Well, it took me almost a year to read and review this book, but I’ve finally done it! I was given an advance copy and asked to blog about it prior to its release (last February). I am sorry to let my friend (and fellow blogger), Randy Elrod, down…but perhaps my Johnny-come-lately (or should I just say “late”) review will help in creating some interest well after the release of the book. A second wave of publicity is better than one. And our favorite cliche: “Better late than never!”

I first met the author in February of 2008, when he and his wife joined my wife and I (along with about a dozen other bloggers) on Compassion International’s first ever “Blogger’s Tour.” We went to Uganda and saw first-hand the awesome work that Compassion does there. They are seriously releasing people from the grip of poverty − from little tiny babies to young adults − and blessing entire families as well. While we don’t keep in touch like good buddies do, there was a bond formed over that trip between all 15 of us that went which likely will last a long time. I got to meet a man that knows what grace is. And I believe he learned it from some severe lessons and trauma in the context of a church leadership situation. I don’t know if I ever caught all the details, but I think he was treated like garbage from some folks (which is always wrong) and he discovered God’s grace through the trial. I love grace and its transforming power, so I am always attracted to people that have come to know it and exude it in their countenance and personality. This guy certainly does. That fact that he laughed at my air guitar gesture when our plan was landing and making a ferocious screeching noise probably sealed the deal for me. The guy lives in Franklin, TN and mentors a lot of young men at a popular restaurant in that place. I think if I lived in Nashville I would ask to be a part, but would probably wear out my welcome with my brand of immature and annoying pranks (interrupting serious conversations with Monty Pythonesque bits of silliness, I’m afraid).

The guy paints exquisite water colors and puts on re:create conferences each year that must be fantastic times of nurturing dreams, encouraging the creative and unleashing confidence and energy. When I heard he was writing a new book, I was excited. When I found out it was about sex, I knew it’d be interesting and reflect a personality of someone that had been set free by God to learn what it means to live abundantly, as opposed to a prudish control-freak that geeks out all Type-A style over the horrific thought of anyone else having a good time or coming close to breaking a rule… For that reason, I figured it’d be good. As part of his research he did an informal survey online about sexuality. Participating in even an anonymous survey can be kind of unnerving and made me slightly squeamish. Even though I consider myself open, honest and not too prudish, I still have to admit that I’m a product of my culture – the Western World and the United States of America to be exact. Our culture is pretty uptight about sex. There is no doubt.

This fact is met head-on in this book and he brings the lens of Scripture to the subject and will open some eyes, shock others, but he gets a great conversation going. I thought it was funny to see two words that made up the title of my old punk band in one of his sentences:  “In a fallen world, we experience lust and control. But in a redeemed world, we experience love and freedom.”

There are several points he brings up that I think are worth praising. In his frank communication he does not leave behind sensibility. Nevertheless, this is probably a book that would best be read with adult supervision for readers under the age of 14 (for girls, 15 for the slower-maturing males among us). It handles the subject with care and reason, which is something that’s missing in our culture. We avoid this subject like the plague.

We’re like those knights of the round table in Monty Python’s Holy Grail movie. When sex comes up in conversation, we tuck our tails and scream, “Run away! Run away!” Because it’s written with intelligence and tact, it’s highly recommended. I love that he brings up art and the vacuum that exists within evangelical churches in our country (and the Western culture at large). We treat art and the creative as if it’s a video game or some frivolous hobby. Nothing could be further from the truth and this author opens up Scripture to show that.

This is what I also love so much about Kemper Crabb’s column, “The Christian & Art.” His ongoing dialogue the past few years of “The Disconnect: Why Evangelicals Make Bad Art” is brilliant and if I could only print one thing in the pages of my magazine (if I had to make such an agonizing decision) it might be his column. I am honored and privileged that he writes for HM. If I had to bring my magazine before God and a holy tribunal (which I believe I literally do in prayer and in the Spirit), I would not be afraid to show my most controversial and edgy artist features, but I would also know that He is well pleased with this particular column. If you can’t tell, I really dig it.

Pause.

This blog is actually a continuation of my self-imposed “Advice Column.” Here is the input/question/suggestion for this blog post:

I absolutely LOVE your magazine! But, I think you should stop doing the column, “The Disconnect” and do something more positive. Merry Christmas and God Bless!

I have to bite my tongue on that one, to be honest. I’d rather lash out call this subscriber names and throw mud balls at him. But my immature side needs to be bridled. I’ll just go ahead and shut him (my immature side) up, duct tape his mouth, tie his hands and put him in the “box of shame” for a month … or at least ’till I can answer this comment with reason. I think I’d choose this column to stay at the expense of a lot of other elements of HM Magazine. I can see why someone would think it was “negative.” After all, the subtitle is “…Why Evangelicals Make Bad Art.” An evangelical could take offense at that, but the criticism is valid. The cliche of “Oh, is that a Christian t-shirt? No wonder it sucks!” You can insert the word “play” or “movie” or “music” in that statement and it sticks. We need to face the criticism. It’s valid and ignoring it is idiotic and creative suicide. Granted, HM Magazine champions Christian art. We hold up what is good and we praise it. In the same vein, we have to hold up what is bad and admit that it is bad.

Do you seriously think that Messiah Prophet’s Rock the Flock album holds up to Led Zeppelin’s fourth album or Radiohead’s Kid A? Is Stephen Wiley’s “Bible Rap” as good as “Loose Yourself” by Eminem? Get real. This is one reason why I like this column in HM. Another reason is that it edifies, educates and encourages Evangelicals to make GOOD art.

Now let’s talk about sex some more… Or maybe I should say, “Back to Elrod’s book on sex.” He does a good job of answering the question, “What’s the difference between nudity in art and pornography?” He actually explains it in specific terms. He also takes to task the gnostic heresies that have crept into the church for ages and still plague us today. Anyone reading this probably has some measure of the (false) doctrine “spirit = good and flesh = bad.” It’s not true. God came to earth as one of us. The incarnation is probably a bigger miracle than the resurrection. It’s at least a bigger gift to us. Gratefully, we have both and don’t have to choose one over the other, but the richness and depth of meaning behind the incarnation is something most of us haven’t spent adequate time trying to fathom.

One little nugget that made me think is that God’s conversation with Adam and Eve immediately after the fall was perhaps more of a “description” than a “prescription” (when he talked about man and woman and their from-then-on roles).

While not a manual on sex for married couples, he does share some good advice. His main theory is exploring the parallels between the communion we have with our Creator in a faith relationship and the physical union. He bravely compares the ecstatic union he’s experienced in worship with the spiritual-mingling-with-physical ecstasy of sex. While his discourse will certainly make some fundamentalist minds and stomachs squeamish, let me free you from some worry by sharing that he also directly differentiates between sin and freedom using God’s Word (there’s that incarnation thing again).

Here’s a quote that summarizes much of what he balances in the book:

My candid conversations with young men I mentor,
my own struggles, the shocking results of the online survey,
and the inordinate amount of moral dismissals in our
churches provided me the incentive to write this book. I have
seen wives leave their husbands because of pornography
addictions and marriages fall apart due to misplaced
affections. Throughout my life, I have seen religion provide
judgment instead of grace in almost every situation.
Of course, there are extreme cases of sexual dysfunction
that need to be dealt with. Seeing a qualified sex therapist,
psychiatrist or licensed marriage counselor is one of the
most spiritually mature actions we can take in cases of
severe problems.

But I can’t help but think that if we really believed our
misplaced sexual longings were an indication of a desperate
search for God and the original experiences of the Garden,
many of us would find redemption instead of condemnation.
That’s what I’ve been given. And I’m thankful.

If you get nothing else from this message, know that
this book is about redemption. I suppose you could even say
it is controversially redemptive. I have realized through the
years that it takes shaking up the status quo to get anything
accomplished. So be it.

If you’d like to check out Elrod’s book, Sex, Lies and Religion, go to his site, sexliesandreligion.com