Of Sexuality & The Spirit
I recently read Scot McKnight’s very helpful review of Rob Bell’s new book “Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality And Spirituality”, a book I have been considering buying lately. With my own recent writings about sexuality (both online about homosexuality and in my current book project), the books title and subject matter immediately caught my attention. Zondervan’s synopsis of the book says:
“God and sex go together. You can’t separate the two, says Rob Bell, because this physical world is intimately linked to deeper spiritual realities. And so, in order to make sense of sexuality, at some point you have to talk about God. With beauty and unusual insight, Sex God explores this connection.”
In addition to this new book, the subject of sexuality has been on my mind as a result of our current Discipleship Training School (DTS). During most DTS’s, there is a full week of study dedicated to exploring relationships, with an emphasis on issues of romance and sexuality. After nearly 15 years with YWAM I have begun to see a startling pattern emerging when address this topic: most young Christians are woefully unaware of some basic foundations of human sexuality.
While I am deeply concerned by the lack of knowledge of basic physiology and sexual function that (in my opinion) should be standard adult understanding, I am also wrestling with how little they know about the practice of sex. Of course, the argument can be raised that much of this knowledge should be discovered in the shared journey of sexual union that comes with marraige. While agree to this in principle, in practice I have seen far too many examples of couples with painfully dysfunctional sex lives (and let’s be frank, it is usually the woman who pays the highest price).
I believe this connected in part to the pervasive (perhaps gnostic) fear or demonization of sexuality that still seems to influence a significant portion of the church. I am encouraged that it is increasingly become more common and free to explore and celebrate sexuality in as Christians (a positive outlook that I see as clearly Biblical), but we still have a long way to go.
So here are my questions for you all:
1. What is appropriate awareness/understanding/education for single adults in regards to sexuality? How much should a couple know about sexuality prior to marraige and how much should be left to discovery? Where does innocence become ignorance?
2. If Rob Bell is right and we need to rediscover the link between our sexuality and our spirituality, which comes first? Can we explore this aspect of spirituality with a limited or flawed understanding of sexuality?
