Your Body as Sacred - Part I: Humanity as the Image of God

Sadly, sex is just something everyone talks about.  As I have said in other blogs,  few see it as anything sacred anymore. Love has been separated from sex, and now it is nothing more than a recreational activity for most. Simply talking about sex as casually as I have to in this blog is a little sad for me. However, everyone talks about it in such a recreational manner so constantly that I don't need to be friends with anyone for very long before they find out I'm not on the promiscuous sex band wagon.

So, I was having a conversation, a while back, with a friend about why I am saving myself for marriage.  Of course, I got the usual argument in return.  After he mentioned some of the heinous practices in extremist backwards Middle Eastern cultures regarding virginity, he talked about why sex shouldn't be that important since it is "just the physical" part of a relationship.  As I insisted it WAS SUPPOSED TO MEAN SO MUCH MORE, he did make one concession:

"Well, sex can bring two people closer together.  What could be more intimate?"  

A definition of "intimate" from Merriam-Webster dictionary: belonging to or characterizing one's deepest nature,  of a very personal or private nature.

While his statement does such a disservice to sex as God intended it to be, he did voice a truth.

What could be more intimate than sex?

What could be more intimate than sharing the most intimate parts of yourself with another person?

Just the intimate physical mechanics of the act itself are so… well.. I can't bring myself to type about the intimate physical mechanics of sex because it is simply...too intimate, but you know what I mean.

What could be more intimate than engaging in the physical communion that BRINGS CHILDREN INTO THE WORLD?

What can be more intimate than sharing the entirety of your body which ties your soul to this earth during an act that brings new souls into the world?  New souls tied to perfect little, precious bodies...

The Human Body

Why do we disrespect and damage our bodies in the pursuit of transient physical pleasure?  Without even thinking of social or spiritual implications, activities like excessive alcohol consumption, drugs, and promiscuous sex with multiple partners can have devastating and life long affects on our physical health.  Such activities can even lead to our death.

We can not live without our bodies, we exist only because our hearts beat.  We can only aspire to ANYTHING because blood runs through our veins (the nurse in me wants to say "pumps though our arteries", but that is not as poetic).

So why do we ascribe so little meaning to our bodies?

Why do we value our bodies so little that something as intimate as sex could simply be recreation?

In my blogs,"Just Physical" and "Echad", I talked about why the act of sex is so much more than just physical.  In this blog, I want to talk about why your body itself is so much more than "just physical".

This message is predominantly for Christians. It is hard to convince atheists that they themselves are more than meets the eye when they don't think there is anything beyond what they can see.

So, to the atheists or agnostics that might read this, I just want to say, that your body IS sacred.  You are made sacred, and you should see yourself that way, every bit of you.  I see you that way.  If I know you or have ever met you, thats how I see you.  Your heart, mind, and soul are sacred, and so is your body.  You were made for perfect love (and I don't mean just romantic love).  If you find this to be an attractive concept, I urge you to consider learning more about God and his Son, Jesus Christ.  You can start now, by continuing to read the rest of this blog.


We were all made in the image of God, whether we acknowledge it or not (that means you too, atheists).  Now, some will say that this claim is just humans asserting themselves as the heroes in the myth of creation as told in the Bible; instead of accepting that we simply and logically evolved into the most complex animals.  However, this claim doesn't have anything to do with the physical expression of our genetics.  This is about our humanity.

Lets look at some verse:

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground"

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God, He created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27


So what does that mean? In His image? In His likeness?

This refers to all the qualities that separate us from the other life on this planet:

• Our thirst for knowledge.  Our inexhaustible need to explore and to know God's world from the depths of the oceans to the farthest reaches of space.  We thirst for knowledge because God is omniscient and the love for knowledge has been planted in our hearts so that our desires might echo the truth of God's limitless intellect. "It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out."- Proverbs 25:2  "The eye never has enough of seeing! Nor the ear, its fill of hearing" Ecclesiastes 1:8. The Bible is simply filled with verses that try to describe the scope of God's knowledge.  "He determines the number of the stars; He gives to all of them their names.  Great is our Lord, abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure." Psalm 147:4-5.  However, my favorite passage about God's knowledge is when He speaks to Job in Job 38,  awe-inspiring.  Our intelligence and pursuit of knowledge is probably the most easily discernible trait that sets us apart from animals.  While dolphins and chimpanzees can be quite impressive, their capabilities do not come close to the complexity of our brains and our capacity for learning/understanding. 

• Our ability to empathize with others, to understand and share the feelings of others.  One of my favorite stories from Jesus' life is when He went to the house of Mary and Martha when they were mourning the death of their brother, Lazarus.  Even though Jesus was fully aware that soon He would raise Lazarus from the dead, He was so moved by the grief of his friends that he wept with them, John 11.  Indeed, we are commanded by God to be empathetic "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep." (Romans 12:15).  However, most human beings on the planet naturally have the ability to empathize with their fellow man even if they have never heard this commandment.  One does not have to be a Christian to be empathetic (obviously).  It is part of our humanity. We are wired by God, in His image, to have this ability, see 2 Corinthians 1.  It is remarkable to me that the God of all creation can empathize with the pain and joy of His creation which is so lowly compared to His righteousness, see Isaiah 57.  Now, in the Bible, God's empathy is always referred to as "compassion" because compassion is empathy in action.  Empathy alone is not a complete quality of God.  God isn't just empathetic, He is compassionate.  Pslam 78   I would like to highlight just one recently discovered example of compassion here on earth: http://www.amazima.org/katiesstory.html.  Compassion is perhaps my favorite quality of humanity, and I'm not alone in this.  On the internet, compassion has its own "meme" which directly relates it to our humanity.  On tickld.com (my favorite internet community), whenever a story is shared about some compassionate act, this meme is sure to follow:

• The gift of our morality.  Human beings, through the common gift of our conscience, are moral creatures.  Most of our contemporaries in this culture seem to uphold the tarnished brass rule of "if it doesn't physically hurt anyone else than it is ok", but many still appreciate the golden rule "do unto others as you would have done unto you."   We might have varying perceptions of "right" and "wrong" but we all do ponder them. Even Hitler thought about "right" and "wrong", he just had a very perverted sense of "right" and "wrong".  We all have morality. This is not found in the animal kingdom. The best example I can think of is a lion killing cubs. You can read about infanticide in the animal kingdom in a BBC article here and watch it in the video below. Now, the lion commits infanticide for several reasons, all of which are logical for the continuation of his genetic line.  The majority of the people on earth will agree that killing children once living and breathing outside of the womb is morally "wrong", and we continue to debate the morality of killing children inside the womb.  Although I believe abortion is murder  (yeah, thats right I said it.), at least we are all debating abortion as a moral issue.  At least we all understand that such things must be carefully considered as moral issues.  A lion does not have the ability to do this.  In the video I have attached below, the lion does not experience a moral crisis before killing those cubs in cold blood.  He does not consider morality. So, why do we?  Because we have our conscience.  Our conscience is a gift from God, which convicts us of the TRUTH that "right" and "wrong" exist.  "For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.  They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus."- Romans 2:13-16.   Our conscience convicts us when we are sinful so that we might strive to be more righteous BECAUSE God is righteous and He made us to be righteous in His image.  Of course, apart from God, our morality is faulty and easily misguided/perverted (hence "crime" as we know it and such things as abortion). "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.  Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron." - 1 Timothy 4:1-2.  Our tragically flawed morality exposes our need for Jesus Christ.  I don't think one need do more than think about such tragedies as the Boston Marathon bombings or such injustice as the antics of corrupt politicians to acknowledge the truth that the collective conscience of humanity is flawed.    

Video source for mobile devices here.

• Our desire to create.  Every painting- from a child's scribble to the mona lisa, every building- from our most humble of homes to the Khalifa Tower in Dubai, every invention - from the wheel to the air plane, every film- from Muybridge's fast motion horse to Schindler's List, every medical miracle- from penicillin to stem cell therapy, every song -from "I'm a little teapot" to Mozart's 5th symphony, every dance from the hokey-pokey to the Bolshoi Ballet, and every child- for we don't just give birth to off-spring for the continuation of our species; we create children of inherent hope, inspiration, and perfect potential. While it takes numerous forms, the desire to create is in all of us from our very beginning and ties us to the great passion of God apart from which we would not exist.  Perhaps this is also the best example of how we are made in God's likeness and not as demigods.  For everything we create is truly only an arrangement, a re-fashioning, of God's creation.  As a child models the actions of his/her parents, so we as God's children are inspired by His creation and yearn to create as well.  "For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!"- Amos 4:13  "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."- Psalm 19:1  "...and [God] has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship,  to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze,  in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft." - Exodus 38:31-35.   "Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men." - Proverbs 22:29 "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them"- Romans 12:6  This attribute of humanity, the desire to create, is one that I find most enjoyable in my fellow humans.  It is an absolute joy for me in the one I love, and I have been very blessed to know many marvelous artists aka creators.  You think Cirque de Soleil is cool? Check out some of my favorite creators here.  

• Indeed, our appreciation of the world God made, to be awed by the glory of it and to struggle to communicate that awe to each other with language.  Just to examine the changing vernacular and rich material of authors from Shakespeare to Emerson to Kierkegaard to F. Scott Fitzgerald to J.R.R. Tolkein.  How amazing is our ability to communicate, to recognize and attempt to articulate the wonder in the world around us which only human beings are capable of doing.  I offer the entirety of the Bible as an example. Nay, I offer the entirety of literature, newspapers, oral histories and folk tales, music, body language and dance, film, television, greeting cards, the dictionary, all the spoken languages of the world... shall I go on?  The need to understand and be understood, AMAZING.  What is humanity without communication?   "We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also." - 2 Corinthians 6: 11-13 "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver." - Proverbs 25:11  "From the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits." - Proverbs 18:20-21  "I write these things to you so you might know you have eternal life"- 1 John 5:13  The glorious communication of God is shown in nothing more clearly than in His Son, Jesus Christ, who is called The Word.  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:1-5  

• Lets talk about existentialism, the human ability to analyze and interpret "existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual" (Thanks, Merriam-Webster dictionary).    To ponder what life is, what it means, what our purpose is, how we relate to each other... what other creature on this planet ever questions its life?  Long before Neitzsche, Kafka, and Kierkegaard; Solomon pondered the plight of the individual through the entire book of Ecclesiastes, in the Bible.  "What does man gain by all the work at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises." -Ecclesiastes 1:3-5  We yearn for that understanding because we were created to know it and will, once we are no longer separated from the God whose image we bear.  "For now, we see only a reflection, as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now we know in part, but then we shall know fully, just as we are fully known." - 1 Corinthians 13:12

• We're almost done, I promise.  Now, I would like to talk about what is referred to as the "indomitable human spirit".  This is hope regardless of the odds of success/survival;  perseverance regardless of tribulation/persecution; the inability to accept defeat.  This is what inspired deaf and blind Helen Keller to learn to speak and read despite being imprisoned in her own body.  This is what gave Amelia Earhart the confidence to fly around the world (yes, even though she failed).  This is what enabled Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler to escape Auschwitz twice before finally succeeding in order to try to warn the world of the Nazi's death factory.  This is what made it possible for Malala Yousafzai to survive being shot in the head by the Taliban and return as an even more influential voice for women's right to education.  What great accomplishment throughout history; what personal triumph has been achieved or even just attempted without this incredible power of assurance?  The indomitable human spirit, it is called "human" for a reason.  Animals may show great courage, take calculated risks, or react illogically when surprised or desperately when cornered; but they do not have a sense of hope.  The still, small voice inside that tells use we will make it; some sense of destiny that tells us we will prevail.  I will argue, that the "indomitable human spirit" comes from an inherent, subconscious sense that we were made for glory; we were made to prevail; we were made to rise above all the injustice and suffering in the world; we were made to triumph.  God created us for His glory, and it glorified God to make us in His image and appoint us as stewards of the Earth.  God created us to subdue the earth and have dominion over it, (Genesis 1:26-28).  Think about that.  We were made to be immortal and subdue and dominate the world while enjoying perfect communion with the God of the universe!  Fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory.  We weren't born to suffer, to be imprisoned, to be tortured, to be oppressed, to be cheated and robbed, to have doubt and shame, to die.  God made us for SO MUCH MORE, because we were made in His image.  We were meant to share in God's glory.  God has dominion over EVERYTHING.  By giving us a taste of that with our divine purpose (subdue the earth and have dominion over it), God gave us a taste of His unimaginable glory as the Lord God.  Because of sin, we failed God.  While mankind has made amazing discoveries and advancements, we don't have dominion over the earth as God intended.  We broke that perfect communion with God and we lost our birthright.  We wage devastating war amongst each other; we scourge the earth and devour its resources; we pollute our environment.  We FAILED as stewards and suffer the immense consequences of sin.  The indomitable human spirit is the subconscious acknowledgment inside all of us that we WERE meant for more.  Because of sin we went from being heirs of the King to being "slaves"to every evil desire.  However, in Christ, we are reconciled to God and once again become heirs.  Because of the amazing love and grace of God, we will know glory through Christ when we are finally fully redeemed (second coming of Christ).  We share in the glory of God through Christ because it glorifies God to reconcile His creation.  Our glory in Christ glorifies God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit,groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  - Romans 8: 14-39

• Second to last, hang in there!  As a big history buff and a lover of mythology, I'm excited to write about this trait of humanity: obsession with the divine and the eternal.  Every social group on the planet from the beginning of the world has pondered what happens after you die, and most came to the conclusion that SOMETHING must happen and that divine entities of some kind must oversee this process.  From the Greeks, we get immortality as logically proposed by such intellects as Socrates; from the Norse, we get a bearded god wielding a massive hammer who ends up making a decent super hero.  Regardless, what matters is the effort, the fact that nearly all people recognize (atheists might say "wish") that this world (and life on it) is transient and there MUST be more.  Many Christians don't like acknowledging mythology as though it somehow diminishes Christianity.  Atheists will tell you it does diminish Christianity, that Christianity is simply another whimsical myth conjured up by people afraid of death.  This is so not true.  A brief history lesson.  According to a creationist timeline, God created mankind about 4,000 years before Christ came.  So God made us; we sinned and broke communion with God; and God cast us out of Eden.  From the fall of man until God called Abraham to form the Jewish nation, we have about 2,000 years of a whole lot of nothing.  No global commandments or decrees from God, no widespread divine knowledge. Other than God shaking the etch-a-sketch with the Great Flood and a handful of faithful followers (Enoch a notable mention), God was kind of biding his time.  So after the flood (estimated about 3,000 BC), for over a thousand years, mankind was busy spreading across the earth, forming social groups, and making up their own mythologies to explain the inherent truth of immortality and the divine. And God just let them do it.  Finally, Abraham is called to form the Jewish nation about 2,000 BC (or BCE for the progressive Atheists, does that added letter make you feel better?)  and, for the next 2,000+ years before Christ comes, the only people who know about God, with a capital G, are the Jews.  There was no evangelism in this era; no Gutenburg printing press to make the Bible available to the masses; actually, there was no Bible!  Its not even in a first draft yet.  Most of Genesis is oral history passed down for thousands of years before Moses (it is believed) wrote it down around 1400 BC and the Jewish scriptures were not shared with Gentiles (non-Hebrews) until after Christ's death (c.33 AD). God was "busy" forming His nation, and this was necessary preparation for Jesus Christ.  However, its not that He was ignoring the rest of the world.  The formation of the Jewish/Hebrew nation of Israel, and allowing the rest of the world to its own devices are equally important portions of the epic saga of the salvation.  God was setting the stage through His direct influence on Israel and indirect influence on the rest of the world. You've got to read the whole Bible to get it.  Anyways, so another 2,000 years go by with God as an in-house secret, while the other nations on earth put the finishing touches on their mythologies regarding the soul and gods and heaven.  This is why we have Buddhism, Hinduism, Greek and Roman mythology, Norse mythology, Taoism, the various communal and henotheistic religions in Africa, and etc.  This is AMAZING.  Left without any direct influence from God, all people across the world still sense the immortality within them and seek to explain the divine.  This is nothing BUT evidence of God.  The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.  They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. - Psalm 19:1-4  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.- Romans 1:20  And my very favorite: He has made everything beautiful in its time, and He has set eternity in the heart of man; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11  The myriad of religions and mythologies that exist on this earth not only testify to the existence of the immortal and the divine, it also shows so clearly that all people are worshipers.  We are built to worship. It is as natural as breathing.  There is NO ONE who does not worship.  Over the course of history, some worshiped what became a mediocre Marvel super hero (hey, Thor); some worshiped the stars and planets, some worshiped the spirits of trees and beavers; some worshipped golden idols.  Today we worship ourselves, or Justin Beiber, or Buddah, or Prince William and Kate, or Miley Cyrus, or the New York Giants, or video games, or the tenants of hedonism (sex, drugs, and alcohol), or material gain, or professional success, competitive athletics, or our significant other, or our parents, or our children.  We attend functions, devote our times and our bodies, raise our hands and voices; we worship.  Maybe you don't worship God, but you worship something.  The opposite of Christianity isn't atheism; it is idolatry.  We all worship something or someone. Maybe you religiously watch football every Sunday.  Maybe you offer continual sacrifices to your children in order to show your devotion to them.  Maybe you can't stop witnessing to others about how amazing your boyfriend/ girlfriend or husband/wife is.  Maybe you attend every Coldplay concert to raise your hands to their exhilarating spirit.  Maybe you devote yourself to pleasure; taking in alcohol and drugs for the almighty high or giving your body over and over as a living sacrifice to the almighty orgasm.  Whatever it is.  We ALL worship.  This shows that God "wired" humanity to worship HIM so that when we reject him, we must find something else to fill that need.

Picture form fanpop.com

• And finally, consider love.  Not just affection, dependence, family/group bonding, tenderness, loyalty, and devotion; facets of love that we can definitely see reflected in animals (dogs being my favorite example). But love. Love that goes beyond simply desiring to be in someone's presence because they make you happy or because you want to make them happy.  Love that sets a deep desire inside you to see another person become the fullest of themselves and achieve their dreams, even if that means they are parted from you.  Love that inspires one heart to be concerned with the deepest matters of another.  Love that so values its object (soul) of their affection that their struggle is yours, their pain is your own, and their joy is what you crave most.  Love which knows that truth is more vital to the soul than comfort. Whether between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, husband and wife, amongst friends or relatives; human beings were built to love fiercely in the fullest sense of the word, because God is love.  In fact: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Who ever does not love does now know God because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8  So what is love?  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part,  but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthains 13: 4-12

Just to recap, our sacred humanity refers to our thirst for knowledge and spirit of exploration, empathy and compassion, morality, creativity, existentialism, our "indomitable human spirit", immortality and our need to worship, and the ability to love.

So, we are created in the image of God, all of us, and our humanity is the expression of God's image.  God saw fit to house His image in these physical bodies, and this makes our bodies holy.  


Now, if you are a Christian, if you believe that God sent His only Son to die for our sins, than you have an actual responsibility to God in regards to your body.  Your body doesn't just house your sacred soul which bares the image of God.

You body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

More on that later.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7

I praise you, Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Psalm 139:14


P.S. A quick note regarding the spread of other religions, Islam does not fit in my theory of how nations developed different mythologies and religions because they were trying to fill the void of the one true God.  Islam came about from the descendants of Abraham's son, Ishmael.  God told Abraham he would have a son with his wife Sarah and that this son would be the first of a great nation (the Jewish nation).  After years of waiting, Sarah got impatient and doubted God's promise.  She convinced Abraham to sleep with her servant Hagar.  Hagar conceived and had Ishmael.  Some time later, Abraham and Sarah finally conceived and had Isaac. Sarah started to resent Ishmael as the "first born" and insisted he was illegitimate and had to be disinherited,  so Abraham sent Ishmael and Hagar away.  Yet, God promised that Ishmael would live and that a mighty nation would come from him.  It is also written that Ishmael's nation would always be in conflict with Isaac's.  Bam, Islam and the constant conflict in the Middle East as we know it today.  Cool huh?  That is why both Islam and Christianity/Judaism share some of the same scriptures/history. Read about it here.

Some Days, Many Days

There are some days when I don't want to speak or even think about sex at all, and it's impossible to get through a day without it coming up somewhere. My coworkers are complaining about their husbands going to the strip club or a sexual song comes on the radio like "Gorilla" or, God forbid, I turn the TV on; it is always something.  Sex is impossible to get away from in our society.  I've done a lot of research for this blog by way of watching Teen Mom on MTV or Games of Thrones on HBO - I could do a whole blog on Wedding Crashers that I watched this weekend. It's depressing. Desperately depressing for someone who struggles to cling to the idea that our bodies are sacred. So there are days when I hate that I care about it at all because its a daily grief.  One can not avoid the reminder of how it means nothing to so many.  Do you know, in Ted Mosby's quest for "true love" on How I Met Your Mother, he dated/slept with over thirty women!  Ted Mosby wasn't waiting for his true love to come into his life; he was trying to turn every girl he dated into "the one" when he couldn't let go of his feelings for Robin.  Pathetic.  How many times was he engaged? And it's supposed to be a show about "true love"?  Future blogs about the value of our bodies and true love in the works, but nothing for today. Too depressing.  I will leave you with Mumford and Sons.  The struggle for purity is a common theme in their music which is a great comfort to me.

* If you are on a mobile device that won't display the imbedded video, you can find it here.

Lies About Purity

If you haven't read "Innocence, Purity, and Virginity- How they are three different things and why it matters." please go do that before you read this blog entry.  Today, I want to talk about how all cultures are seriously mixed up about purity.  I'm going to pick on everybody.  Get ready, its going to be a good time.

I'm going to start with traditional Asian and Middle Eastern cultures- or at least the general understanding of the role sex/love/purity plays in their societies.  Anyone can feel free to correct me at any time.  Of course, I want to make the disclaimer that I have friends from these cultures that don't necessarily fall within the stereotypes I'm about to talk about; and don't worry, I'm going to rag on conservative Christians too.

* Also, I want to make it clear that when I talk about "men" and "women" throughout history and in present societies- I am talking about the collective average.  For example, if I should say "women have sought to achieve the same sexual freedom in society that men have enjoyed" I am talking about most women. Obviously not all women want the same sexual freedom that men have in this society; I am one that doesn't, and I know others.  Additionally, not all men want the "freedom" of promiscuous sex; I know one....or maybe two.   Just kidding, I know a few.  Endangered but not extinct.


Lets start.

Often, when I try to have a discussion with someone about the value of purity, I get burkas thrown in my face.

Source for photo here.

What I mean is, people (both non-Christians and secular Christians) argue with me about the evils of cultures that place a high "value" on virginity (and its always the virginity of women), as though that extreme and unhealthy "value" of virginity is synonymous with purity and therefore proves that the ideology of purity is unhealthy.

They say things like:

So you think women aught to be covered from head to toe?  You think women aught to be stoned for having sex before marriage?  Yeah, its great; a 12 year old virgin can be sold for a whole opium field in Afghanistan.  What about female circumcision, which makes it impossible for women to feel pleasure during sex? A heinous practice that is performed in over 28 countries (in Africa and the Middle East and to a lesser degree throughout Asia) in order to reduce temptation for a woman to engage in sex before she is married, because now, even if she has sex, she won't have an orgasm so why bother? That will make sure her husband has a nice, tight virgin on his wedding night.  Yeah, what a great thing to value virginity.

It kills me.  It kills me when people use this argument because:

1) It is absolutely absurd, of course thats not the kind of "value" I'm trying to campaign for.

2) It is indicative of a huge double standard in these societies- not just that men can do whatever they want and women are "whores" if they pursue sexual pleasure outside of marriage, but also because the value is placed on the virginity of women and no value is attributed to the virginity of men.  Two MAJOR problems regarding sex with this type of culture.  Nobody talks about how the sexuality of men is devalued.

3) This type of extreme and inappropriate ideology of "virginity" is often attributed to religious groups and that is a huge headache for any rational person who also happens to be a person of strong faith. Like myself.

*Source for info on female circumcision/ female genital mutilation can be found here at womenshealth.gov.

When looking at the cultures of many countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia; people (especially feminists- no offense ladies, I love your Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl" memes) will tell you that the problem is one of social equality.  Thats only half the problem.  In regards to women not being allowed to go to school or own property or work- yes, those are indications of a major social equality issue.  However, in regards to how these societies value the bodies and sexuality of women and men.  Its not just an issue of equality, its an issue of fundamental values.  Rather than looking at the true fundamentals of the love/sex/marriage relationship, we label it an equality issue.  Whats good for the goose should be good for the gander, and if men are having promiscuous sex without any repercussions in society than so should women!  No.  Instead of saying virginity/purity shouldn't matter at all regardless of gender, we should be exposing the flaws in how these cultures are valuing virginity/purity/sexuality.   

Let me look at things historically a little bit, and then I'm going to give you my opinion as to what exactly is wrong with the outlook these kinds of cultures have on sex.  

If we journeyed back in time to the era in life on earth when God was talking directly to people though burning bushes and etc, you would think that people in those Biblical times would have honorable sexual practices right?  Wrong.

Despite laying down irrefutable commands regarding the solidarity and purity of the marriage relationship, there were all types of sexual sin among God's people (the Israelites): polygamy, rape, incest, premarital sex,  you name it.  This was because they were sinners, just like we are all sinners.  So there had to be all these crazy laws in order to try and enforce purity.

In the Biblical cultures, men got away with sexual sin (or freedom if you want to call it that) more easily than women. Why? 

Not because God favored different standards for men, but because the people who enforced God's laws in those societies were men.  

Since the beginning of time, men have had an upper hand on women as far as the political/social power dynamic goes. Why?  Because they are physically (on average) stronger than us.  Back when we were hunting woolly mammoths with stone spears, the men had the power, and that trend has continued.  Its logical, and if I lived in that time, I would have benefitted from that power dynamic.  I'd gladly gather fruit and nuts and bear your children and let you call the shots as long as you beat that saber toothed tiger to death with your wooden club because I want none of that.

As a woman I don't have a problem admitting there are physical differences between men and women.  Why should I?  They are biological fact.  But hey, I can grow a baby inside me.  I think both genders come out even as far as abilities goes. We are just different.

However, because society began with a power dynamic that logically tipped in the favor of men- and because we brought sin into the world and sin perverts/corrupts everything- that power dynamic just kept tipping until now you have fodder for a show like AMC's Mad Men.  The oppression of women in society came about because of an abuse of power- because men abused the positions of power that they were in.  

My point is:

The concept of the value of virginity was perverted because of social inequality.

*Don't worry men- women are about to get their half of the blame soon.

God commanded both men and women to remain virgins until they were married and then to remain faithful to their spouse for the rest of their lives.  

You would have men in burkas today if women had the same kind of power as men to enforce that commandment.  Women wouldn't have been stoned for adultery because they would have decided they could marry more than one man and cheat the law as men in Biblical times did! We would have had harems!

Women didn't have that power. We had no power.  We didn't get to choose who we would marry or when or why or how many.

If a man said, "I want to marry this woman," and the woman said, "No way man, I heard about you, you aren't a virgin!" Well, tough luck, because you have no say and your father is going to make you marry him anyways!  But men had the power to say, "we only want to marry virgins".

The huge problem here is that men wanted to marry "virgins" not woman of "purity".  They wanted to marry virgins because they felt entitled to them.  Men felt entitled to be a woman's "first" and "only" sexual experience and wanted the aesthetic details that accompany that (breaking the hymen).  They wanted to know that their wife never had or could have even potentially had children with another man (remember the continuation of that family line was uber important in Biblical times).  They didn't care about spiritual oneness or giving the same marital rights to their wife and women had no way of ensuring they got the marital rights they deserved.

Thats why, if a woman wanted to engage in promiscuous sex in Biblical societies, she had to be a prostitute/harlot/whore because no man would marry her.  She couldn't fool around and then decide to settle down and have a family as a man could (as women do today).  She had no power, authority, or influence in society. Thus began the tradition that men can do as they please and women better stay pure until they are married or else.

Additionally, men never had to worry about getting pregnant so there were no social ramifications for men who engaged in promiscuous, premarital sex unless they were actually caught in the act.

Just because these men valued "virginity" does NOT mean they valued purity!  Purity is valuing the marriage relationship and understanding God's intentions for the spiritual oneness within marriage.  Virginity is not a prized commodity!  Virginity is just purity in its raw form.  It can be perverted with out giving it up, and that is what happened in these societies.  If these societies valued the marriage relationship as God commanded, both men and women would have been held to the same, healthy standards.

Lets talk a little bit about the ancient laws God gave to the Israelites, they are found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  Leviticus gets a bad rap for its "intolerant laws" regarding sex.  Well, they can all be found in Leviticus chapters 18-21, and the first thirteen laws are just about not having incest, and I think we can all agree thats a good plan, not having incest, right?  We have some common ground, yay!  Then there are laws about things like not sacrificing children to Molek.  Molek was a pagan god worshipped by the contemporary people of Canaan and a key part of their worship was sacrificing children.  We can all agree on not sacrificing children to a pagan god, yeah?  It goes on about adultery, premarital sex, and homosexuality, the usual suspects.  In particular though, in order to show how much the power dynamic of ancient society affected Jewish law, I want to talk about the commandments in Deuteronomy regarding rape.

But, if out in the country, a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die.  Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death.  This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.

Now, this crime of rape deserved the same punishment as adultery (death) but for the man only because the woman is betrothed.  Being betrothed to someone was regarded just as legally binding as marriage, the sacrament of the wedding and the consummation just hasn't occurred yet. So basically not only is this rape but the man is committing adultery- having sex with another man's wife.  So he dies. Lets continue.

If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver.  He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her.  He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

Deuteronomy 22:25-28

Here is the problem with the power dynamic and the inappropriate value men placed on women's virginity.  If a women wasn't already legally bound to another man and she is raped, no other man would marry her because she wasn't a virgin- so this law makes her marry her rapist.  While this may seem evil (and it is), this law protected the victims future.  What future does a woman have in this society when her value is stripped from her and she has no hope of having a family and children that will take care of her in her old age?  Can she start her own business or buy her own property? No.  Because of the corruption of this society- this law was a "necessary evil", if you will.  It is for the woman's sake that the rapist is kept alive and forced to marry her.  Can you imagine? Horrible.

Jesus himself stated that the Jewish laws had departed from the ideology God set in place in the beginning.  The verses I am referring to are the same as those shared in my "Echad" blog entry:

"Haven't you read," He replied, "that in the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female', and for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man could give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"

Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard.  But it was not this way in the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."

Matthew 19:4-9

So just because "men of God" made certain laws necessary doesn't mean that those laws reflect the heart of God or His intentions for His people.  Always return to the words of God and Jesus Christ.  Don't blame God for the corruption of sinful people.  We corrupted ourselves (fall of man) and we taint and pervert everything that God made perfect.  Sex is a perfect example of this.

Also remember that all the harsh laws and punishments for sexual sin that are in the Old Testament existed because of the separation between man and God, our unrighteousness vs. His perfect righteousness.  Measured against the perfect righteousness of God, we all deserve death.  Once Christ came to pay the full price for our sin as the perfect, holy sacrifice; those punishments were no longer necessary and we now preach a doctrine of forgiveness and grace. This is obvious in the scripture of the New Testament.  My favorite passage that shows this is in the book of John. The Pharisees brought a woman who committed adultery to Jesus and asked Him if He would fulfill God's law (in Leviticus) and stone her to death.

At dawn [Jesus] appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.  They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.  Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.  When they kept questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.  Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

John 8:2-11

And that is how we are supposed to deal with sexual sin as Christians- no condemnation, but urging each other to strive for purity "Go now and leave your life of sin."

And speaking of the fall of man, did you know that the patriarchal social structure, the dominance of men over women, was a result of the fall of man?  Once Adam and Eve sinned, God punished them both in different ways.  To "the woman" (and all women) he said:

"I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

Genesis 3:16

So being submissive to men was kind of part of "our cross to bear" as a result of our part in the separation between God and humanity.

To "the man" (and all men) God said:

"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

Genesis 3:17-19

And then both Adam and Eve were denied fellowship with God and cast out of the Garden of Eden to live out their sad lives until they tasted the bitterness of death.

Some might argue that we got the short end of the stick with the pain of child birth but the big picture here is that our sin led to the ruination of our perfect communion with God and the loss of our immortality on earth.  Regardless of your gender, thanks to sin, we are all equally screwed (without salvation).

It is an advancement in equality and social justice that women now hold an (almost) equal social standing with men (they still, on average, make more money in the same jobs than we do).  I am sure this advancement pleases God.  However, our (as women) modern attitude regarding sexual promiscuity ("If you can't beat them, join them!") is, in my opinion, the farthest thing from "progress". 

I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about what I think is wrong with sex in our modern culture.  It's pretty obvious. All you need to do is watch half an hour of television.  Maybe Grey's Anatomy or How I Met Your Mother.  Listen to Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" or Bruno Mars' "Gorilla".  The physical pleasure of sex has been isolated from love; it is now simply a recreational activity.  Since the development of birth control and the Sexual Revolution of the 1960's, the stigma of promiscuous women as "whores" has rapidly diminished.  Today, in America (and many other parts of the world), saving yourself for marriage is not the expected norm.  In the words of Indian actress, Khushboo (I kid you not), "no educated man would expect his [bride] to be a virgin." (Click here for source.)  The fact of the matter is, we are (as a gender stereotype-if promiscuous) still whores.  Men were just whores first and we joined them, and the pot can't call the kettle black.  Harsh sounding, I know.  Bear with me please.  I would never, ever identify anyone as a "whore".  Again, that word stems from people not valuing sex correctly.  Thats the whole crux of the issue, regardless of your past.  Not what your "number" might be but how you much you value yourself, your heart, your mind, your soul, and your body as well as how much you value others and their heart, mind, soul, and body.  I couldn't care less about your number and neither could God (amazing grace).  No condemnation, but please consider purity (and if you are a Christian you are commanded to strive for purity, so do it!).

What SHOULD have happened, as women gained equality?  Instead of demanding our "right" to be promiscuous without social repercussions "just like men", we should have demanded that men value our sexuality appropriately- as in the exclusive oneness of marriage, not our physically intact hymen. You know, your hymen can break just from riding a bike or riding a horse or using a tampon.  The status of your hymen/physical "virginity" is entirely irrelevant compared to how you value the sacred oneness of sex as God intended.  That is purity.

Additionally, we should have demanded that men start valuing their sexuality appropriately.

The point is: 

The virginity of men should be JUST AS VALUABLE as that of women.

That is such an absurd concept in our society today- in any society!  Even in modern, sexually liberated America, a woman's virginity still holds some mystique.  In 2009, a 22 year old virgin from San Diego put her virginity up for auction through a legal brothel outside Las Vegas.  You can read about it here.  She was offered $3.8 million dollars from a man in Australia.  If a guy put his virginity up for auction do you think a woman would have put a bid in for $3.8 million?

I have SO much to say about how society devalues men, but for right now all I want you to take away is this:

The virginity of men, no excuse me, the purity of men should be JUST AS VALUABLE as that of women.

So, who have I not insulted yet?  The Christians!  Gird your loins, my brothers and sisters in Christ.

*Ever wonder where that phrase "gird your loins" came from?  Its Biblical, see here.

So, for the most part, conservative Christian culture values the purity/virginity of both genders equally.  At least, they believe thats how its supposed to be; I've observed some discrimination against women with sexual histories more so than men.  However, that is to be expected considering we live within a larger society/culture in which thats been a stigma forever and ever.  So if you are a Christian, keep working on that.  Take the speck out of your own eye, don't be prejudice against anyone because of their sexual history.  

My problem with the stereotypical conservative Christian ideology about purity is that there is a different kind of separation of sex from love- referred to as a "detachment" of the moral from the purpose in this brilliant article from Relevant Magazine. 

Therefore conservative Christian culture focuses on purity as a moral obligation to God and those who compromise their purity are dirty, damaged goods in the eyes of God and their future spouse.

The message of purity that is preached by most conservative Christians is one WITH OUT HOPE.  They intimidate young people to keep their virginity through fear of condemnation. They teach that when you lose your virginity you irrevocably lose your purity and that is false.


We all are sinners.  Maybe our sin is different but we are all sinners and all fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:10-18.  It is God's love and the provision of salvation (forgiveness) through His Son, Jesus Christ that makes us righteous.  That is how we are reconciled to God. So what makes us pure? What reconciles us to our spouse if we have already been "one" with other people?  The same thing, salvation/forgiveness through Christ and God's love and the love between you and your spouse.

THIS is the problem with conservative Christian culture.  We don't preach enough about LOVE.  Not just the love of Christ in which there is no condemnation for past sexual sin, but the perfect true love that is supposed to exist between man and wife- which is supposed to be the motivation for purity!

I grew up in a church where purity was preached as a moral obligation to God.  God doesn't want you to have sex before marriage.  Ok, but why?  Just because He said so? God always has a reason!

Not only was true love between a man and woman not preached- it was discouraged in my church!  Marriage was taught as an obligation/commitment.  My pastor preached that "love" was just feelings that can't be trusted and that God didn't have one person picked out for you.  You choose to enter into a commitment of marriage with another believer as a "partner" for life and then you honor that commitment.  End of story. The seven years I attended this church the entire book of the Bible, Song of Songs, was never preached.  Song of Songs is about nothing except the passionate love and oneness within marriage.

This lack of belief in true love isn't found just in churches, its throughout society today.  It just is shocking that it should be found within a religion that is supposed to be built on the love and providence of God.

The providence of God refers to His protective care over us.  It covers everything from His plan for salvation to how we obtain our "daily bread".  God's providence doesn't just cover humanity either:

"Aren't two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will."

Matthew 10:29

So, even though God's will is exerted over the life and death of birds,  His providence doesn't include our love lives?  He would just leave that up to us?

If I thought sex was supposed to be saved for my "partner" with whom I would toil to fulfill commandments of God, I can promise you, I would NOT be a virgin right now.  

Expecting someone to resist sexual temptation out of moral obligation alone is ridiculous.  You need a good reason!  Ok, so God doesn't want you to have premarital sex, why?

Because sex is supposed to be saved for true love, now that is motivation!

Now, I don't believe there is a soulmate out there for everyone (that is how romantics get it wrong).  For example, I don't think Mother Theresa left some poor guy heart broken all his life because she devoted her life to serving God instead of falling in love and getting married.  She wasn't meant to be with someone.  So there wasn't "the one" out their for her, and that happens.  As Jesus said, in the verses from Matthew that I quoted in "Echad"; some are born as eunuchs (born without functional genitals), some are made eunuchs by other people (like a man in an accident that paralyzes him from the waist down) and some choose to live their lives as eunuchs for the glory of God (like Mother Theresa).  

But I can guarantee you, that if you are supposed to have sexual relations than you are supposed to get married, and if you are meant to get married than God has ONE person that He made to be your soulmate just as He made Adam and Eve to be together.

We all should contemplate the possibility that God might intend our lives for a purpose that does not allow for marriage, but if we feel strongly that we desire that perfect oneness with someone than you must wait patiently for that person! And if you don't wait for them, if you start romantically entangling yourself with other people, than all bets are off.

If you aren't waiting for your true love then there's no guarantee you're going to be available/in a position to receive him/her when God brings him/her into your life. Thats the greatest jeopardy of premarital relations.  For example, a guy gets involved with a girl he never should have dated, she gets pregnant, he marries her out of a sense of obligation, and then "the one" walks into his life. What then? Bye-bye, true love.  I'm certain people lose/miss out on true love all the time.  Hello, fall of man, we got ourselves kicked out of Eden!

I think some conservative Christians discredit "love" because of the fear that kids will let their feelings of infatuation inflame their desire and then they'll justify premarital sexual sin by saying they're in "love".  I disagree with this approach.  We aught to be putting our children in awe of how encompassing and deep and passionate true love is.  We need to teach them truths about self control, patience, and true love vs. infatuation.  Infatuation is not love.  In fact, any "love" that someone experiences in a relationship then doesn't last isn't "love".  How do I know this? Because:

LOVE NEVER FAILS.
1 Corinthians 13:8

Another blog on true love at another time.

In addition to discrediting the emotional aspect of love, conservative Christians often perpetuate an idea of sex being "dirty, nasty, and gross; so save it for the one you love."  We talk about STD's and unplanned pregnancy and shame. We don't talk about it as a perfect gift of oneness as God intended.  Its just a bad time all around.  Again, I attended church and various Christian youth conferences/events from ages 12 to 18, and I never heard a positive message on sex or romantic love.

We are dropping the ball, guys!  Is it any wonder why the rate of premarital sex is so prevalent among confessing Christians?  80% of us, guys! (according to statistics in the 2009 National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, source here.)

See, its still a problem with values.  Conservative Christians are valuing the moral obligation to remain a virgin until marriage (virginity strikes again!) and the spiritual superiority complex is carries with it rather than focusing on the purity within the perfect oneness of the marriage relationship that God intended from the beginning of time!

If all men valued women as God intended them to and were willing to 

"love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" 
Ephesians 5:25

you would have men who valued women's bodies as the temple of their souls and the Holy Spirit regardless of their status as virgins or not, and you wouldn't have a patriarchal society that oppressed women.

If all women valued men as God intended and respected them (Ephesians 5:33) and their bodies as the temples of their souls and the Holy Spirit, we would not have the inappropriate double standard regarding virginity/purity that we have today. 

If all people were raised to treasure their own bodies as the temple of their soul and the Holy Spirit and to value the perfect oneness of physical intimacy in marriage as a means of facilitating perfect spiritual oneness, I wouldn't be writing this blog.

Since I mentioned Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl" feminist memes, here is one:

And here is the website it came from if you want to see more.