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Needed: A Continuing Sexual Revolution
I would argue that some kind of Sexual Revolution is indeed needed. If we are to change, we need to reconsider our values and morals, which are the roots of our actions. Perhaps then we will practice that of, "MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR."
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"We need, too, a more erotic spirituality. To our impoverishment, much of the heterosexual, white, male tradition has banished eros from Christian theology and spirituality. We have been prisoners of an agape reductionism, of theologies that have vilified or devalued the erotic, often confusing it with the pornographic. We have been prisoners of theologies in which hunger. desire, passion and yearning have been relegated to the pagan world. Dante found eros in the kind of love that moves the sun and the other stars. Perhaps we, too, will come to see eros as intrinsic to God's energy, God's own passion for connection, and hence also as part of our yearning for life-giving communion and relationships of justice."
"Many Christians still learn to fear, despise, trivialize and be ashamed of their bodies. If we do not know the gospel in our bodies, we may not know the gospel. When we find bodily life an embarrassment to so-called high-minded spiritualized religion, we lose our capacity for passionate caring and justice. We lose the sense of the holiness of the bodies of starving children and the bodies of women and men torn by violence and torture."
"The feminist movement has pointed to the buried connections between militarism, urban violence, racism, economic exploitation and ecological abuse on the one hand, and sexual distortions on the other. The infant movement of a new men's consciousness holds enormous promise for addressing the distorted masculinism that contributes so much violence and peril to our fragile planet."
Needed: A Continuing Sexual Revolution
by James B. Nelson
Dr. Nelson is professor of Christian ethics at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, New Brighton, Minnesota.
(snip)
At various points the Bible endorses sexual attitudes and practices most of us would now reject: women are regarded as the property of men; menstrual blood and semen are unclean"; intercourse during menstruation is proscribed; and polygamy, levirate marriage, concubinage and prostitution are accepted. On these matters some would argue that the cultic laws of the Old Testament are no longer binding, and they must be distinguished from its moral commandments. But such arguments fail to recognize that Scripture treats most of the sexual mores mentioned above as moral, not cultic, issues.
Those who argue that since Christ is the end of the law, the Old Testament law is irrelevant must, if consistent, deal with the New Testament pronouncements about sexual issues, including Paul's various declarations. Even on such a major issue as sexual intercourse between unmarried consenting adults, neither the Old or New Testament contains an explicit prohibition (which John Calvin discovered to his consternation). Indeed, the Song of Solomon celebrates one such relationship. Our best biblical scholarship reaches Walter Wink's conclusion: "There is no biblical sex ethic. The Bible knows only a love ethic, which is constantly being brought to bear on whatever sexual mores are dominant in any given country, or culture, or period" ("Biblical Perspectives on Homosexuality," The Christian Century, November 7, 1979)
Nor does the postbiblical Christian tradition provide unambiguous guidance. Selective use of tradition is almost as common as selective use of Scripture. Most of us would fully agree with the tradition's endorsement of monogamy and fidelity as consonant with the gospel. Many of us would endorse the movement toward affirming love as the governing sexual norm. Some of us would celebrate those parts of the tradition that not only tolerate but actually affirm gay and lesbian Christians, including clergy. But few of us would endorse those elements of tradition that baptize patriarchal oppression, endorse violence against women, oppress lesbians and gays, exalt perpetual virginity as the superior state, or declare that heterosexual rape is a lesser sin than masturbation (on the view that the latter act contradicts nature while the former act, while also sinful, is in accordance with nature) The postbiblical tradition, like Scripture itself, does not provide one coherent, consistent sexual ethic. We are left, whether we like it or not, with unfinished business. This leads directly to the next theme.
(4) We must continue to work on developing our sexual theology. A viable Christian sexual theology for our time will affirm that sexuality is always much more than genital expression. Sexuality expresses the mystery of our creation as beings who need to reach out for the physical and spiritual embraces of others. It expresses God's intention that we find our authentic humanness not in isolation but in relationship.
Under such a theology, sexuality will be understood as intrinsic to the divine-human connection, as one of the great arenas for celebrating the Source of Life. Sexuality will enter directly and consciously into our understandings of every major Christian doctrine -- God, human nature, sin, salvation, church, history and eschatology. Our sexuality will be understood as expressing our created destiny for freedom, creativity, joy and shalom (Livezey) It will embrace appropriate vulnerability (Lebacqz) Sexual ethics will affirm only those sexual expressions that are respectful and nonexploitative (Pellauer) , and which treat persons nonstereotypically and with a fundamental commitment to equality (Longwood) Such ethics will evaluate sexual acts and expressions in terms of how they contribute to social justice and the fulfillment of all in community (Moore)
We need, too, a more erotic spirituality. To our impoverishment, much of the heterosexual, white, male tradition has banished eros from Christian theology and spirituality. We have been prisoners of an agape reductionism, of theologies that have vilified or devalued the erotic, often confusing it with the pornographic. We have been prisoners of theologies in which hunger. desire, passion and yearning have been relegated to the pagan world. Dante found eros in the kind of love that moves the sun and the other stars. Perhaps we, too, will come to see eros as intrinsic to God's energy, God's own passion for connection, and hence also as part of our yearning for life-giving communion and relationships of justice.
When we move in this direction, we shall embrace a more incarnational theology. The church has much to learn here from lesbians and gays, for when they affirm themselves in the face of social oppression they affirm the basic goodness of human sexuality and of our embodiedness. Many Christians still learn to fear, despise, trivialize and be ashamed of their bodies. If we do not know the gospel in our bodies, we may not know the gospel. When we find bodily life an embarrassment to so-called high-minded spiritualized religion, we lose our capacity for passionate caring and justice. We lose the sense of the holiness of the bodies of starving children and the bodies of women and men torn by violence and torture. Instead of confining the incarnation to one person 2,000 years ago, forgetting Jesus' message of the indwelling God as the reality and destiny of all people, we might embrace the scandal of incarnation more radically.
(5) We need a continuing sexual revolution. As I attempted to argue at the beginning of the series, the sexual revolution is not over. In a deeper sense it has just begun. Beyond our need for a more adequate sexual theology and ethics, numerous specific issues cry out for reassessment, change, revolution. The authors of this series have probed a number of them, to our great benefit; let me suggest a few others.
(snip)
The sexual revolution of the 1960s convinced some of the dubious notion that making love would prevent man war. That bumper sticker dictum did, however, contain the hint of a more authentic reality: our major social ills do, in fact, have profound links to the sexual dualisms that split spirit from body and establish patriarchy. The feminist movement has pointed to the buried connections between militarism, urban violence, racism, economic exploitation and ecological abuse on the one hand, and sexual distortions on the other. The infant movement of a new men's consciousness holds enormous promise for addressing the distorted masculinism that contributes so much violence and peril to our fragile planet.
A continuing sexual revolution is urgently needed. That patriarchies, a fear of sexuality and a desire to control others continue to exist throughout the church is reason enough for a sexual revolution. Positively put, the reason is in the gospel: the Word made flesh, and the Word still becoming flesh (Christ is risen!)
Robert McAfee Brown recently noted Martin Buber's response to Soren Kierkegaard's broken engagement (Spirituality and Liberation (Westminster, 19881, p. 104 f.) After years of courting Regina, the Danish theologian decided that this human love would distract him from the "higher" love of God, so he abandoned her. Buber commented that this was "a sublime misunderstanding of God." Creation, far from being a hurdle on the road to God, is that very road. God draws us to the divine self by means of loved ones, not by renunciation of them. Buber's remark should remind Christians of their call to a deeply incarnational spirituality. God, working through another earthy Jew 2,000 years ago, tried to impress that call on us. And is still trying. The revolution is not yet over.
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