Let's get out of the pigsty, folks!

This is not going to be another "Christians vs. 50 Shades/Magic Mike" blog post. I think it's been adequately covered by those wiser and more eloquent than myself. Two I can think of just off the top of my head are over at The Colley House and Melissa Jenna's blog, if you feel so inclined to read them. In fact, I think if you looked hard enough, you could probably find a "Christians vs. ANYTHING" post. We're notorious for jumping on anti-worldview bandwagons. Rightly so, most of the time. There is just too much world in the church, and to be honest with you, we really DO need to be getting our feathers more ruffled about the filth that is surrounding us--and that we're allowing in to infect the church and neuter the message of the Gospel. Yes, you heard that right--NEUTER the message of the Gospel. What do you think it does for Christians to be involved in the filth of this world, when they open their mouths about the saving grace of Christ and the freedom found in obedience to the Will of God? It nullifies their message. It takes the batteries out of their flashlight. It fills the salt shaker with sugar. Sure, people would love to hear a gospel that will get them to Heaven without having to eliminate all the stuff they enjoy ... but that's not 'taking up one's cross, denying one's self' and following Christ. That's fitting God into our little box, tucking in the edges that we don't agree with. It's not true Christianity--it's practical atheism.

Nope, this isn't one of *those* blog posts. I actually want to discuss something that will ruffle some more feathers. It will likely make my adult children (and my mother) cringe. Sorry, but that's just gonna have to happen for a bit. 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have to stop talking about the perverted vulgarities of UNHOLY sex as if they were the NORM!!! Yes, I said UNHOLY. No matter what "flavor", sex outside of the God-ordained union of marriage is perverted. Sin is sin. LUST is sin. Whether you are sinning with someone of the same or opposite sex, whether it's in your head, imagined, talked about, glorified, watched passively, acted out or not, it's SIN. What makes it sin? It is perversion from the original intent for something God created to be HOLY. Why are we even having these discussions about what is so obviously across the line? Why are we even discussing the line in the first place? Wanna know what my theory is? 

*Because we are TOO AFRAID to say that sex WITHIN marriage--sex that is HOLY--is also good, right, wholesome, and DESIRABLE!!!* 

Sex has become a "dirty word" among Christians. "Good" Christians don't talk about it, unless they are condemning it. It's glazed-over from pulpits, because we don't want to give people the idea we have hang-ups, but we want to make sure everyone knows they'll go to Hell if they don't purify their minds. We would rather have people shudder and blush and NOT talk about it than to risk the very possibility that we might say something "dirty". There is nothing wrong (in fact, there is everything RIGHT) with a Christian enjoying and desiring a good sexual relationship with his or her spouse! In fact, maybe it's time we turned the tables and started portraying it as healthy and the NORM?

Christians, we can either be silent and accept the world's view of sex as "dirty", or we can be a catalyst to RESHAPE its reputation. Why is it that everyone automatically assumes that discussion of anything sexual is vulgar? It is that attitude right there that makes it difficult for Christians to get help if they need it, from people they respect--because they fear being viewed as vulgar or dirty or sex-obsessed! It is the misconception (that originated from the silence of those who believed and lived otherwise) that married love is somehow nonexistent and boring and dull and a chore that has fueled the media's ball-and-chain portrayal of marriage! We need to break that mold! Somehow non-Christians have gotten the idea that those of us who are Christians are "prudes". Maybe because we portray the life of a follower of Christ as a checklist of do's and don'ts instead of preaching as the writer of Hebrews did to those who had been under the Law--that writer encouraged their fledgling faith by reiterating that what they have now is BETTER!

Why aren't we doing that?