SEX Part I

Humanity is deeply sexual.

Even beyond humanity, our world is sexual. Much of life on our cozy little asteroid is bifurcated into gender; I am not the biologist, but I know that birds, bees, flowers, trees, and so much more, are divided by the even greater chasm than that which delineates species; male and female. This division is to be found running through everything.

Genesis 1:27 explains: God created sexuality, and God created sex (don't tell anyone, but He even made it ...fun!!!!)

God created humans to be, essentialy, incomplete; we were designed to be a half-person, and our sexuality is the outworking of that design. We yearn for connection, at deep mental, physical, and spiritual levels we desire to join to another human being. This is natural; it is the nature (hence the word natural) that God gave us.

In fact, some would read the story in Genesis two, as God splitting Adam in two. The word translated as 'rib' could (according to Hebrew scholars) apparently be just as easily translated as 'curve' or 'side.' Perhaps there was a Human, and then God took one side of the human to make Adam and the other to make Eve? Are male and female literally two halves of the same creature, instead of two halves of the same species? This would then imply that it is not connection that we yearn for, but rather, re-connection...

Which brings us, interestingly enough, to the etymology of the word 'religion.' The roots of the word re - ligare mean simply 'reconnection.'

...we were designed to reconnect with each other, and we are also in need of reconnection with God. Both of these facts must be grasped if we are to move on with the topic.

What then, are we to make of the state of sex and gender in our world?

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...we should start by reiterating two points:

1) Sex is good and sexuality is natural. Sexuality is a God-given aspect of human-nature.

2) Humanity has become alienated from God and is in need of reconnection with Him.

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So let us explore these two points in greater detail. What does good, healthy, natural human sexuality look like? What does human sexuality look like when humanity has been reconnected to God?

The most important point that needs to be made to our present mood is this:

as important as sexuality is to the make-up of a human being, as characteristic as it is of human life (even healthy human life), sex is not the defining characteristic of a human being. Sexuality is most assuredly not the center of humanity.

The central aspect of human existence is spiritual* and so the central issue of human sexuality is ultimately not to be found in a discussion about sex, but rather in a discussion about spirit. If then, we are to discuss problems with human sexuality, we must recognize that the fundamental problem is not sexual, but spiritual.

To Be Continued

*By 'spiritual' I do not mean something distant, wispy, ephemeral, or tenuous; quite the opposite, I mean something very concrete; I mean simply those things that are 'non-physical.' We interact everyday with our spirit, and the spirits of others. Although we cannot see, smell, taste, or touch them, we constantly interact with people on the level of emotion, desire, will, intention, love.. This is the realm of the spiritual.