Faith in the Body

Response to a blog post by Drew Tatusko on the disconnect of the body (and sexual desire) from Christian doctrine: http://notes-from-offcenter.com/2010/09/21/self-and-the-sex-problem-in-church

I believe that the disconnect between doctrine and the embrace of our sexual selves runs deeper than scripture and historical context. It’s in our foundational God concept as well. We offer good lip service to the notion of being created in the image of God, yet, we profoundly limit what that image might be and include. The conventional image of God has altruistic characteristics like compassion and love yet lacks the vehicles to share and experience those attributes.

Sensuality is a remarkable gift connected to our embodiment. When a child is born, it feels and hears. The other senses will develop and deepen over time; however, all the senses will form fully before the child will attain logic capacities. With these senses, a baby is led to do things that are truly good and pleasing like eat and snuggle into a comforting embrace. If a baby achieves goodness and growth by trusting those unpolluted senses, then I find that to be proof enough that sensuality is part of the image of God gifted to us.

To embrace sensuality as part of God’s image in me means to embrace the feelings and desires that are connected with those senses, including sexual yearnings. Yet, that does not mean I should over emphasize sensuality above the gifts of the mind. To do that is engaging in the same idolatry of the intellect that Paul and so many others do.

Regardless of how I may engage the debate, the practical matter is for me to honor and embrace all the gifts God has imagined in us. However, my faith community in general wants to continue the idolatry of overemphasizing logic and exploiting the privilege of developing well crafted doctrinal statements. While I am supremely grateful for my mind, I fear that doctrine and debate will never lead a path back to the body.

Faith, that utterance of assuredness, is what reconnects me to my body. Faith supersedes doctrine and precedes belief. Faith comes from our whole self, including our body. Faith is the gift that leads us back to unification with the lived image of God. That image includes sex, desire, wonder, awe, love, and so much more than most of us allow ourselves to honor and experience.

May a full faith convict and compel us all. Amen