"The New Reformation Catechism on Human Sexuality" by Christopher J. Gordon. A Review

 

A new tool can be a pleasure to use. When hitting Estate Sales or the Hardware store I’m often looking for new tools, and once I obtain one, I quickly race home, unwrap it and start playing with it and making new projects so I can use it. Christopher J. Gordon, senior minister at Escondido United Reformed Church in California and host of Abounding Grace Radio, has given folks a new tool. It’s a teeny pamphlet, all of 31 pages: “The New Reformation Catechism on Human Sexuality”. As a catechism, it is written in a question-answer format and has 41 of these installments. It’s handy, easy on the eyes, and filled with Scripture annotations. It’s ideal for older and younger adults and could be material for Christian education settings.

The catechism runs the gamut of subjects regarding human sexuality. From creation and God’s original design to marriage and singleness, unwanted desires and self-made “identities,” marital abuse and oppression to pornography. Gordon has sensibly moved away from a “single issue” to the larger beauty of God-created human sexuality, and how humans have taken a beautiful thing and broken it. One of the high points in this little manual is how we’re to respond to those struggling with sexual sins. No shunning and avoiding allowed! Instead, following Paul’s direction in Galatians 6:

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:1-2)

There are, of course, things that could be done to tighten up this wee work. Some people will likely want other subjects covered and explained. For them I would say, it is a “work-in-progress”. As needs arise, I’m sure others will pick this brochure up and supplement it. One of the areas that would have been extremely helpful is if the author could have spent time biblically defining “Identity”. That language arises several times but is never made clear. I recall a few years back in my own denomination (the Presbyterian Church in America), that this “identity” talk caused quite a bit of nervous discussion because it means different things in different contexts.

All-in-all, “The New Reformation Catechism on Human Sexuality” is a nifty new tool. Churches and study groups will find it beneficial. It would also make a good addition to a congregation’s book table and free-give-away booklets. I recommend the work.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian
Read more

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one another, is
Read more

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."

Image
I hesitate to put this out there because of the combative environment we are in at present. But I think some souls will take courage from this, and some will also join with me as we get to the end of this little composition. I am struck by the words of God in Zechariah 8. As he rehearses the waywardness and faithlessness of his people in the past, he clearly declares that he " set every man against his neighbor " (8:10). That got me thinking long ago. I started putting the pieces together and realized that one of God's acts of judgment is division, setting a man against his neighbor. That's what happened when he divided his people into the northern tribes and southern tribes (see 1 Kings 11:26-40). Because of Solomon's turning aside, allowing his wives to turn his heart away from the God of his father, David, the Lord brings about a rift in God's people. And this pattern of divisive judgment runs throughout Scripture. On the other hand, truthful unity is the g
Read more