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Christians Must Talk About Sexuality

No professing Christian can afford to ignore the topic of sexuality. The sexual revolution has swept across North America into unlikely places like Alberta the land of oil and cowboys. The sexual revolution refuses to be ignored. Conservative politicians would like to drop the topic. And Christians cannot merely act like it is a problem for “someone, somewhere”. Christians must talk about sexuality or else they are in danger of being blindsided by it.

Either Oil or Sexuality

Take Alberta for an example. The most prominent news events of the last decade, other than oil and natural disasters, have been issues relating to sexuality. In Alberta, school-based clubs have become a sexuality flashpoint. These clubs are places where children have legal privacy protections permitting them to pursue gay identities and activities. The name given to these clubs is Gay-Straight Alliances or GSAs.

Another sexuality issue shifted the politics in Alberta dramatically. That flashpoint was the so-called “Lake of Fire” blog post from a provincial political candidate, Allan Hunsperger. In the post, he spoke of the judgement which awaited those who will not inherit the kingdom of God (cf. 1 Cor 6:9-10). The problem was what he said about eternal judgement and how it applied to gay people. The 21st chapter of Revelation says:
“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (v.8). Connecting “the lake that burns with fire” to the LGBTQ community set off a firestorm.

The candidate’s party lost the provincial election which many thought they would win. The “Lake of Fire” became a slogan that stood for ‘hateful comments that bring political disaster’. Maybe the candidate should not have phrased things as he did, or he should have clarified that “the sexually immoral” of Rev 21:8 includes all sexual lust and activity outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage, not just homosexuality. Regardless, it is clear that the bible’s view of sexuality would not be accepted in the public square in Alberta anymore.

Sexuality Views: A Case Study

For Christians in Canada, I think they should take Alberta as a case study for why they should talk about sexuality. Alberta can no longer be associated with so-called social conservatives. The province’s society has departed from publicly favouring Judeo-Christian values, even if they had no interest in the gospel. Alberta has shifted as radically as the price of oil.

A bellwether of this radical shift can be observed in American theologian Albert Mohler’s regular commentary. Normally Canada doesn’t register too highly on the attention meters of Americans, so it is worthwhile to consider the number of entries in Albert Mohler’s The Briefing relating to Canada or even the province of Alberta. Most if not all of his commentary about Alberta has to do with the sexual revolution (For a list of The Briefing commentaries that mention Alberta goto this link). Of course, the sexual revolution is so significant that it has its own category tag on Mohler’s site.

The personal autonomy and individualism which have marked Alberta since pioneer days have turned towards a radical autonomy in sexuality. Mohler observed what happens:

If we buy into the worldview that is undergirding this moral revolution on sex and marriage and the entire society and its ordering, we would have to understand that worldview says that human beings have an absolute right of self-determination when it comes to personal autonomy, gender, gender identity, sexuality, definition of marriage, or virtually anything else. But if you buy into that worldview, you have to extend it everywhere the logic would take us, even into the public schools, even into the lives of children and teenagers, even into a government policy that officially advises the schools they are to take the children through the process of choosing their pronoun, deciding what name they want on their report cards, deciding whether they want to play for the boys or girls team, and on and on.

The Briefing (January 20, 2016)

We cannot afford to be unclear about issues of sexuality. Our purpose is not simply to be better culture warriors or political operatives. Christians need to know what the Scriptures teach about humanity created in the image of God. Christians need to be clear about the creation design of male and female—binary sexes, which are designed to complement one another in their capacities and roles. The foundation is supernatural, as in the creative power of God. Yet the evidence of binary sexes is what even non-theist scientists defend.

Start To Talk About Sexuality

Christians need to start somewhere. Obviously the first place to start is reading through the first three chapters of Genesis, the affirmation of Jesus in Matthew 19, the sophisticated awareness of what is sexual sin presented by Paul in the first chapter of Romans, and the brilliant depiction of marriage in the sixth chapter of Ephesians which points to a higher reality, namely the union of Christ with his people.

Two contemporary resources to help us talk about these things are statements issued by the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

The first, the Danvers Statement aimed to summarize the biblical teaching on binary sexes as designed to complement one another in marriage. The term ‘complementarian’ was coined to express this biblical viewpoint of equality in marriage with diversity in roles within marriage.

The second resource is the Nashville Statement which sought to address issues of transgenderism, homosexuality, polygamy, polyamory and more with biblical viewpoints in contrast to those beliefs.

So we can make a start. We can read the bible and learn from good resources. It can be uncomfortable, but we have to do it. If we start to be informed, we can “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).

Let us be careful not to lose either truth or love.


If you are in the Calgary area, Saturday August 24 you should consider attending this conference:

Gender, Sexuality and Christian Witness Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Saturday, August 24 with Denny Burk, President of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.


unsplash-logoToni Reed

By Clint

Clint is married to Christel, father to three sons, and serves as Senior Pastor of Calvary Grace Church in Calgary, Canada.