A Biblical Example Of A Sexually Healthy Woman For A World Where Unhealthy Sexuality Makes Headlines -- By: Sara G. Barton

Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 32:1 (Winter 2018)
Article: A Biblical Example Of A Sexually Healthy Woman For A World Where Unhealthy Sexuality Makes Headlines
Author: Sara G. Barton


A Biblical Example Of A Sexually Healthy Woman For A World Where Unhealthy Sexuality Makes Headlines

Sara G. Barton

Sara Barton is University Chaplain at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She holds a Doctor of Ministry from Lipscomb University’s Hazelip School of Theology and a master’s degree in Spiritual Formation from Spring Arbor University. Dr. Barton has authored A Woman Called: Piecing Together the Ministry Puzzle (Leafwood, 2012), a memoir about her call to ministry.

Contemporary Western culture is rife with public stories about unhealthy sexuality. The 2016 US presidential election, for example, reverberated with the recording of then-candidate Donald Trump boasting about how he could grab women’s genitals because he was rich.1 As 2017 wore on, high-profile incidents of sexual harassment and assault continued to surface, bringing the nation to what some experienced as “a national moment of reckoning for abusers and creeps.”2 During rushed, pre-print conversations, journalists debated appropriate words for front page articles. Around dinner tables, parents explained adult terminology to their children. Via Facebook and Twitter feeds, the #metoo movement revealed how many mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends experience sexual harassment and abuse. Behind pulpits and closed doors, church leaders decided how to publicly respond and privately care for some who are triggered and others who are emboldened.

In my work as a university chaplain, questions regarding the relationship of sexuality and spirituality arise regularly. As people explore their relationship with God, conversations often surface about pornography addiction, commitments to celibacy, processing of purity culture and first sexual encounters, sexual identity, and the sexual trauma of rape. How we experience our bodies as sexual beings profoundly shapes our lives as spiritual beings. Yet, as I pastor, I find few readily available resources for holistically connecting these fundamental aspects of our humanity.3

Consideration of sexuality and spirituality certainly applies to both men and women, but I focus here on women’s experience. For the past several years, I have worked to provide better guidance and care regarding what it means to be a spiritually and sexually healthy woman. For example, when sexual trauma such as rape or harassment has occurred, women need spiritual and religious processing. When the perpetrator was someone they knew and trusted, for example, women have questions about how the Bible’s teaching regarding forgiveness applies to their situations. When women committed t...

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