To Washington Post religion reporter Lisa Miller, evangelical ministers like Rick Warren and Tim Keller should be applauded for their "clinical frankness" about God's design for sexual pleasure within the covenant of marriage in their sermons, books, and even tweets.
Now if only they could just get over that silly biblical injunction against homosexuality, Miller lamented in her November 10 "Belief Watch" blog post:
The new sex talk is a way, then, of meeting Christians where they are. With explicit descriptions of the ecstasies of the married state, Christian leaders hope to persuade a younger generation that what they call “Biblical marriage” — a faithful, monogamous, heterosexual union before God — is relevant and valuable in the modern world.
To be blunt: They hope the promise of hot sex will keep young people from drifting away from church. Their worries are not unfounded. The number of young people who say they’re “unaffiliated” with any religious tradition stands at 31 percent, the fastest growing religious cohort in the country.
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In church, Keller is an intimidating force, an intellectually demanding Calvinist who preaches frequently on sin. Passages like these compel you to imagine him at his most vulnerable. Is it uncomfortable? Yes. Do Keller, and Warren, and others fall short by failing to include gays and lesbians in their vision of married love? Yes.
