THE SEX ISSUE: FOUR WOMEN RESPOND
July 1, 1988
The theme of the Winter 1988 issue of LEADERSHIP was Sex, and because 91 percent of our readers are men, the issue reflected the male perspective. In the months since it appeared, we've received a number of responses from women. Here are four that offer thoughtful assessments. The following observations are not new, but they struck me forcefully again as I read this issue. The first is this: Men tend to think of sexuality as an entity apart from the rest of their person, a package off to the side of their life that has to be dealt with. Those who have trouble with their sexuality (and not all men do) see it as a "monkey on my back" rather than "what the soil of my life is producing." While women generally have a keener sense of sexuality's being rooted in their person, the women I know who have sexual problems also see it as a force outside themselves. It is part of our culture's lie that sex is a thing you do rather than who you are. The failure to see this lack of integration (or integrity) allows people to wrestle with sex rather than wholeness. We let people grow up thinking they have a "strong sex drive" instead of seeing their insecurities and how they might be tempted to compensate for holes in their sense of personhood with sexual acts. God did not give us this gift to torment us. While it is true that Satan continually exploits our sexual nature, we need to ask why he succeeds. To some extent, LEADERSHIP addresses that issue, but the answers often are external rather than internal. My second observation, both from life and the articles in this issue, is that men who stray sexually almost always have a low view of women. They don't see them as creatures "created in the image of God," but primarily as sexual beings. Perhaps ...
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