Time to End Sex-Negative Theologies

I’m convinced that the Christian understanding of all things related to human sexuality has been fundamentally and possibly fatally flawed for over 1500 years.  While the Bible itself is not preoccupied with human sexual proclivities, it didn’t take long for the Christian church to embrace pleasure-hating theologies aimed at controlling human sexuality

One of the most egregious manifestations of this flawed theology of human sexuality is making daily headlines in our news media.  Case after case after case of clergy sexual abuse that were covered up years ago are now being made public.  Scandals began rocking the Protestant world in the 1980’s. More recently, the depth of the international syndicate to conceal sexual abuse among Roman Catholic clergy is being exposed.  While the scandals in churches have led to complicated schemes to avoid public embarrassment, I am left to conclude that the root of the problem lies in this flawed Christian theology on human sexuality itself.

Negative theologies of human sexuality began to arise after the Roman persecution of Christians ended. During the persecutions, martyrs were held in high esteem in Christian communities.  Who would replace the martyrs as heroes of the faith?  Those who took vows of celibacy, renouncing sexual pleasure, became the people most admired because it was believed that they had given all for the sake of Christ. In this climate was born a man named Augustine from Northern Africa. He was a noted philosopher. While his family tried to arrange a marriage, he opted to live with a woman and with whom he had a child.  He later left this woman to pursue another in order to marry into a wealthy family.  But the new woman was below the legal age of marriage, so he had to wait. While waiting, he became involved with a religion called Manichaeism from Persia.  Central to their beliefs were that the physical world (and our bodies) are characterized by darkness and evil while the spiritual world was goodness and light.  Through a series of unlikely events, Augustine was elected as a Christian bishop, ordained, and became a well-published theologian.

Augustine never fully left his Manichean beliefs.  Having been a lusty young man, he viewed sexuality as part of the evil material world.  He believed that by being born into the evil material world, humanity inherited what he called original sin.  (Note that the doctrine of original sin is not in the Bible and Jesus never heard of it.  The Bible conveys that humanity fell from grace but was neither sinful nor corrupt at birth.) The Christian Church adopted Augustine’s beliefs that the world (and our bodies) are essentially sinful and evil.  Reformers like John Calvin latched onto this idea and went further by stating that humanity is fundamentally depraved and there is no good within human beings.

While I understand that these were scholarly individuals, I can’t believe that they lacked basic comprehension of the Bible.  Christian scriptures make the exact opposite statements about the nature of humanity.

The Hebrew book of Genesis is very clear in the story of creation that each time God created, the Holy One affirmed, “It is good.”  With humanity, the proclamation was made that we are “very good.”  In the Hebraic cosmos, every aspect of the material world is imbued with goodness from the moment of creation.

The popular spiritual writer from the 1980’s, Matthew Fox, noted that rather than talking about original sin, Christians should talk about “original blessing.”  In fact, the Bible’s fundamental statements about humanity are that we are good, blessed, chosen, and holy — along with all of creation.  This sentiment is clearly echoed in the New Testament letter of first Peter, believed to be a sermon delivered to a group of newly baptized Christians.  The author tells them, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people set apart to proclaim God’s glory.”  Any result of the Adam and Eve’s fall from grace was removed through baptism in the mind of the writer of first Peter.

Humanity was created good, with the capacity for love and for pleasure.  Anyone who has been in a relationship characterized by love knows that human sexuality isn’t about procreation.  That may be a result of sexual intercourse.  But sexual attraction draws people together, leads to the opportunity to celebrate one’s partner, to affirm the other, and to delight in the beloved — just as God delights in us.  It’s a holy thing.

What about sexual abuse?  Sexual abuse is a form of abuse that uses sex to dehumanize another person.  Sexual abuse is an outcome of a lack of sexual maturity and personal wholeness.  A sexual abuser, whether a rapist or pedophile, has failed to integrate sexuality with his or her development as a human being.  Abusers are often filled with shame and mix sexual energy with their power to hurt and exploit others.  It’s a serious sign that an individual is lacking in fundamental aspects of mental health.  Sexual abuse is about using power over someone who is defenseless.  Further, sexual abuse is reflective of cultures that attempt to suppress human sexuality or distort it.  Sounds like the Christian church, doesn’t it?

As long as sex-negative theologies persist, people will be harmed by sexual abuse in the church. To prevent sexual abuse, Christians need to not only create systems which protect children and those who are vulnerable, and which also removing abusers from ministerial roles.  In addition, Christians need to articulate a new understanding of human sexuality which is faithful to the Biblical understanding of the goodness of humanity and people’s actual experience as healthy, integrated sexual beings.

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