There is a really amusing article in the NY Times this week about a Dallas-area mega-pastor, Ed Young, and his crusade to get his married parishioners to have more sex.
Probably not a bad idea, but I have to point out this quote:
“If you’ve said, ‘I do,’ do it,” he said. As for single people, “I don’t know, try eating chocolate cake,” he said.”
Mr Young and his ilk might find they have less problems with married sex if they articulated a richer sexual ethic for single people. I’ll give Young the benefit of the doubt and assume his “Seven Days of Sex” are not merely about personal emotional fulfilment, but about strengthening the covenant which exists between the couple and God. If that’s the case, then he ought to be able to spell out how single peoples’ sexuality also has covenental dimensions. I realize the “chocolate cake” comment is meant to be facetious–but much of the time, at least in the church, singles’ sexuality is treated precisely in those terms: as a sugary treat with no substance. For many evangelicals like Young, singles are simply supposed to refuse sexuality, as if it were optional–like dessert–and not an intrinsic part of human being-in-the-world. No wonder Young’s congregation (and scores of others like it) have trouble with married sex: eating cake as one of your main courses tends to make you sick.
caballo 