Brave Enough To Be Bliss

Chapter 15 — Messy Sex

Did I read that right? Messy Sex, from the church?

The first Wednesday I was at Table Rock Lake, I received an email from the church with all the women’s programming. I signed up for that email distribution years ago but rarely had any time to participate, so at most I would skim the email, but more often just delete it. On this particular day, though, I moved the computer mouse to select delete, but then hesitated and decided to scan through it. And that’s when I saw the graphic above talking about the Messy Sex class. It stopped me in my tracks. I was intrigued simply seeing the word sex in a church communication, so I quickly opened a new tab on the computer and searched for this Rev. Dr. Angie McCarty and her Messy Sex. I read the following on her website. “Messy sex acknowledges that sexuality is complicated. The very good gift of human sexuality has been abused and transformed into a tool for manipulation and shame, many times by the churches we trusted to teach youth a biblical sexual ethic. As progressive theology and biblical interpretation comes to the forefront of many churches, scholars admit that biblical writings about sex have been removed from their original context and historical grounding. Where does this leave us? With one heck of a mess.

“All hope is not lost! By talking about sex, the bible, and the realities of life in the 21st century, messy sex claims thinking Christians can live with integrity and grace as sexual beings who follow the teachings of scripture.

414