Love thy sex life

Good news for all of you who have accepted Cosmo into your heart as your lord and savior – there’s a new sex guru available for consultation. \nThe bad news is you’ll have to be up on a Sunday morning to get your fix.\nNo, Sue Johanson didn’t get a new time slot for the “Sunday Night Sex Show.” A church in Fort Myers, Fla., has been making the jaws of unsuspecting retirees drop with a billboard with the words “MyCrappySexLife.com” that leads to the religious group’s Web site. \nThe 31-one-year-old Rev. Matt Keller of Next Level Church started a new sermon series focusing on the hardship many Christians face while trying to reconcile modern culture with physical abstinence. The main gist of his message: “God wants you to have great sex. He just wants you to wait until you’re married.”\nKeller, an Indiana native, proudly speaks of his own triumphs over temptation in front of the thousands of churchgoers every Sunday, citing his abstaining for 5 1/2 years until marriage. The atmosphere is relaxed, the congregation is young and the message is being heard. In fact, attendance jumped 40 percent the first Sunday of the series, and Internet downloads of his sermons already number in the thousands.\nThe house remains divided, however. Backlash from other Christian groups has ended the billboard’s reign, asserting that a phrase like “MyCrappySexLife.com” has no business leading to a church Web site. (The new billboard simply reads “NextLevelChurch.com.”) \nThis episode shows an increasingly problematic dichotomy in the American religious community as a whole, not just in Christianity. Young churchgoers of all faiths struggle to maintain a variety of sexually conservative vows while living in an evermore sensually pervasive culture. \nThere’s no moral disapproval at work here. It’s simply a more liberal church trying to help younger people through with what they’ve accepted as their faith. The message is still strictly by the book: No sex until marriage. It’s just conveyed in a more easily swallowed manner than Charlton Heston on the mount in Moses attire. \nThe older generation smiting down preaching tactics such as these amiable sex sermons is exactly the kind of haughty, counterproductive stance that has caused many young people to antagonize the Christian church. If there’s a group of hot college kids trying to hang onto their virginity because of their beliefs, more power to them! One doesn’t have to be a Christian – or religious at all – to respect a person’s desire to stay consistent with his or her professed premises. \nThe fact that a billboard referring to this Web site was just “too much” for some to swallow is indicative of a scathing imperiousness in the minds of many self-proclaimed altruists. If these sermons are promoting discussion, and they’re still within the lines of biblical advice, there’s simply nothing wrong with the situation. An aversion to engagement is a problem in and of itself. \nThese kids have hormones too. At least let them keep their billboard.\nIn the meantime, go love thy neighbor.