Journal: Faith and Mission
Volume: FM 22:1 (Fall 2004)
Article: The Asperity of Sexual Sin: Exploring the Sexual-Spiritual Nexus
Author: David W. Jones

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FM 22:1 (Fall 2004) p. 3

The Asperity of Sexual Sin:
Exploring the Sexual-Spiritual Nexus

David W. Jones

Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Wake Forest, North Carolina 27587

October 20, 1993, was a sad day for particle physicists around the world. This was the day on which the United States House of Representatives officially voted 282–143 to cancel funding for the Superconducting Supercollider Project (SSC). After ten years of research and construction, with bills totaling more than two billion dollars, the SSC was a victim of the then-growing political debate over the proposed balanced budget amendment. If it had been completely built, this seventeen-mile-long underground particle accelerator at Waxahachie, Texas, would have allowed scientists to collide protons with the force of forty trillion electron volts in order to separate and catalog the very elementary building blocks of matter. One of the chief reasons for the SSC’s inception was the scientific community’s desire to verify the existence of quarks and gravitons. Quarks and gravitons are hypothetical subatomic particles that scientists theorize exist as a result of their work with quantum physics, tenor calculus, and string theory. The only problem, however, is that without the SSC or some similar tool, particle physicists will never be able to prove that quarks and gravitons genuinely exist.1

This article is primarily concerned with a proposed connection between sexuality and spirituality, and secondarily with the implications of such a link for those involved in sexual sin.2 Proving that a sexual-spiritual nexus actually exists, though, is somewhat analogous to trying to demonstrate the existence of quarks and gravitons without the SSC—that is, there is much conjectural evidence but precious little empirical proof. Given the prevalence of sexual sin in Western culture, verifying the existence of a postulated sexual-spiritual nexus is of far more importance than demonstrating something as esoteric as the existence of quarks and gravitons, for if there is a genuine connection between sexuality and spirituality, then sexual transgressions are more than just physical infractions and must be viewed in light of their spiritual significance and eternal impact.

At the outset, one should note that most religious people would agree that there is at least a superficial connection between sexuality and spirituality.3 For Christians, this surface-level connection is seen in that the God of the Bible was concerned enough about sex to incorporate some basic commands and prohibitions regarding sexual...

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