Of course, I'm not the first person to go down these roads. There are a lot of resources out there for people coming out of purity culture and general evangelical teachings on sex. Some of the ones I've found to have some value:
There are other books and podcasts on the same topic, but I haven't processed all of them. These are mostly about deconstructing the flawed ethical framework we've inherited. There's less work about reconstructing a new ethical framework around sex. A few resources that have at least some exploration of the idea:
- Two episodes of The Liturgists podcast address the issue, though not in much depth
- One chapter of After Evangelicalism talks about this, emphasizing the moral value of covenant.
- Good Christian Sex is interesting, as it comes from the opposite viewpoint: a woman who grew up in the mainline Protestant tradition inherited an entirely worldly sexual ethic, and wanted to figure out how to submit her sex life to Christ. Her general focus is on the moral value of relationship and mutual vulnerability with your sexual partner.
I've found two books that systematically construct a Christian ethical framework around sex, using scripture as a basis.
- Body, Sex & Pleasure: Reconstructing Christian Sexual Ethics by Christine Gudorf
- The author advocates for norm of mutual sexual pleasure, that sex should be pleasurable for all involved. From this derives that we are ethically bound to avoid:
- Genital mutilation
- Fear of pregnancy and STDs
- Rape, sexual abuse, sexual coercion and harassment
- Sexual dysfunction
- Ignorance of sexual biology and technique
- Poor sexual communication
- Conception outside of stable and ecologically responsible circumstances
- Public policies that support any of the above
- I'd named these blog posts before I found this book!
- Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics by Margaret Farley
- The author here reasons from a basic norm of relationality, treating sexual partners as peers rather than objects, and reasons to seven norms in sexual ethics:
- Do no unjust harm
- Free consent of partners
- Mutuality
- Primarily of desire, action, and response
- Equality
- Primarily of power between the sexual partners
- Commitment
- Fruitfulness
- This includes procreation, but also serving the needs of others
- Social justice
- Consider third parties, the impact of conception, cheating, public health, etc.
The sexual ethics derived from the list of Christian virtues I've identified is consistent with both the authors above. The virtues of love and respect; kindness, mercy, and generosity; and embrace of knowledge, wisdom and truth have all the same implications as Gudorf's framework around mutual sexual pleasure. The virtue of Forgive and build peace, covenant, and relationship includes Farley's additional norm of commitment.
However, the virtue-oriented approach I've taken makes many additional demands of us. In particular, the virtue I've identified as Integrity and self-control has a considerable impact on our sexual relationships. As promised, we'll focus more on that in later posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment