MPs Debate Child Sexual Exploitation

Read - UK Parliament:

At last we are having a debate on child protection and child sexual exploitation. Perhaps that explains why the Press Gallery is deserted. This is not about celebrities, the structural overhaul of the BBC or senior politicians possibly being connected with paedophilia; it is about child sexual exploitation.......

Frankly, the recent media circus with sensationalist celebrity scalp hunting has really undermined the importance and severity of the issue we are at last discussing today. I think that the media should take note of that.

Tim Loughton MP




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Driscoll, Marriage and Sex

Mark Driscoll's new book, Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship and Life Together, co-authored with his wife Grace, is rapidly contributing to reviews, comments and articles across the blogosphere. I haven't read the book (funny how many articles begin by saying that) but here are a selection of articles inspired by the book and the themes it addresses.

Methodist Morgan Guyton on Red Letter Christians confesses that he can make no sense of what he calls the "gender heirarchy" outlined in the Driscoll's book.

Rachel Held Evans summarises the book as the good, the bad and the ugly and in the process raises concerns about the assumption that evangelical pastors should be regared as competent to advise on such intimate issues as sex. :

Evangelicals expect too much of their pastors. In addition to demanding they serve as nearly flawless leaders and teachers, many of us demand that our pastors serve as professional counselors and advisors, experts on everything from politics to science to sex to health to money to marriage to relationships. 

Evans' appeal to look at the Biblical context as well as the Biblical content of the key marriage passages is also interesting.

Since David Moore of Fuller Theological Seminary states early on in his article that, "This book is an astoundingly unbelievable work of disrespect for women", there is no surprise that his review is largly critical.

Here in the UK, Christianity Magazine has released part of an interview with Mark Driscoll. The latter has subsequently described the hour-long interview as "adverserial." Driscoll has published a response to the article here.  

Researcher Ed Stetzer meanwhile notes that the topic of sex is being discussed by the world every day and asks the question of Christian leaders, How Should we Talk About Sex?  His five points are that Christians need to: 

• move beyond discomfort on the subject.   


• answer the critical questions people are asking. 


• hype does not help 


• teaching on sex, or at least the same levels of teaching on sex, is not for everyone. 


• talk more, not less, about sex

Lecturer and theologian John Armstrong expresses dispair at what he sees as the growing sensationalism of mega-churches on the subject of sex as he notes that:

Ed and Lisa Young, founders of Texas-based Fellowship Church, will spend 24 hours in bed on the church roof next week and stream themselves live on the Internet to encourage married couples to see firsthand the power of a healthy sex life as prescribed in their new book, Sexperiment.

As Armstrong says,

And some people actually wonder why young evangelical adults, who deeply love Jesus Christ, are now leaving evangelical churches in increasing numbers to go to more ancient churches. 

Being Franck

If Chelsea FC wanted to do something really cool, they could do a lot worse than drop any interest they may have in signing French footballer Franck Ribery.

The Bayern Munich striker stands accused of having sex with an under-age prostitute, an offence that carries a maximum of three years in prison.

With an estimated 1.3 million children trafficked annually, many of them into the sex industry, a decision by Chelsea to take a stand against this form of child abuse would send a positive signal that show that they value something more than money or winning matches.

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Hans Kung on the Pope's Responsibility Over Sex Crimes in the Catholic Church

Good to read a loyal Catholic (no I'm not one), and one of its leading theologians, calling for the abolition of the rule that requires RC priests to be unmarried and naming it as one of the key factors implicated in the prevelence of sexual abuse within Catholicsm.

"The American psychotherapist Richard Sipe has clearly demonstrated, on the basis of a 25 year study published in 2004 under the title Knowledge of sexual activity and abuse within the clerical system of the Roman Catholic church, that the celibate way of life can indeed reinforce pedophile tendencies, especially when the socialization leading to it, i.e. adolescence and young adulthood spent in minor and major seminary cut off from the normal experiences of their peer groups, is taken into account. In his study, Sipe found retarded psycho-sexual development occurring more frequently in celibate clerics than in the average population. And often, such deficits in psychological development and sexual tendencies only become evident after ordination."

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