Sex and relationships
In evolution, the Old Testament, New
Testament and Today
A ridiculously fast rush through the changing nature
of sex and relationships, from the origins of life,
through the Old and New Testaments, to today.
Questioning old answers, and starting to answer
new questions.
NCYC 2014- Jason John
(you’ll need to be able to see the speakers notes)
The booklet which covers some of this material is at:
http://ecofaith.org/books - worshipping evolutions God
• Include the walking with humans videowhere our recent sexual relationships,
parenting, etc etc etc evolved
Welcome
• http://unitingearth.org.au
Acknowledgements
acknowledged limitations
• We don’t need evolutionary biology to encourage us
to rethink marriage and sex in the Christian faith.
– The church’s attitude to both has changed over the
millennia and is not unanimous now
– recent discussions rooted in “sociology”
• We can’t argue directly from evolution to morality
and ethics
• evolution doesn’t say all there is to say about
marriage and sex
sex is fun
Link to poem: http://ecofaith.org/articles/sex_is_fun.html
Or the book the poem is in which covers some of the areas in the powerpoint:
http://ecofaith.org/books/worshipping_evolutions_God.pdf
EB propositions
• sexual reproduction evolved
– asexual -> homo/uni sexual -> heterosexual
– But not a unidirectional, linear trend
• gender evolved
– none -> dual (xy, zw)-> variable
• sex initially an advantage against pathogens
• expansion of the function of sex
– reproduction -> pleasure (mammals at least)
– primates do not only have sex to reproduce
EB propositions (2)
• relationship of parenting and sex in life
– no parents -> no parenting ->
– dazzling array of parenting/partnering styles
• relationship of parenting and sex in us
– nomadic: monogamy rare, shared care of kids
– agricultural: marriage forms emerge (next week)
• polygamy, polygyny (rare), monogamies
• Sex without parenting: for fun!
Creation stories compared:
Genesis 1 assumed everything is fixed and planned
(and God said… and there was…)
But life (gender, reproductive strategies,
parenting/partnering strategies, community structure) is:
fluid and adaptive.
driven by environment/context.
We will see this in the OT, NT and ask
what it means for us in our context.
Sex in the Old Testament
Song of Solomon
My love is a gazelle, a wild stag.
There he stands on the other side
of our wall, gazing
between the stones.
Your breasts are two fawns,
twins of a gazelle,
grazing in a field of lilies.
Kiss me, make me drunk with your kisses!
Your sweet loving
is better than wine.
Awake, north wind! O south wind, come,
breathe upon my garden,
let its spices stream out.
Let my lover come into his garden
and taste its delicious fruit.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
"How fair and pleasant you are, O loved
one, delectable maiden! You are stately as
a palm tree, and your breasts are like its
clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree
and lay hold of its branches.
O may your breasts be like clusters of the
vine, and the scent of your breath like
apples, and your kisses like the best wine
that goes down smoothly, gliding over lips
and teeth.
I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for
me. Come, my beloved, let us go out early
to the vineyards ... There I will give you my
love."
Sinead- dark I am yet lovely
(4mins)
“Lamech took two wives; the name of the one
was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.”
Ge 4:19
Sarah, Abraham’s wife, took her slave Hagar and gave her to
her husband as a wife. He went in to Hagar, and she
conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she
looked with contempt on her mistress. (Ge 16)
So Jacob went “in to” Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more
than Leah (Ge 29:30) [but] when Rachel saw that she bore
Jacob no children, she envied her sister;
the Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your
youth... do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his
youth. (Malachi 2)
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall
not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female
slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to
your neighbor. Ex 20.17
When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve
six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free
person, without debt. [but] ... If his master gives him
a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife
and her children shall be her master’s and he shall
go out alone (Exodus 21:2).
Then Laban said to Jacob, “Tell me, what shall your wages be?” Jacob loved
Rachel; so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter
Rachel.”
After seven years, Jacob said “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my
time is completed.” So that night Laban held a feast, but in the evening he
took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob; and he went in to her.
When morning came, it was Leah! And Jacob said, what is this you have
done! (Ge 29)
So the congregation sent twelve thousand soldiers there and commanded
them, “Go, put the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead to the sword, including the
women and the little ones; every male and every woman that has lain with a
male you shall devote to destruction.” And they found among the
inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had never slept
with a man and they gave them the women.... (Judges 21)
If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her
and lies with her, and they are caught in the act, the man
who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the
young woman’s father, and she shall become his wife.
Because he violated her he shall not be permitted to divorce
her as long as he lives (Deut 22:28)
“When
a man dies and has no son, his brother shall go into
the wife, taking her in marriage, and the firstborn whom she
bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased, so that his
name may not be blotted out of Israel. (Dt 25:5)
“My child, keep your father’s commandment,
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
... to preserve you from the wife of another,
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
for a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,
but the wife of another stalks a man’s very life.”
prov 29
Ge 38 Tamar put off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, and sat
down on the roadside. When Judah her fatherinlaw saw her, he
thought her to be a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He went
over to her at the roadside, and said, “Come, let me come in to you,”
She said, “Only if you give me a pledge of payment…Your signet ring
and the staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her, and went in
to her… Then she got up and went away
About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law
Tamar has played the whore; moreover she is pregnant as a result of
whoredom.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.”
As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “It
was the owner of these who made me pregnant.” Then Judah
acknowledged them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I
did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not lie with her again.
“We have broken faith with our God and have married
foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now
there is hope for Israel in spite of this. So now let us make a
covenant with our God to send away all these wives and
their children, … [if any men refuse] all their property should
be forfeited, and they themselves banned from the
congregation of the exiles.” (Ezra 10).
If a man becomes jealous of his wife and thinks she has had an affair,
but cannot prove it,
“Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ... if you have gone
astray while under your husband’s authority, if you have defiled yourself
and some man other than your husband has had intercourse with you...
now may this water that brings the curse enter your bowels and make
your womb discharge, and your uterus drop!”
And the woman shall say, “Amen. Amen.” Numbers 5
“For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (this bit is quoted)
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth. (this bit isn’t)
Recap: evolution
• sexual reproduction evolved
– asexual -> homo/uni sexual -> heterosexual
• gender evolved
– none -> dual (xy, zw)-> multi and variable
• sex initially an advantage against pathogens
• Parenting and partnering styles adapt to
environment
• Sex is fun for primates, and not always about
reproduction.
Creation stories compared:
Genesis 1 assumed everything is fixed and planned
(and God said… and there was…)
But life (gender, reproductive strategies,
parenting/partnering strategies, community structure) is:
fluid and adaptive.
driven by environment/context.
We saw that in the Hebrew Scriptures…
The Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament:
Assumes polygamy, at least for the fairly wealthy;
condones having sex with prostitutes but not being one;
recommends prostitutes in preference to married women
insists on female virginity but assumes male promiscuity;
makes men who force sex on virgins pay compensation
to the father and marry the victim;
allows men to divorce women except in a few circumstances; insists on divorce in the
case of mixed marriage;
and insists on termination in the case of infidelity.
The environment was:
Small population; Men died in wars; men owned all property (incl women & kids);
husbandless women vulnerable; barren women shamed/cursed; no protection from
STDs; contraception = withdrawal (20% pregnancy vs % effective- vs 15% for none)
The purpose (of life/the laws):
Grow the small population (expand the Jewish kingdom); maintain stable patriarchal
community, protect male property rights; protect women from abject poverty.
The Gospels and early church:
Assumes polygamy, at least for the fairly wealthy;
condones having sex with prostitutes but not being one;
recommends prostitutes to married women
insists on female virginity but assumes male promiscuity;
makes men who force sex on virgins pay compensation to the father and marry the
victim;
The Gospels and early church:
Assumes polygamy, at least for the fairly wealthy;
condones having sex with prostitutes but not being one;
recommends prostitutes to married women
insists on female virginity but assumes male promiscuity;
makes men who force sex on virgins pay compensation to the father and marry the
victim;
allows men to divorce women except in a few circumstances; insists on divorce in the
The environment was:
Smallish population (more urbanised); less war (pax romani) but more oppression;
men owned all property in Jewish system, not in gentile one, but Christians called to
renounce $; husbandless Jewish women vulnerable; barren women shamed/cursed;
no protection from STDs; contraception = withdrawal (20% pregnancy vs % effectivevs 15% for none). Growing (then fading) conviction of the equality of women.
Thought to be about to end!
The purpose (of life/the laws):
Focus on the coming kingdom, renounce property, redefine community, protect
vulnerable women
Paul to the Corinthians 1st letter:
“It is well for a man not to touch a woman.” 2 But because of cases of
sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each
woman her own husband. ... This I say by way of concession, not of
command. I wish that all were as I myself am.
But each has a particular gift from God, one having one kind and
another a different kind. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it
is well for them to remain unmarried as I am. But if they are not
practicing self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than
to be aflame with passion.“
... If his passions are strong, and so it has to be, let him marry as he
wishes; it is no sin... he who marries his fiancée does well; and he who
refrains from marriage will do better.
Why? What is the context?
Yet those who marry will experience distress in this life,f and I would
spare you that... the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let
even those who have wives be as though they had none,... and those
who buy as though they had no possessions... For the present form of
this world is passing away.
I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious
about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; 33 but the
married man is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please
his wife, 34 and his interests are divided.
And the unmarried woman and the virgin are anxious about the affairs
of the Lord, so that they may be holy in body and spirit; but the
married woman is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to
please her husband. 35
I say this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but
to promote good order and unhindered devotion to the Lord.
And Jesus:
"His disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with
his wife, it is better not to marry.” But he said to them, “Not
everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it
is given.
For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and
there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others,
and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs
for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this
who can.”
(Matthew 19:10-13, NRSV)
Jesus on the family
"Then Peter said, “Look, we have left our homes and followed you.” And
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house
or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of
God, who will not get back very much more in this age, and in the age to
come eternal life.”" (Luke 18:28-30, NRSV)
"Someone told Jesus, “Look, your mother and your brothers are
standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” ... pointing to his disciples,
Jesus said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the
will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
(Matthew 12:47-13:1, NRSV)
"But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you
are all students. And call no one your father on earth, for you have one
Father—the one in heaven. Nor are you to be called masters, for you
have one master, the Messiah." (Matthew 23:8-10, NRSV)
Undermining the family? Any modern echoes?
and Jesus on possessions...
"“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and
sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and
follow me cannot be my disciple... So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do
not get rid of all your possessions.. (Luke 14:26-33, NRSV)
" Jesus said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat,
or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than
clothing. Consider the ravens... Consider the lilies... And do not keep striving for what you are to
eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. ... Instead, strive for God’s kingdom,
and these things will be given to you as well.
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell
your possessions, and give alms. ... For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “Be
dressed for action and have your lamps lit;" (Luke 12:22-35, NRSV)
(but)
" Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good
news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been
cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had
gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who
provided for them out of their resources. (Luke 8:1-4, NRSV)
Undermining everything? Any modern echoes?
Old Testament: Love God, and neighbour as self.
Grow population and maintain property rights, protect women (build an earthly
kingdom) :
Marriage (polygamy) good, Breeding good, Men in control, women vulnerable,
contraception minimal, safe sex non existent, prostitution morally indifferent.
Barrenness shameful.
EARLY New Testament: Love God, and neighbour as self.
Spread the gospel before the end comes.
Money irrelevant, so marriage irrelevant (and a hindrance)
Destabalising biological family and hierarchical/partiarchal/capital based society.
Greco-Roman women more independent, Jewish women not (church mostly Jewish)
LATER New Testament: Love God, and neighbour as self.
Spread gospel, but world hasn’t ended,
property relevant (gentile women and men have access). Share, don’t renounce it all.
Being persecuted, need to build esteem in community (bishops, elders...)
30AD (Jesus). Singleness “accept it who can.” Unless you forsake all you
have... Hate mother, father, wife, children, life itself... Nobody who has left
wife... Children...
AND: opposes divorce.
54AD (1Cor): If single stay that way. If married don’t dump unbeliever.
Not a sin to marry if you can’t control yourself.
Patriarchal: Man head of woman, image and reflection of God... BUT in the
Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman.
60AD (Colossians, Ephesians): Wives be subject to your husbands. Husbands
love your wives and never treat them harshly.
Christ and church is like husband and wife.
64AD (Timothy): bishops only one wife. Must be well thought of in society.
Young widows marry rather than go on pension. 2Tim subordination based on
Eve’s stupidity in listening to serpent.
65 (Hebrews): marriage bed be held in honour by all.
Jesus and DIVORCE:
Mark (about 60AD): Jew/Gentile church
Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to
divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They
said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce
her.”
But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this
commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them
male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and
be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no
longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one
separate.”
Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to
them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery
against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits
adultery.”
Jesus and DIVORCE:
Mark (about 60AD): Jew/Gentile church
Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to
divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They
said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce
her.”
But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this
commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them
male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and
be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no
longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one
separate.”
Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to
them, “Whoever divorces (puts away) his wife (in order to) marry another
commits adultery against her; and if she divorces (puts away) her husband (in
order to) marry another, she commits adultery.”
Jesus and DIVORCE:
Matthew (70ish): Jewish
Copies much of Mark, plus...
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of
divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the
ground of unchastity (porn), causes her to commit adultery; and whoever
marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
And later whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity (porn), and marries
another commits adultery
THINK JEWISH
Say the casting off is not legitimate. She has been discarded. To survive she
needs to find another man. The divorce is invalid (in God’s eyes). But he
makes her commit adultery. Jesus is transferring the guilt to the dumping man.
Man marrying a divorced woman sounds good, doesn’t it? Why does he
commit adultery?
Jesus and DIVORCE:
Matthew (70ish): Jewish
Copies much of Mark, plus...
But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of
“unchastity” (porn), causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a
divorced woman commits adultery.
And later...whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity (porn), and marries
another commits adultery
THINK JEWISHER
Maybe its about her having to remarry in order to survive (like Mark)
OR: In the less liberal (and more common) view, unchastity/porneia its the only
allowable reason for divorce. So if she is dumped, she becomes in everyone’s
eyes, an adulteress. He makes her an adulteress (by reputation). And what
man would then be with her (people would think) except her lover: the one
she is assumed to have committed adultery with!?
So because of the current community view, dumping an innocent woman
makes her tarnished as an adulteress, and casts aspersions on any future
partner who would “lower” himself to be with her.
Jesus and DIVORCE:
Matthew (70ish): Jewish
Why unchastity (pornia)? (and only that?)
is it worse than: abuse, lying, theft etc etc?
could just be following the commonest view of the Law
CLUE: JESUS’ “DAD”
“When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together,
she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a
righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss
(divorce/put away) her quietly. “
So in Matthew, it has to be ok/righteous to divorce an unchaste woman.
Mark has no birth stories, and so no exception?
Jesus and DIVORCE:
John (95ish). Jewish/Gentile Church
... “Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, and, tired out by his journey, he sat by a well. It
was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a
drink.” The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman
of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)
... They talk theology...
The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I
have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your
husband. What you have said is true!”
...they talk more theology...
"Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come
and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”"
Jesus and DIVORCE:
But also:
“Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or
children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not get back very much more in
this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”" (Luke 18:28-30, NRSV)
Paul: don’t divorce unbelieving partners, but if they leave don’t feel bound to them.
summary: divorce
Mark: Dumping your wife (into poverty) in order to marry someone else may be legal,
but it’s not moral: it’s still adultery.
support: Jesus many sayings against the wealthy and their greed and oppression
Gospel is good news to the poor.
Woman divorcing probably added by Mark for his context. Irrelevant in Jesus testing
Matthew:
EITHER Dumping a woman makes her commit adultery to survive, and bears the
burden of guilt. Whoever she then marries is also an adulterer (for legitimising the
dumping?) Only porneia nullifies a marriage. Issue: poverty.
OR
Because porneia is the only grounds for divorce according to most, dumping a woman
makes her an adulteress in people’s eyes and any future partner is implicated as the
presumed guilty party. Issue: shame.
support: Jesus is about restoring honour.
(in John: the half breed female serial divorcee becomes the first evangelist.
the woman with perfume “what kind of woman this is...”
to the adulteress... “neither then do I condemn you...” The bleeding woman..
Why is the porneia clause there at all? Matthew’s story/Jewish sensibility
support: missing in Mark. All that Jesus said about unconditional and unlimited
forgiveness. Jesus addressing poverty/shame not making a rigorous sexual ethic
summary: divorce
Removing “the porneia clause” and the gentile women qualification:
Dumping your wife in order to marry another is immoral, whether it’s legal or not,
because it impoverishes her. Also, it stigmatises her: both for being discarded, and
when she is forced to seek another man: the guilt of which stays with you.
Is divorce always bad for Jesus?
Nobody who puts away house... wife... or children... Will fail to receive 100 times
more...
Why would you put them away? If they are preventing you pursuing the kingdom (love
God, self, neighbour)... as Jesus family tried to do to him.
Decisions are about the kingdom: restoring love for God, self and other, good news for
the poor, removing shame.
Matters because: recent studies, USA divorce higher amongst fundamentalists and
Baptists than mainline churches and agnostics, not noticed in those churches because
divorcees tend to leave or keep very quiet. Shame alive and well.
(http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_dira.htm)
New Testament compared to today
Doesn’t really deal with “sex before” or “sex after” marriage in the way we need to.
Legal age of marriage: Jewish man 13.5 years, Jewish girl 12.5.
Often betrothed earlier.
Puberty about 15.
Life expectancy limited.
A gap of 10-20 years between puberty (now about 12) and first marriage (legal at 18,
common at 30) did not exist and so is not being addressed in the OT or NT.
Long periods of “single” life after divorce or widowhood probably did not exist.
Women needed to remarry to survive.
Life expectancy about 75/85 vs 40ish
Marriages now may last 60-80 years, vs 17ish
Population growth in OT was highly prized, bareness a curse. Be fruitful and multiplyfill the Earth and subdue it. Non reproductive sex an anathema (contraception and
maybe male:male sex)
Take a breath
Same-sex in a nutshell (NT)
Like “single people’s sex” there is no “homosexuality” in the bible as we often
talk about it today, or gay marriage.
There is male temple prostitution; boys who fulfil a “soft” role for men, whose
wives are kept home; slaves (boys) who are “soft” for roman soldiers (who are
not allowed to marry.)
Paul uses men lusting after men and women after women as a sign of the lack
of the “natural order” of the pagan religions:
assumes that all humans knew God (since Noah) and some had
abandoned “Judaism” at the tower of Babel.
along with men having short hair and women long hair, and men being
in God’s image and women in men’s. Women inferior, demeaning for a man to
act like a woman.
as an argument against the Christians “Therefore you have no excuse,
whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn
yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. “
Nothing from Jesus...
Nothing from Jesus except....
maybe healing the centurions’ “pais”/boy/servant
“For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been
made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the
sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can."
Clement of Alexandria: "the true eunuch is not unable, but [merely?] unwilling to have sex."
Old Testament “There blood is upon their heads...”
If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress
shall be put to death. .. (Leviticus 20:10, Ezekiel 18)
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination;
If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, he has laid bare her flow and she has laid bare
her flow of blood; both of them shall be cut off from their people. (Lev 20, Eze 18)
You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. Because they
did all these things, I abhorred them. But I have said to you: You shall inherit their land, and I
will give it to you to possess (all justifies dispossession of the aboriginal inhabitants)
ABOMINATION: not immoral, but what they do (shellfish, mixed threads, pork...)
A man who eats upon the mountains, defiles his neighbour's wife, oppresses the poor and
needy, commits robbery, does not restore the pledge, lifts up his eyes to the idols, commits
abomination, takes advance or accrued interest; shall he then live? He shall not. He has done all
these abominable things; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him. (Ezekiel 18)
Nothing from Jesus except....
maybe healing the centurions’ “pais”/boy/servant
“For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been
made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the
sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can."
Clement of Alexandria: "the true eunuch is not unable, but [merely?] unwilling to have sex."
Old Testament “There blood is upon their heads...”
Adulterers (of married women)
Men who lie with men
A couple who have sex during her period
People who oppress the poor and needy
Anyone who charges interest on loans or takes a downpayment
(also abominable: lobster, pork, polyester blends)
One more recap…
Pre Human, social: Support neighbour, love self.
Neighbour = pack, partner. Maximise Breeding & Protect young -> Guard territory.
Old Testament: Love neighbour as self.
Neighbour = Tribe/Nation. Maximise breeding & Protect property (Guard territory) ->
protect women & young. Guard territory- Build an earthly kingdom.
Marriage (polygamy) good, Breeding good, Men in control, women vulnerable, contraception minimal, safe
sex non existent, prostitution morally indifferent. Barrenness shameful.
Early New Testament: Love neighbour as self.
Neighbour = all (Christians?) . Breeding and property irrelevant. Heavenly kingdom
Rejecting biological family and hierarchical/partiarchal/capital based society.
Distinguish from pagan religions (temple sex cults). Protect women (divorce)
LATER New Testament: Love God, and neighbour as self.
World hasn’t ended, protect property but share. Breeding ambivalent. Women have
more equality. Being persecuted, need to build esteem in community.
The actual values regarding sexual acts, relationships, property and children have
changed in different contexts, as have the rules/guidelines to enact those values.
Our context
reliabler contraception
safer sex
Longer puberty ---------- marriage
Equaler men and women
Stabler society (property)
Or is it apocalyptic?
Diverser (just look at us)
Individualistic/Nuclear family society
Australia: more equal wealth/consumption
Globally: less equal consumption.
Population:
Our context
reliabler contraception
safer sex
Longer puberty ---------- marriage
Equaler men and women
Stabler society (property)
Or is it apocalyptic?
Diverser (just look at us)
Individualistic/Nuclear family society
Australia: more equal wealth/consumption
Globally: less equal consumption.
Population:
Our context
reliabler contraception
safer sex
Longer puberty ---------- marriage
Equaler men and women
Stabler society (property)
Or is it apocalyptic?
Diverser (just look at us)
Individualistic/Nuclear family society
Australia: more equal wealth/consumption
Globally: less equal consumption.
Population:
Our context
reliabler contraception
safer sex
Longer puberty ---------- marriage
Equaler men and women
Stabler society (property)
Or is it apocalyptic?
Diverser (just look at us)
Individualistic/Nuclear family society
Australia: more equal wealth/consumption
Globally: less equal consumption.
Population:
Our context
reliabler contraception
safer sex
Longer puberty ---------- marriage
Equaler men and women
Stabler society (property)
Or is it apocalyptic?
Diverser (just look at us)
Individualistic/Nuclear family society
Australia: more equal wealth/consumption
Globally: less equal consumption.
Population:
Our context
reliabler contraception
safer sex
Longer puberty ---------- marriage
Equaler men and women
Stabler society (property)
Or is it apocalyptic?
Diverser (just look at us)
Individualistic/Nuclear family society
Australia: more equal wealth/consumption
Globally: less equal consumption.
Population:
OT: respect property rights, care for children, protect from poverty
NT: further the equalitarian vision of men and women. Make sure relationships don’t
separate us from neighbour or kingdom of God. Love self. Love the other, do for them
as for self.
So a modern, traditional Christian approach to sex and marriage might begin…
Monogamous heterosexual marriage, treated ambiguously at best by Jesus and Paul,
has lost its claim to be created directly, as is, by God.
Once acknowledged as being an evolutionary response, with variable expressions in
human culture, life-long heterosexual marriage loses its moral high ground and
“givenness” in relation to other forms of sexual relationship.
The question becomes: what sort of relationships best express our faith in this
environment? Is this relationship one in which I am free to love God, myself and
others? Whether the relationship lasts for half and hour or half a lifetime, is it
undermining my love of myself, God, or others, including the other I am with? Is it
diminishing me or nurturing me? Is it socially stabilising or likely to cause upheaval,
and which is preferable at this time? Is it Good News for me and others?
May the feet of God walk with you,
and His hand hold you tight.
May the eye of God rest on you,
and Her ear hear your cry.
May the smile of God be for you,
and His breath give you life.
May the Child of God grow in you,
and Her love bring you home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD_Z3td4n
RU
If Paul was Pauline...
I don't wanna be no man's woman
It don't make me happy
this mantrolling
Thing that you got for me
so I become
No man's woman
I don't wanna be no man's woman
I've other work I want to get done
I haven't traveled this far to become
No man's woman No Man's woman
Cuz I'm tired of it
And I'm not scared of it
That I'll never trust again
Cuz a man could fake you
Take your soul and make you
Miserable in so much pain
My friends think I'm alone
but I've got secrets
I don't tell everything
about the love I get
I got a lovin man but he's a spirit
He never does me harm
never treats me bad
He never takes away
all the love he has
And I’m forgiven oh a million times
I'm never tired of it
And I'm not scared of it
Cuz it doesn't cause me pain
Like a man could fake you
Take your soul and make you
Never be yourself again
I don’t understand why
you don’t understand
How I don’t need a man
to create my master plan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6RvAVPhAzs
(i dont care what you say:
you’re never going to get your way
Because I control my own faith)
Imagine a gauge on your left shoulder,
It doesn't measure whether you're young or older,
It's just there to show you how true you are to you.
(For example)
If you listen to all the advertisers,
Who promise to fill you up with their surprises,
It's no surprise that they're all about selling envy,
To make you feel so bad the gauge points to empty.
Imagine a gauge on your left shoulder,
It doesn't measure whether you're young or older,
It's just there to show you how true you are to you.
(For example)
If you mostly feel that you're not worth much,
And a brick wall of fear and doubt is all you can
touch,
But a beam of faith shines through the bricks and
mortar,
Maybe the 'being you' gauge points to one-quarter.
Imagine a gauge on your left shoulder,
It doesn't measure whether you're young or older,
It's just there to show you how true you are to you.
(Still…)
If you are able to hold on to some hope,
But once in a while it's like a slippery piece of wet
soap,
And if your own jokes are still able to make you
laugh,
Your gauge probably shows you being you to half.
Imagine a gauge on your left shoulder,
It doesn't measure whether you're young or older,
It's just there to show you how true you are to you.
(In conclusion)
If you believe in your deepest essence,
You'll be an overflowing stream of God's presence.
After all this deep myst'ry is our business,
It's no small part of who we are, it is our isness.
This next little bit might sound moronic,
To be empty to be full is quite ironic,
You've got to empty out everything that is bull,
Let compassion fill you and you will be you to full.
Be you to full.
Beyoutifull,
Beautiful.
(Matt & Shana)