Sex Panel

This week at UC Davis is "Generation Sex" week, which is put on by the Gender and Sexuality Commission (GASC). Here's a description on one of the events:

"Erotizing Safe Sex" featuring the fabulous Lani Ka’ahumanu 7pm - 9pm Chem 194 This workshop will challenge the misinformation and the shame that mainstream culture perpetuates about sex, our sexuality, and our bodies. Non-judgmental safer sex and sexual information is communicated in a playful, provocative way that peaks curiosity and enhances sexual options, rather than limiting them. Presented by GASC.

This last monday, they had a "Religious Panel," which was basically a chance for people of different faiths to share their views on issues pertaining to sex. A good friend of mine was able to get me onto the panel, and so the day before I got an email telling me the things that would be discussed. This list of topics ran something like this: Homosexuality, Sodomy, The definition of marriage, Leadership of women within the church or religious organization, Contraception, Gender roles, If there is a higher authority in your religion (ie "God"), what is it's gender (Seen as a male, female, neither?), Sex before marriage, Masturbation, and how nudity is regarded (such as: shameful, sacred, private, indifferent.) Geez, some of these words I'm reluctant to repeat in front of my mom, much less share my religious beliefs about. I wasn't scared about it, but I was a little nervous, because a lot of those things are really big issues.

So I sat down behind a placard with my name on it next to a Buddhist and a Muslim, on a panel which also included two Jews, a Pagan, a Lutheran, a Universalist, two Agnostics, two Atheists, and another girl who was Christian from Campus Crusade. We sat in the Coffee House in the MU on campus at 12:00 and shared our views on sex. While we spoke, you could see in the glass windows behind us the preachers that were standing out on the Quad. They held up their signs that said, "ACCEPT JESUS OR BURN IN HELL," and "YOU MAKE ME SICK: lazy christians, dikes on bikes, liars, ankle biters, etc."

What struck me most was that in the one-minute windows that everyone had to share about all those various topics, we said a lot of the same things: marriage is good, we shouldn't be ashamed of our bodies, women aren't inferior to men, etc. And on the issues where my one-minute answers diverged from the rest, it was hard for me to say a whole lot: how do speak about GOD's beautiful design for marriage when someone's holding up a sign behind you that says, ACCEPT JESUS OR BURN IN HELL? If you can't love someone unless you know them, how can you speak the truth to them in love? After sharing a few thoughts, I felt a sort of uneasiness, and now I think I know why: because I felt like I was the same as those preachers. All rules, no heart. Truth, but no love. What is a marriage, however harmonious, without the agape love of GOD? What is the point of defining GOD as a he/she/it if you don't even believe in a GOD that loves you with the power of a father and the tenderness of a mother in the first place? How can I tell about the standard to which I live and expect you to uphold it or die, when you've not yet experienced the GOD for whom I uphold the standard in the first place? Before I accepted Christ, I didn't know the reason why to wait for love, until I experienced the GOD of love; how should you know? I do believe and know that there are both short-term and long-term, absolutely debilitating consequences for sexual immorality that should be deterrents enough to live with sexual purity, but being the silly, broken people that we are, they aren't enough. We need Christ, and we need him bad. Really bad.

Don't misunderstand me; I really enjoyed sitting in on the panel, because I do think that I did have some sweet chances to speak the truth in love, and I thank GASC for the opportunity for me to share my views on our GOD-given sexuality. But this note at the bottom of the email hurt me the most: Keep your answers as brief as possible we have a lot to cover in an hour! *Do not argue or debate; there is no "right" answer. What a cancer that is in the heart of this world. I wish we could've had a heart panel instead, because then I couldv'e the showed the whole world in one fell swoop the way, the truth, and the life with every beat of my heart: Jesus. Love. Jesus. Love.

How do you explain, how do you describe
A love that goes from the east to west
And runs as deep as it is ride
You know all our hopes
Lord, you know all our fears
And words cannot express the love we feel
But we long for You to hear

So listen to our hearts
Here our spirit sing
A song of praise that flows
From those you have redeemed
We will use the words we know
To tell you what an awesome God You are
But words are not enough
To tell you of our love
So listen to our hearts

If words could fall like rain
From these lips of mine
And if I had a thousand years
I would still run out of time
So if You'll listen to my heart
Every beat will say
Thank You for the life, Thank You for the truth,
Thank You fr the way
(Listen To Our Hearts, Geoff Moore)

"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." (Colossians 4:2-6)

See You Soon.