{"id":12488,"date":"2017-03-17T12:50:04","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T19:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=12488"},"modified":"2017-03-17T12:50:04","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T19:50:04","slug":"true-love-waits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/true-love-waits\/","title":{"rendered":"True Love Waits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In 2011, Adrian Thatcher, now an\u00a0Honorary Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, UK, and Honorary Fellow in Medical Humanities in the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, UK., wrote his book God, Sex and Gender: An Introduction.[1]<\/a> \u00a0He explored a subject that has always been a difficult one to talk and write about within the confines of the church.\u00a0 Little could he have known how explosive this topic would become in the next few years after he wrote his book.\u00a0 He explores sex, sexuality, gender and theology.\u00a0\u00a0 By his own admission, he is liberal in his views on this subject.[2]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0He also dives into the difficult subject of same sex relationships, virginity, celibacy and chastity.<\/p>\n

Reading this book is a perfect illustration and application of the secular age. The progression of thoughts away from the \u201cpre-scientific world\u201d to now and how Thatcher defines thinking today. \u00a0It is very persuasive and repeatedly he implores the reader to shift their thinking just a little bit from what is interpreted from the Bible to a more modern thought process. Usually he has just introduced a new way to think about the subject.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t reference back to the Bible but instead to theology.\u00a0\u00a0 It was an interesting read from this perspective.\u00a0 The only way I know to approach this book is to look at a few of his techniques and opinions on specific subjects.<\/p>\n

Language<\/strong><\/p>\n

He brought new words to his writing and for most of them he included the definition right in the same sentence.\u00a0 I thought this was very educational and helpful.\u00a0 Some words that were new to me was \u201cunisex\u201d, \u201clogical truth\u201d and \u201csuprasexual.\u201d\u00a0 Taking the initiative to make sure that the reader knew what he was speaking of was very informative.\u00a0 I did not always agree with his new definition and even argued in the margin when it came to his emasculation of the Father.\u00a0 \u00a0This subject can have great confusion surrounding it because of language and because of interpretation.\u00a0 The author did a really great job of defining what he was writing about.<\/p>\n

Pre-Scientific<\/strong><\/p>\n

The long and short of his thoughts concerning \u201cheat\u201d fall into this pre-scientific idea.\u00a0 What was not scientifically known, allowed for thoughts, that were not accurate. My only exception is that the Bible is not where the author goes for information.\u00a0 After reading this book it gives me even more confidence in the Scripture because of its clarity concerning gender, sex and reasoning. His reinterpretation of key scriptures that address sexuality was used to build a foundation to persuade the reader to change their perspective on what is written.\u00a0 He examines scripture and looks for a new way to read it that fits where he is wanting the reader to go.\u00a0 This is secularization of the Bible. This technique was used concerning the scriptures that have been used to define same sex acts as sinful, for example.<\/p>\n

Gender<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you take away the Biblical foundation of creation it opens the possibility of all kinds of thought on gender.\u00a0\u00a0 We are all one gender?\u00a0 One sex, two genders?\u00a0 Three sexes or more?\u00a0 When you approach this topic from a Biblical view it is defined at the beginning of the narrative. It is foundational.\u00a0\u00a0 The author makes an argument that gender doesn\u2019t matter but I found it quite interesting how this argument is in the main stream today.\u00a0\u00a0 Bathrooms have become a major issue in this past year.\u00a0 Unisex or water closets that are inclusive is the solution that some have arrived at such as Starbucks and other mainstream restaurants. \u00a0Birth gender is the line that has been established in most states concerning this matter of the bathroom.\u00a0 How you are born does matter and it had been re-established as the defining gender marker.\u00a0 Gender power and gender choice were two very interesting thoughts that he had.\u00a0 Theological interests straddle both worlds.\u00a0 What does theology say about sex and gender?\u00a0 This question was used throughout the book.\u00a0 It does not say what does the Bible say about this but what do men say about what the Bible says.<\/p>\n

I do applaud him for his inclusiveness of all different religious theologies and their perspective on the sex, gender and God. \u00a0This can bring confusions though if this book would be considered a Christian theological book.\u00a0 It is more a world religion view point. I believe some of the disconnect might be that this book was not written within the US context, more an English one that would explain some of the perspective differences with me.\u00a0 Some of the things that he refers back to would not be anything that I would have been taught.\u00a0 It is intriguing to read from this perspective.<\/p>\n

Virginity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Twenty-four years ago, was when I was first introduced to True Love Waits.\u00a0\u00a0 This new language was introduced to students, within the local church, to decide to follow Biblical instruction and wait until marriage to be sexually active. \u00a0\u00a0This teaching brought clarity to an often-avoided subject in the church.\u00a0 As the author was talking about this there was no mention of this or any other abstinence training that happened.\u00a0 He states, \u201cProtestant mainline churches generally teach that sex before marriage is wrong, but the language they use is generally equivocal, and there is often an absence of theological reasons<\/u><\/em> to support their teaching.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 I think this makes my point extremely clear.\u00a0\u00a0 True Love Waits which was brought into the mainstream church was clear language.\u00a0 The theology of it is not the point, what the Bibles addressed concerning sex before marriage IS the point.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Bible is very clear in communication.\u00a0 Paul is clear.\u00a0 Jesus is clear.\u00a0 Luke is clear and Moses is clear. The secularization of this subject is what makes it unclear.\u00a0\u00a0 The process of simply taking truth and moving it one shade toward grey is what makes it confusing. \u00a0\u00a0The definitions were very clear but questioning the theological perspective instead of the Biblical perspective is where I lost alignment.\u00a0 Here is what I have concluded though is that the author, is doing exactly what people do about this subject; making it about opinions instead of about Biblical truth, but secular truth leads to so many side views, and side passes.\u00a0 We do live in a fallen world and this subject is one that Christians want to put their head in the sand and ignore.\u00a0 The issues that were raised are real for so many people and it is their life they live every day.\u00a0 So, this book at least raises the question and brings some clarity to it, which is better than centuries where this subject was never raised, or taught, or even talked about.\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks for at least being courageous enough to approach this subject.\u00a0 I will continue to teach True Love Waits even if the world questions the theology of this subject.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Adrian Thatcher, God, Sex and Gender: An Introduction (West Sussex, UK, 2011)<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., x.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 195.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2011, Adrian Thatcher, now an\u00a0Honorary Professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, UK, and Honorary Fellow in Medical Humanities in the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, UK., wrote his book God, Sex and Gender: An Introduction.[1] \u00a0He explored a subject that has always been a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[676,663,126],"class_list":["post-12488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp6","tag-lgp6","tag-thatcher"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}