Christians inherited the Jewish origin stories, recorded in the book of Genesis. These stories shaped our understanding of Jesus, and how to behave as we followed his teachings.
Christians today have a vastly expanded origin story, thanks to the insights of cosmologists, geologists, evolutionists, geneticists, ecologists and so on. And thank God for that!
This new origin story, however, has barely penetrated the consciousness of the church. Just over a third of Christians reject evolution completely.[1] If that's you, you might want to skip to 'Sex in the Bible' (Chapter One), but I hope you'll hang in there for this first section. Another third believes, falsely, that evolution and the biblical account of creation can be reconciled. Only a fifth of Christians accept evolution completely, and a substantially smaller proportion have had the time or energy to think deeply about the implications of evolution for their faith.[2] This book will help, at least as far as the sexual and relational aspect of our discipleship.[3] I hope it will also persuade some of the 'reconcilable' third of the need to more deeply embrace the evolution story of our origins, and even encourage the ten percent who are undecided to join us.
I hope that if you are an ex or non-Christian, and you live in a culture influenced by Christianity, that you will find the science fascinating, and the faith reflection a stimulus to do your own processing.
If you were edged out of church, or drifted away, because your sexual practice didn't fit the narrow prescriptiveness of your congregation, perhaps this will provide a way back, or at least nurture your faith and discipleship as part of the church diaspora.
If you sit within the half of the church who think that sex before marriage is sometimes or always permissible[4], this book will provide a solid basis and some good talking points when you engage with the other half, drawing not only on the scientific origin story, but also a close reading of the Old and New Testaments. My greatest hope is that it will encourage you to engage the other half of the church, as so many in the church seem to feel bound by a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy regarding sex before, instead of, or after marriage. It can be a difficult conversation to have, as preserving a 'traditional' approach to marriage and family is ranked as more important to most Australian Christians than tackling poverty.[5]
[1] All statistics on evolution are for the Australian Church, in Miriam Pepper, Nicole Hancock, and Ruth Powell, Church Attenders' Views About Evolution, NCLS Research Fact Sheet 14030, pp. 8-10.
[2] Anecdotally, from many conversations I've had over the years.
[3] I've written more broadly on the implications of the evolution story for Christian faith in Jason John, Worshipping Evolution's God.
[4] Nicole Hancock, Miriam Pepper, and Ruth Powell, Attitudes to Sex before Marriage, NCLS Research Fact Sheet 14013.
[5] Miriam Pepper et al., Public Issues and Priorities for Churches, NCLS Research Fact Sheet 13004.
