Can the phrases ‘sizzling sex’ and ‘Christian marriage’ be used together in the same sentence?
For many, those two thoughts seem opposable rather than naturally linked together. Hot, passionate sex is not normally associated with Christianity in any way or form, but according to an article written by Jonathan Acuff, a Belief Blog contributor, this is a crying shame.
Acuff begins his article by taking issue with something that “pop princess” Katy Perry (the daughter of a pastor) recently said:
“I think when you put sex and spirituality in the same bottle and shake it up, bad things happen.”
Acuff argues that this type of thinking is incorrect and that Christians should do a much better job in connecting God with vibrant and passionate sexuality because divorcing the two is intrinsically harmful. He writes:
“That’s what we’ve been told. That God and sex don’t go together. And if you say something enough times, people start to believe it’s true…. You can’t have both in the same bottle. They’re oil and water. Cats and dogs. Spencer and Heidi. They just don’t go together.”
Acuff says that while the church is right to teach that sex outside of marriage is not right, it also should teach that “sex when you’re married is awesome.”
Acuff mentions that Christians harm sex in four fundamental ways:
1. They teach guilt, not abstinence.
2. They have very few ways to discuss it.
3. They write 10 books about lust for every one book about the gift of sex.
4. They've "made the crayon box pretty small" (they're afraid of being creative during sex).
Acuff argues that it is about time that Christian couples come to a realization that passionate sex is God's idea.
“We’ve bought the lie that the world gets to have wild, crazy sex and Christians, holy folks like us, have to have black-and-white, two-dimensional sex. But what if that’s wrong? What if the God who overflows us with love and hope and mercy wants that part of our lives to be as big and as colorful as two married people could possibly imagine?”
(You can read Acuff's article on www.stuffchristianslike.net)