Reading Material

Here's some reading material on sexuality that might be worthy of your time:

Modesty and Men

Before young women face undue pressure to monitor their male peers’ sexual purity, Christian communities ought to provide a biblical context for why we pursue modesty in the first place — and make sure both men and women get the message.

Two evangelical leaders with two different views on the Civil Partnership Bill:

View 1 - The realist
View 2 - The idealist

(Though I don't know what side of the fence I fall on (if any) and can only offer a provisional coment, for what it's worth, I don't think the second view really is ideal (to use Patrick Michel's word). Christianity is not about imposing things from the outside in, but about a radical change from the inside out. It is about life in the Spirit; a life that is at once free of the law and the fulfillment of the law. To impose Biblical ethics on those living "in the flesh" (to borrow a Pauline phrase) is actually to place a yoke on them that we too have been unable to bear.)

Daniel Kirk on Christian Sexuality:

And the model of self-giving love is where, it seems to me, we so often go astray at the get-go when it comes to sexuality. The call to give up our lives so that another might live flies full in the face of our desires for sexual gratification. Whether it’s the stereotypical guy who’s looking for the physical pleasure or the stereotypical woman who wants to know that she’s desired and accepted–or the very real people who are a mash up of both of these and a whole lot more–sex is an activity in which we are seeking our own.

The 13th Disciple

Reading N.T. Wright's Christian Origins and the Question of God series is like hopping through the eternally cool doors of the Delorian and being whisked off to 1st Century Palestine in order to become the mystery 13th disciple who will form the cornerstone of Dan Brown's next novel. Or, it's like taking part in this. Anyway, I've just finished part deux, and continually found my heart strangely warmed as Jesus of Nazareth was portrayed before me as historical.

The next book in Wright's series is his treatment of the resurrection. This is supposed to be the text on the subject. You're basically not allowed to discuss the resurrection unless you've read this book.

But instead of starting straight into it, I'm going to turn to Wright's more popular series, which started off with Simply Christian and continues with Surprised By Hope and the recently released After You Believe.

Are you sufficiently bored yet? No?

So, the light broke on our refrigerator the other day. It was okay during the day because it wasn't dark, but when I came down to the kitchen in the middle of the night to fix up a glass of orange juice I couldn't find the carton, so I had to turn on the light in the kitchen.

Okay, I'll be getting my coat now...