Posted on 05/06/2021 8:37:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last August, Pew Research announced the findings of a new study with a provocative headline: “Half of Christians say casual sex is sometimes or always acceptable.”
As is the case with many studies, a “Christian” for the purposes of this study meant anyone who “identified” as one, without taking into account orthodox belief or degree of commitment. Still, the results are disturbing.
In particular, what the study reveals about self-identified evangelicals is especially troubling. According to Pew, less than half of evangelicals surveyed were willing to say that casual sex is never acceptable. Seventeen percent said casual sex was “rarely” acceptable. Twenty-four percent said that it was sometimes so, and twelve percent (one in eight!) said that casual sex was always acceptable.
Remember, these are evangelicals talking about casual sex here or, as the survey defined it, “sex between consenting adults who are not in a committed romantic relationship.” We’re talking Tinder and the infamous “hook up” culture.
That any Christian would find this behavior ever acceptable is astounding, but that more than one-third of evangelicals are fine with occasional promiscuity? (The survey also found that nearly three-in-five approve of cohabitation, with two-fifths of them planning to doing so.)
At root, what this survey reveals is a failure of catechesis. Or, to be more precise, a failure of the Church combined with the resounding success of cultural forces to catechize. Specifically, churches have failed to teach young people a true, Christian understanding of sex and the human body.
It will sound ridiculous to some, especially those wounded by or obsessed with “purity culture,” to say that churches haven’t catechized people about sexual morality. The popular assumption is that Christians are always talking about sex!
Missing in these “hot takes” are two things. First, we are a full generation past the heyday of “purity culture,” if there ever was one. Since the 1990s, the pendulum has fully swung in the opposite direction, more than overcompensating for any past stridency. It’s not that many churches modified their views on sex outside of marriage; it’s that they stopped talking about it. Or, when they did, many were so focused on apologizing for how they did it in the past that they forgot to teach the actual morality part in the present.
Either way, many young evangelicals learned to be OK with causal sex and cohabitation in churches sounding what the Apostle Paul called an “uncertain trumpet” on the matter. Embarrassed by what Christianity has to say about sex, the emphasis was placed on assuring people that sexual sin is “no big deal,” no worse than any other sins, and that we shouldn’t be too “judgy.”
Second, within those churches that did continue to proclaim (and rightly so) that God cares about sexual behavior, there was often a failure to connect sexual morality to God’s creative purposes for sex (or, to put it differently to connect “the what” with “the why”). To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, before we can know what to do with something, we need to know what that something is for.
In many cases, the Church was merely decorating a thoroughly secular vision of sexuality, the kind now largely taken for granted in our culture, with a sort of external Christian morality. Surface-level catechism is no catechism at all.
In contrast, there is absolutely nothing uncertain or surface-level about the cultural catechism about sex. In our world, it’s those who abstain from sex outside of marriage who have to explain themselves. Those who embrace children as God-given blessings of the sexual act who have to defend their point of view. It’s Christians who must justify their strange opinions about sex.
Even if churches effectively catechized in the area of sexuality, that prospect would be daunting. Advances in technology and the omnipresent internet only add to our immersion in the culture’s worst messages. With an uncertain trumpet coming from the Church, maybe we should be surprised that even more of our young people aren’t okay with causal sex and cohabitation.
Still, we should remember that Christianity arose within the paganistic and sexually abusive Greco-Roman world. In that world, biblical morality was seen as life-giving, hopeful, and good. The same Scriptural truths that transformed the Western mind are as potent today as ever.
“Evangelical Christianity” is a different religion than traditional Christianity.
This matches what I have seen. We have new converts come in, and then get mad when we say premarital sex is wrong
What next? Contemporary sex?
During His earthly ministry there was a point where Christ said some hard things that led to many who had been following to stop following Him anymore.
Today the hard things that too many people cannot bear to hear includes saying that they should simply have good morals.
What would those say if He asked them if they will leave too?
RE: “Evangelical Christianity” is a different religion than traditional Christianity.
OK, let’s see what Evangelical Christianity believes in:
See here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelicalism
One influential definition of evangelicalism has been proposed by historian David Bebbington. Bebbington notes four distinctive aspects of evangelical faith:
Conversionism, Biblicism, Crucicentrism, and Activism, noting, “Together they form a quadrilateral of priorities that is the basis of Evangelicalism.”
* Conversionism, or belief in the necessity of being “born again”, has been a constant theme of evangelicalism since its beginnings. To evangelicals, the central message of the gospel is justification by faith in Christ and repentance, or turning away, from sin. Conversion differentiates the Christian from the non-Christian, and the change in life it leads to is marked by both a rejection of sin and a corresponding personal holiness of life. A conversion experience can be emotional, including grief and sorrow for sin followed by great relief at receiving forgiveness. The stress on conversion differentiates evangelicalism from other forms of Protestantism by the associated belief that an assurance will accompany conversion. Among evangelicals, many individuals have testified to both sudden and gradual conversions.
* Biblicism is reverence for the Bible and high regard for biblical authority. All evangelicals believe in biblical inspiration, though they disagree over how this inspiration should be defined. Many evangelicals believe in biblical inerrancy, while other evangelicals believe in biblical infallibility.
* Crucicentrism is the centrality that evangelicals give to the Atonement, the saving death and the resurrection of Jesus, that offers forgiveness of sins and new life. This is understood most commonly in terms of a substitutionary atonement, in which Christ died as a substitute for sinful humanity by taking on himself the guilt and punishment for sin.
* Activism describes the tendency toward active expression and sharing of the gospel in diverse ways that include preaching and social action. This aspect of evangelicalism continues to be seen today in the proliferation of evangelical voluntary religious groups and parachurch organizations
Now, how is this different from “Traditional” Christianity? Are you saying that “Traditional Christianity” does not teach those things?
God is perfect and He does not change. Churches that believe God has to “get with the times” are sadly adopting the world’s viewpoint, not God’s. And, yes, most churches no longer approach the subject or gently sidestep it. Heck, they can’t even find the courage to condemn what is openly condemned in Scripture. My church broke fellowship last month with a man who was openly cheating on his wife and would not repent of it. That’s harsh but we were following what Scripture says about church discipline.
The media, from music to movies to tv, presume today that a) everyone is having sex and b) you’re a freak if you don’t, really affects the psyches of young Christians trying to wait until marriage. That’s why church peer groups are so important. Knowing others are abstaining gives the young a greater will to abstain as well.
That the author finds it "especially troubling" is, well, especially troubling.
At the core of evangelical Christianity (where I have spent a lot of time) is the proposition that, with regard to the spiritual aspect of life choices is, "it's up to me", which transitions seamlessly into "It's up to ME".
On the right-wing edge of this, it's the business of "Who is a Christian", "I am a Christian, are you", and "I an a Christian and he's not". I literally know people (and I bet you do, too) who don't go to church and who conduct services in their homes because, in their magisterial judgement, NOBODY is a Christian except the head of the household.
Now this is a knife that cuts two ways. If you can, through diligent Bible study and frequent devotions can turn John 6:53 into symbolic grape juice and white bread, or can turn Matthew 16:18 into "no one can interpret the Bible for me, never mind forgive sins", then getting on with the old "in, out, in, out" for reasons which seem compelling at the time (as we all know they tend to do) is really a snap.
***Half of Christians say casual sex is sometimes or always acceptable.***
Jesus said, “Marvel not that I say to you, ‘You must be born again’.”
Those who are truly born again are not sinless, but they will NEVER embrace immorality and accept sin as ‘normal’ or ‘acceptable’.
Those who accept, engage in or celebrate sin may ‘go to church’ or even be active in a church, but they are not born of the Spirit. Argue with this if you wish, but it will not change the fact that to be a *Christian*, you MUST be born again.
And all of them extreme far left heretical mainstream churches call themselves evangelical, so that alters the numbers a bit.
RE: And all of them extreme far left heretical mainstream churches call themselves evangelical,
Yes, and Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo, etc. all call themselves Catholic and still receive communion.
Can Hatred of Christians Lead to Support of Sexual Minorities?
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2019/03/50399/
In a Reddit room
“I hate Christians”
Me: “Even gay Christians”
“Wait...what?”
Me: “How about African-American Christians? Do you hate them?”
“Don’t put words in my mouth”
Me: “They were already there when I got here”
I am saying a great many “evangelical” churches DO NOT teach those things.
Case in point, a friend of mine goes to the mega church.
The pastor doesn’t preach the Biblical doctrine of sin (to mean).
Sexual chastity is not mentioned.
Prosperity gospel.
St. Paul was “misguided”.
Could go on. but you get my point.
Wow, what was going on under those pews?
I really missed out!
Anyone can call themselves pretty much anything and it takes discernment to see if they’re pulling your leg or not.
There are certain fruits to identify the nature of trees that they come from.
One specific fruit to be found among those who have refused to retain the knowledge of the Lord is outlined in Romans 1 ... this fruit, championing homosexuality, amounts to the “in your face so why can’t you see it?” level of discernment needed.
People who can’t see this fruit are like people who are unsuccessfully using Google Earth to try to find the Grand Canyon while they are standing just a few feet away from it.
The sign is there, arguably, so people will flee from fellowship with those displaying it.
But for many remaining in such congregations it seems like that’s too much discernment to expect. Tiddly Winks is now rocket science in America.
The Christians I respect the most are those who “walk the walk” taking full inspiration from his example. If you are searching for “community,” join an activities club, if you are searching for “entertainment,” get a Spotify subscription.
RE: The pastor doesn’t preach the Biblical doctrine of sin (to mean).
Well, if that’s the case, they can call themselves evangelical all they like, that doesn’t make them so.
Not necessarily.
The Narrow Gate
(Luke 13:22-30)
13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John,
2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Revelation 3 New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995)
7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:
8 ‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
9 Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.
10 Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
11 I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.
12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.
13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The Church in Philadelphia, received no criticism from Jesus, John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera say otherwise.
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