http://culturalsavage.com/personal/post-wife/
If you ask me why I care about church as a safe place, my answer is because of my wife. She is the abused that feels uncomfortable hugging a stranger because the priest/pastor told you to. She is the wounded with social anxiety that feels so panicked in your congregation.
Image source and full article: http://culturalsavage.com/personal/post-wife/
OMG, so many amazingly good quotes in this article:
This isn’t to say I’ve stopped believing marriage marks an important boundary for healthy sexual activity. However, I find my parameters not through a checklist of don’ts, but by discovering who and what God calls us—as embodied souls—to be and do.
I’m convinced that the best thing the church can do to encourage holy living is to help us follow Jesus, not a spouse.
I don’t need rules about (not) having sex: I need the church to help me reject the lie that desire is the most important thing.
…I’m not waiting—for a spouse, for sex, for my own little nuclear family. I’m learning what it means to be a Christ follower, distinct from the patterns of the world, active in service, in relationships with others.
Read full article here (highly recommended): http://www.themennonite.org/issues/16-10/articles/An_orientation_for_single_sexuality_The_dos_of_purity
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex
For their government, “celibacy syndrome” is part of a looming national catastrophe. Japan already has one of the world’s lowest birth rates. Its population of 126 million, which has been shrinking for the past decade, is projected to plunge a further one-third by 2060. Aoyama believes the country is experiencing “a flight from human intimacy” – and it’s partly the government’s fault.
Image source and full article: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stopped-having-sex
This in-depth analysis and first-hand perspective sought to “explore the history of the asexual movement, uncover current research on asexuality, debunk common misconceptions and discuss the challenges the asexual community faces.”
Read full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/22/asexuality-julie-decker_n_4143239.html
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/17/2797181/elizabeth-smart-rape-culture/
Smart has taken steps to expand upon the issues at the heart of her statement about purity culture. In an interview in the upcoming issue of the New Yorker, Smart explains that abstinence-only education is one piece of a bigger puzzle. She notes that’s just one of the multiple factors that contribute to a society in which rape victims are shamed instead of supported…
Image source and full article: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/10/17/2797181/elizabeth-smart-rape-culture/
http://unchainedfaith.com/2013/10/14/the-opposite-of-christian/
selfish sex can occur within a marriage, too. Some people firmly believe they have the right to someone else’s body once they are married. Some pastors (ahem) even teach that. I would rather that two unmarried people have sex that honors one another’s autonomy than that two married people treat each other’s bodies with disrespect.
Image source and full article: http://unchainedfaith.com/2013/10/14/the-opposite-of-christian/
But throughout his book, he dehumanizes women, voyeuristically using them as sermon illustrations, making assumptions about their lives, and even, at one point, implying that women who have/want sex outside of marriage are “cheap” and “easy.” (Full context: “She [the woman in Song of Songs] is fully in control of herself and she is not cheap and she is not easy.”)
Image source and full article: http://diannaeanderson.net/blog/2013/10/rob-bell-is-not-a-progressive-a-6-years-late-review-of-sex-god
LoneTomato808's Blog 