I once knew a single woman pastor who was dating. What a very delicate situation she dealt with! A veteran minister warned her, “You have everything to lose.” We tend to expect the preacher to be a model of virtue, which is a terribly unfair burden to put on a human. A woman, even now, […] Read More

First of all, the subtitle to the new book Good Christian Sex is Why Chastity Isn’t the Only Option and Other Things the Bible Says About Sex. That pretty well positions the views of this author, a minister and the daughter of a minister. What I write about here is not the rights and wrongs […] Read More

At my request, Google kindly alerts me to news across the web on “sex and spirituality.” I like to keep up on what’s happening and what’s being discussed since I do write a bit about the subject. Most of what shows up has to do with sexual abuse by priests or gender roles in churches […] Read More

…For girls, that is. A caller on the Diane Rehm radio show just now described himself as “a Christian man” and went on to criticize — justly, in my view — the effect of church attitudes towards towards girls’ sexuality. The topic of the show was the new book Girls & Sex, with author Peggy […] Read More

Sex and dignity are two words that don’t seem to belong together. Sex is innately and joyously undignified, while the word dignity often implies primness and good posture. Yet in his new treatise on “The Joy of Love,” Pope Francis uses the word dignity 26 times, several times in a specifically sexual context. This led […] Read More

This is an explosively fertile week: Easter, with its eggs and resurrection; Holi, the Hindu festival of colors; Nowruz, meaning new light, the Persian New Year; Wicca’s Ostara; the Druid Eostar; Purim, celebrating survival of the Jewish people; and the official first day of spring. Flowers are blooming — my yard, though it gets only […] Read More

I long held the mistaken idea that saints always abstained from sex. I did know that St. Augustine had written his relatively steamy Confessions. But did not take in that he’d had a lover for 13 years, until I saw publication of a new novel The Confessions of X, written from the viewpoint of that […] Read More

Had a small change of heart as I was driving to my office this morning (38 minutes, so I have time to think). In my previous post, I expressed skepticism about a search for God being a driver of promiscuity. What I realized today is that my novel Cobalt Blue is about that very thing: […] Read More

Is sexual promiscuity ever a spiritual quest? An effort to satisfy spiritual hunger? A friend suggested I write about this. I’ve delayed getting to it, because I’m skeptical. My sense is that “sleeping around” is most often a quest for love, power, pleasure, adventure, and/or a view of one’s self as rakish/seductive/desirable. Any combo of […] Read More

Lately I’ve gotten acquainted with a mermaid. Her name is Shelley Opearls. She has been keeping me up on mermaid life in the Southeast. As a native of coastal Wilmington NC, I’m of course a great fan of merfolk and their particular grace and enchantment. I’m not alone. Mermaid Shelley burbles: I certainly have been […] Read More