sex, lies, and videotape
last night at the gathering, we watched a documentary film called Dear Francis, which follows 2 texas college students to Swaziland, the smallest country in Africa (population 1 million). it documents their involvement with an organization that is attempting to educate the swazi youth towards sexual abstinence to slow the pace of AIDS in the country. to date, nearly 40% of all residents of the country are infected with AIDS making it the most infected country of the world.having seen the film and having had a chance to digest it over last night and this morning, i am more and more aware of once fact. God protects us.
i have always seen God's way of life, the way that Jesus taught us, as the right way because that's the way that God wants it. This is true in and of itself, but it is much deeper than that. God's law protects us from ourselves.
you see in the film that although the majority of the epidemic is related to sexual promiscuity in a "normal" way, you also see that it is largely related to polygamy, rape, incest, and other horrible things. i see the connection between these things, which are all against the desires of God, and the AIDS epidemic in Africa. disobeying God's law is ultimately the thing that is helping this disease to spread.
side note: they never mentioned drug use once as a contributing factor in this epidemic...
there is no reason that this couldn't happen in any country of the world. an uncurable disease that is mainly transfered through sexual contact could be a death sentence for our species. we need to help people understand what God puts out in the Bible, and we need to show them how those things protect us. He is the ultimate protector of His children.
i was reminded recently of the scripture in Romans chapter 1 where Paul accuses some people of "exchanging the truth of God for a lie". i believe that the world has definitely done that regarding sexuality. we have taken god's truth regarding sex and flipped it to accomodate our desires. at some point, we will reap the consequences for that.
i plan to teach my child very openly about sexuality. i hope to help my child to understand the value of why God says what He says about our sexualtity. most importantly, i hope to show him/her that what the world deems acceptable is nothing more than a sweetly packaged lie...
posted by pablo
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i mean that the things that god outlines for us to live have reasons, they are not arbitrary rules. they are designed in some ways to protect us from negative consequences. that has no bearing on region, country, etc. i am not making judgements towards them and not the US because we follow god's law. i don't think we do either. i am speaking towards humanity. if we understood the truth and reasoning behind the rules in the bible a little better, we'd better understand that god is protecting us by giving us rules. it's like telling your kid he can't cross the road without holding the hand of an adult. that may seem stifling to the kid that wants to run free if he doesn't consider the reasoning behind it. if humanity as a whole understood and applied the law of god, none of us would be in this predicament. therefore, you are right. it is the truth of god that sets us free.
as i was reading these comments, i thought, "the law of gravity" could just as easily be called "the truth of gravity." i think law and truth can in some ways (but not always) be used interchangeably. sexual abstinence and monogamy/fidelity are protective in terms of STDs & AIDS -- this is God's instruction (law, truth, etc.). this is what i understood pabdaddy to be saying. in the US, a higher percentage of those that don't follow God's instruction use condoms as compared to people in africa. so in the US, most of those that reject God's truth, at least use the "truth" of medical knowledge. does that make americans better than africans? not at all in God's eyes. but the physical (and emotional and economic) consequences of most american's choices are not as severe as the consequences ravaging africa.
by the way, interesting connect with this issue at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/
2006/002/8.76.html
[you have to cut and paste that link - it wouldn't fit in this narrow column blog as one line]
sammy, i think sexual abstinence and marital fidelity with a non-infected spouse do protect us. God says we should keep the marriage bed undefiled, which hebrews 13:5 explains as free from fornication and adultery. if i do what God tells me to do, i'm pretty confident i won't contract AIDS.
only pabdaddy can tell us what he intended by the use of the word law. but God does have a lot to say about sex. i haven't found any scripture that talks about green tea (i'm writing this with a big smile on my face -- not with a furrowed brow and a snarl).
that's not what I meant at all sam. maybe i am using the word 'rule' too loosely without clarifying what i mean by it (and by the way, i am using 'rule' and 'law' as synonyms in the post). i only mean to say that god has reasons why he instructs us to do or not do certain things in the bible, and those reasons are in our best interest whether we know it or not.
i'll use your terminology...
if we understood the truth and logic behind the philosophies and teachings of the bible and applied them to our lives, we would likely be spared of some of the consequences of ignoring them.
if you lived in swaziland and you didn't know about AIDS (i know, i know, just go with me) but knew that god didn't want you to have sex before marriage, don't you think this alone could possibly spare a person from contracting the disease (barring the rapes and other atrocities that are forced upon people)?
the answer is yes. and that's all i meant by it. we might not always understand the reasoning behind what the bible says that we should do, but the reasons are always in our best interest = protection.
and for sake of definition, the words 'rule' and 'law' as i write them in this post do not mean Law in the OT sense where disobedience condemns us. to me, whenever the bible says that we should do something or not do something, i call that a 'rule'. you might call is a "philosophy" or a "truth", it's all the same to me.
'rule' seems to be a bad word in 2006. dang yo.....
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did the movie give any stats on how much of the AIDs epidemic in swaziland can be attributed to rape and incest?
anybody know of stats like that for the US or other countries?
sin has consequences. i have to agree with pdaddy's take -- God is caring for us and trying to protect us by distinguishing between good and bad, right and wrong. what makes us all sick to our stomachs probably is learning of the "innocent" victims of these and other kinds of sin, but may our hearts and schedules always be open to being vessels of God's care.
Disclaimer: What follows is my opinion and my deductions...
Regarding sex outside of marriage, I think that we can infer from 1 Cor 6 and the Hebrews passage that Steve quoted that God does not condone fornication. Does he go so far as spell it out? Not that I can tell, but I think the conclusion is very logical.
And regarding the polygamy thing, again I don't think it's spelled out. However, the "husband of one wife" passages (1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6 for those reading along) are written as qualifications for deacons and elders. he is making sure that the bar is set high for leaders in the church because they are to be role models for the church. why would god ask that specifically of the leaders in the church if it wasn't to model the "right way". why would he go out of his way to set that specifically as a qualification for leadership when everything else was vague like prudent, temperate, and good reputation? i think it was because the government leaders (the kings, etc) were stacking wives 12 deep and God wanted to model something different in the church.
take that for what it is. they are logical deductions in my opinion.
FOR STEVE: the movie did not give stats on what percentage of infections were caused by rape or incest as opposed to willful promiscuity. people don't talk about that even if it did happen to them so there can't really be a way to track that.
can we set a record here? most comments? most people involved? (jump in if you're reading but haven't commented)
fornication is by definition sex before marriage. the heb13:5 verse says keep the marriage bed undefiled by protecting it before marriage (avoiding fornication) and within marriage (avoiding adultery). thus all the scriptures that speak of fornication apply to premarital sex. God speaks clearly about premarital virginity in deut22:13-21. Not being "under the Law" today does not mean God's moral values in the old testament were wrong, and he got it right later. Jesus spoke of an even higher standard - mat5:21-48 for example. (we could get into a disscussion of ceremonial law and moral law, but i think that would take us off target.) 1cor7:1 is a reference to sex outside of marriage, and the context suggests paul has in mind primarily premarital sex (touch was a common idiom/euphemism for sex, as was "uncover the nakedness" in Lev18:6ff regarding incest). 1thess4:3-8 seems pretty clear too. then there's the whole issue of joseph wanting to call off the wedding because mary was pregnant before marriage. there are more scriptures, but it seems clear enough that God has spoken.
regarding the standards/qualifications (1 tim & titus) for elders and deacons, i understand the bible to say the same standard is there for all Christ-followers (see above), but only those who have adhered to the standard are qualified to be elders and deacons. God's moral standard is not two-tiered, it's just that leaders have to "tow the line" in order to be leaders. and it doesn't take a genius to understand why these specific qualifications are given for church leaders (all of them, not just the marriage one).
paul says he wishes all could remain unmarried, but not all have that gift (1cor7:7), so you can't really throw that desire of paul's into this discussion, because he says later in the chp he only wishes that for practical ministry reasons. he is clear when he is giving a universal standard and when he is giving a wise recommendation in light of specific realities.
this is long enough for one comment, but maybe another time i'll have time to post some of the scriptural teaching regarding monogamy.
It seems to me that God's ways do protect us from most of the world's harsher realities. I don't think that means that we will never be sick or have troubles and diseases, though. But there are things on the earth with severely negative consequences that can easily be avoided. I used to wonder this in high school..."If I even wanted to get drugs I wouldn't know where to look". I figured that was because I didn't know the "right" people. But, that was a personal choice that I was making because of what I knew to be true about God and his "rules". Who knows what different choices I would have made and where I would be today if someone hadn't told me about God.
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