Faithful Philly Forum

Under the lies/guise of protecting the culture of Islam against sexual inappropriateness, 133 women were murdered last year in Iraq. Although accusing them of being prostitutes and adulturers, the murderers are intent upon killing women with PhDs, that is professional women who oppose setting up an Islamic state. Petitions are online to try to persuade people in high places to do something. 

But this morning’s paper reported a 13 year old woman being hurt and harassed by a fellow student in her high school while another article was of a gang of girls who beat up and slashed and seriously injured two other girls whom they didn’t like, also in high school. Now one might ask what kinds of parents these young people have or what kind of perverted minds can justify murder and mutilation in the name of building a “religious” state. But it also seems  clear that when the news headlines indicate that violence (usually by men ) is an appropriate way to control those with whom we disagree or those we dislike, then our young simply take up the (war) cry and do the same. Surely it is the “sins of the fathers descending on the sons.” Yet another group of folks from various churches are meeting to talk about how to respond to this out-of-control violence that sweeps across the world and through our newspaper headlines. May we never be so complacent as to accept this as the way it has to be!

If there ever was a wake up call to the church about sex and pleasure it is now. The once bankrupt Penthouse which was bought up in 2004 by a group of investors has now bought up  $500 million dollars worth of internet sites that focus social networking. Their target market is 18-34 year old men who are wanting sexual media and online access. Other than yelling about censoring the ‘net, how will the churches respond? What does the Church offer this audience that would satisfy their need and desire for sexual intimacy? for sexual openness? for (perhaps) deeper and more meaningful sexual experiences? Telling them to come to church and meet a nice woman and then get married whereupon fireworks will happen is just not going to do it…obviously, since that has been the dominant message for centuries. If the Church has nothing to teach positively to unmarried people about sex and sexual satisfaction, then we have no right to complain when enterprizing investors use pornography and the latest technology to present sexuality in ways that are usually dehumanizing, sexist and mechanistic devoid of any relational quality in order to make their fortunes even larger. Guess who is shaping the views of our culture (and the world?) on sex? It sure isn’t the Church!  

It is now official that FOX and CBS will use sex to sell anything and will promote sexual content in shows (”In 2005, 70 percent of all television shows and 77 percent of prime-time shows contained sexual content.” according to Planned Parenthood.)  But, refuses to allow a condom commercial if the focus is on pregnancy prevention! Seems they will only allow such advertisments if it stresses health issues!

Now given the number of Viagra ads this is a most curious double standard. So the message of morality is men can and should be sexually potent and using pornography on tv is acceptable for primetime viewing but our “morality” won’t allow us to educate or promote anything to prevent pregnancy? This is wild! 

I don’t get it. A group that names itself “Repent America” challenges the existing hate crime law that includes sexual minorities in Pennsylvania. What is the repentance about? Repent of protecting people’s lives? Repent that we might encourage lawsuits against those who resort to violence against sexual minorities just because they are sexual minorities? Are we to repent for being too compassionate or not being judgmental enough?

I know the Hebrew prophets sometimes stridently called for the need to repent and compassionately embrace the immigrants in their midst, (known as foreigners or aliens) who were being mistreated. They went on any number of tirades about the readiness of folks to go through the religious rituals but who failed to care for the widows and orphans in the community. And, the prophets went ballistic yelling about repentance of those who paid people unjust wages and exploited the workers.

Somehow I don’t think compassion is what “Repent America” is about…Oh yes, and they won the lawsuit by the way. The PA court ruled 5-1 the legislative process that was used to make this a law was indeed unconstitutional. Sometimes it is one step forward and two steps back.
http://www.equalitypa.org/news/news_view.php?news_id=51