Every time I think I'm catching up, they pull out a bunch of posts.... ;) Ah, well.
This is another post about the ever-journey by my friend Lalaith. It's largely personal in it's foundations and therefore, not a lot for me to say. There are a few interesting points to touch on though.
One, the comment about joy. I don't know which Christians she's referring to, but I don't believe I've said that other people can't experience joy. For the sake of clarity, I made a point of distinguishing between happiness and joy; however, joy is experienced by a great many people. It's the superlative that's missing for them. The ULTIMATE joy, ultimate peace, ultimate security, ultimate acceptance is found ONLY in Christ. You can find all those things in differing extents in other places. But the ultimate of each one, the perfection of each one, is what is unique to Christianity because perfection is of God.
Two, I have personally NEVER heard someone say they FEAR world peace. That one gave me a hearty chuckle the first time through. If I heard that, I would have a VERY difficult time not staring/laughing out loud in that person's face. The coming of the anti-christ, though a time of great upheaval and such, is NOT something to be feared, but rather welcomed. If the Anti-christ doesn't come, the Christ doesn't come. Gotta have the Tribulation before you get the Kingdom. Also, the world won't technically be at peace before the new earth because sin will still be around and that necessitates non-peace.
Three: homosexuality. Moving out to CA has brought me in contact with a LOT more homosexuals, and there is some problem with the way they are viewed by much of conservative Christianity. If you view someone as being so icky, like parents like to portray them, you forget that God saved YOU from something equally as icky. Honestly, I believe most of the damage has been done by people who are afraid that one of the young people they know (a kid or someone in their church) is going to end up having a tendency toward homosexuality. I understand - it's a daunting thought for a Christian parent. How do I handle that? But honestly, how would I handle something else? How would I handle it if my kid had violence issues?
Homosexuality is not the end-all of sins, and Christians need to be careful not to treat those who practice it like the plague. Christians tend to treat homosexuals worse than murderers - that's just stupid. However, homosexuality is a sin; it is in defiance of God, and it can be conquered through the power of the Holy Spirit. That doesn't mean you'll ever be entirely free of it on this earth, but it does mean that you don't have to DO it. Like people who have the urge, the tendency to lie no longer have to lie, people with the tendency toward homosexuality don't HAVE to do it. There are Christians have anger problems; there are Christians with gluttony problems, alcoholic problems, thievery problems, etc. etc. There are Christians with sexual problems - homosexual or heterosexual.
Lalaith then goes on to basically ask, "Why not sex in moderation?" Well, I have no problem with sex in moderation - in the proper timing. Sex is not a necessity to survival. No one NEEDS it to live. It's wonderful and enjoyable and a great many things - but it is not necessary for anyone on this globe to have sex again or else they will die. So, saying that it's just like eating or drinking is not true. There are a great many reasons why sex ONLY after marriage is better. There are psychological reasons, physiological reasons, emotional reasons - seriously, there are a plethora of reasons - but no one wants to talk about that because that means that doing things the Bible way - God's way - is not just right it's actually BETTER! And people have this bizarre (and fallacious) notion that being bad is somehow more exciting and enjoyable. (Email if you want some of those reasons. I'll send what I can remember.)
Love between husband and wife is not more pure without sex. God made sex just like He made everything else. It's a gift to be enjoyed; but He only made it for marriage.
For the record, the experience that Lalaith describes is very much the experience I had. I didn't know what sex was until I was old enough to have a baby. (Not mature enough; just physically developed enough.) Until that time I had thought that it was like a swear word because talk of it generated the same kind of reaction. However, I did not come away thinking that sex was evil. In fact, I ended up being terribly grateful to my parents that they didn't bother telling me about any of that until I had to know. I wished I could have gone longer without it - not because it was evil; just because I had a great childhood never thinking about grown-up stuff like where babies come from and how it all works. I truly believe that I enjoyed my childhood more because my parents left that topic alone until I needed to know what was going on and why. I say this just so people know there is another way to look at it. I'm not saying that's the route that SHOULD be taken, or even that that's how my husband and I are going to go about it with our kids. I'm just saying, for me, it was nice to never think about sex for the first decade or so of my life. Honestly, when else is that ever going to be true?
Lalaith has told me a great many times that she is so happy to be married; and she's obviously very much in love with her husband, and I am very happy for her. I fear though, that "love" has become her god. She seems to worship it, awed by it and just bursting with wanting to tell everyone the joys of it. And it makes me sad. I'm glad she's enjoying being married, that she loves her husband so much; but to worship the thing, rather than the One Who made the thing. . . is sad. The author is more impressive than the book he penned.
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