God is pro sex, according to the Ignite Church of Joplin, Mo. Not only do they have a website advertising this notion but they’ve put up billboards to sell the idea, too. Proper, heterosexual, married sex obviously, but still. They’re taking the bedroom into the pews to deal with sex and the need for married couples to have lots of it so they’re supposedly less likely to be tempted to sin. From the ABC article:
“We’re doing a series about sex, and God’s intended purpose for it,” Mooneyham. “We’re hitting things like adultery and pornography.”
Mooneyham indicated that in a poll on the church’s website, 86 percent of the respondents said they were not having enough sex in their marriage.
“This is really one of the major issues that’s ripping marriages apart. They are at a higher risk of adultery, looking at pornography — that leads to divorce,” Mooneyham said.
So he decided to try to do something about it, planning a series of Sunday “experiences” about sex at the church, and creating a series of videos on the subject for the Web site.
“Some people think we are porno-fying the church,” Mooneyham said, but he argued that what the church is really trying to do is help people with their marriages — helping the faithful stay faithful
This sounds like a fine idea to me, seeing a church recognizing some natural human urges and encouraging people to go ahead with them. But not everyone is happy about it. Parents who hoped their children would never know there was such a thing as sex until their wedding night are highly annoyed over the billboards and the church’s current focus on sex.
“There is no way ever I would take my kids to a church with a big sign advertising sex,” Veronica Warren told ABC affiliate KODE-TV in Joplin.
One of the billboards is near a Sonic fast food restaurant.
“People bring their kids to Sonic and their kids are going to look at that sign and say, ‘Mommy what’s that mean?’ and, oh my God, and then that parent has to explain,” Warren said.
Oh my non-existent god! A parent has to act like a parent and teach a kid something about reality. It’s the end of the world!
Nobody’s forcing you to explain the ins and outs of humans having sex while you wait in line for a meal. Surely this parent knows that discussion can be done privately in the car or at home later when you’ve calmed down and can think about the best age-appropriate ways to answer those questions.
I hope this is something that gets talked about during those church services – how to deal with kids and their questions about this natural human behaviour. It’s a part of life and if it’s going to be a bigger part of married lives, people should be encouraged to talk to their children about sex in a positive way. If they can do that without blushing or getting jittery or sidestepping issues entirely, so much the better.
I think a lot of sexual hangups people have are a byproduct of how their parents dealt with that topic. If it wasn’t talked about, or there was no evidence of parents expressing love towards each other, or there was some feeling that the whole idea was shameful and taboo, small wonder people grow up feeling guilty about their urges, and still feel dirty, sinful, or think it’s wrong years later.
Getting people mad is not the church’s intention, Mooneyham said — but he does want their attention.
“The town’s divided down the middle on this,” he said. “This is the Bible Belt. They’re freaking. But the congregation has been really great about it. They understand the message behind it.”
Despite some people’s reservations about what the church is doing, Mooneyham said that the way the world is today, kids are already exposed to sex at an early age.
If that is going to happen, he said, he would rather have them exposed to it in church.
Insert obligatory priestly pedophilia joke here. Obviously that’s not the kind of sex exposure he means. He just wants the topic out in the open and talked about seriously and rationally instead of treating sex like it’s evil and the first steps on the road to damnation.
“God created it and he’s not freaked out by it,” he said. “So I don’t see why we should be.”
As an atheist I don’t believe there was a god involved in the making of anything that lives, breathes and bangs body parts together, but his point’s still valid. It’s a normal part of the human experience and needs to be treated that way.
Which reminds me, Saskatoon’s 2nd Annual Taboo Naughty…but Nice Show runs February 18 to 20 at TCU Place and it’s ridiculously cheap to attend. Check their site for more info. It’s a pity a sex convention advertises itself as taboo, though. How does that help people feel comfortable about their curiosity regarding pole dancing, sex toys, or new and exciting ways to stimulate their partners?
One Minion's Opinion 