Commentary on "Real Sex"

Isabella is finally showing signs of improvement.  She doesn't usually get very sick, but this time, she really got it!  I am still fighting a nagging cough and congestion.  I will be so glad to be free of this cold altogether.  Now we are, as everyone around us, buried in about a foot of snow and there is more on the way.  I am already suspecting there will be no school on Monday.  I saw on the weather forecast that snow accumulation is expected on Tuesday as well, so I don't expect the kids to get back to school until Wednesday or Thursday at the earliest.  The plow has not came even one time to clean off our road, so we couldn't even make it from our driveway to the main road.  We are going to pretty stir-crazy by the end of the week!  Josh and I have a date night planned on Friday, so at least I can look forward to that.  Hopefully, the snow won't make us change our plans.

So, since I have a bulk of time on my hands, I will talk about the book I finished recently.  It is called "Real Sex:The Naked Truth About Chastity" by Lauren Winner. Don’t let the title fool you.  This is not a Christian Sex Guide.  It is more a commentary about the true meaning of chastity and what the church teaches (often poorly) about it.  She states that being chaste does not simply mean abstaining from sex before marriage, but putting sex within its proper context, even if you are married.  She also talks about how loose sexual morals hurts the church as a whole and how programs, like “True Love Waits” and singles groups may actually not always fulfill the goals they have set out to fulfill. And how sometimes singles feel alienated from the church because they feel treated as a second-class citizen compared to their married counterparts.  She also discusses lies that our culture tells us about sex, like marriage is the killer of good sex, and lies that the church tells us about sex, like you will always feel guilty if you have premarital sex.  Then she says that a single may fall in love and have sex and not feel particularly guilty about it and feel like it is okay to have sex, since he/she doesn't feel guilty.  She concludes that a person has to resolve not to have premarital sex (or sex outside of their marriage), not because of the consequence, but because God commands it of us. It is packed with good information from beginning to end.  There are one or two things I'm not sure I completely agree with, but this book has taught me more about the need for appropriate teaching and accountability of sexual behavior in the church than anything I have ever read before.  It is honest, intelligently written, but also isn’t resentful to the church. I think it is good for anyone to read, whether they are single, engaged, or have been married for 15 years, like me.  I sound like I am writing a blurb for the cover or something, but I really think this book is really useful and I would have never picked it up if someone hadn’t suggested it to me.