Timeless Rock and Christian Sex
BY ART REMILLARD
First, the timeless rock of Stryper (“Salvation Through Redemption, Yielding Peace, Encouragement, and Righteousness”) Jesused-up power cords. Then Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ put a Christian stamp on the sort of gratuitous violence normally reserved for Governor Schwarzenegger’s films. Now, thanks to book22.com, we have Christian sex toys. NPR interviewed the site’s founder on Valentine’s Day and had this written summary…
Joy Wilson went looking for something to spice up her marriage without compromising her Christian beliefs. Finding nothing, she founded her own “sin-free” sex toy business. Book22.com caters to the Christian community with books, toys and occasional advice. The name refers to the Song of Solomon, the extended love poem that forms the 22nd book of the Bible.
Wilson says that after the birth of her first child, she had trouble rekindling her desire for intimacy. She and her husband went looking for marital aids, and found that Internet searches for products as tame as massage oil led to sites with pornographic images. “I was really surprised that it was that bad,” she says.
She and her husband talked it over and decided that there must be a way for conservative people to add a spark to their romantic lives. She says their site steers clear of certain types of sexual activity that they believe are unholy. And they carefully consider which new products to add.
OK, I’ll admit it…this surprised me. But as Amy DeRogatis explains in “What Would Jesus Do? Sexuality and Salvation in Protestant Evangelical Sex Manuals, 1950s to the Present” (Church History, March ’05), folks like me are profoundly misinformed. She writes…
The growing awareness since the late 1950s that sex is more than one specific act has led many people to question whether sex as we learn it from our parents, teachers, clergy, friends, books, and science is “natural” (a matter of biological response) or socially constructed (a matter of cultural control). Opinions vary, tempers flare, and the mountain of sex advice manuals available at local bookstores attests to the U.S. public's insatiable appetite for knowledge about sex.
It might be surprising that evangelical Protestants have been among the most vocal participants in this ongoing definitional debate. Contrary to popular stereotypes that characterize conservative Christians as sexually repressed, Protestant evangelicals did not turn away from the sexual liberation movement begun in the 1960s; they have simply made it their own, publishing sex manuals, running sex workshops and holding counseling sessions to instruct husbands and wives on the best techniques for a sexually satisfied marriage.
DeRogatis goes on to note that “marital aids” (sex toys) are one of many debated sex topics in the evangelical community. I would scan book22.com to determine how Joy Wilson and her husband support their side. But I’m at work, where the Internet police may show up at any minute. I’m not betting that they are subscribers to Church History.
Joy Wilson went looking for something to spice up her marriage without compromising her Christian beliefs. Finding nothing, she founded her own “sin-free” sex toy business. Book22.com caters to the Christian community with books, toys and occasional advice. The name refers to the Song of Solomon, the extended love poem that forms the 22nd book of the Bible.Wilson says that after the birth of her first child, she had trouble rekindling her desire for intimacy. She and her husband went looking for marital aids, and found that Internet searches for products as tame as massage oil led to sites with pornographic images. “I was really surprised that it was that bad,” she says.
She and her husband talked it over and decided that there must be a way for conservative people to add a spark to their romantic lives. She says their site steers clear of certain types of sexual activity that they believe are unholy. And they carefully consider which new products to add.
OK, I’ll admit it…this surprised me. But as Amy DeRogatis explains in “What Would Jesus Do? Sexuality and Salvation in Protestant Evangelical Sex Manuals, 1950s to the Present” (Church History, March ’05), folks like me are profoundly misinformed. She writes…
The growing awareness since the late 1950s that sex is more than one specific act has led many people to question whether sex as we learn it from our parents, teachers, clergy, friends, books, and science is “natural” (a matter of biological response) or socially constructed (a matter of cultural control). Opinions vary, tempers flare, and the mountain of sex advice manuals available at local bookstores attests to the U.S. public's insatiable appetite for knowledge about sex.
It might be surprising that evangelical Protestants have been among the most vocal participants in this ongoing definitional debate. Contrary to popular stereotypes that characterize conservative Christians as sexually repressed, Protestant evangelicals did not turn away from the sexual liberation movement begun in the 1960s; they have simply made it their own, publishing sex manuals, running sex workshops and holding counseling sessions to instruct husbands and wives on the best techniques for a sexually satisfied marriage.
DeRogatis goes on to note that “marital aids” (sex toys) are one of many debated sex topics in the evangelical community. I would scan book22.com to determine how Joy Wilson and her husband support their side. But I’m at work, where the Internet police may show up at any minute. I’m not betting that they are subscribers to Church History.
Comments
This goes along quite well with a Newsweek piece I read about how sexual aids have found their way to the big-box stores, and it seems made the spokespeople for Walgreens and others quite reticent to speak to the press. (They fear they might offend their conservative as well as religious consumers.) Here's the link:http://www.newsweek.com/id/110965
What a fascinating post!
Amy DeRogatis
derogat1@msu.edu
http://emmajoseph.blogspot.com
RE: Catholics and sex. I was raised Catholic, and rarely saw it discussed. And when it was, it was OH SO uncomfortable. I always thought this was due to clerical celibacy. In other words, it's hard to take sex advice from those have (ideally) forsaken sex for a "higher calling." It's like getting running advice from someone who has never run a step, but has read a lot about running, thus making him/her an "expert." A point to ponder… Now I’ve gotta Google “date night with Jesus.”
Leslie Tentler's _Catholics and Conception_ delves into how terribly awkward it was for Catholic priests to talk to parishioners on sexual matters. Her work provides a nice look at how the priests understood themselves as advisers to the bedroom.
--
micheel
http://www.hookup-tonite.com
http://loveasgodintended.blogspot.com