Interesting Sex Book
I love the library. I check out the new book section every time. It’s very interesting, even more so last week.
Last week I found the book, Naked and Not Ashamed, How God Redeems Our Sexuality, by Dan Scott. I have not read the whole book but what I have read so far has been insightful. It is especially interesting as it adds to the dialogue my husband and I have had over the last couple years. We have talked about what is “okay” for Christians. Context here: we were “conservative virgins” when we were married (gosh that sounds funny but appropriate) and were cautious about exploring sex. Up until we got married we heard about how we needed to stay away and be careful. Turning that around after one is married is quite strange. But that’s a whole other story.
And sex, in my circle of friends anyway, is not a common topic. We talk about poop, breast-feeding, periods, weird things that happen with your body when you get pregnant but sex rarely comes up. Not that I think I need to hear the ins and outs of someones sex life. I don’t. But I think when I was a newly wed I could have gained from some older women’s wisdom. Last week, when I brought up a sex question to a friend during our six person women’s small group prayer time, someone expressed later that they appreciated that I was so open about sex. (We were addressing a busy friend’s life and her bickering with her husband. I shared that when my husband and I don’t have sex for an extended period of time sometimes we get testy with each other and wondered (out-loud) if maybe they were experiencing the same thing).
Here’s an interesting passage from this book that I read last night:
“Perfectionism, then, whether it attempts to destroy sexuality or to enshrine it as an idol, poisons life. Sex is not a great web of wickedness, nor is it a conduit to cosmic consciousness. Sex is not Satan, nor is it God. Sex is just sex. It is, to be sure, one of the greatest pleasures of life, but healthy sexuality cannot survive when we try to push it to either perfectionistic extreme.”
