Sexual Dilemmas Summer 1995

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Seven years ago LEADERSHIP raised a topic most Christian publications politely avoided: sex. Readers told us they appreciated that issue and rated it higher than any before it.

Since then, sexual issues in ministry have become even more pressing. Sexual harassment, barely mentioned in 1988, is now a household phrase. Lawsuits for sexual misconduct have soared; as of September 1993, the Church Insurance Company alone had paid $6.2 million in settlements and faced $4 million more in claims. Hard-core pornography, once restricted to seedy parlors, comes as close as any TV remote. Amid the changes, how can ministers demonstrate sexual health and encourage it in others?

We offer this new issue, then, with the prayer it will be honest, helpful, hopeful, and holy.

Sex is not the only thing on our minds.

Not long ago I attended a "Convocation on Racial Reconciliation" sponsored by the National Association of Evangelicals and the National Black Evangelical Association. Friends asked how it went. I struggled for an answer. Finally I settled on two words: painful and hopeful.

What made the event painful was realizing how deep-seated racism is within the Christian church. It hurt to hear an African-American woman at my table tell of being cut out of a project at work. Another black leader, educated at Harvard, had a colleague on a Christian college faculty make a racial slur about him. Meanwhile, whites spoke of their frustrations with "reverse discrimination" and with being considered racist when they didn't feel they were.

Afterward, I asked myself, When was the last time you taught or wrote on issues related to racism? When was the last time you heard a sermon devoted to racial reconciliation? I couldn't answer; I didn't remember.

I fear ...

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