(Link): New website launched to help Christians experiencing same-sex attraction – Life Site News
This new editorial says many of the same things I have been saying on this blog the last 1 – 3 years:
(Link): How Can You Live Life Without Sex? – from Living Out
Excerpts:
- But as Thomas Schmidt observes: ‘It is only an aberration of our own sorry generation to equate the absence of sexual gratification with the absence of full personhood, the denial of being or the deprivation of joy.’1 Previous generations had different attitudes to celibacy.
The single-minded bachelors that used to prop up most British institutions, the devoted spinsters who spent their lives caring for elderly relatives, used to be admired not pitied. But now such lives are mocked and avoided and talk of celibacy or chastity produces the giggles that talk of sex would have before.
Christopher Ash asks: ‘When did we last see a successful movie which portrayed a contented bachelor or spinster?’.2 I never have.
And, tragically the church can become just as sex-obsessed as society around it. As the world has idolised sex in almost any context, the church has idolised it within marriage. So, keen Christians too often rush into marriage in their early 20s so that they can have sex.
The danger of this is they may then discover that desire is almost all they have in common with the person they have now committed themselves to for life.
Early marriage has become the panacea for Christians struggling with sexual temptation leaving far too many people shocked to find that temptation is still there when they return from their honeymoon.
… As a result the church needs to ignore the giggles and start rehabilitating the concepts of celibacy (or singleness) and chastity (or sexual self-control). We need to articulate the benefits of a celibate life for some and to encourage chastity for all.
Excerpts from Life Site News about Living Out site, New website launched to help Christians experiencing same-sex attraction:
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- BY PETER SAUNDERS
- Dec 2, 2013
A new website, containing articles, videos and personal stories has been launched today to help Christians experiencing same-sex attraction.
(Link): Living Out is a brilliant initiative by men in pastoral ministry who admit to feelings of same sex attraction but who also see the Bible’s prohibitions on same-sex relationships as non-negotiable.
The core of the new group, recently interviewed by Christianity magazine, are Sam Alberry, a church leader in Maidenhead, Sean Doherty, a tutor at St Mellitus College and Ed Shaw, who helps to lead Emmanuel Church in Bristol.
Their testimonies are clear, powerful, hugely encouraging and most welcome at a time when many young evangelicals are genuinely confused about the issue.
Doherty, who has experienced some degree of shift in his sexual feelings and is now married, explains how his own church experience helped him:
‘Church was a place of nurture and unconditional acceptance, but at the same time the teaching was clear that I shouldn’t act on those sexual desires. In an environment where young people were being encouraged to experiment, I was really grateful that I had been kept from acting on my feelings.’
Related Posts:
(Link): The New Minority: Why as a Gay Christian Man I Stand with Tim Farron by David Bennett
(Link): Why So Much Fornication – Because Christians Have No Expectation of Sexual Purity
(Link): The Activist Who Says Being Gay Is Not A Sin – double standards for homo singles vs hetero singles
(Link): The Nauseating Push by Evangelicals for Early Marriage
(Link): A Response by Colon to Regnerus Re: Misguided Early Marriage Propaganda
(Link): A Case Against Early Marriage by Ashley Moore (editorial)
(Link): Author Laurie Cole: another ‘early marriage’ supporter
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