By Jason John
Provocative and progressive
This book is not for the faint-hearted Christian living in denial about all things sex. First of all, you will need an open mind about evolution as Jason walks us through the history of evolutionary creation. Since there are hermaphrodite and homosexual species, this makes a case for gender and sexual preferences not being moral issues!
Jason takes a very honest look at our biblical / theological history as well, pointing out rape, misogyny, polygamy and prostitution within the biblical narrative. He argues that Paul and Jesus encouraged followers of the Way to abstain not just from sex, but from marriage! However, we live in a very different context today.
He then talked about why queer marriage should be affirmed, why masturbation is healthy and porn is not nearly the same as adultery – to which I wholeheartedly agree! And he opened up questions for me and for other readers. Questions about the possibility of serial monogamy or how a couple might consider polyamory while remaining committed to their marital relationship. He listed other options as well, but those stood out to me. Some would argue these are scandalous ideas, yet they take an honest look at how we actually live our lives: engaging in pre-marital and extra-marital sex quite commonly and frequently. This is a realistic approach and not actually scandalous at all!
I devoured this book, thrilled to learn more about evolution than I’d ever been taught in my Christian school upbringing, and impressed by Jason’s ability to see the bigger picture presented by the Bible regarding sex and marriage in particular.
Thank you, Jason, for your thorough research and your bravery!