So if you been following this blog for a while, you may have noticed the silence of late. There are many reasons for this. For one, I have been ill with strep throat although it is of course entirely possible to blog while you are ill. No the silence is due to the fact that I have been reading faster than I can process, in the past I have been able to simply write my thoughts as they come to me during my reading. I now feel I have reached the point where I cannot just write my thoughts without first processing, ordering and structuring my thoughts.
When you deconstruct something as fundamental as your sexuality and the nuclear family it is bound to shake your entire reality. It is bound to leave you, at times, confused and a little bit lost. We (both me and Hanna) are working on reconstructing a more human?? realistic?? true?? biblical?? View on human sexuality.
Problems abound, how do you tackle such an intimate and confusing issue and question what has “always” been the way of things? How do you teach a different ethic of sexuality? How do you reclaim eroticism without soiling your hands? Where shall new lines be drawn and do you need new lines?
How do you question the un/biblical “doctrine” of the nuclear family, especially when you are in one? It is like questioning the validity of church during a church meeting.
I think maybe, the subject cannot be unpacked and dealt with in the format of a blog post or even a series of posts it is something that can only be properly unpacked in the format of a book. Watch this space!
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I think that such a book is desperately needed. Maybe especially in Swedish, since there is no market for translations here. Yours would be the single voice.
OTOH, regardless of language, I think that you need to process this through writing and a lot of us need to start thinking real hard about those issues.
My favourite pet peeve is the Nucleus family and how that fit in in Church. I see that traditionally, Church has been healthiest in times and places when “family” has been defined differently. E g monestaries, early church (and the system of “God parents”, for example) or even in revival times when DIFFERENT generations come together.
Not that my critique comes from a deep understanding of sexuality as such, or anything, but more from an ecclesiological point of view.
Anyway – write this. Process it. Help us to process it. Let this be the starting point, not the conclusion, for a really important conversation on what it means to be human.
You are to kind, Mackan and though I do not think I’ll be the singular voice, there are others out there, just not within the church. The conversation is certainly not stopping, not here, not now, although conversation partners are needed and sought after.
I hope as the thoughts get a chance to go from ethereal mists in my mind to a more substantial format that I will be able to continue blogging about this, but in the mean time I think maybe I’ll have to back down, or rather set a different pace and maybe express some of these thoughts in poetic form rather than pure reasoned theology…
Maybe this is a stupid question, but what is the “nuclear family”?
The nuclear/nucleus familly is the basis family unit of a man, a woman and 1-3 children. The way it is defined this small family unit is considered in today’s society to be completely autonomous and will provide the pair-bonded couple with everything from sexual satisfaction to personal, monetary and psychological protection/comfort/success…