The Problem with Sexual Politics

by Pastor Paul Wolff

God instituted marriage at the creation of Adam and Eve. Sin made marital relations a struggle.

Sexual politics is the idea that men and women must compete for power in order for there to be equality or justice or fair treatment and the like. There are so many problems with sexual politics that I hardly know where to begin. I will start with the most obvious, though it is so often ignored that we think it is less obvious than it ought to be. Sexual politics is an oxymoron, which is to say it is a phrase which contradicts itself. Sexuality is naturally intimate and personal, and politics is naturally public and common to all. When you try to combine the private with the public what results is chaos, confusion, and insanity.

Sexuality is a gift from God for the purpose of strengthening the marriage bond between a husband and his wife, and for the purpose of filling the world with people through procreation. The sexual act is so personal and intimate that if God had not blessed it and made it pleasurable for both husband and wife, then no one would ever engage in it, and if that were true, and had sin also never entered the world, then the entire world population would still only be two people, Adam and Eve.


The problem with sexuality is that sin has perverted our use of God’s good gift, and turned a wonderful, intimate, private act into a selfish, filthy, perverted, public spectacle. When people give in to the devil’s temptations then we pervert God’s good gifts, and turn them into wicked things. Any use of sexuality apart from the normal use in natural marriage is a misuse of God’s gift which is forbidden by God’s Sixth Commandment (“You shall not commit adultery”). God forbids such acts because, as Scripture says, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18) God’s commandments are all given for our good to forbid us from doing things which hurt ourselves and others, and God’s commands encourage us to do things which are good for others and ourselves.

The devil’s temptations to sexual sins promise to give us physical pleasure without the lifelong commitment required in marriage. The tragic consequences of sexual sins are that they interfere with, and destroy, our relationships with one another, especially relationships between men and women. Sexual sins also ruin the sinner’s view of himself or herself because one who commits sexual sins is sinning against one’s own body as noted above.

Romantic ideas about marriage are neither Biblical nor sustainable. Marriage is a lifelong commitment.

Sexual politics turns relationships between men and women into struggles for power. These power struggles are the opposite of loving and are never beneficial for anyone concerned. Even if you “win” the power struggle you lose much more, including friendship, respect, cooperation, companionship, assistance, help, comfort, fidelity, and more. True love is concern for someone else over your concern for yourself. Holy Scripture’s “Golden Rule” is a good guide as to what true love is: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Power politics (especially when applied to the two sexes) are all about what is good for me, not someone else, and that is, by definition, selfish and unloving. No one will think well of you if you gain power for yourself, but everyone will think well of you if you care for others above your own self interest.

Feminism is a main contributor to the problems of sexual politics. Here I will only briefly mention the problems with feminism because it is a topic so broad (pun intended) and complex that it could fill many whole books. Feminism is fundamentally Marxism for women. Especially as it has developed, feminism is completely power politics. Sexual politics is just one troubling aspect of feminism, of which there are many more. Twenty-first century feminists completely reject the ideals of the original feminists. They still can talk a good “equality” game, but hardcore feminists are all about domination, and frequently sneer at the suggestion of equality. Also, don’t even mention accounting for women’s needs and desires for protection in marriage and motherhood. There are many prominent feminists who hold to the idea that a woman has the right to murder her own children, or she isn’t a real feminist. This is so ridiculous that it shouldn’t need comment except for those who advocate for such barbarism with vehement sincerity.

The Holy Family is a good example of a loving family.

Another problem with the politicizing of sexuality is that it objectifies the pleasure of intimacy and that makes it inherently selfish. When sexual intimacy is based on selfishness then it leads quickly to all kinds of perversions. If someone views sex in political or selfish terms, then all that matters to that person is how he (or she) feels personally. All kinds of sinful perverted acts can make a person feel pleasure if they don’t care at all about the person with whom they are engaging. This leads people to seek their “pleasure” in adultery, fornication, promiscuity, homosexuality, and all kinds of violent perversions including rape and more. There is no end to perversions if someone only cares about the momentary pleasure of sexual stimulation.

Sexual politics also directly leads to murder in many cases. There are news stories every day about murders of passion where the betrayal of a spouse, or an uncaring lover, leads someone to murder. Also the selfishness of sexual politics leads to the most common cause of death in America – abortion. When children are conceived through selfish acts, those children are seen by their parents as unwanted burdens, and the easiest way to eliminate the consequences of one’s selfish actions is to commit murder. No civilized society in the world allows the murder of children in the womb, but such is the wickedness of the human heart that so many societies, though they may be advanced in many ways, allow the barbaric practice of pre-natal murder of children. There is no such thing as a truly unwanted child. There is always someone who is willing and able to care for children otherwise “unwanted” by their parents. Truly civilized societies support and maintain structures and organizations who will protect and provide for the most vulnerable of the victims of sexual politics and the sexual revolution.

Husband and wife are not faceless, generic partners. They are individuals committed to one another for as long as they both shall live.

The problem of gender confusion is a somewhat surprising development and outcome of this topic and it really has made sexual politics absolutely crazy in the second decade of the 21^st century. One hopes that sanity will soon prevail, so that gender confusion is just a passing fad, but for now those who combine sexual politics with gender confusion are getting otherwise rational people to do some truly insane things. In some states boys who obviously and falsely claim to be girls have been allowed to participate and have been declared champions in girls sports. Obviously that doesn’t work the other way – girls or women who falsely claim to be male will never prevail at a high level, even when they take body-destroying performance enhancing drugs which would immediately disqualify a boy or a man in the same sport. Men are being allowed in women’s and girls’ private places such as locker rooms and toilet facilities, and this has even gotten so bad that on this issue the President of the United States (Barack Obama at the time) openly expressed his ignorance of the difference between boys and girls even though young children know that this difference exists and is obvious even with casual (not intimate) observation.

Marriage is related to the tree of life because through marriage (ideally) the next generation is born and raised and taught how to be good people.

Related to gender confusion is the idea of homosexual marriage. Homosexuality is probably the origin of much confusion in sexual politics because it replaces the natural complementarity of the sexes with the sameness of the perversion, and tries to pretend that there is no difference between intimacy with the same and intimacy with someone who is sexually complementary. This confusion has also gone to high levels when a slim majority (5-4) of ignorant ideologues on the United States Supreme Court ruled (“Obergefell v. Hodges”) that the States had to allow marriage between people of the same sex. The five justices of the majority were ignorant in this decision because they not only ignored over two hundred years of precedents where the states each made their own decisions about marriage laws, but they also ignored thousands of years of precedent where marriage was only between a man and a woman (or men and women in some cases). The foolish majority ignored all scientific information and common sense that men and women are made for each other. But most importantly for the context of the Supreme Court, they ignored the fact that the United States Constitution and all its amendments do not give the Federal government nor the courts the authority to regulate and redefine marriage.

I always enjoy 50th Anniversary parties. They are always celebrations of life and commitment, and show how loving parents produce good children and grandchildren.

I have to wonder if, because of Obergefell v. Hodges, my marriage to my wife (who is the opposite sex to me, in case there is any confusion) is still legal! There is no definition of marriage in the constitution and there doesn’t need to be because it is obvious to anyone who cares that marriage is between a man and a woman of opposite sexes. But now the Supreme Court has given a “legal” definition of marriage, and it only acknowledges marriage between people of the same sex. Natural marriage does not fit that definition. Already people are losing their jobs and/or being prosecuted (“Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission” for example) for maintaining that true marriage is only between one man and one woman. I remain married to my wife, and will continue in my marriage as long as we both shall live, as I promised, whether or not is is legal for us to do so in this crazy world of sexual politics, but you can see the crazy insanity which results when sexuality is inserted in the political process (no pun intended, honestly).

It is interesting to note the societal fallout which began in the United States shortly after the death of Hugh Hefner. Hefner helped popularize the sexual revolution when he founded the porn magazine Playboy in 1953. Very soon after Hefner died in 2017 we started to hear about women complaining that they had been raped by men in positions of power, but had been afraid to speak out for years in some cases. Some high profile Hollywood actresses started the “me-too” movement to encourage other women to come forward and publicly expose the wrongdoing of powerful rapists and sexual abusers. The timing of the emergence of the “me-too” movement was interesting from a Spiritual perspective, as if whatever demons that influenced Hugh Hefner (and other pornographers) suddenly lost much of their fear-making influence on sexual abuse victims once Hefner died.

King Herod's broken family caused the holy family to flee to Egypt and the death of all the children in Bethlehem.

The nature of power politics (with the “help” of Marxist feminism) is such that the “me-too” movement is being turned from an honest search for justice into a weapon against innocent men in power. The most obvious of these was the unsubstantiated (and literally unbelievable) allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. The woman who made the accusations against Kavanaugh was a California Psychology professor who appeared to have been under the influence of hypnosis (or something) so that she would appear to believe the lies she was telling, but it did not help her to give any information which would be believable to objective outsiders. The end result of the attempts to defame Brett Kavanaugh is that his opponents opposed him simply because he is a man, and some of the most radical feminists want to believe that to be a man is equal to being a rapist even when it is not true. Here is a good lesson: if your ideology requires you to lie or dismiss the truth in any way, then it is a false ideology and pursuing it is a waste of time.

The growth in the popularity of pornography and the politicizing of sex has led to the breakdown of the family in affected societies. Since the family is the fundamental foundation of society and civilization, once it has begun to crumble we see the signs that the societies under this destructive influence have also begun to crumble. This is most evident in the United States of America, and in some European countries as well as China (with its one-child policy and enforced abortions). In the USA sexual politics has actively encouraged divorce and the destruction of families. Our prisons are full of fatherless children from broken families. Instead of reversing the breakdown of families which lead fatherless children to lives of violence and crime, sexual politics spurs its adherents to work harder to destroy the foundational structures of society and civilization.

It is somewhat strange that although the USA and some other Western countries have moved to embrace destructive sexual politics, like homosexual marriage, which have never been seen in the history of the world, the push for polygamy is late to the game. Polygamy has been known for thousands of years, and although the lack of enforcement of adultery laws has made the practice of polygamy (or at least, adulterous promiscuity) common, but the legal status of polygamous marriages is still not recognized. We see polygamous marriages in the Holy Scriptures, even among some of the most prominent patriarchs like Abraham and Jacob. Isaac was monogamous and loved Rebekah, his wife, but he seems to be an exception. The Scriptures don’t really condemn polygamy outright, but rather simply define and describe marriage as between one man and one woman for as long as they both shall live. The Scriptures also often show the dysfunctional outcomes of polygamy. When asked about the topic of divorce, Jesus (in Matthew 19) teaches about what God intended for marriage since the very beginning. Divorce was never God’s intention, but because of man’s stubborn sinfulness God allowed divorce in some circumstances (with strict limits) in order to mitigate further sin. Christ’s teaching in Matthew 19 also answers the objections of those who falsely claim that Jesus never forbade same sex marriage. If Jesus taught about God’s institution and blessing of natural marriage when asked about the practice of divorce, then there is no reason to assume he would have taught otherwise when asked about same sex relationships.

God blessed the first marriage and He still blesses marriages even of unbelievers.

It is no small thing that the first two people God created on earth were a husband and his wife, who became the ancestors of all people. The perfect relationship between the two didn’t last too long before they were at odds with one another. They fell into sin before their first child was conceived. When God confronted Adam about the guilt of his sin, Adam referred to Eve as “The woman you gave me” (Genesis 3:12), which was a far cry from “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23) which means Adam originally considered his wife to be the best part of him. Yet, even after the fall into sin, there was forgiveness, and Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all people (Genesis 3:20). God foretold the problem of sexual politics with His words to Eve in Genesis 3:16, “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” The problem here is not that the man would rule over the woman, but that she would desire to rule over him, but would not be able to do so. Also, the sinfulness of the man’s rule would also cause problems. Women aren’t the only cause of problems in this world, only about half, by my calculations.

Abraham was not the perfect husband but God still blessed him and Sarah with a son who became the ancestor of our savior, Jesus.

It might come as a shock to the sexual revolutionists that Christians are not opposed to sex, but have very healthy attitudes about sex and a proper use of sexuality, and are not hesitant to talk about it at all. It is just that Christian attitudes about sex are in many ways opposite of the revolutionists. When it comes to sex, Christians talk about marriage and intimacy and commitment and faithfulness and love and compassion. It is not about selfish pleasure and technique or any of a number of perversions. Now, it is true that you may find some folks who purport to be Christian who follow the revolutionist party line and speak of sex in terms of perversion, and pleasure, and technique, and politics, and the like, but we call those people heretics. Just because someone claims to be Christian doesn’t make them Christian. If they renounce the clear Scriptural teachings then they are heretics at best, and unbelievers at worst.

Despite the false teachings of Christian heretics, the Holy Scriptures give a consistent view of marriage and sexuality throughout all the books of the Bible. God instituted natural marriage when He created Adam and Eve and blessed them when He said, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28) This did not change after the fall into sin. Sin only brought sinful behavior into the equation which God forbade when He gave the Sixth Commandment (“You shall not commit Adultery.”) The Sixth Commandment affirms natural marriage as good for all people, especially parents and children. Also the Levitical laws for the Israelites affirm natural marriage, restrict divorce, and condemn unnatural relations. There are also New Testament admonitions in favor of natural marriage and against perversions which gratify the flesh over and against God’s institution of natural marriage. God gave these laws and admonitions because strong laws and societal norms favoring natural marriage are what is best for a stable society, and happy productive citizens. This is confirmed by the best scientific research. One may find some research reports which say otherwise, but those have either been shown to be inaccurate, or seriously flawed in their testing procedures or data gathering or manipulation in some way. God’s word remains true and good no matter how much sinful people might wish otherwise. God created people in His image originally and blessed them subsequently. We are always ill served when we act against God’s ways and according to the ways of our own wicked imaginations. God knows what is best for us, and we would do well to live according to God’s directions.

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See also my article on “The Problem with Democracy”  

See also my article on “The Problem with Socialism”

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The True Power of God’s Word

by Pastor Paul Wolff

The Power of God’s Word is seen when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead by simply saying, “Lazarus, come out.” (John 11)

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” 
(Isaiah 55:10-11)

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Words are very often seen as weak, malleable things that can be twisted and turned into unrecognizable things bearing little resemblance to their original meaning. You know it is bad when even in literature words are disparaged. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius sees Hamlet reading a book and asks, “What do you read, my lord?” and Hamlet answers, “Words, words, words.” Which is to say, the content of the words doesn’t matter – they are just words.

The problem isn’t with words themselves. When used properly, words can be used for great things even in this sinful world. The problem is that sinful people misuse words. Sinners use words to lie, cheat, and twist and spin the truth. Even when people speak the truth, people can ignore good words. This all makes words seem weak and ineffective.

All people are descended from Adam and Eve. God created one race of people and two sexes. There still remains one race and two sexes.

For example, in the beginning God created one race of people and two genders – male and female. Today people twist words to say that there are many races and many genders. Some people even say that they are a different gender than what God created them to be. Despite what people say, there is still one human race, and only male and female genders. What people say does not change the reality of the world, it just makes people look foolish, and it makes us distrust words.

Sinners go to great lengths to justify their sin to themselves. Thieves say, “I didn’t steal that thing which didn’t belong to me. I just ‘borrowed’ it.” Or adulterers say, “I didn’t cheat or betray my wife (or husband, as the case may be), it was true love.” Well, “love” is a powerful word. Who can be against “love”? But when “love” is used to justify even the worst kind of betrayal or all kinds of sexual perversions, then it is just a “word”.

Jesus taught God’s Word, and many people heard it and were saved, but some did not believe and were condemned.

Since words are so weak and untrustworthy, you have to wonder why God uses words as a primary Means of Grace – that is, the means by which God delivers to you the salvation that Jesus won for you in His life and death. If words are so weak, can you really trust God’s Word either? That is the wrong question. It needs to be asked, but it is the wrong question. Of course you can trust God’s Word, as long as it truly comes from God. The Holy Scriptures are the true Word of God. A better question to ask is why do people misuse words so much? It is because God relies so much on His Word that the devil tempts us to lie and otherwise misuse words so that we don’t even trust the Word of God.

God does not misuse words. God does not lie or twist the truth when He speaks. God’s Word can be trusted and relied upon to be true at all times and in all places. More than that, God’s Word has power to do what it says. In Isaiah 55, God tells us, “My Word goes out from my mouth (and) will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, and the light was good.

We see this very clearly in the creation account in Genesis 1. On Day One God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, and the light was good. Likewise, on each of the first six days of creation, God created the universe by speaking it into existence, and ordering it according to His will. God’s Word has power, and it is good, as God is good. When people speak it does not change the reality of the world, but when God speaks, He can change the world.
 
Even when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and ate the forbidden fruit, God came to them that very day and had mercy on them and in cursing the serpent, God promised to send an offspring of the woman to crush the head of the serpent, and bring salvation to people. God kept His promise, and Jesus came as the Son of God to fulfill the law in our place, and to pay the price for our sin, which is death. In doing this, Jesus won our forgiveness and eternal salvation. God’s promises are not like the promises of wicked and devious sinners. God’s promises can be trusted.

God remembered His promise to Adam and Eve,and saved Noah and his family from the great flood.

When God determined to destroy the world in the days of Noah, He remembered His promise to Adam and Eve and spared Noah and his three sons, and each man’s wife, along with two of every kind of animal on the surface of the earth. Also, later when the Israelites turned away from God to idols, though God sent the Assyrians to destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the Babylonians to destroy Judah, He saved a remnant of the Judahites (or Jews, as they came to be known) so that His promise could be fulfilled, and the savior of the world would be born from their descendants.

One day when Jesus had entered the city of Capernaum (Matthew 8:5-13), a centurion came to Him and asked Him to heal his servant who was paralyzed and suffering. Jesus said, “I will go and heal him.” The centurion said to Jesus, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one,’Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” Jesus was astonished at the faith of the centurion, and said, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant has healed at that very hour. A centurion’s word can command his soldiers and servants, but the Word of Jesus can command healing and bring life where there is death. Jesus also raised Lazarus from the dead by calling out to his grave, “Lazarus come out.” At the word of Jesus, Lazarus was given life after being dead four days. (John 11)

Jesus is the Word of God made flesh.

This is why John writes that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. Jesus is not only the fulfillment of God’s promises to send a savior into the world, but Jesus is God, Himself, become incarnate into our flesh to take away the guilt of our sins and give us salvation and eternal life. Because Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, you can trust God’s Word more than anything else in this world. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35)

God’s Word is eternal, and God will never forget or take away his promised forgiveness and salvation. Psalm 105:8 says, “(The Lord our God) remembers His covenant forever, the word He commanded, for a thousand generations.” Isaiah (40:8) prophesies, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” So when God’s Word says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” You can know that Jesus will save you, because he remembers and keeps His promises forever.

God’s Word is freely spread among all people, like a farmer throwing seed all over his land so that everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved.

God’s Word is a means of grace. That is to say, God’s Word is a delivery vehicle for our forgiveness and salvation. We can’t get to God to get forgiveness and salvation from God, but God comes to us where we are in His Word and Sacraments. In the words Christ’s Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23), God’s Word is a farmer who brings the seed which gives us salvation. Like the farmer, God spreads His Word freely, to all people, that it may accomplish salvation. As the seed is generously spread on all the different soils on the farm, so God’s Word goes throughout all the world so that it may bring forgiveness and salvation to all who believe.

I wondered above why God would use something as weak as words to bring to us our salvation, but it is by God’s grace that He uses words to bring this great treasure to us here today. Because words are weak they can be rejected. Anyone who doesn’t want Christ’s forgiveness and salvation can reject it. God won’t force anyone to receive His salvation. He gives it as a free gift. So those who are saved are saved completely by the work of Christ without any help or cooperation on our part. Those who are condemned, on the other hand, are condemned by their own doing.

God’s Word was made flesh in Jesus but He had to live in obedience to the Father, and suffer and die to save us from our sins.

Our salvation comes to us through God’s Word, but it was won for you by the actions and work of Jesus. God is a just God, and according to His nature, He could not just wipe away sin with a word and pretend it didn’t matter. If he had done so, he would have either had to accept sin – and become evil Himself – or He would have had to destroy us all with our sin. So in order to save us, and still punish sin, Jesus offered to take our place as our substitute. Jesus had to live as a man and live a perfectly obedient life in order to fulfill God’s Law which we broke. Then Jesus had to suffer and die in our place to take away the punishment for our sins, which is death. The Word of God is completed in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Because Jesus worked to win our forgiveness and salvation in His life, God’s Word is fulfilled, and salvation comes to us today through the Word, so that whoever believes in Jesus as their savior from sin, is saved.

Isaiah 55:10-11 says, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is [God’s] word that goes out from [His] mouth: It will not return to [Him] empty, but will accomplish what [He] desire(s) and achieve the purpose for which [He] sent it.” God’s purpose and desire is that you believe in Jesus and receive His salvation, and live with Him in Paradise forever. Jesus is your life and your salvation. He is the truth that saves you. We thank and praise Him for His Word that brings to us this precious gift.