It is ironic and possibly prophetic that the Nashville Statement (NS) was published the very same day that I released a short film on LGBT people in the church titled Dear Church: I’m Gay. I think these two “statements” represent two brands of evangelical approaches to questions about faith, sexuality & gender. These two brands overlap quite a bit; they both agree that marriage is between a man and a woman and that all sexual relations outside this type of marriage covenant are sin. That’s a big overlap. However, there are many differences in tone, rhetoric, and how to go about this whole conversation. In some ways, the Nashville Statement brought these differences to light.

I know I’ve been blogging a lot about sex recently. I hope you don’t mind. But if you’re reading this, and therefore human, my guess is that you probably don’t mind at all. Sex and sexuality are rarely met with disinterest. Unfortunately, my recent geeking out over sex is more of a scholarly venture. You can Google elsewhere if you want the steamy stuff. (Actually...please don’t.)

As you may have gathered from my previous few blogs, I’m combing through various books on sexual ethics and related topics. The list of potential books is endless, and I’ve already read a decent number over the years, but I’m committed to reading through as many significant books on sexuality and gender over the next few years.

Kuehne (pronounced “Keen”) examines three different types of societies, which he labels the tWorld (t = traditional), iWorld (i = individual), and rWorld (r = relational). Specifically, he looks at how these three different worlds understand sexuality, along with related topics like anthropology, identity, relationships, and morality as a whole. 

I’ll wrap of my review of Jonathan Grant’s Divine Sex by looking at how he articulates a Christian vision for sexuality. As with any review, there’s always a danger of truncating the author’s argument due to the nature of picking out which parts to emphasize. I hope I’ve represented Jonathan’s argument well, and I know there’s many things I had to leave out. That’s why I want to give you one last encouragement to buy and read Jonathan’s book.

Well, that title’s going to attract a wide range of readers. I’ll never forget reading Lisa Diamond’s book Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desireat my kids’ afterschool events and getting some rather strange “ewe, what a creeper” looks from the other moms. 

The third annual Ecclesia and Ethics conference will be taking place over the next two weekends (March 14th and 21st) and this year’s theme is going to be a good one—“Human Sexuality and the Church.” Any conference with the words “sex” and “church” in its title is bound to gain some attendees.

Today, we’re going to get to know author and pastor, Sam Allberry. Sam is the assistant pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Maidenhead, U.K. and is the author of several books including, Connected: Living in Light of the Trinity,Lifted: Living in Light of the Resurrection, and Is God Anti-Gay.