A THEOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY SEXUAL POLITICS IN THE LIGHT OF PAULINE SEXUAL ETHICS OF 1 COR. 5-7 (original) (raw)

In his work, The Ethics, Aristotle pointed out that men start revolutionary changes for reasons connected with their private lives. This is also true when revolutionary changes are cultural. What might these ―private‖ reasons be, and why do they become public in the form of failure. But for any individual, moral failure is hard to live with because of the rebuke of conscience. Habitual moral failure, what used to be called vice, can be lived with only by obliterating conscience through rationalization. When we rationalize, we convince ourselves that forbidden desires are permissible. In this case and with this thinking, the reality of moral order is replaced with something more congenial to the activity that one is trying to excuse. And this obviously explains why in 1973, after several years of bitter dispute, the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association decided to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders, its official list of mental diseases, leaving the whole world, especially Nigeria, reeling in the face of this awkward pronouncement. Of course, the politics of homosexuality is not the only issue here. It stands as a mere representation of the contemporary political agenda to promote a culture of vices in the modern world by some ‗dark forces‘, with a sophisticated machinery of secularism. The target is to thwart the reality of the moral order put in place by God, exemplified in Christ‘s teachings and reiterated by the apostles, especially Paul (1Cor 5-7). Issues about marriage, family, human sexuality, etc. have all come under severe attack in our modern world. Highly pathetic is the immovable attraction of the defenders of this sexual revolution. Their arguments are always couched in terms of rights, or individual desires-what I want, what I may pursue. They are totally blind to the fact that this sexual laissez-faire destroys the common good, by undermining families and rotting whole neighbourhoods from within. 2 The moral laxity evident today bears semblance with the situation in Corinth which impelled Paul to give a pastoral response as principally enunciated in his First Letter to the Corinthians, chapters 5-7. There was a great deal of sexual laxity in the city of Corinth, just as we have it today in our contemporary sex-saturated culture. It was a promiscuous society with a philosophy similar to that of today‘s world: Sex is a normal physical function, so why not use it as you please? Paul pointed out that God created sex when He made the first man and woman, and therefore He has the right to tell us how to use it. The Bible is the ―owner‘s manual‖ and it must be obeyed. Therefore, the task of this work is to evaluate the contemporary sexual game in the light of Pauline sexual ethics in order to make bold the ideal perspective of human sexuality and marriage, as God has ordered them for the salvation of the world. This research is going to be theological as well as exegetical. The brief exegetical analysis of the pericope will be done for the purpose of right interpretation and evaluation of the intricate issues that underline this Pauline thought. The work is timely and purposely. The relevance of our research will be brought to the limelight in the chapters that expose the sexual politics of our time and how St. Paul can be our moral and spiritual guide back to the ideal of Christ