Sexuality as a Follower of Jesus
Jan wrote about changing cultures last night and posted a link to an NPR story about ‘Retro Talk’. After listening to it NPR suggested Sex Without Intimacy: No Dating, No Relationships.
A few quotes…
“It’s a lot easier for me to go for [a hook-up] than really inviting them into my life and into my inner-circle and the people who are closest to me, who I’ve had all these shared experiences with. To me that seems like a bigger step–that kind of emotional intimacy. “
“For many of us, the requisite vulnerability and exposure that comes from being really intimate with someone in a committed sense is kind of threatening.”
And the thought of being in love with someone, Wilkerson says, “is the most terrifying thing.”
Questions surrounding sexuality continually come up as I hang out and talk with people.
Part of it certainly emanates from our experiences with broken homes. It is certainly also true that church’s have been co-consipirators with our culture in creating a fear of intimacy.
How do we live out intimacy with all the fear and pain that so often goes with it? How do we develop deep and real romantic and friend relationships with others? How do we truly grapple with the difficult questions of sexuality and intimacy?
A couple of books that have been helpful to me as I’ve thought about this over the years are Lauren Winner’s Real Sex and Rob Bell’s Sex God (I have copies if anyone wants to borrow them).
Still, I believe that we (meaning both the Holy Grounds community and the church universal) have a long way to go in exploring the call of Jesus in the realm of sexuality and intimacy.
What are your thoughts?
