My good friend the reverend Beverly Dale (“Rev Bev”) has long been an advocate for helping Christians overcome their phobias about sex.  For centuries, the traditional Christian attitude was that sex-a perfectly wonderful and natural force in one’s life-was the source of evil, that the flesh itself was entirely evil, and that women were to blame for men falling into sin, IE, sex,  and the body was a shameful thing. Rev Bev’s ministry has been to end sexual and body shame. 

To carry out her work, Rev Bev has founded, and is Chair of, the Incarnation Institute for Sex and Faith, https://www.incarnationinstitute.org/  to promote the truth that sexual pleasure and diversity, in all of its forms, are to be celebrated and respected, and that sexual freedom is a right to be respected. 

This is important to discuss, as we read about clergy sexually abusing minor children, sexual abuse and harassment my men of power against women, and discrimination against LGBT people and attempts to prevent women from controlling their own fertility. Sexual repression is the reason people do not dare complain about such problems, and we must continue to find the freedom, within ourselves and within our society, to be more open about discussing sexual issues.

Repression, denying anything like sex exists inside the human body, is an exercise in futility-the sexual urge will come out sooner or later, often in the most dangerous way, and it needs to come out in an intelligent manner. Open and intelligent sexual discussion, like Rev Bev caries out, is one way to go.