Are evangelicals obsessed with sex – to the detriment of other important issues?
It seems to have passed into our constituency mindset that ‘people’ – by which we generally mean liberals or the world at large – think we have a particular ‘thing’ about sex and that we are always talking about it.
Of course, we evangelicals have a convincing-sounding stock answer to this. ‘Ah’, we say, ‘we’re not the ones obsessed with sex! We only seem to talk about it a lot because the world does, and we need to address it!’ Moreover, we add to ourselves, the presenting issue in the underlying battle for biblical truth in the church in our generation is this whole issue of sexual ethics, so we must speak up because this is where the heart of the battle for the gospel is!
Social media
There is without doubt truth in all this. And yet, as time goes on, I wonder. I can’t help but notice that in some evangelical circles on social media, it is posts about sex which inevitably attract far more attention and angst than anything else. And then I look at other issues which seem to touch on central gospel issues just as much and ponder the seeming lack of comparable outcry and anguish.
In the Church of England this year, for example, there have been at least three very clear examples of what might be described as Catholicisation – in other words, practices or statements which clearly seem to contradict the Reformed, evangelical basis of the CofE.
Firstly, there was the parading of the statue of the so-called ‘Our Lady of Walsingham’ in Westminster Abbey. Secondly, a prayer guide recommended by Justin Welby, no less, advised us to ask Mary to ‘be with us now’ and to pray the ‘Hail Mary’. Thirdly, a report from the CofE talked about issues in relation to ‘the Seal of the Confessional’ – also known in evangelical circles as ‘the What of I Beg Your Pardon?’ Now, don’t get me wrong. On the Psephizo theology blog, Anglican evangelical Andrew Atherstone wrote an excellent critique of that third issue. And on the Church Society website, Adam Young wrote a terrific article about all three of them. So evangelicals were not silent.
And yet. I contrast the attention these things have attracted to the attention given to sexual matters. I think of the letters, meetings, protests and declarations of ‘impaired communion’ over issues relating to sexual ethics. And I observe the comparative lack of attention and action given by evangelicals – both in the Church of England and indeed in GAFCON – to these other gospel issues: i.e. Catholic ones relating directly to the person and work of Jesus Christ.
History lesson
Let’s switch back a few generations and consider other, very different, but important issues via two evangelical heroes: Lord Ashley, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801–1885) and William Wilberforce (1759–1833). Lord Ashley was seen by 1840 as ‘the leading Evangelical layman, and one of the leaders of the Evangelical Party in the Church of England’ according to Crossway magazine. There can be no doubting his gospel convictions, nor that he did ‘more than any other English politician to lessen the poor’s physical hardships’. Wilberforce, as we all know, was instrumental in the abolition of slavery.
We applaud such heroes of the faith, and rightly so. And yet today I wonder where are the evangelical leaders speaking out and taking action in a similar way about comparable issues? What might such things be? Well, in terms of the poor in the UK we might think about the disgraceful legalaid cuts hitting the least well-off in our justice system; we might think of the mess caused by the botched rollout of Universal Credit. And globally, who will be most affected by climate change? The poorest and most vulnerable, of course.
So let’s keep speaking up about sexual ethics. But it is not the only issue where the gospel should impel us to pray for wisdom, speak out and take action. I have, perhaps – I hope, I wish – overstated the case. But what do you think?
