Sex and The "Biblical" View

Read this book

by Ben Howard


On Tuesday I started reading Rachel Held Evans' new book A Year of Biblical Womanhood. The book is an A.J. Jacobs-like take on the idea of biblical womanhood. For a year, Rachel tries to abide by all of the scriptures relating to women and along the way hilarity and insight ensue.

I'm only three chapters in so far, so this isn't a review, but the book has already sparked a few interesting ideas. In between chapters, Rachel does a profile of a woman from the Bible. The profile between the second and third chapters is Tamar.

If you don't know the story of Tamar, she is the daughter-in-law of Judah. She marries his oldest son, who dies. Then, according to custom, she marries his next oldest son. He also dies. At this point, Judah should marry her to his youngest son, but he refuses. A childless unmarried widower would have been in serious trouble in this society so this refusal is not only a violation of the law, it is also deeply unjust.

Like any proper biblical character, Tamar solves this problem by pretending to be a prostitute and sleeping with Judah, her father-in-law. When the family becomes outraged at Tamar's pregnancy, she reveals to Judah that he is the father and he realizes that he has sinned by not giving her his youngest son.

Yeah, that's a bizarre story. I know. However, note that nowhere is Tamar repudiated for her actions. In fact, she is listed in Jesus' genealogy in Matthew. In fact, the other three women listed (Bathsheba, Ruth, and Rahab), are also involved in relationships that our society would deem illicit. Bathsheba sleeps with David who then kills her husband, Ruth seduces Boaz (check out your Hebrew idioms), and Rahab is a prostitute.

This collection of characters and stories makes me ask a question. Where exactly did we get this puritanical notion of biblical sexual morality? Even the Bathsheba story doesn't condemn sex, it condemns adultery and murder.

Queen Victoria

Now, some will point out that Paul talks an awful lot about sexual immorality and that's certainly true, but is that a response to sex or a response to an overly indulgent culture that expressed sexuality in dehumanizing ways?

I don't want to argue that our present-day cultures overwhelming view of sexuality is correct and that the church should embrace it. In fact, I don't want to endorse anything about our current sexual culture. It's selfish, indulgent, and dehumanizing. People are used for the satisfaction of others. People are consumed.

But at the same time the notion of a biblical view of sexuality seems to have far more in common with Victorian social mores than with anything resembling a truthful and honest reading of the Bible. The Bible talks about sex, but it isn't obsessed with it. It's a biological function and a part of life. You can interpret some books like the Song of Solomon to openly celebrate it.

I think we need to start talking about sex in our culture without acting like its the most titillating topic of conversation. It's part of life, let's treat it that way. Churches need to openly talk about this topic. Families need to openly talk about this topic. Friends need to openly talk about this topic.

Also, we need to crack down on people referencing the "biblical view" of whatever. Bringing the word "biblical" into a conversation about morality or social issues is the equivalent of referencing Hitler or communism in a conversation about politics. It's a bomb intended to disrupt and stop conversation. It's a trump card. Even worse, the person using it is usually wrong. The use of the term biblical ends up denigrating and besmirching the very book that someone is trying to hold so dear.

Biblical family?

Rachel Held Evans conclusion in the book, according to reviews, is that no such thing as biblical womanhood exists. In the gay marriage debate, there are constant references to the biblical or traditional view of marriage. In response, Fred Clark at the blog Slacktivist has started posting his Chick-Fil-A Biblical Family of the Day every Friday to show the diversity and bizarreness of the "biblical" view of marriage and family.


The Bible is a book that tells us about God and how God relates to us and who God is. It is not necessarily a book that tells us about morality. That morality is dictated by our relationship to God and God's character. It is dictated by who God has created us to be and how we are to express that in our context.

We have to interpret things in our world and that's okay. Everything has to be interpreted. The best way to do that is discuss it intentionally in community. It is best to have people tell us why they agree and disagree with what we do and how we can and should improve. It is best to be open to change and growth. 

So let's talk about sex and see where we end up.

Peace,
Ben

You can follow Ben on Twitter @BenHoward87 or email him at benjamin.howard87 [at] gmail.com.

Also, you can subscribe to On Pop Theology via RSS feed or email on the top right corner of the main page.

I Love the NBA and Why It's Too Easy to Criticize

by Ben Howard

My love of sports isn't really a secret to anyone. I've written about football and baseball and the Olympics. I'm sure I'll eventually write about hockey and auto racing and yachting, but there is a special place in my heart for basketball and the NBA in particular.

Baseball is about poetry. The field, the grass, being outside in the sun in the summer. It's pristine and agrarian. As George Carlin once pointed out, the whole point of baseball is to go home. Football is about teamwork and discipline and the cold. It's aggressively physical and socially conservative. It's a game of guards and field marshal's marching up and down the field.

But basketball...basketball is something else. Basketball is about art and creativity. It's where athleticism meets chess meets playfulness. It can be serious and it can be beautiful, but it's always dynamic and always in motion.

There's something magical about watching some of the world's best athletes pushing themselves to the limits of what physics allows. How high can they jump? How fast can they run? Then you intersperse this with the anticipation of the jumper and that feeling you get when somebody releases a beautiful three point that you know is hitting nothing but net.

Now professional basketball certainly has it's seedier side, like every sport. It's awash in consumerism and greed. You can make the case that professional sports only exist so that companies can market themselves to people who like sports. Every day ESPN has another column about how Athlete X and Team Y can't agree on how to share millions and millions of dollars with each other.

Sports, like almost every other area of life, are caught in this battle between the beautiful and the grotesque. The optimistic and the pessimistic. It's the battle most of us fight every day.


This is incredibly obvious during election season. It's hard to distinguish sometimes between whether people are voting for their candidate or against the other one. Or, take the Christian sub-culture. Today is the official release date of Rachel Held Evans book A Year of Biblical Womanhood (see that, slipping in a little promotion, read her book). Some people have praised it for it's tongue-in-cheek take on the idea of "biblical womanhood" and others have criticized Rachel for not taking the Bible seriously enough.

I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with this constant refrain of negativity. I don't want to argue that there aren't problems in the world, but it's just too easy to be a critical hack. It's too easy to tell everybody why everything sucks and why they shouldn't enjoy it. But why can't I enjoy something for what it is? Even if "what it is" is deeply flawed?

That's why I love the NBA. I know it's deeply flawed. It's run by greedy businessmen and played by greedy players. However, you have to juxtapose that with the beauty of sports.

I think that it's to the glory of God when you see people do the thing they're best at, even if that means that they're playing a game for entertainment. It's to the glory of God when we come together as a community for competition. So yes, there are negative aspects to the NBA, to sports, to everything, but it's not enough to criticize something for the things you hate about it. You also have to praise it for the things it does well.

This doesn't mean that we shouldn't work for improvement. It doesn't justify the billions we spend on sports or politics, but it does allow us to enjoy the good aspects without having to always feel guilty.

Happy NBA Opening Day and Thunder Up!

Peace,
Ben

You can follow Ben on Twitter @BenHoward87 or email him at benjamin.howard87 [at] gmail.com.

Also, you can subscribe to On Pop Theology via RSS feed or email on the top right corner of the main page.