Peter Ould takes a look at the liturgy used at the recent marriage of lesbian priests in Masachusetts and concludes: In some senses there is nothing remarkable about this liturgy and that is what makes it so significant. To all intents and purposes it is a normal marriage service with adaptions for the presence of [...]
Archive for ‘Sex and Marriage’
Asking the Right Question in the Marriage Debate
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010Fascinating article written by gay rights activist Rodney Croome at the ABC Religion website. He is, of course, writing from the position of wanting law reform to incorporate same sex relationships into the provisions of the Marriage Act towards there being no legal (and I assume from his point of view, no societal) difference between [...]
Review: Wired for Intimacy
Friday, April 2nd, 2010William Struthers’ Wired for Intimacy: How pornography hijacks the male brain is one of those books that can only be reviewed in comparison. In this case to Allan Meyer’s From Good Man to Valiant Man. Both books deal with the topic of sexual integrity in men. Both books take a holistic approach – dealing with [...]
Review: Not Under Bondage
Saturday, March 27th, 2010Barbara Roberts’ book is subtitled “Biblical Divorce for Abuse, Adultery & Desertion.” It is a thorough consideration of how issues surrounding divorce and remarriage are handled by Scripture. While there is a definite pastoral aspect to this book (Roberts herself has been through an abusive marriage) it’s main approach is exegetical. After setting the scene, [...]
On Porn, Poor Parents and Chaperones
Friday, March 12th, 2010A piece by Penny Marshall in the Daily Mail [Caution: contains a mildly offensive screenshot] (and considered in other places) unpacks research and inquiry into the effects of social sexualisation and pornography in teenage relationships. Normally I wouldn’t bother linking to yet another article about the prevalence of naughty stuff on the Internet to a bewildered tut-tutting [...]
A Tangle of Views
Thursday, March 11th, 2010The buzzline to get attention to an article at the Telegraph is “…girls are ready to have babies at 14″ Look past the sensationalism and have a look at what this article is indicative of in our society. Many strands, each a different sociological framework. Society is dominated by a “male timeline” and women (girls) [...]
Intimacy? Sex?
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Honour → Security → Intimacy → Sex It’s something we picked up from a book that we give to all the couples we prepare for marriage prep. The basic thrust of it is that great Sex is built upon a foundation of Intimacy which is built upon a foundation of Security which is built upon [...]
Review: Pure Sex
Sunday, February 7th, 2010Unlike recent books on sex that I have read, which are based on pyschology and some mild theology, Pure Sex, by Sydney Anglican stalwarts Tony Payne and Phillip Jensen is a solid historical and doctrinal look at the topic. The negatives first. Firstly, it seems a bit dated – concentrating more on newspaper commentary more [...]
Appealing People
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010We are running an evening series at church at the moment focussing on men, women, relationships and community. Googling around for some material I came across a rather fascinating article from, of all places, the research department of a dating site. The research was about the effectiveness of the profile picture of their clients. If you [...]
Review: From Good Man to Valiant Man
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010We use some of the Careforce Lifekeys courses in our church. They are a useful tool for discipleship and the promotiong of a practical spiritual engagement with real life. From Good Man to Valiant Man has been written by Careforce’s Allan Meyer and is closely tied to the “Valiant Man” Lifekeys course which concentrates on [...]
