Paralyzed by Ideas

God gives us the capacity to walk in purity before Him - we can have the resolve to be pleasing to
Him, and that is certainly a message that is relevant in a culture where there are so many errant ideas about sexual behavior. Colossians 3 says:
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

The ability to overcome temptation comes as we apply the truth of the Scriptures and release the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can walk in a holy manner.  The culture feeds so many ideas regarding sexuality, and the Church has been infiltrated by the corruption of God's view in that area.  For instance, sexual abuse has been identified, and that takes root because of a refusal to walk in God's ways.  There is a tolerance of homosexuality.  And, there are those that would reject a Biblical ethic regarding purity.  It's a minefield out there, and we have to be strong and grounded in truth.

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Today's commentary will feature a graphic subject, but one that is so very important - issues surrounding sexuality are clearly addressed by Scripture, and we have to prevent the paralyzing effect that errant ideas in that arena can have.  Let's go to 1st Thessalonians 4, where we see this passage:
1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;
2 for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality;
4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God...

Perhaps there is no other area in which Christians are prone to stumble than the area of sexuality.  I mean, just look at some of the headlines from the Church today: marriages crumbling because of unfaithfulness, a growing acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex marriage, a steady stream of stories of sexual abuse, high-profile leaders who are experiencing moral failure.  The rejection of God's principles has left people wounded and searching for answers.

I have commented before about my dislike for so-called Christian leaders airing "dirty laundry" about the Church in secular publications such as The New York Times or Washington Post.  And, lo and behold, this headline appeared recently at the Times: "How Should Christians Have Sex?"  Then, there is this short paragraph underneath it: "Purity culture was harmful and dangerous. But its collapse has left a void for those of us looking for guidance in our intimate lives."

The author speaks of a "psychological burden" that she and others are still carrying - she says she no longer subscribes to so-called "purity culture," because it has nothing to say to Christians over 23.  Really?  The writer of this article, Katelyn Baety, a former editor for Christianity Today who seems to be well-regarded in your more progressive Christian circles, states:

Purity culture as it was modeled for evangelical teenagers in the 1990s is not the future of Christian sexual ethics. But neither is the progressive Christian approach that simply baptizes casual sex in the name of self-expression and divorces sex from covenant faithfulness and self-sacrificial love.

She is apparently looking for some "third way" here - rejecting both the Biblical principles of abstinence and the more permissive ethic that we find in some circles.  And, she still can't get past the fact that purity culture didn't work for her, writing: "While I hate the effects that purity culture had on young women like me, I still find the traditional Christian vision for married sex radical, daunting and extremely compelling — and one I still want to uphold, even if I fumble along the way."

OK, so she's willing to reject the time-honored principle of purity before marriage because that principle may have been misapplied during her teen years?

Shane Morris is a writer for Breakpoint and didn't mince words.  In a thread on Twitter, he wrote:

There's not much new, here. If there's one thing we needed, it was another unmarried writer condemning purity culture right after admitting that she hasn't lived by it, anyway. This is by now a familiar script.

Point #1: don't reject the teachings of Scripture just because they haven't worked for you.  In the battle of truth vs. experience, truth always wins.

Morris continues:

Beaty opens by implying that teenagers promising not to have sex until marriage is somehow creepy or unhealthy. (?) Nadia Bolz-Weber is treated with kid gloves, instead of as the radioactive, heretical clown she is. Doubtless Times readers will eat all of this up.

Bolz-Weber is a so-called minister who melted purity rings into a sculpture shaped like a female, well, private part.  Denny Burk, who is President of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which was involved in the Nashville Statement on sexuality a few years back, wrote:

She is a false teacher who encourages the use of “ethically sourced porn,” who told The New Yorker that she divorced her husband because the sex wasn’t good enough, and who affirms homosexuality and a host of other sexual perversions. If Bolz-Weber isn’t a heretic, then no one is. And yet Beaty presents her as a positive alternative to “purity culture” because Bolz-Weber (according to Beaty) “proposes a sexual ethic grounded in the goodness of bodies and of sexual expression based in consent, mutuality and care.”

Back to Morris on Twitter - he continues:

The thing is, as I've exhaustively demonstrated elsewhere, aside from lame merchandising, "purity culture" really didn't offer anything uniquely repressive or "harmful" compared with the rest of Christian history.

Post-fundamentalist types like to imagine it did, but a quick perusal of the Reformers or Church Fathers will disabuse you of that notion. Saying "no" to sin has always, *always* been part of the Christian sexual ethic.

There is a Mount Everest of social science on what premarital promiscuity does to subsequent marriages. Hint: it's exactly what "purity culture" taught.

Point #2: We live in a culture that does not want to say "no" to sin; people want to construct their own truth and live according to their own ideals.  It doesn't work for them, so they want to twist things around and blame the repression of Scriptures.  There is even the concept that has been advanced that purity culture has been responsible for sexual abuse in the Church.  That is so far-fetched: purity and abstinence, the absence of illicit activity, results in warped sexual actions?  Conversely, we should be clamoring for more teaching on purity!

Denny Burk writes, regarding the Times piece:

Perhaps the biggest problem with Beaty’s essay is that she isn’t really clear about what she’s condemning in “purity culture.” If unbiblical and unmerciful shaming is what she means to condemn, then she would have done well to say so. I can’t imagine serious Christians disagreeing with her about that. I certainly wouldn’t. But as I read the article, the Bible’s actual teaching about sexual ethics also seems to be thrown into the mix of what needs to be condemned. And this is a claim that no serious Christian can agree with. It is a claim that we are in fact obliged to contend against (Jude 3).

Point #3: We have to guard against being paralyzed by ideas.  The number of ideas that are out there which are clearly unbiblical is stunning!  And, it's easy, especially in times of struggle, to try to retrofit the truth of the Bible by blending in the world's philosophies.  It's a potent mix that can be incredible harmful, but some feel that has to be done to make the Bible's teachings more palatable in today's culture.  It doesn't!  In a society that is adrift, we need moorings; the principles of Scripture give those to us in areas of sexuality and beyond.