1 Corinthians 12:12-26
I feel commanded to write once again about the respect we need to give every life and every type of life. There are a growing number of people that extend this respect to the animal kingdom as well and rightfully so. It seems odd then that there are parts of the body that are not given the respect they deserve and that whole segments of society are diminished in value and not respected.
Any theology that calls a person to not use and enjoy their bodies cannot have validity. That is, if you believe God created all of us equally. How can there be segments of society that are called to inequality, mandated celibacy and lower class status?
How long ago was it that women's 'role' was voiceless, bearing and raising children, staying at home, doing laundry and submitting to their husbands. Amazing right? Is that respectful of a woman's dignity? of her abilities? Is it respectful to not allow for the choice to live that life or not? We have come a long way baby!
How about the rules of celibacy. When most of the Apostles were married, when Peter was married and Priests were married for the first thousand years of the Roman Catholic church, is this respectful of the breadth of our human sexuality? Like women, shouldn't the choice be their option? It seems there is a whole range of issues within their church that were created from this unnatural obsession with celibacy.
Another by product of this unnatural obsession is the disrespect afforded to any subject which is sexual in nature. Sex began to be looked as evil or a necessary evil. Sex became 'for procreation only'. Any sexuality outside of their myopic view was deemed ironically unnatural and against the will of God. This battle is still going on although there are a growing majority who see through hollow arguments and have silently abandoned church teachings for enlightened thought and a deeper spirituality devoid of restrictive man made dogmas.
The 'universal' church fails to recognize the universe and all the examples and wisdom that God offers in his created world. The spectrum of human sexuality is enormous and mirrors that of the animal and even the plant kingdom. When will Gays, Lesbians, Transgendered and the every growing list of sexualities that have hidden in fear be given the respect and dignity that all parts of God's creation deserves?
It is time to embrace the most full meanings of this passage, to view equality and respect in it's broadest terms. Respects all parts of our bodies, all parts of God's creation.
Any theology that calls a person to not use and enjoy their bodies cannot have validity. That is, if you believe God created all of us equally. How can there be segments of society that are called to inequality, mandated celibacy and lower class status?
How long ago was it that women's 'role' was voiceless, bearing and raising children, staying at home, doing laundry and submitting to their husbands. Amazing right? Is that respectful of a woman's dignity? of her abilities? Is it respectful to not allow for the choice to live that life or not? We have come a long way baby!
How about the rules of celibacy. When most of the Apostles were married, when Peter was married and Priests were married for the first thousand years of the Roman Catholic church, is this respectful of the breadth of our human sexuality? Like women, shouldn't the choice be their option? It seems there is a whole range of issues within their church that were created from this unnatural obsession with celibacy.
Another by product of this unnatural obsession is the disrespect afforded to any subject which is sexual in nature. Sex began to be looked as evil or a necessary evil. Sex became 'for procreation only'. Any sexuality outside of their myopic view was deemed ironically unnatural and against the will of God. This battle is still going on although there are a growing majority who see through hollow arguments and have silently abandoned church teachings for enlightened thought and a deeper spirituality devoid of restrictive man made dogmas.
The 'universal' church fails to recognize the universe and all the examples and wisdom that God offers in his created world. The spectrum of human sexuality is enormous and mirrors that of the animal and even the plant kingdom. When will Gays, Lesbians, Transgendered and the every growing list of sexualities that have hidden in fear be given the respect and dignity that all parts of God's creation deserves?
It is time to embrace the most full meanings of this passage, to view equality and respect in it's broadest terms. Respects all parts of our bodies, all parts of God's creation.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.
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