A few years ago a pastor named Dale Kuehne took some college students to work in a farming village in Costa Rica \u2014 a poor village that lacked electricity and running water. The locals did have a generator, however; once a week, they fired it up to watch a raunchy American television program \u2014 Beverly Hills 90210 .<\/p>\n
Kuehne was shocked to see village teenagers mimicking the behavior of the characters in the show. And he was floored when village men asked him what was wrong with the women who\u2019d come on the trip. \u201cWhy don\u2019t they want to have sex?\u201d they asked. \u201cWe thought all American women want to have sex.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuehne relates the story in his new book, Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationships beyond an Age of Individualism. What happened in Costa Rica, he writes, shows how far iWorld messages have spread \u2014 and how little the Church has done to engage the iWorld culture.<\/p>\n
Kuehne says that we are witnessing in the West the collapse of the Judeo-Christian worldview. Replacing it is a worldview that some call \u201cpostmodern individualism,\u201d but Kuehne calls it \u201ciWorld.\u201d<\/p>\n
iWorlders are dissolving long-established boundaries because they believe that people are happiest making their own moral and relational choices \u2014 outside of the family, community, and faith traditions into which they were born. And the iWorld promotes a desire for immediate gratification \u2014 as illustrated in the huge levels of consumer debt and the tendency to become sexually involved at the very outset of a romantic relationship.<\/p>\n
Sadly, iWorlders often unwittingly sacrifice what they want, in the long run \u2014 contentment and fulfillment \u2014 by succumbing to their immediate desires, especially when it comes to sexual relationships.<\/p>\n
Perhaps even more sadly, the Church has done precious little to present to iWorlders a vision of true fulfillment. That\u2019s partly because the Church itself has turned a \u201cblind eye\u201d to sexual immorality within the body of Christ. Even worse, writes Kuehne, \u201cis the degree to which the historic orthodox understanding of sexual morality and marriage is being ignored or revised by clergy and laypeople alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
This has enormous consequences for the Church\u2019s ability to be salt and light in a culture suffering from the after-effects and social ills of the sexual revolution. The Church needs to be reminded \u2014 and needs to make the case \u2014 that \u201cthe biblical teaching that limits sexual relations to a marriage relationship between a man and a woman is actually beneficial to all.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly what Kuehne does in his book, in a direct, challenging, but ultimately compassionate way. Every human, he says, is on a \u201cnever-ending quest for acceptance, love, and fulfillment.\u201d But these things can never be found in the iWorld \u2014 by asking, \u201cWhat\u2019s in it for me?\u201d<\/p>\n
So instead of being subsumed by the iWorld culture, the Church has the \u201crWorld\u201d to offer. The rWorld understands that God created people for relationships \u2014 and that we find our deepest fulfillment in relationship with Him, and in living a life rich in self-giving, not self-satisfying relationships.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2009 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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