Sunday, July 12, 2009

No Kissing Please, We're Christians...

My mother sent me this. I'm not sure what she's trying to say to me (surely she knows I've kissed Megan by now. After all, we are married with two kids)...

Anyway, Sy Rogers, a Christian speaker who specialises in talking about sexuality, has come out and made a statement about kissing. Apparently, he said that single young people shouldn't kiss, because it could lead to sex outside of marriage. The news headlines have read, "Kissing is bad"; "Kissing leads to sex"; "No Kissing please, we're Christians" etc etc... You can have a look at the newspaper story by clicking here and you can check out how the "This Afternoon" show ran their segment by clicking here.

It is not unusual for Christians to make statements about chastity (IE - no sex before marriage). This would be a pretty standard Christian line to take. Nor is it unusual for Christians to be wary of where the first, then second, then third steps of the sexual escalator could take them. But Rogers takes this a step further than most have by suggesting that there should not even be kissing before marriage. His idea is that if you're not going to finish off the ride (so to speak), then why get on the escalator at all. The media had a bit of fun with this.
This is not surprising. For them, Rogers' comments are yet another example of an out-of-touch Christian, spruiking their crazy, out-moded ideas into a world that has well-and-truly moved on. "No kissing" would not remotely reflect the general community standard in this area and this is reflected in the street interviews in the "This Afternoon" show's segment.

So, what do you think? Has Sy gone too far, or is he onto something for those who are trying to keep themselves "chastised"? Has he made a fool of himself or is he being made fun of because he is talking up "God stuff" out there in the world and people just don't want to hear it?

I'm interested in your thoughts...

Shalom...

3 comments:

  1. 1 Timothy 5:2, amongst other things, says that we should treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters. Usually the question asked by young Christians is how far can we go without sinning? But that's the wrong mindset. The right mindset is: how can I honour Jesus?

    But back to the verse, how would I treat my sister? I would kiss her, but as my sister, I certainly wouldn't kiss her as a Christian man would kiss his wife.

    I'd say that this is the sort of thing to teach in churches, it isn't the gospel, so it shouldn't be proclaimed to the world.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I recently saw a Sunday evening news article of a Christian couple on the Gold Coast that saved their first kiss for their wedding day.

    This article influenced a choice made by a friend and her Christian boyfriend to do the same.

    I find this thinking to be extreme and unwarranted.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "he said that single young people shouldn't kiss, because it could lead to sex outside of marriage"

    What about single mature aged people?

    ReplyDelete

 
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