In this episode Peter brings up a interesting article regarding pedophilia from a Old Dominion professor which had massive consequences!
What constitutes Pedophilia? And what does the Bible say?
So many are degusted when we hear the word pedophilia but don’t take the time to think through the issues. Check out this Podcast to delve into one professors thoughts on this issues and the ideas that got him in trouble.
We are all capable of anything. Do you agree? One thing that human history has shown is that this is true. With sexually it is true too! Any kind of sexual behavior seems to have been done before. Today’s pornography is a great way to understand this. Popular porn has changed as time has moved forward. What was once ‘fringe’ is now common. Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Questioning etc.. is all popular porn (well maybe not questioning). And you need to remember that porn is just a reflection of the human mind.
We all need to remember too that LGBTQ has always been in the world! There is nothing new under the sun. In the United States our history is largely influenced by a religious purity movement which currently is being replaced by humanism. Just look at the educators of the country (i.e. John Duey). What was considered right sexual behavior has changed. But don’t get this wrong; it is not new! Could it be that the reason that the purity movement gained a following is due to the LGBTQ movement of old? Of course, I understand that LGBTQ lifestyles were never mainstream or having the legal rights of a man and his wife. But when you look into the different societies of the past, all of them had various legal issues regarding sexual behaviors. True autonomy was not a part of most societies. Though LGBTQ behavior was tolerated on some levels, they were not accepted lifestyles. True human autonomy needed to be allowed, plus the integration of medical/technological advancements. (Don’t underestimate how technology has played a role in the LGBTQ movement. It actually might be the main reason the movement has a voice today.)
When given the opportunity to move any way we want in our sexuality humans will go in every way possible. There is nothing that we won’t do if allowed. Nothing! LGBTQ is the norm of human beings when given the allowance. The more autonomy we are given the greater the vastness of our sexual behavior. This is normal. What is not normal is resisting the urges to do what you want to do. Do you think there is a rightful place in your life to resist any “temptation?” Do animals resist? Or do they indulge? Is there a government that is holding them back from acting out on their sexual instincts? But we are different aren’t we? We can act out on our sexual urges in every way possible when given the allowance to do so. But do you realize that human beings have something more than instinct that we are working with? We have an interesting capacity to not only follow our urges but also resist them. We can even think through things, using our reasoning ability! We are amazing in this way. But if you want to live like an animal and move away from resisting our sexual urges then what would the outcome be in a society? In the animal kingdom which animals dominate? Do we shame them in how they dominate?
LGBTQ is normal, as is heterosexual sexual relationships. But to live with reason means to have an ability to think through our sexual desires, to resist or choose what is the right thing to do about them. How does my actions affect the future of the species? This is a question we can answer, but we can ignore as well. What questions are we wanting to answer and what questions are we wanting simply to ignore. To reason through our sexual behavior will lead to resisting various actions, which at some level most humans do. But to ignore the ability to reason will move us into fulfilling our urges like an animal does, whether you identify as LGBTQ or heterosexual.. This is what we will do if we have total say as to what we desire to do sexually. Every human has the ability to be base. It is unfortunate that we even have to have LGBTQ as a movement. But it makes sense if a society has been legislating against a particular sexual behavior. Our country’s purity movement has maybe dulled our understanding of human nature. It is hard for me to believe that humans are shocked by the sexual desires of other humans. If there is one thing that pornography shows us is that it is a reflection of us! What is in our hearts, our minds, the cravings that go on in secret is all in pornography.
When sexual desires are legislated and humans are criminalized for all but the “norm” over long periods of time then culture will become shocked, appalled and violent of what is actually the normal tendency which follows our hearts sexual desires. But when laws are implemented to suppress our desires the general public will find it appalling to desire in the first place, only to shame a person for such an action. This is how things have been done (Nazi Germany and Mao in China) and continue to permeate the planet. We are a bit in between worldviews in our country today. It blows my mind that a famous person cheating on their spouse or a person of popularity watching porn would be ‘news’ and given air time. We humans cannot simply allow everyone to do what they sexually desire to do yet! There is a great fear of what could happen, or actually what would happen. We wear clothes for a reason don’t we! It’s not only the weather that keeps clothes on us isn’t it? We all could have a deep understanding of what it was like in our past history of being taken advantage of when naked. Perhaps we hold a remnant in our minds of a time of such sexual atrocities. Like the animals we did what our instincts said. Nothing more, nor less.
Without any restraint, what would we do?
In the Hopes of teaching up and coming Pastors a Biblical approach to sharing sexual topics from the pulpit, we are putting together a presentation that we will make available after we finish it up!
You might ask why this is important. And that’s a good question! The Bible tells us that nothing is new under the sun. And sex is a part of that ‘nothing.’ For many in the ministry sexuality, sex and sensuality is avoided! This is quite odd to us as our Bibles are filled with intimate topics. There are many reasons why teaching Pastors will stray away from such a sensitive subject. And we hope to help!
But why is there such a disconnect with Pastors on topics of sex, sexuality and sensuality? And how can leaders in ministry share these topics with grace and honesty and still be a leader? How do ministers deal with the topic of pornography or homosexuality? Is there a place for ministers who battle sexual thoughts in the ministry? Is there a correct way to teach these topics from the pulpit? What examples of teaching do we have from the Bible that can help us? What kind of leaders do we see in the Bible?
All these questions and many more will be a part of this presentation. We believe it will be important for any minister that is engaged in the teaching ministries within the body of Christ!
What does it mean to Advocate for Faith Hope and Love in Sex, Sexuality & Sensuality as our webpage states?
It is a question that I have wanted to answer for a time now, but now just getting around to it. As the founder of RLM I have given it thought how the three; faith, hope and love, should support our decisions regarding sex, sexuality and sensuality. But first let me discuss the later three just for a moment.
I believe that sex, sexuality and sensuality are all different yet very relatable to one another. We do think that the three working together, in consort with one another, is much better than when one is singled out at the expense of the others. We could have sex without sensuality, yet Im not sure that would be a very fun & healthy experience. It might look more like a prostitute kind of relationship. You might not care much about their sensuality, or even there sexuality for that matter. The buyer simply wants to get off. He is not interested in the catch or the life of the ‘other.’ But when the three are in unity with faith, hope & love we believe we have the best potential of lasting joy in the sexual experience. This is our opinion.
But how would we know if sex, sexuality and sensuality were being expressed in right ways? What a good question! Which brings us to finding a standard to measure these three against. What we have found is when Biblical faith, hope and love become that standard which the other three are influenced by, then we get further to the intent of God for sex, sexuality and sensuality, and closer to glorifying God in them, which is our passion. To be perfect in sex, sexuality and sensuality would be awesome to us. Yet we feel that we have not done so well. Though we understand we are not alone. Just because we know that we will never be able to hit a home run ever time we are up to bat does not mean we do not learn and practice to get closer to such a high goal! Faith, Hope and Love become our teachers in such an education.
Let me try and begin by defining these words:
These are well enough definitions I think. Sure we could dink around with them a bit here and there, but for my purposes, they work, and all of us believe there included in the Biblical narrative as seen in the lives of men & women.
The Bible was written over 1500 years by many authors, yet it is said in the New Testament book of Peter, that it actually was the Holy Spirit that moved upon the writers. I find this kind of cool due to the inclusion of these three in it’s pages. Having these three included in the Bible reiterates what I already understand in life. That is these three are a part of the human condition of being. As humans we have sex. As humans we have feelings and desires regarding sex. And as humans we can pursue the joy of sexual pleasure in our lives. Wouldn’t it be odd if you had a Holy book that did not include such normal observed behavior in the world? Ours does!
When I was younger, I did not look at the three in light of such words as Faith, Hope and Love. These three never actually related much to the other three. Where would I have learned about faith in sex? What is faith in sex? What is faith? Or how does Biblical hope in Christ’s return to earth affect my sexual feelings and preferences? I never thought that a BIblical definition of love could govern my pursuit of sexual pleasure. In short, I was completely secular. And this is what our statement is striving against at it’s basic level.
The inclusion of Faith, Hope & Love in Sex, Sexuality & Sensuality is our aim here. And this leads us to search our sacred texts for answers regarding such things. Having a safe place to do so within the Church culture is what we are offering.
We also recognize that within the Church environment there has been a plethora of strong opinions regarding sex, sexuality and sensuality. Some of these views have lead to heinous acts in the name of God. We do not recognize these acts as being in faith, hope and love. Within our current culture we find having a place to discuss, study & pray about the topics of sex, sexuality and sensuality, in a familiar Bible study format can be very intellectually satisfying. This is why we use the term advocating. It means to publicly support. And our hope is to support those that desire to pursue that standard which is ultimately God. Quite an endeavor for sure!
“Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.” 2nd Peter 2:14
I would like to take the time to say something here that I think is quiite importanat to point out for us from the writting of Peter.
These false teachers had:
Eyes full of adultery – they didn;t have porn movies or internet porn per say, but they consistantly put themselves in places of sexual stimulation. We have TV & Interenet that do just fine in supplying us all the fullness of adultery behavior. How many times do you think you have seen Adultery being committed in your life? This is crazy to think about, but I would guess that most of us living in this 21st century have seen the ‘act’ of adultery hundreds of times in movies before. It is no longer marginal, but common. What are you and I viewing? Has it changed the way we think about the subject? When I used to watch porn, I would think, “hey this really is not that bad. It’s making be a better lover to my wife.” Oh, what justificaiton for viewing adultery over and over and refusing to believe there is a consequence in it.
They Cannot cease from sin – Here is the problem of viewing sexually stimulating ‘acts.’ It is addictive. We will soon be in bondage to the behavior. It’s not that we will not cease, but we “cannot” cease. (akatapaustos – unable to stop, unceasing)
Continued viewing brings us to consistent behaving, leading to bondage. We now think adultery behavior is the way things were designed, we have seen so much of it. My culture bears this out completely. Growing up I saw behaviors over and over and assumed that was the way things were done. I had to re-learn what I had seen for years and years. The brain is a magnificant sensory organ in the body, capturing images and storing them in our hard drive, over and over this happens. We tend to emulate those we see on the screen. But the end of this is destruction. This behavior really was not what we were created for, but a ploy of the Matrix so to speak, to keep us in our so called happy blindness.
Enticing unstable souls – This is where it gets bad. What is porn there to do anyway. Make money? Only one way to do that, and that’s to entice. To entice means to arouse desire. That sounds like porn to me. Not only porn, but those that are ‘in the church’ that continue in sin with no heart for confession to the glory of God and their own joy. I’m talking specifically about chuch leadership that has gone this direction as to not offend anyone, but has gone the total opposite way, enticing those to continue in a world of sin by not willing to confess their own adultery themselves! I know, you say that sounds hard core. But how many Pastors are caught in sexual sin? Heterosexual sin? Homosexual sin? Whatever the case, we will continue to entice unstable souls until we are ourselves no longer being enticed ourselves by the culture. Oh, I have a long way to go.
Trained in covetous practices – When learning guitar, I practiced. I did not practice once a week, but for hours a day. Now picking up a guitar and playing something takes no thought at all. It comes easy and naturally. How great is that? But what if it’s adultery, lust, sexual immorality? Don’t you think this too becomes natural to us who have been practitioners of this? We cannot just think the input in the brain has not changed the way we export behavior. Something is training you and I! What is that? We get so used to mediocrity in porn that we cannot see the beauty in our own spouses or a precious older couple that has weathered the storms of life for 65 years. Oh, we have compromised through a deception, our hearts have become hard. It’s like those that listen to American Idol singers never realizing the greatness of the Hillard Ensemble of works of Puccini.
We need re-training.
Kill your TV! haha – I remember that bumper sticker. Maybe there is a inner crucifying that we need to do within the church to find something far greater, or rather someone!
Jesus is beautiful…precious is He…1st Peter 2:7
