Viewing the World Through "Sex-Colored Glasses"

Another biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer has recently been released.  Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is authored by UVa professor of religious studies Charles Marsh.  While reviews are generally positive – Click Here for the Gospel Coaliion review by Devin Maddox – all seem surprised by Marsh’s suggestion that Bonhoeffer was gay, or at least experienced what we moderns refer to as “same-sex attraction” with his friend and editorial trustee Eberhard Bethge.  This suggestion is notable on two scores: first, the lack of evidence that supports the idea and abundance of evidence that undermines it, and second, what Marsh’s suggestion says about life in 21st century America.  We now seem to see all things, including history, through what I’ll call “sex-colored glasses.”

Porn In The USA

Porn now affects virtually everyone’s relationships, even if neither partner actively spends time with it. How so? .  .  .   If a critical mass of emerging adult men consume porn regularly—by most estimates we’re there now—it cannot but shape (sexual practices and relationships).  .  .  .  This is new, too. Online porn is a uniquely modern problem in that it—like hooking up—thrives in part because of its speed and because it encourages men (and some women) to compartmentalize sex as a consumer product to be regularly and briefly consumed. Unlike relationships, it doesn’t require work. And our lives, after all, are very busy. Sex has to fit in somehow (since sex is also increasingly considered a need rather than a desire). Thus porn is increasingly fitting into modern relationships—including marriages.
From Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying by Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker.  Oxford University Press, 2011.  Click Here For Amazon.com link

Mark Regnerus is a sociology professor at the University of Texas.  He is just one of a number of social researchers who have begun to identify and measure the sudden and extraordinary impact of pornography on life in the United States.

There is a “New Porn” that has come into existence and influence as a result of high-speed internet connections.  And it is not the Playboy of my own college days "on steroids."  This "New Porn" is as different from that as a nuclear bomb is from a firecracker.  Think computers, iPads and smart phones at work, coffee shop and home.  Think about measurable, enduring changes to brain chemistry and connections.  As I reviewed the research – I was a sociology major in college, so I have some training in this. – I found that those studies that had the best research base were turning up the most frightening impacts.  This is never a good sign.  And the best research is all within the past five years.  This is new.  It is big.  It is pervasive.  It is different.  And it is destructive.

Just Assume You Don’t Get It

Just assume you don’t get “it.”  “It” being the Gospel of grace.

One of the most honest and important steps any person can take towards growing in Christ, is to simply accept the fact that you don’t really live by the Gospel.  Take that step in your thinking, and you will be open to repenting and then pursuing the Gospel.  Think that you “have got the gospel” and you will want to “move on” to whatever you think is next.  And in that, you step away from the Gospel.

Follow-Up on Authority of the Scriptures

This Sunday, as part of a series based on the EPC statement of the "Essentials of our Faith," I preached from the Scriptures on the topic of the Authority of the Bible.  Then Monday I cam across two outstanding articles on the Gospel Coalition website that expanded my message.

From "An Interview with Craig Blomberg on Jesus and the Reliability of the Gospels":

Can you tell us a bit about your own personal experience in coming to embrace the historical reliability of the gospels? Was there a period of time in your life when you seriously doubted the historical integrity of the gospel accounts?  Click Here to read the entire article.

From "Making Sense of Scripture's 'Inconsistency'" by Tim Keller

I find it frustrating when I read or hear columnists, pundits, or journalists dismiss Christians as inconsistent because "they pick and choose which of the rules in the Bible to obey." Most often I hear, "Christians ignore lots of Old Testament texts---about not eating raw meat or pork or shellfish, not executing people for breaking the Sabbath, not wearing garments woven with two kinds of material and so on. Then they condemn homosexuality. Aren't you just picking and choosing what you want to believe from the Bible?"

I don't expect everyone to understand that the whole Bible is about Jesus and God's plan to redeem his people, but I vainly hope that one day someone will access their common sense (or at least talk to an informed theological adviser) before leveling the charge of inconsistency.  Click Here to read the entire article.

 And for Monday morning bonus points, here's the video I used in this Sunday's sermon.  It's Tim Keller (again) - "Jesus: The True and Better"

Learning To Pray

I want to pass on to you the most inspiring prayer resource that I have encountered in many years.  "Heavenward" is  a blog by Scotty Smith, pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN.  Each day he posts a prayer.  Each prayer is now a part of own my daily time with my Heavenly Father. There is no better resource for learning to pray from a "gospel of grace" perspective that I have been able to find.

You can go directly to the blog by clicking here.  Once there, mark that in your browser and then pray daily with Scotty, just as I do.  There is even a link on that page to have the prayer emailed to you each day.  Do whatever works best for you, but don't miss the opportunity to see your prayer life grow and the roots of your heart dig deeper into the gospel of grace.  Let me encourage you by giving you a taste of today's prayer: