Thursday, March 16, 2006
Back in the closet
Although I keep my palatial estate, Stately Dave Manor, in reasonably good order, let's suppose that I let things get rather disorderly, with various items strewn around the living room, bedroom, etc.. If you were to stop over to visit me, I'm sure that I'd be rather embarrassed by the clutter because you'd be seeing stuff out in the open that really ought to have been put away in a closet. A closet, you see, is a relatively unsung place that fulfills a most useful function: it allows you to keep things in a place that's out of normal sight. Sometimes we stow things in our closets of which we're somewhat ashamed (think of that leisure suit you haven't worn in over thirty years :-) ), but more often we store stuff of which we're in no way ashamed but that we just don't want the world to see. Many things are just fine left out in the open, but other things rightly belong in the closet.
To put it frankly, our "liberated" American society has failed to remember that sex of all kinds belongs in the closet. This is not to say that we ought to revert to some kind of prudery that teaches that all sex is shameful. Indeed, intimate relations between a husband and his wife are in no way shameful. Given that the relationship of husband and wife is a picture of the relationship of Christ and His Church, there is surely no shame in any legitimate intimacy that is shared between husband and wife. However, we ought to remember that what is intimate ought to be kept private, not out of any sense of shame, but rather to preserve the privacy that ought to attend acts of true intimacy. Thus, even good and right sexual relations ought to be kept out of public sight. They belong in the closet.
So, if good and proper intimate relations ought to be kept private, how much more should wicked and perverse intimate relations be kept out of the public eye! Although such reprehensible sexual practices have been performed by wicked men and women ever since the Fall, a sense of shame or societal reprehension has kept them "in the closet" for much of history. In our day, however, the door to the closet has been flung open wide in the name of "liberation." This was bad enough when it was the "straight" fornication of the early Sexual Revolution that was thrust in our faces, but lately we have endured the spectacle of having homosexual fornication paraded in public. To all this we are supposed to give not only tolerance (live and let live), but more so our approval lest we be labeled "homophobic." Instead of sexual immorality being kept in private on account of shame, it is now considered to be shameful to keep it private. Now it is considered a virtue to come out of the closet, and a vice to remain there.
My friend, it is no vice to keep what ought to be private a private thing. I pray that God will hasten the day when our society comes to its senses and returns sexual intimacy to the closet where it belongs.
To put it frankly, our "liberated" American society has failed to remember that sex of all kinds belongs in the closet. This is not to say that we ought to revert to some kind of prudery that teaches that all sex is shameful. Indeed, intimate relations between a husband and his wife are in no way shameful. Given that the relationship of husband and wife is a picture of the relationship of Christ and His Church, there is surely no shame in any legitimate intimacy that is shared between husband and wife. However, we ought to remember that what is intimate ought to be kept private, not out of any sense of shame, but rather to preserve the privacy that ought to attend acts of true intimacy. Thus, even good and right sexual relations ought to be kept out of public sight. They belong in the closet.
So, if good and proper intimate relations ought to be kept private, how much more should wicked and perverse intimate relations be kept out of the public eye! Although such reprehensible sexual practices have been performed by wicked men and women ever since the Fall, a sense of shame or societal reprehension has kept them "in the closet" for much of history. In our day, however, the door to the closet has been flung open wide in the name of "liberation." This was bad enough when it was the "straight" fornication of the early Sexual Revolution that was thrust in our faces, but lately we have endured the spectacle of having homosexual fornication paraded in public. To all this we are supposed to give not only tolerance (live and let live), but more so our approval lest we be labeled "homophobic." Instead of sexual immorality being kept in private on account of shame, it is now considered to be shameful to keep it private. Now it is considered a virtue to come out of the closet, and a vice to remain there.
My friend, it is no vice to keep what ought to be private a private thing. I pray that God will hasten the day when our society comes to its senses and returns sexual intimacy to the closet where it belongs.
