by Ian Paul, Psephizo
Andrew Bunt has just brought out a new book, Getting God’s Perspective: A Short Christian Introduction to Worldviews, Sexuality and Gender, and had the chance to ask him about it.
IP: As a member of Living Out, you clearly have a concern for teaching about issues around sexuality. But why do you think this is still such an important issue in our culture? Why do we need to keep talking about it?
AB: The main reason that motivates me is that there will always be people like me: those who want to follow Jesus and who experience same-sex attraction. Walking that path isn’t always easy, especially in a culture that thinks so different about sexuality, and so I think it’s important that we continue to seek to equip churches to handle the topic of sexuality well.
But two other things also make me think sexuality is a topic we need to keep talking about. One is that for lots of people in our culture, Chrisitan teaching on sexuality is one of the big stumbling blocks that would stop them from following Jesus. If we can’t communicate God’s perspective well and build churches where those with different experience of sexuality can flourish in following Jesus, it will impact the mission of the church.
The other is that young people today are looking for wisdom that will help them to live well and I think they’re fast realising that the sexual revolution hasn’t delivered on the utopia of wellbeing it promised. They’re looking for a better perspective on sex and relationships, and we have that better perspective. I think sexuality actually has the potential to be a way we can help young people see the goodness of following Jesus.