Thursday, June 14, 2007

Sex, Lies and Symbolism in the Culture Wars

By Justin Lonas

Christians these days are all too aware of the grave social issues that revolve around sexuality in today’s world—abortion, promiscuity, homosexuality, pornography, etc.—and all too unwitting about how they attempt to stem the tide.

We gird up our loins to combat the egregious sins of our culture, but we fail to gather the necessary intelligence to fight the right battles. We say abortion is inhumane, promiscuity immoral, homosexuality unnatural, and pornography unloving, selfish, and conducive to unfaithfulness. All those arguments are correct, but they fail to target the core issue, a world so lost it no longer understands the purpose of sexuality.

Scripturally, we should understand our sexuality as a gift of God, perhaps one of His most generous (and least appreciated). Our very masculinity and femininity are, by design, portraits of different aspects of the nature of God. As a psychologist friend of mine put it, masculinity answers the questions “Is God powerful?” and “Is God going to do something?” Femininity answers the questions “Is God good?” and “Is God beautiful.” This is seen from the very beginning in Genesis 1:27: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

You see, God created men and women separately to tell different parts of His story. Marriage, then, brings the two together to reveal a fuller depiction of the God’s character to the world. Not only that, the unity of a husband and wife is further picture still—that of Christ’s redeeming relationship with the Church (Eph. 5:22-32). Some even construe the marriage relationship as symbolic of the unity of God’s being within Himself in the form of the Trinity.

Our sexuality is important precisely because it is symbolic. Even the act of sex is a portrait of love, given as the receiver needs it in complete unselfishness. It is beautiful because its every aspect is filled with the mark of the Creator (see Song of Solomon, Proverbs 5:19, and many other passages for details). Outside of God’s model, however, it is utterly hollow because it ceases to serve His purpose.

The world for many years now has confused the symbol for the substance. They’ve adopted the radical theories of Sigmund Freud and others who assert that the wonders of life are merely symbols pointing back to sexuality rather than the other way around. They read erotic overtones into all things and glorify sexual gratification (in any form) at the expense of all other things. That’s why sins of the flesh are ubiquitous and even the murder of our most vulnerable fellow humans through abortion is thought of as a “right”. When sex becomes their god, they will allow nothing to impede their ability to “worship” at that altar. They don’t listen when we tell them their actions are repulsive to God because they have no god but self.

That’s why the so-called “culture wars” are not being won—they’re being waged on grounds that our combatants don’t understand. We can’t fight such obvious, external transgressions on a national scale without first engaging people at the base level of their sin. We’ve got to meet them at a personal level and confront their ignorance, self-centeredness, and pride. In short, we need to impress upon them the falsity of their core beliefs and introduce them to the saving grace of Christ Jesus. Fighting these battles from the outside in is simply ineffective—they are ultimately a matter of the heart.

In order to transform the fight, we have to see our Christianity as so much more than just “sin management.” The Truth of God is so much deeper and more winsome than than we want to allow it to be. In framing the battle for righteousness in our time, we should take a page from the playbook of legendary British abolitionist William Wilberforce. Before he could tackle the slave trade, an entrenched vice that was extremely financially profitable and politically active (much like today’s abortion lobby), he knew he had to first change the minds and hearts of the people. Doing that, he knew, required that Christians think deeply about their faith and fight for the right as much as against the wrong. Wilberforce understood that Christianity is something ever more valuable than “a scheme of mere morals.”*

If we are to fight a good fight in this arena, we must seek to understand the surpassing beauty and purpose of God’s plan. As with all other aspects of our Christian walk, this one begins with the Great Commission. Unless Christ changes the hearts of sinners, righteousness will not come about. Unless we share Him and His truth with them, how can they be expected to change?

*From A Practical of View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Higher and Middle Classes of this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity by William Wilberforce, 1846 ed. Page 100.