away from an important romantic relationship. Yet as I reflect on that discussion, I now realize I didn’t fully understand what I was asking of him. I was asking him to do ...

But God wants me to be happy, right?” As a pastor living in North America in the 21st century, I have been asked this question more than once. Christians conditioned by a me-first (and “me-always”) culture default to this one abiding principle: the universe exists so I may indeed be happy. I am not opposed to happiness per se. It is a product of the work of the Holy Spirit. Happiness, or “joy” if you prefer, is both in Jesus and connected to the mission of Jesus. He said, “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” (John 15:11 NLT). The issue is not whether or not God wants us to be happy, content, joyful people; the issue is how do we define happiness and more importantly, where do we find this happiness? The trans-cultural pursuit of what we may call “happiness” is really “wholeness,” becoming complete human beings. We were each created in the image of God, but as a master artist, God has created us uniquely in his ...

"Y ou should really care that the German Ethics Council (a government committee) has pronounced that Germany's laws banning consensual incest between adult brothers and sisters ought to be abolished. "Now, it's not because Germany's laws directly affect the United States; they don't, of course. And even within Germany itself, the ruling party of Chancellor Angela Merkel has indicated that it doesn't plan on following the council's recommendation. "The reason why Americans — and especially American liberals — should care about the council's ruling is that it gives us a glimpse of America's future. "The German council's position is based on the claim that 'the fundamental right of adult siblings to sexual self-determination' overrides all other moral considerations, including 'the abstract idea of protection of the family.'" Read more at http://theweek.com/article/index/268985/how-liberals-are-unwitting...

http://www.reclaimingthemission.com/?p=4491 Posted on July 9, 2014 by David Fitch — No Comments ↓ Warning: This is a post which depends on some knowledge of Foucault, Coakley, even Zizek and McIntyre. Read at your own risk. I probably can’t reply to comments asking me to outline the thought of these thinkers. Sorry ——————– There is an idea in the work of Michael Foucault (p. 322-327 Order of Things 1970) he calls the “unthought.” It is the set of assumptions and stories that form the backdrop of our conscious thoughts and actions. The “unthought” drives how we see the world yet is never really examined. It’s in the water we swim in. In some sense the “unthought” can’t be examined, because it is so ingrained in the frame by which we think and feel and move. To look at it face to face is to dismantle the whole “frame” and, in a sense, have to start all over again (a bit of Zizek here). We lose who we are and that is just too traumatic. “Unthoug...

http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/sex-in-heaven.htm We cannot know what X-in-Heaven is unless we know what X is. We cannot know what sex in Heaven is unless we know what sex is. We cannot know what in Heaven's name sex is unless we know what on earth sex is. But don't we know? Haven't we been thinking about almost nothing else for years and years? What else dominates our fantasies, waking and sleeping, twenty-four nose-to-the-grindstone hours a day? What else fills our TV shows, novels, plays, gossip columns, self-help books, and psychologies but sex? No, we do not think too much about sex; we think hardly at all about sex. Dreaming, fantasizing, feeling, experimenting—yes. But honest, look-it-in-the-face thinking ?—hardly ever. There is no subject in the world about which there is more heat and less light. Therefore I want to begin with four abstract philosophical principles about the nature of sex. They are absolutely n...

http://redemptionpictures.com/2014/04/30/what-i-wish-women-knew-about-men/?utm_content=bufferac62b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Date:  30 Apr 2014 By:  Micah J. Murray Comments:  15 Comments Dear Women, Summer is almost here, which means that us men are going to be forced to realize you have a body and skin and curves. This is very difficult for us men. We have to constantly be on guard against danger (and by “danger” I mean you). This is why I wish you knew that… We are Visual I know you can’t understand what it’s like to be physically attracted to somebody. You prefer romance and long talks to  hot bodies  and actual sex, but that’s not how us guys are. We’re visual. This means that we see women primarily as objects, collections of walking body parts. We can’t help it. It’s just the way biology made us. We Can’t Control Ourselves Because we are biologically wired to see you as...

By Rod Dreher • January 24, 2013, 1:10 PM http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/to-be-a-girl-in-this-culture/  Allison Pearson delivers some grim news: A friend’s daughter recently started at a highly regarded boarding school. When her mother asked how she was enjoying the mixed-sex environment, the girl said quietly: “You have to give the boys oral sex or they get cross.” Reeling with shock, the mum protested that her darling daughter did not have to do anything of the sort. “Oh yes you do,” replied the girl. “And you have to shave down there or the boys don’t like it.” The girl in question is not some brazen, street-smart sixth-former; she is 14 years old. With a woman’s body, perhaps, but still a child. A child who, as far as her parents ...