The audio and power points from this years EFCA Theology Conference: Sex Matters are now available online. If my notes from it weren’t good enough, you can listen to the conference in it’s entirety here. I hope it’s helpful!
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EFCA Theology Conference 2013
Posted by mikethestrand on February 12, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/12/efca-theology-conference-2013-3/
Lenten Reflections
Lent is something I’ve often heard of as I was growing up, but never really took a look at what it was or where it came from. Generally I just heard friends in high school who would give up things during Lent season, but didn’t have any idea that it was anything beyond that. Thanks to a recent post on the Gospel Coalition website, I learned a little more about what it is.
Lent (from the Latin for “fortieth”) begins on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter. In a devotional guide to Lent, Kendal Haug and Will Walker say “Lent, therefore, is about living out of our union with, and identity in, Christ. Lent is first and foremost about the gospel making its way deeper into our lives.” What a great thing to celebrate and practice! Letting the Good News of the Gospel make its way deeper into our lives!
You can access this devotional guide through the Gospel Coalition blog or clicking here. I plan to go through these devotionals myself as I prepare for the celebration of the best news on earth: Jesus Christ dies for my sins, was buried, and on the third day he rose again, and now sits at the right hand of God, interceding on our behalf!
Posted by mikethestrand on February 12, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/12/lenten-reflections/
Westboro Baptist Church: A Story of Redemption
A big topic in the news this past week is that 2 members of the picketing, gay hating Westboro Baptist Church have left the church and are trying to figure out how to live life apart from the church now. You can read the story here.
One thing stands out to me from this story. Megan is quoted as saying, “I don’t know what I believe, so I don’t know what to say.” This seems to me to be a a trend: those who are in a very strict upbringing are exposed to the world and have no base to stand on so they end up believing nothing and questioning the validity of everything. This it the wrong reaction to have, but I understand and sympathize with those who have such extreme views.
The encouraging thing is that it sounds like both Megan and her sister Grace are checking out some different churches and doing as much research as they can. It really shows that God has no bounds and can reach and redeem those who we seem to think are too far removed from grace. I hope and pray that Megan, Grace and the rest of the Westboro church learn about this God who extends grace to even the worst of sinners. Until one is willing to admit that they are just as in need of God’s grace as the worst of sinners, they won’t be able to extend the same grace to the world around them. I’m thankful for a God who extends grace to my on a daily, hourly, minutely, and socondly basis.
Posted by mikethestrand on February 12, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/12/westboro-baptist-church-a-story-of-redemption/
The Writer – Ellie Goulding
I have quite an extensive musical library ranging from top-40 to classical, from Christian to pagan and everything in between. I’m continually looking for new artists who are incredibly gifted and are enjoyable to listen to. One of the people who got really big this past year was Ellie Goulding with the song ‘Lights‘ it was a very interesting song with interesting rhythms and I still can’t really figure out what the songs about. I bought her CD based on that one song (in one of Amazon’s deals) and stumbled across the song ‘The Writer‘ The chorus of the song really struck me:
Why don’t you be the artist, and make me out of clay?
Why don’t you be the writer, and decide the words I say?
‘Cause I’d rather pretend I’ll still be there at the end
Only it’s too hard to ask, won’t you try to help me?
I don’t know if Ellie is a believer or not, and looking at the verses of the song, it ends up being about a relationship with a guy. But I couldn’t help but see how it points right to God, the great artist who created the whole world. In Jeremiah 18, we see God describing to Jeremiah his relationship to his people, who are clay. Whether Ellie is a Christian or not, I am grateful for the reminder today that God is the potter, and I am the clay. Who am I to question him or complain that I am the wrong shape?
Posted by mikethestrand on February 8, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/08/the-writer-ellie-goulding/
EFCA Theology Conference – My Thoughts
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the EFCA Theology Conference in Denver and was really stretched and encouraged in my thinking on the issue of sexuality. The most powerful session for me was Wesley Hill on his struggle with homosexuality. Never before had I talked to someone who struggles with same sex attraction, yet is willing to submit it at the foot of the cross and call it sin. We live in a broken side world, as evidenced by looking around us. All of us are sinners and have our certain areas where we are more prone to temptation than others, I think it’s safe to admit that for most of us, sexuality is a very hard issue, especially being a single man as I am right now. But what should we, as the church, do to reach out to single people like Wesley and myself?
I’ve talked about this very important issue before (“Where Are All the Young People“) and was reminded of it again this week. The church is called to be a family (see Jesus in Matthew 12), yet so often we don’t treat each other as the family we are supposed to be. As someone who is single, I can so often get overlooked in the ministry of the church, and most churches I’ve been to have a fantastic youth group ministry, a thriving couples-with-small-children ministry and some even have a great college ministry, but what about the single 20-somethings who are trying to figure out how to figure out a schedule, budget, and where best to use their time? We need the encouragement and support of those in the church, and those in the church are primarily those who are older and married. So again, PLEASE just come talk to us, invite us over and invest in our lives! I promise you again that we won’t bite!
Tied in to this is the issue of homosexuality. As it becomes more prevalent, we in the church need to know how to reach out and welcome those who are, as Wesley described himself “gay celibate Christians.” Wesley has written why he uses the term “gay celibate Christian” in a recent blog post that you can read here. The church needs to be a place where even single people can feel loved and as a part of the family. The Gospel should bring us together in the same way that growing up together in a family does. We should be willing to lay down our lives for our friends, just as Christ laid down his life for us. This is an issue in my life as well-I so often focus on myself and my needs instead of the needs of the body. I’ll close with this final thought from 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has past away; behold, the new has come.” May we continue to cling close to the cross as we daily repent, die to ourselves and remember to live in Christ, who will give us the strength we need to not give in to temptation.
You can buy Wesley Hill’s book on Amazon, and read his blog here. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to him and am incredibly grateful for his faithfulness to God’s word as he attempts to follow His will in his life. Thank you, Wes, for being open and transparant this week with your struggles, you are in my prayers.
Posted by mikethestrand on February 4, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/04/efca-theology-conference-my-thoughts/
EFCA Theology Conference – Session 8
What Can Medical Science Tell Us About Sexual Orientation? – Daniel Beals, MD
Medical Definition of Gender:
Male and Female He created them – Genesis 1:27
Fundamental to self-identity: first question when a child is born, it permeates all of our thinking: blue/pink, different goals in life
Who decides?
How do they decide?
Is a medical definition different from other definitions?
How well has Medicine defined sexual identity in the past?
What can we infer from Sexual Identity to Sexual Orientation?
Medical Definition
Good at defining what is wrong, but not what is normal
Specialist have a narrow perspective on definition
Medical knowledge changes
Gender identity as a definition: first used by Dr. John Money, psychological perspective
Ambiguous Genitalia: Dr. Ladd, Boston Children’s Hospital, Surgical Perspective
Disorders of Sexual Differentiation (> 2000): All inclusive definition of anatomically definable genital disorders
Gender Identity Disorder (Gender Dysphoria): All inclusive definition of distress and discomfort one feels between one’s physical sex and one’s gender
Sexual Orientation: Opposite Sex, Same Sex, Not simple with DSD
What Makes Up Gender Identity?
Genetic: X and Y Chromosomes, the SRY gene
Endocrine: testosterone, estrogen
Phenotype: What do things look like? How do things work?
Environment: Parental role models, assumed gender roles, peer pressure
Spiritual?
What do we Know?
No known genetic link to GD or SO
No known endocrine link to GD but known correlation with SO
No known phenotypic link to SO but known secondary correlation with GD
Known correlation between environmental factors and GD and SO
What do we really NOT know?
Do not have a full understanding of genetics
Do not have a full understanding of endocrine influences
Do not have a good long term follow up of attempted therapies
What does Medicine tell us about Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation?
In cases of DSD, it may be very difficult to have a clear answer
Sexual orientation issues can sometimes be explained by endocrine abnormalities
There is no medical explanation to problems with GD
Environment plays an important role in gender, both normal and abnormal
We must be cautious as medical knowledge is far from complete
Posted by mikethestrand on February 4, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/04/efca-theology-conference-session-8/
EFCA Theology Conference Session 7
The Theology of Sexuality Applied: Teaching/Training of Youth in the Home and the Church – Stan Jones
What are our Objectives in Sex Education and in Parenting?
To prevent immorality?
To equip and empower our children to enter adulthood capable of living godly, wholesome lives
Don’t focus too narrowly and negatively, such as focusing on only preventing sexual immorality and the ravages that illicit and irresponsible sex; this goal is too small, too limited, too narrow. Our most important goal in sex education should be to equip and empower our children to enter adulthood capable of living godly, wholesome, and fulfilled lives as Christen men and women, Christian singles, wives and husbands.
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
A Summary of Key Points in the Theology of Sexuality
We are embodied, we are gendered sexual beings, we are relational, we are made in God’s image, we are broken and twisted, we encounter objective reality when we have sex, we are souls under construction
We are souls under construction
Given/Discovered Constructed?
Given: Evolutionary Psychology Reproduction as an evolutionary impulse in the context of a meaningless universe; sex, like life, is meaningless
Atheist Delusions (David Hart)
The Five-Factor Model of Sexual Character:
Needs – Relatedness and Significance
Values
Beliefs
Skills
Supports
Twelve Principles of Christian Sex Education in the Family and Church
Principle 1: Sex education is the shaping of character
Principle 2: Parents are the principle sex educators
Principle 3: First messages are the most important
Principle 4: Seize those “teachable moments;” become an “askable” parent
Principle 5: Stories are powerful teaching tools
Principle 6: Accurate and explicit messages are best
Principle 7: Positive messages are powerful
Principle 8: “Inoculate” your children against negative beliefs
Principle 9: Repetition is critical; repetition is really, really important
Principle 10: Close, positive parent-child relationships are crucial
Principle 11: Sexuality is not everything; keep your perspective
Principle 12: Our God can forgive, heal, and redeem anything
Posted by mikethestrand on February 4, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/04/efca-theology-conference-session-7/
EFCA Theology Conference Session 5
The Witness of Paul: Apostle to the Gentiles – Robert Gagnon
Romans 1:24-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:10
Romans 1:24-27: Opposed to some, or all, forms of same-sex intercourse?
Three main arguments made to discount Romans 1:24-27
- The exploitation argument: Paul only knew of exploitative forms of homosexual practice in his culture
- The orientation argument: Paul had no concept of a homosexual orientation
- The misogyny argument: Paul feared homosexual practice would upset male dominance over women
The plot structure of Romans 1:18-32
Stage 1. God’s power and divinity is manifested in creation
Stage 2. Humans suppress the truth and foolishly exchange
Stage 3. God’s wrath is manifested in giving over humans to self-degrading desires
Stage 4. These sinful deeds merit death
Intertextual echoes to Genesis 1:26-27
References to creation and Creator
Rom 1:23 echoes Genesis 1:26
Romans 1:26-27 echoes Genesis 1:27
The point of these echoes – idolatry and same-sex intercourse together constitute a frontal assault on the work of the Creator in nature, those who suppressed the truth about God visible in creation they went on to suppress the truth about themselves visible in nature
The argument from nature
The truth about God is visible and apparent in material creation (1:19-20)
The truth about God’s will for sex is visible in our gendered bodies (26-27)
Pagans do not have to have Genesis or Leviticus to be held accountable for this knowledge, they are “without excuse”
Innate desires are unreliable guides
The mention of lesbian intercourse in Romans 1:26
The mention of mutual gratification in Romans 1:27
The conception and practice of caring homosexual relationships in antiquity
Absolute nature arguments in the Greco-Roman world
Why Paul is not saying, “Don’t judge homosexual practice”
The one whom you obey, that it your Lord. Don’t say with your mouth that you follow God but then continue to serve sin, that is your Lord
What even scholars supportive of homosexual unions admit
1 Corinthians 6:9 (& 1 Tim 1:10) Opposed to some, or all, forms of male-male intercourse?
Meaning of malakoi “soft men”
Meaning of arsenokoitai “Men who lie with a male”
The Bible’s alleged ignorance of sexual orientation
Grego-Roman theories of a congenital basis for some homoerotic attraction
Differences with contemporary theories and beside this point
Did Paul get “nature” confused?
What even scholars supportive of homosexual unions affirm
The Bible’s Alleged Misogynistic Bias against Homoerotic Unions
Ignoring concerns for structural complementarity in ancient texts
Absoluteness of Bible’s prohibition suggest priority of gender over status
Women’s liberation as a stimulus for opposing all male homosexual unions
An absurd corollary
View of women in the Bible fares well relative to its cultural environment
Posted by mikethestrand on February 4, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/04/efca-theology-conference-session-5/
EFCA Theology Conference – Session 4
A Theology of Human Sexuality – Ben Mitchell
A Few Caveats
Our anthropology requires charity
Our language anticipates double entendres
Our calling demands compassion
Our experience requires humility
Our task calls for courage
Our responsibility requires us to contextualize the question
Why so Important?
The order that God has given us (Gen 2:24-25)
Paul says sexual immorality is not even to be mentioned among those in the Christian church (Ephesians 5:3)
Why Such a Difficult Subject?
A confused culture in which our paradigms have shifted radically
A marginalized church
A challenged Bible – both from the outside and the inside
47% of people who say marriage is becoming obsolete still want to be married
Sexual Morality: Creation
Human sex and sexuality are important, powerful and good aspects of God’s creation (Gen 2:15-25 – bonding, procreation, Proverbs 5:15-20 – pleasure, fidelity)
They don’t cease to be man or woman but their flesh is joined in such a way that we call them one flesh
Stanley Grenz Sexual Ethics
There are only two ways to be human, as male or female, at its core is a fundamental incompleteness
Goods of sex and marriage
Procreational good – Gen 1:28; 9:1
Relational good – “humanity which is not fellow-humanity is inhumanity” Barth, CD
Public good – ordered and regulated relationships in human society
Marriage
The relational purpose of marriage (Gen 2:24 – one flesh, sexual and non-sexual companionship, giving of one’s person to another)
Pornography
There is a casual connection between words or pictures and human behavior
“Shame” is part of the natural human condition. It is counterpart of natural human modesty
The political purpose or result of pornography is to make us shameless
There is a connection between shame and self-restrained and therefore a connection between shame and self-government or democracy
Self-restraint is necessary to the moral and political well-being of the community
Pornography threatens self-restraint and then threatens democracy
Conclusion: therefore, government has at least a modest interest in censoring pornography (as a protection of democracy)
By Walter Evans “Beyond the Garbage Pale”
Sexual Morality: After the Fall
Sexuality and sex are disordered
Sex is to be expressed according to God’s instruction: not outside the covenant of marriage (Heb 13:4), sexual lust is forbidden (Matt 5:27-30)
Sex
Not the most important thing in the world!
1 Corinthians 7:1-5
Marriage
The healing purpose of marriage (1 Cor 7:9)
“Marriage functions to provide needed restraint and discipline as the God-given place of healing for our sexual nature” – Gilbert Meilaender
Celibacy or singleness
Vocation?
Pathology?
Gift parallel with marriage? (1 Cor 7:7, 32-35, Adam and Eve were married, Jesus was single)
Pastoral issues: identity and self-worth, solitude and loneliness, sexuality and celibacy – see C.S. Lewis Four Loves specifically his chapter on friendship
Cohabitation
According to sociologist Patricia Morgan, cohabitation relationships are fragile
Cohabiting couple accumulate less wealth than married couples
Cohabiting women are more likely to be abused
Cohabitants have more health problems than married couples
Children of cohabiting couples often suffer
Cohabitation: the biblical witness
Creation-only appropriate expression of sexual intimacy is the bond of marriage
Singleness is an inappropriate context for the sex act “One flesh” is reserved for married couples
No permission for cohabitation in scripture
Marriage and the marriage bed are held up as honorable
Homosexuality
Helmut Thielicke Theological Ethics vol 3, Sex, p. 271
Sexuality: Redemmed and Celebrated
1 Timothy 4:1-5
“Salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ is not redemption from sexuality, sex or our sexual impulses. It is rather redemption within our created sexuality, necessitated by distortions of the Fall”
God’s Will for Today – 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8
Posted by mikethestrand on February 1, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/02/01/efca-theology-conference-session-4/
EFCA Theology Conference Session 3 – Robert Gagnon
Jesus and Marriage – Robert Gagnon
Key Jesus Sex Text: Mark 10:2-12 (parallel is Matthew 19:3-9)
Learning from Jesus: A Back-to-Creation Model
- Jesus declared Gen 1:27 and 2:24 to be the model for marriage
- For Jesus, marriage isn’t something for humans to tinker with
- Jesus emphasizes the “twoness” of a sexual bond
- Prohibits both a revolving door of divorce/remarriage, implicitly polygamy
- Where does Jesus get this number “two”
- Gen 1:27, Gen 2:24, what do these 2 verses share in common: the union consists of a man and a women. Two sexes designed by God for a sexual union.
- Twoness of the sexes is the foundation for the twoness of the sexual bond
- Confirmation: Qumran’s basis for rejecting polygamy
- S the twoness of the sexes is the basis for the twoness of the sexual bond
Three Corollaries to Jesus’ Back to Creation Model
- OT Law does not always reflect God’s perfect will
- Many people think Jesus is increasing the permissions of marriage, Jesus is doing the opposite and actually making it more rigid
- Jesus unilaterally amended the constitution of Israel
- Moses made a concession to male “hardness of heart”
- Jesus worked toward a more rigorous sexual ethic, closing off remaining loopholes
- Jesus repudiated inequities toward women, but in which direction?
- In early Judaism, a man could commit adultery only against another woman’s husband
- What Jesus did not do is give women the same sexual license that men had
- Instead, he bound men to the same high standard as women
- A homosexual relationship is worse than a polygamous one
- Jesus regarded a male-female prerequisite as foundational for sexual ethics
- That obviously precludes a homosexual relationship
Further evidence of Jesus’ rejection of Homosexual Practice
- Nine other arguments
- Jesus’ retention of the Law of Moses (Scripture) generally
- Jesus’ intensification of the Law’s sex ethic (adultery of the heart, divorce)
- John the Baptist’s strong stance on sex laws
- Early Judaism united opposition
- The early church’s united opposition
- Jesus saying about the defiling effect of desires for porneia (Mark 7:21-23)
- Jesus on the Decalogue adultery prohibition (Mark 10:17-22)
- Jesus’ saying about Sodom (Matt 10:14-15; Luke 10:10-12)
- The “born eunuchs” statement (Matt 19:10-12)
- Why then did Jesus not speak directly against homosexual practice?
- No need to, the Hebrew Scriptures already clearly established man-male intercourse as a grave offense
- No Jew is known to have engaged in homosexual practice in the period, it wasn’t happening. It would have been a waste of Jesus’ time
- What then is the meaning of Jesus’ silence on homosexual practice? Same thing as his silence on bestiality
Jesus on Divorce and Remarriage
- Prohibiting remarriage after divorce
- Matt 5:32, Luke 16:18, Mark 10:11-12, 1 Corinthians 7:10-11
- If a man divorces his wife on invalid grounds would mean that the marriage is still intact in God’s eyes, so if the man remarries he is committing adultery by having sex with a woman other than his wife
- The hardest case: A woman invalidly divorced
- She’s the victim of a divorce, yet if she remarries she is committing adultery, again the main part is if the marriage is still intact
Learning from Jesus: Other Principles
- Sex ethic distinct from love command
- If these are the same, if we truly loved everyone we should be having sex with everyone. Jesus said to love everyone, but have sex with only 1 person
- A strong interior component to sexual ethics
- He wants not only external but internal obedience
- Sexual ethics as a life-and-death matter (Matt 5:29-30, John 8:3-11)
- A heightened ethical demand coupled with a loving outreach to violators
- Jesus is asking us to do both
- The parallel of tax collectors and sexual sinners – Jesus reached out to both of these groups – outreach to those in greatest danger
- Jesus on the love commandment, rebuke and forgiveness, the Good Samaritan
- Love your neighbor as yourself, a true understanding of love is not about you, it’s about correcting a friend who is straying
- Rebuking and forgiveness Luke 17:3-4
- The ends of marriage
- Procreation (Gen 1:27-28)
- Companionship and sexual enjoyment (Gen 2:18_
- The highest objective of marriage is not even companionship, but Jesus’ insistence on marital indissolubility, based on the 2 becoming 1, is the key
- Marriage is God’s instrument for reuniting male and female into an integrated sexual whole
- God designed marriage for shaping two into one
- Sexual activity sets in motion a reality beyond the individual’s control
Posted by mikethestrand on January 30, 2013
https://pastormikesmusings.com/2013/01/30/efca-theology-conference-session-3-robert-gagnon/
This is Me
Pastor Mike's Musings 