Sitting Around in Bars Talking About Sex Again

Theology Pub last week was another session of sitting around talking about sex - quite productive this time I thought. The framing question for the week was: what actually is healthy sexuality? Can we define it? This leading in from a discussion last time largely centering on how everyone is all hung up on sexuality - and particularly the gays.

There was quite a bit of really good discussion on the topic, I thought. In particular as we moved towards the development of a sexual ethic folks seemed to think that it wasn't that helpful to talk about 'rule setting', or negative statements (no gay sex, no premarital sex, no whatever). Rather, it's more helpful to talk in positive terms. Ultimately, what we came to was 1) a golden rule of sexuality, where the goal in your sexual expression is to do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. That's from all of the great religious traditions. Better than that though, I thought, was 2) a campfire rule of sexuality, where the goal is to leave those who you have a sexual relationship with better than they were when you found them. That's from that great theologian Dan Savage.

Which goes to show you something, I'm sure.