The SBC and Whether God’s Word ‘Whispers’ About Sexual Sin by K. Williams
The link (with excerpts) to the essay by K. Williams is farther below in this post. Here are my opening words about the subject:
Most Christians – even the moderate to conservative ones – stopped advocating or defending the concept of sexual purity years ago.
I’m not sure, but I suspect that the constant complaining about “Purity Culture” by mostly center-left to progressive Christian women who grew up in churches with Purity Culture complaining about it constantly on twitter or writing books and blog posts about it contributed.
I’m not in total agreement with all aspects of Purity Culture, but I do believe that Christian liberals or feminists who ditch the concept of sexual purity with all the rest of Purity Culture are in error.
Now, conservative Christians – it seems males especially and interestingly, even the ones who are complementarian – are too cowardly to keep defending “virginity until marriage.”
Christians, including pastors, in the past decade or so, have fallen into these false, default assumptions that any adult over the age of 25 is going to have pre-marital sex, that lifelong celibacy is too difficult – so they have started excusing or down-playing sexual sin (such as fornication) in their social media comments, books, sermons, podcasts, and You Tube videos.
I find this very bizarre, as I would if most Christians were to start saying on social media, sermons, or in books tomorrow that nobody can possibly expect any adult to… say… refrain from over-eating, stealing from stores, killing human babies for fun, or from committing adultery – so they stop advocating for moderation in eating, not stealing, not murdering babies, and refraining from extra-marital affairs.
I don’t see most Christians letting theft, gluttony, infanticide, and adultery “off the hook,” or justifying such sins (well, not usually), but they are happy to do so in regards to single adults having sex outside of marriage, and sexual sins generally speaking
(I mean, how many more of these idiots are going to -contra the Bible- keep allowing preachers guilty of child molesting or adultery back into the pulpit to preach, as they often do?)
There are different reasons I’ve been fed up and disappointed by Christianity and Christians in the last several years, and one of those reasons is this tendency for Christians to dismiss the notion or practice of “virginity- until- marriage,” and to even bash and insult it, as being “unrealistic” or “too judge-y” or whatever.
Today’s Christians cannot even be bothered to live out some of the most basic Christian ethics, defend them, or encourage them.
The following essay, taking other Christians to task for being dismissive of sexual purity, is a breath of fresh air.
(Link): The SBC and Whether God’s Word ‘Whispers’ About Sexual Sin by K. Williams
Excerpts:
By Kelly Williams, Op-Ed Contributor | March 27, 2022
My family has been Southern Baptist all my life.
…I have great respect for J.D. Greear; however, I can’t agree with him or President Ed Litton’s approach to sexual sin and how God sees it.
In 2019 Pastor Greear said, “The Bible appears more to whisper on sexual sin compared to its shouts about materialism and religious pride.”
The problem here is the Bible holds a different view.
It was sexual sin in Genesis 6 that triggered God to raise up Noah to build an ark before He destroyed the earth with a flood.
It was sexual sin that caused God to command Lot and his family to leave and not look back at Sodom and Gorromah.
It was sexual sin that became the downfall of the beloved King David’s tenure. It was sexual sin of Jezebel that is spoken about through the Old and New Testaments and the focus in Revelation at the End of Time.
… When the early Church was trying to figure out what rules and guidelines they should follow, they came up with two, one had to do with sexual immorality, and the other with idols and eating meat that still had blood in it due to the ritual of animal blood sacrifice to pagan idols.
…Paul carries on this theme in 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
… I agree religious pride and materialism are sinful but that does not make sexual sin any less of an issue. The Old Testament and the New Testament alike take a very strong stance against sexual immorality, and we as pastors and followers of Jesus Christ must do the same. We don’t have to be jerks about it, but we should take seriously what the Bible takes seriously. …
Related:
(Link): Why Sex-Positive Feminism is Falling Out of Fashion
(Link): Atheist Video About Being a Virgin of Sexually Abstinent – My Critique of the Atheist’s Critique
(Link): Is Premarital Sex a Sin? Bible Scholars Respond
(Link): Nadia Bolz-Weber’s Gospel of Shame-Free Sexuality by W. Hill
(Link): Some Researchers Argue that Shame Should Be Used to Treat Sexual Compulsions
(Link): The Christian and Non Christian Phenomenon of Virgin Shaming and Celibate Shaming
(Link): Debunking Eros: Why Romantic Love Isn’t the Only Love Worth Having by Mimi Haddard
(Link): Christian Preacher Admits He Won’t Preach About Sexuality For Fear It May Offend Sexual Sinners
(Link): When Adult Virginity and Adult Celibacy Are Viewed As Inconvenient or As Impediments
(Link): Living Myths About Virginity (via The Atlantic)
(Link): On ‘Late’-In-Life Virginity Loss (from The Atlantic)
(Link): An Open Letter to Male Virgins by A. Broadwayk): Some Atheists Are Just As Ignorant About Adult Singleness and Celibacy as Progressive Christians, Secular Feminists, and Protestant Evangelical or Conservative Christians
(Link): People Were Asked to Guess A Virgin From A Group Of Strangers. The Results Were Unexpected
(Link): The Christian and Non Christian Phenomenon of Virgin Shaming and Celibate Shaming
(Link): Progressive Are Now Marketing Their Own Version of Christian Purity Culture as “Radical Monogamy”
(Link): I’m a Virgin, So Why Am I Being Slut-Shamed? by Ashley Iaconetti
(Link): Craigslist confessional: I’m in my 40s, never married, and a virgin—but I’m happy by Abigail
(Link): Hedonism is Overrated – to Make the Best of Life There Must Be Pain, Says This Yale Professor
(Link): We’re Casual About Sex and Serious About Consent. But Is It Working? by J. Zimmerman
(Link): Why are young feminists so clueless about sex? by M. Wente
(Link):
(Link): I’m a Christian Married to an Atheist — Here’s How We Make It Work by S. Allen
(Link): Stacie Tchividjian Attempting to Turn Repeated Sexual Sin Into a Virtue of Sorts
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