Christian culture teaches Jesus followers to have painfully misguided expectations when they engage the biblical text. Christians seem to believe the Bible is written to all people and not for all people. They think it's exhaustive in answering all of our important questions. They presume everything they read is supposed to be prescriptive instead of largely descriptive. They … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Reboots Expectations to Christocentric Marital and Sexual Ethics
Christian culture
Beatnik Christianity Recognizes That Little of “Traditional Marriage” Is Traditional
Christian culture loves talking about traditional marriage. Sometimes this involves waxing poetically about God's perfect intentions for the complementary union of man and woman, but more often than not these days it's a diatribe crossed with a jeremiad. Traditional marriage has taken on apocalyptic significance. It's presented to us as divine retribution being invoked by … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Recognizes That Little of “Traditional Marriage” Is Traditional
Beatnik Christianity Is Sex-Positive
Christian culture has long taught an unhealthy, unnatural, androcentic, and repressive view of human sexuality that appears blissfully unaware of Song of Songs. I'm not denying that Christians ever say positive things about sex, but even when they do the ratio is usually all wrong. The enculturated formula tends to prescribe two-thirds negativity to one-third positivity. If … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Is Sex-Positive
Beatnik Christianity Supports An Unapologetically Positive Theology of Pleasure
After 2,000 years of avoidance, it's high time that Jesus followers develop a holistic, nuanced, and overtly positive theology of pleasure. This whole time Christian culture has been, at best, dubious because of the precedents established by Stoicism's ethical influence upon the emerging Christian community in the Greco-Roman world. There's a reason we've got a word for the … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Supports An Unapologetically Positive Theology of Pleasure
Beatnik Christianity Repudiates Honor-Guilt And Honor-Shame Cultural Paradigms
One of the insights I most appreciate from the field of cultural anthropology is the identification of the sister paradigms of honor-guilt cultures and honor-shame cultures. In guilt societies, control is maintained by continually reinforcing individual themes of inward guilt for condemned behaviors. The moral order is preserved through law, punishment, and forgiveness. In … [Read more...] about Beatnik Christianity Repudiates Honor-Guilt And Honor-Shame Cultural Paradigms
