God created sexuality
Dr. William Cole, Professor of Religion at Williams College, provides an easy to understand scholarly view of sex in the scriptures in his book, "Love and Sex in the Bible". Referring to the Genesis scripture, "Male and female he created them." Dr. Cole claims. "Thus the Bible stands eternally opposed to any and all efforts to make sex something evil or sub-spiritual. It is God's word and God's work that are responsible for human sexuality, which is therefore good." pg. 272

Sexuality viewed negatively
Regarding Christianity's inclination to view sexuality negatively, Dr. Cole observes, "It must be remembered that the New Testament and the writings of the early church fathers were produced in a Roman Empire grown increasingly decadent, and that protestant reformers wrote against the background of degeneracy of much of the clergy in the lat Middle Ages." pg. 272

Adam and Eve's bad rap
Dr. Cole continues, "Somehow the notion got around that the original sin of Adam and Eve was the sexual act, and while the church may not have been guilty of positively creating such an impression, it must be confessed that little has been done to counteract or correct it." pg.416

Sex and the church
"The unhappy fact of the matter is that the modern church has rather ignored sex altogether, save for an occasional veiled reference to lewd behavior and obscene literature." pg.416

Sex is good
"The insistence of the secular mind upon the essential goodness of sex as a fact of nature must be underlined and strengthened by a biblically oriented goodness of sex as a fact of nature must be underlined and strengthened by a biblically oriented viewpoint rather than attacked or refuted." Pg.416

Man as a sychophysical unity, sexual freedom
It is perfectly clear that the Old Testament sees man as a psychophysical unity, as a creature made to enjoy the material world, including his own body. Hebrew man was granted a remarkable sexual freedom." pg.417

Sex education
"The sex education of children is primarily a matter of attitudes, and only secondarily of facts....this is an area when churches can be of genuine help to their families, not in trying to educate the children, but in the training of parents. Most parents are acutely aware of their inadequacies in the best methods of initiating their children into the mysteries of life's facts. It is a problem they face, and yet the church is for the most part silent and apparently indifferent.

This is one of the greatest challenges facing the church today..... the challenge to take the doctrine of creation seriously and to implement that doctrine practically in its program." pgs. 420-421.

Positive emphasis
"What seems required is a new approach, based squarely upon biblical understanding..... we must, to begin with, abandon all efforts to frighten children and young people about sex, seeking rather to emphasize its positive God-given possibilities and promises." pg.429

Rooted in eternity
"Sex and love belong together - in life no less than in the Bible. Where the one flows from the other, the experience is creative, releasing, and enlarging. It is even rooted in eternity, in God himself and his love for his covenanted people." pg.436
Posted on 5/29/2001+

The biblical perspective on pleasure
In the King James Version of the Bible the references to pain, sadness and suffering total 187, whereas the references to joy, pleasure and rejoice add to 590, giving more than three times the emphasis on the joyful aspect of life! We might ask what would have been the impact on our Western culture if ‘churchianity' had given three times the emphasis to pleasure rather than pain in prayers and Sunday sermons over the last two thousand years!

God wants to satisfy every desire
"And with a generous hand you satisfy the desires of every living creature. Ps 145:15. The Psalmist boldly declares God does want us to accept our spiritual inheritance which would certainly include a fulfilling love life. Our path of Self- realization challenges us to transform every belief that gets in our way!

A startling revelation from the Lord's Prayer
This vital truth is emphasized by Bible scholar, Rocco A. Errico, who explained in a recent article ("Understanding the Will of God", Unity Magazine, July 1997) that the Aramaic word for ‘will' which Jesus used in the Lord's Prayer could have just as accurately been translated as ‘delight' or ‘pleasure'.

Sacred Relationship offers the grand possibility for intentionally embodying God's will, delight and pleasure ‘on earth as it is in heaven'.

God desires pleasure for you!
It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Jesus. Luke 12:32
Seek first the kingdom......and all these things will be yours as well.
Jesus. John 6:33.

With the true source of pleasure being our ability to receive the kingdom, from Jesus' core teachings, it's easy to see that Jesus intended our lives to be filled with the holistic pleasure of receiving God's kingdom that is always available to us.

Nothing better than happiness and joy
I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves. Ecc.3:12

Divine pleasures without end
Thou willt show me the path of life, in thy presence is the fulness of joy. At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. Ps. 16:10-11.

Drink of the river of divine pleasures
The children of Adam....feast on the bounty of your house and drink of the river of your pleasures.
Ps. 36:7-8.
Posted on 5/29/2001+