If I were to ask you one thing you’d change about your body, chances are it wouldn’t take long to think of an answer. We all have things we dislike when we look in the mirror. Somewhere between the acne and the wrinkles, the growing pains and the body aches, it can be all too easy to think of our bodies as a nuisance rather than a gift. No matter what age you are.
"I am a woman trapped in a man's body." It’s a phrase you think you’d hear on a 2020 interview with Bruce, now Caitlyn, Jenner or perhaps on a TLC show chronicalizing the journey of teenage transgendered girl Jazz Jennings. But walk down any highschool hallway, and you’re likely to hear this sentiment being discussed. One hundred years ago, it would have been dismissed as illogical or delusional even. “Today it is a sentence that many in our society regard as not only meaningful but so significant that to deny it or question it in some way is to reveal oneself as stupid, immoral, or subject to yet another irrational phobia.” (Trueman, 19)
MODERN DAY INJUSTICE Pornography might seem like a harmless past time, safely tucked away in the privacy of your web browser. Many argue that it doesn’t hurt anyone. That porn can be ethically produced. But the porn industry and the sex trafficking industry are intrinsically connected. What happens on the screen isn’t always consensual, and … Continue reading Pornography and Sex Trafficking: Biblical Justice from the Book of Amos
The pro-abortion movement is busy screeching at the top of it's lungs "My body. My choice." The irony is that the pro-life movement is pro-choice too. We just disagree on who gets a choice and when that choice occurs.
Every month like clockwork (give or take a day or two) we get the consequential reminder that, thanks to our mother Eve, we carry the curse of pain in child-birth. But are the crippling cramps and embarrassing blood soaked stains all that there is to It? Is that what periods are really all about?
When it comes to human sexuality, the Church knows what we are against, but does it know what we are for? That's the question this book seeks to answer. Throughout our 2000-year history, the Church has failed to thoroughly articulate a Christian vision for the body. Scripture teaches us that creation is good, that we are made in the image of God, and that we represent Him in the world, yet we often ignore the ways our bodies communicate His grace in our everyday lives.
I believe we need to bring loving and faithful accountability back into the church. And it starts with ourselves. It starts with being willing to take a step of vulnerability towards the members of our church family instead of away. And I will be the first to admit I am not good at being vulnerable. It’s something that does not come naturally to me, and I find it hard and painful. But in addition to being those things, it is also necessary for healing, reconciliation, and sanctification.
Lucy’s is just one of many stories author Abigail Shrier tells in her book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. Although not a Christian book, Shrier analyzes a problem facing a segment of our population Across My Heart Ministries cares deeply about: teenage girls. In her book, she unpacks the gender identity crisis seizing today’s adolescent girls like a viral contagion. For this reason, I read the book, and I am so glad I did!
As a single woman, though I’ve been passionate about the topics of sexuality and purity, I’ve had a hard time understanding where I fit in the puzzle. The church is so good at telling single Christians “no, don’t do that” and “wait.” At times it’s felt like I was in a holding area until meeting my future husband and starting our lives together. Through reading this book, I felt like my passions were reignited.
In her book, Love Thy Body, Nancy Pearcey argues that the Bible has a positive sexual ethic because all throughout the Bible, the body is treated as a good part of God's creation.
