Gospel

The Return to Sexual Holiness

An Excerpt from The End of Sexual Identity

by Jenell Williams Paris

In post–sexual identity Christian communities, sexual holiness becomes a common standard for all believers. Same-sex attraction and behavior still matter, but not as identity-constituting characteristics and not as points of theological disagreement that warrant separation or exclusion. Instead of a few sexual behaviors being selected for elevated judgment, all elements of human sexuality become part of the mix, shaping what it means for each person to be holy in their sexuality. Sexual holiness encompasses the sexual identity framework, thereby diminishing its importance in light of a more important biblical value. Some individuals or communities may discard sexual identity categories altogether in the way they think of themselves, describe themselves to others and talk within particular communities. Others may retain the categories for strategic purposes but no longer mistake them as timeless, universally true or biblical. Like my GPA, sexual identity categories can become our servants instead of our masters.

Dimensions of Sexual Holiness

Academics and church leaders from a broad range of Holiness churches formed the Wesleyan Holiness Study Project, a group committed to working across denominational lines to communicate the message of holiness to contemporary audiences both within and beyond Holiness churches.2 (My personal affiliations are both within and beyond the Holiness tradition. I worshiped at a Church of God [Anderson] for four years and was married in that church, and now am part of the Brethren in Christ denomination, which has Mennonite and Wesleyan roots.)The Holiness Manifesto, a public statement that emerged from the project, describes a number of dimensions of holiness, each of which contains contrasting or even paradoxical elements. Applying these dimensions to sexuality (I selected those that best apply) demonstrates the richness of holiness.

1. Individual and corporate. Christians are called to holiness in all areas of life, both personal and corporate. Personal sexual holiness includes how a person cares for his or her sexual feelings, thoughts and actions.

In the next chapters, I’ll offer my view of what sexual holiness may mean for both sexual activity and celibacy. My views are conservative—I’m a “sex only within marriage between a man and a woman” kind of Christian—but I am well aware that Christians of good faith disagree about the meaning of personal sexual holiness.3 Maligning those with whom we disagree, even to the point of questioning the validity of their faith or salvation, is counterproductive and damages the witness of our religion as a whole, which is supposed to be comprised of believers from many times and places united in their devotion to Jesus, not to a set of beliefs about sexuality.

While sexuality is personal in many ways, it also is a matter of public, corporate concern. Christians have done well in promoting healing around some issues of sexual brokenness. One example is in the area of sex trafficking, which Christians, along with people of other religions and perspectives, are working to eliminate. International Justice Mission, a Christian nonprofit organization, is particularly devoted to this, working around the world to address human rights violations, including sex trafficking.4 Others work to reduce sexual abuse when they require background checks for church workers and establish grievance procedures in churches and denominations. On matters of general consensus, such as sex trafficking, rape, abuse, addictions and breaches of marriage, Christians contribute well to the public good, even partnering with individuals or groups with whom they may disagree on other issues.

When it comes to contentious sexual issues, however, Christian public engagement becomes more, well, contentious. Within the United States, there’s no consensus on issues like abortion, teen access to contraception, sex education in public schools, obscenity laws for media, sexuality-based hate-crime classifications, health insurance for domestic partnerships, gay marriage, and discrimination in employment or housing based on sexual identity. Internationally, Christians hold vastly different beliefs about polygamy, female circumcision, the value of an infertile wife, the propriety of birth control, patriarchy, and even domestic abuse (some would encourage an abused woman to leave and find safety, while others would distort Scripture, instructing her to win over her abuser in “quietness and full submission” [1 Timothy 2:11]).5 Sometimes Christians adopt the worst political strategies: shouting, bullying, demonizing the opposition, refusing to listen and even becoming violent. Despite the urgency of many of these matters, homosexuality, in particular, has become the trigger issue over which believers break fellowship with each other. The world in which Christians all agree about sexual issues is an imaginary one. Love of God and neighbor, the heart of holiness, has to be practiced in the real world in the midst of these disagreements.

2. Christ-centered and Holy Spirit–centered. “The Holy Spirit’s work within us leads us to conformity to the person of Jesus Christ. Neither should be expressed without the other.”6 When the Holy Spirit (or a particular representation of the Holy Spirit) is emphasized to the exclusion of Christ, sexual holiness can be misconstrued as whatever seems right or feels right to a person. “Healthy” sexuality may become a substitute for holiness, and acceptance or affirmation may become more important than redemption and sanctification. For example, a progressive Christian group states, “All persons have the right and responsibility to lead sexual lives that express love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent and pleasure. Grounded in respect for the body and for the vulnerability that intimacy brings, this ethic fosters physical, emotional and spiritual health.”7 While this progressive vision encompasses many elements of justice, such as reducing sexual abuse and violence, it relies on a general value of “spiritual health” that neglects more specific and distinctive elements of the Christian tradition. On the other hand, when Jesus (or a particular representation of Jesus) is emphasized over the Holy Spirit, Christians can coerce themselves and others into behavioral compliance with Jesus’ moral teachings to the neglect of cultivating personal spirituality and conscience.

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Comments

Mark Gomez

1 Thess 4:3 "For this is the will of God, your sanctification; {that is,} that you abstain from sexual immorality;..."

Wes Widner

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. -1 Corinthians 7:2

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous -Hebrews 13:4

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. -1 Corinthians 6:18

Mary Moser

Both Mark and Wes said it well. Scripture is sufficient. This day, time, it seems to me is like those of the book of Judges, when everyone did what seemed right to himself.

Mike

This piece exposes much of the deficiency of "scholarly" writing. Rarely has so little been said with so many words. In the end, what is needed on this issue is irenic clarity, not endless nuance, qualification, and obfuscation. The question about sexual identity begs foundational questions: 1) What does the Bible teach about our value as human beings? 2) What does the Bible teach about God's holy design for our sexual expression? On both counts, the Scriptural record is fairly clear. We have immense value, having been made in the image of God. And we are to physically express our sexuality in heterosexual behaviors or to restrain such behaviors outside of monogamous man-woman marriage. Furthermore, the question must be raised: "In discussing sexual identity, who or what group is most eager to use labels of sexual identity as the primary identity markers for themselves?" The answer is revealing. It is a shame that Paris so complicates a subject wth so much confusion.

Caitie

Hi Mike,

I think it is a shame that you so flippantly disregard and insult this writer because you judge her work as deficient scholarly writing. I highly doubt this piece was written exclusively for a scholarly audience even though Jenell is a scholar; by the tone and progression of argument, it seems like she was writing for a general audience who lives with broken lives and bleeding hearts everyday.

From reading this piece, I think the two of you would agree on the principles but disagree on presentation. She writes in a very down to earth, inductive way so that followers of Jesus who live and love LGBT friends can approach this topic with care and not the typical-bible-bullying that communicates nothing but hate. Jenell meets this issue where it is at and presents a new vocabulary for engaging the ideas with the power of the same truths but in a different, less offensive way.

Long gone are the days when only quoting what the bible says about sexuality effectively communicates the Truth to confessing Christians and the rest of culture (look at the statistics for divorce, abuse, etc. We look the same as the rest of culture. The church, as a whole, as failed to hold itself accountable and, for generations, has failed to communicate a compelling sexual narrative).

If communication is for the sake of the audience's understanding (and not our own need to speak) we need to figure out how to hold ourselves and our brothers and sisters accountable for failed marriages, fornication, and sexual abuse while communicating the depths and heights of God's love and grace. Like Leslie Newbigin wrote in Foolishness to the Greeks, we need to become missionaries to our culture and learn to speak their language so that they will hear have a framework for understanding.

Mike-it seems to me that you are attacking Jenell for an attempt to do just that. Read the entirety of her book and then have these discussions with those struggling with sexual identity and see which dialect exhibits God's heart the most.

Ryan Spellecy

It seems to me that all of you make valid points. Yes, Scripture is clear about sexual immorality. Yet Caitie highlights the important point that as Christians, we still have high rates of divorce, infidelity, and so forth. The author's point about moving beyond mere sexual acts and orientation and towards sexual holiness are well taken. We as Christians need to examine our own attitudes towards sex, with an eye towards holiness, and not just "It's hetero so it is OK." Caitie is also right that the days of merely quoting Scripture to unbelievers settles the debate are long gone. What do we want to do...win an argument, or save souls for Christ? That said, I do find it difficult to reconcile some of the author's comments with Scripture. Perhaps I need to check out her book.

Cedric

more to the point the deficiency of reading comprehension is exposed when reading the comments in response to a piece of "scholarly writing".

Jenelle is only fuzzy on the issue of homosexuality if you skim over the article and not take the time to read the whole thing. She is clearly believes that homosexual behavior is a sin and falls short of the holiness standard that God has communicated in scripture.

The point that she is making and possibly isn't as clear on (which is pardonable) is that we as Christians, aren't going to get anywhere calling people who consider themselves homosexual (an increasing number of which are also claiming to be Christian) to holiness arena of their sexual lives. As long as the discussion stays firmly rooted in terms of sexual identity we will never get past the surface of what the real issue is; the contents of the grocery bag. How do you live out holiness in the areas of desire, fantasy, behaviors, relationships, memories, hopes, thoughts, health and marriage.

Moreover, if it's about encouraging people to holiness and not just about who's right and who's wrong then anytime sexual identity is brought up someone will inevitably go to the claim or question, "what if they're born that way?" Well when you discard sexual identity and deal with the contents of the bag that Jenell mentions it's not long before marriage comes up. So irregardless of whether or not someone believes they were born that way or others are born that way, they have to confront the fact that biblical holiness in marriage is strictly defined as one man one woman.

Taylor Long

I may have misread the author, but this statement from the article above seems to get at the heart of what she is trying to do:

"The world in which Christians all agree about sexual issues is an imaginary one. Love of God and neighbor, the heart of holiness, has to be practiced in the real world in the midst of these disagreements."

I fear the author may be dismissive of the magnitude of the issue of sexuality throughout human history, and perhaps blind to the pervasive selfishness and idolatry that both the church and society have bought into in the area of sex in our day.

I agree that the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is to love your neighbor (irregardless of whether they agree with you on every (or even any) issue). However, when we are talking about striving to be faithful as a Church, especially in the area of our sexuality and how we define it (which has profound implications for individuals, churches and society as a whole), we cannot allow the fact that not all Christians agree about sexual issues to reduce this topic to an interesting talking point with no real implications for the individual or the church, so long as we are all loving and civil about the conversation (and again, I don't know if this was the author's intent). To be faithful means to be willing to critique our own beliefs, to make sacrifices, to limit ourselves in the name of loving God by doing what is right.

For those interested in what I consider to be a more helpful approach to this issue, check out Sarah Williams talk "Sexuality in the Modern Paradigm". I couldn't sleep after I listened to that talk, and it still has me reeling.

Here is the address to it: http://www.regentbookstore.com/product_details.php?item_id=75971

decarlisle

Keep the main thing the main thing. If you give any impression that homosexuality is condoned then you are in error.

Its not that we should stop them from coming to Christ but unless they truly want to repent same as someone in adultery they should be asked to leave. The Church must do its best to teach and help all in sin but we can't look at it likes it just babies nursing.

Look at what has happened to main stream Churches now they are falling away because of such practices. The interfaith movement and liberalism is not going to bring us back to Holiness but neither is the stiff necked conservative that does not have true love for his neighbor no matter what their persuasion is. I don't think anyone here wants anyone going down the wide path that leads to destruction.

Justin Czekanski

I agree that placing a label of hetero- or homosexuality is not biblical and leads to division rather than unity. On the other hand we must not forget that God has given us two options with regards to our sexuality, that is: marriage or being single.

I do not thing that if you are gay you cannot be saved, but if we want to be consistent with the Scripture - which is quite transparent when it comes to sexuality - God wanted to express unity and holiness through opposite sex marriages.

Even Jesus is called a bridegroom and the Church is called the Bride.

You, Dr. Paris, mention many misinterpretations but I thing that we have to stand firm: tolerance does not equal acceptance.

I do criticize homosexuality, but I also criticize addiction to pornography, premarital sex, etc.

Some of the supporters of the so called 'tolerance movement' would probably call me homophobic - not even understanding that the word they are using has a ridiculous meaning of : "being afraid of humans" (homo - human - as in homo sapiens; phobia - fear"

I don't want the message of Bible to be blurred by the teaching of tolerance. Sin is not wrong because some said so - it is wrong because it brings destruction and open the door for satan, who comes only to steal, kill and destroy.

But this teaching is not as easily acceptable simply because if you mention satan, in the eyes of the world you look like a weirdo. Isn't it so?

Let's just mention that sexual purity and holiness for that matter is what God desires for us not to restrain but to offer us freedom and happiness. I don't want to judge, but haven't we missed it in the church?

Ramesh

Hello, I am from India. I do not understand westerners' obsession with homosexuality. Here in India, homosexuality is banned as a "lewd and obscene act" and "harmful to public decency" under the penal code.

MCole

The Bible is not transparent when it comes to any issue and I think we border on being prideful (deadly sin) when we claim we know the answers to these questions as a certainty. Paul was also transparent when it came to slavery. Jesus seemed to be pretty transparent on the issue of divorce but why don't we hear about that issue as much. Be careful of hypocrisy.

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