Download or read book Jesus Religion written by Jefferson Bethke and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2013-10-14 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abandon dead, dry, religious rule-keeping and embrace the promise of being truly known and deeply loved. Jefferson Bethke burst into the cultural conversation with a passionate, provocative poem titled "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus." The 4-minute video became an overnight sensation, with 7 million YouTube views in its first 48 hours (and 23+ million in a year). Bethke's message clearly struck a chord with believers and nonbelievers alike, triggering an avalanche of responses running the gamut from encouraged to enraged. In his New York Times bestseller Jesus > Religion, Bethke unpacks similar contrasts that he drew in the poem--highlighting the difference between teeth gritting and grace, law and love, performance and peace, despair, and hope. With refreshing candor, he delves into the motivation behind his message, beginning with the unvarnished tale of his own plunge from the pinnacle of a works-based, fake-smile existence that sapped his strength and led him down a path of destructive behavior. Along the way, Bethke gives you the tools you need to: Humbly and prayerfully open your mind Understand Jesus for all that he is View the church from a brand-new perspective Bethke is quick to acknowledge that he's not a pastor or theologian, but simply an ordinary, twenty-something who cried out for a life greater than the one for which he had settled. On this journey, Bethke discovered the real Jesus, who beckoned him with love beyond the props of false religion. Praise for Jesus > Religion: "Jeff's book will make you stop and listen to a voice in your heart that may have been drowned out by the noise of religion. Listen to that voice, then follow it--right to the feet of Jesus." --Bob Goff, author of New York Times bestsellers Love Does and Everybody, Always "The book you hold in your hands is Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz meets C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity meets Augustine's Confessions. This book is going to awaken an entire generation to Jesus and His grace." --Derwin L. Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church, author of Limitless Life: Breaking Free from the Labels That Hold You Back

Download or read book Why Religions Hate Sex written by Jim Suski and published by . This book was released on 2019-01-03 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Religion''s role - in sex, power and empire building. Why controlling a woman''s sexuality was commanded Why LGBT is condemned but BDS&M is ignored Why homophobia is about economics - not theology Why Jesus was needed to make people obedient Why faith was necessary to support rulers, kings and the powerful How religions were formed to control society and uphold the status quo Before religion was invented people had only a mild curiosity and inquisitiveness about spirituality - they wondered about nature, the stars, the meaning of life, but not obsessively - some mysticism here, a bit of superstition there, and then onto more important things. For 99.8% of human existence, people lived pretty much the same way: in small intimate groups, surviving as nomadic hunter-gatherers - free of inhibitions and with their own rules for sex and love. Sex was frequent and with multiple partners, paternity was uncertain. As a result, all children were treated by the men as if they were their own - to be equally protected, fed and loved. A few thousand years ago people started farming; the food supply became more reliable. Suddenly resources stopped belonging to everybody, and things started belonging to individuals. People invented the concept of private property: people invented wealth. Men became obsessed with keeping their "wealth" - they became determined to ensure that others did not come and take what was rightfully theirs. The obsession for private property had taken hold, and the farmer was horrified by the idea of an unworthy stranger taking his hard-earned property after he died. Men became obsessed with making sure that their children, and only their children, inherited their property - men had to make sure that only they impregnated "their" woman. - Women''s sexuality had to be strictly controlled. The new concepts were strange to early humans who had only recently been accustomed to sharing food and love - sexual intolerance, greed, cruelty and violence are not part of human nature. Something was needed to overcome people''s tolerant, peaceful, easy-going nature. And so the people that ruled invented religions to support their property-owning society. The Old Testament is fascinated on the point of property ownership; and obsessed with heredity, genealogy and lineage. - It never stops talking about who owns what land, and about who is whose father. Homosexuality is very rarely mentioned in the Bible. - The persecution of homosexuals did not start until the late Middle Ages. The reason for banning homosexuality was the constant wars over property, societies were in an "arms race" - they had to get larger and larger armies. The ranks needed constant replenishment: children were needed to make soldiers for "cannon fodder". Every sperm was sacred: it was decided that homosexuality must be discouraged - men should spend their energy on fathering sons - and not on idle, unproductive fun. The trouble was that the books of the Old Testament encouraged individualism - people were becoming too self-confident and argumentative. So Jesus was invented. His message was the philosophy of obedience, passivity and apathy in the face of suffering: "be meek", accept your place in society and obey your elders and rulers. "Suffer in silence and you will get your reward in the next world" - that was the new message of the Jesus story. And by creating a population of materialistic, property loving "lambs", the rulers of Western Europe were able to conquer and rule the world. - The Christian nations came to dominate and enslave all other societies and all other communities. This is why today, agnosticism, humanism and skeptics argue for a secular, atheist society

Download or read book Sex God written by Darrel Ray Ed D. and published by Ipc Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are all the major religions consumed with sex? What makes sex so important, whether Buddhism or Islam, Christianity or Mormonism? What is the impact of religion on human sexuality? This book explores this and more. It ventures into territory that has never been examined. You will be surprised at how much religion has influenced your sexuality, who you marry, the pleasure you get or don't get from sex, and what you can do about it.

Download or read book Passion Pursuit written by Linda Dillow and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2013-07-22 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Bible study about sex for women? Now that’s different! This new study, Passion Pursuit: What Kind of Love Are You Making?, lets God’s Word speak about sex as being holy and erotic, blessed by God, and satisfying far beyond what the world can even imagine. Picture that as a headline on the cover of Cosmopolitan! By using scripture throughout the Bible, Passion Pursuit not only urges women to pursue passion but details how God has given them permission to do so. Though there is fun to be had along the way in this study, it hits hard on the questions women have but are hesitant to ask, like: What does God say is okay and not okay in the bedroom? I’m 54 years old; how can my husband still be attracted to me? Why did God make men and women so different? This audaciously bold study combines the psychological expertise of Dr Juli Slattery, formerly of Focus on the Family, along with moving stories from trusted Bible teacher and best-selling author Linda Dillow. The groups who have already done this study have seen their marriages come alive, whether they’ve been married four months or forty years; be next! PLUS! Check out the Passion Pursuit DVD for even more great teaching from Lisa Dillow and Dr. Slattery. It's the perfect resource for individuals or small groups.

Download or read book Addicted to Lust written by Samuel L. Perry and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few cultural issues alarm conservative Protestant families and communities like the seemingly ubiquitous threat of pornography. Thanks to widespread access to the internet, conservative Protestants now face a reality in which every Christian man, woman, and child with a smartphone can access limitless pornography in their bathroom, at work, or at a friend's sleepover. Once confident of their victory over pornography in society at large, conservative Protestants now fear that "porn addiction" is consuming even the most faithful. How are they adjusting to this new reality? And what are its consequences in their lives? Drawing on over 130 interviews as well as numerous national surveys, Addicted to Lust shows that, compared to other Americans, pornography shapes the lives of conservative Protestants in ways that are uniquely damaging to their mental health, spiritual lives, and intimate relationships. Samuel L. Perry demonstrates how certain pervasive beliefs within the conservative Protestant subculture unwittingly create a context in which those who use pornography are often overwhelmed with shame and discouragement, sometimes to the point of depression or withdrawal from faith altogether. Conservative Protestant women who use pornography feel a "double shame" both for sinning sexually and for sinning "like a man," while conflicts over pornography in marriages are escalated by patterns of lying, hiding, blowing up, or threats of divorce. Addicted to Lust shines new light on one of the most talked-about problems facing conservative Christians.

Download or read book Putting Faith in Hate written by Richard Moon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To allow or restrict hate speech is a hotly debated issue in many societies. While the right to freedom of speech is fundamental to liberal democracies, most countries have accepted that hate speech causes significant harm and ought to be regulated. Richard Moon examines the application of hate speech laws when religion is either the source or target of such speech. Moon describes the various legal restrictions on hate speech, religious insult, and blasphemy in Canada, Europe and elsewhere, and uses cases from different jurisdictions to illustrate the particular challenges raised by religious hate speech. The issues addressed are highly topical: speech that attacks religious communities, specifically anti-Muslim rhetoric, and hateful speech that is based on religious doctrine or scripture, such as anti-gay speech. The book draws on a rich understanding of freedom of expression, the harms of hate speech, and the role of religion in public life.

Download or read book Love the Sin written by Janet R. Jakobsen and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2003-02-01 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sex. Religion. There is no denying that these two subjects are among the most provocative in American public life. Even the constitutional principle of church-state separation seems to give way when it comes to sex: the Supreme Court draws on theology as readily as it draws on case law when rendering decisions that touch on sexuality. In this compelling and carefully argued study, Janet R. Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini examine this powerful and disturbing connection as they explore the reasons why secular institutions habitually use religion to regulate sexual life. From state legislatures to the halls of Congress and the Supreme Court, from daily newspapers to popular magazines and television talk shows, Jakobsen and Pellegrini illustrate the intensity of America's obsession with sex in the name of values and the dangers it poses to some of our most basic freedoms. Using a wide range of case studies, Love the Sin offers an insightful critique of the ways in which sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular are discussed and debated in the public arena. Additionally, the book sets forth constructive alternatives that highlight the vital links between sexual and religious freedom and expose the hazards of using religion as a justification for regulating sexuality. A timely, necessary, and refreshing contribution to the many debates surrounding religion, morality, and sex, Love the Sin boldly dreams an America that lives up to its promise of freedom and justice for all.

Download or read book God and the Gay Christian written by Matthew Vines and published by Convergent. This book was released on 2014 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reinterpretations of key Bible texts related to sexual orientation, written by a Harvard student, present an accessible case for a modern Christian conservative acceptance of sexual diversity.

Download or read book ChurchToo written by Emily Joy Allison and published by Broadleaf Books . This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Emily Joy Allison outed her abuser on Twitter, she launched #ChurchToo, a movement to expose the culture of sexual abuse and assault utterly rampant in Christian churches in America. Not a single denomination is unaffected. And the reasons are somewhat different than those you might find in the #MeToo stories coming out of Hollywood or Washington. While patriarchy and misogyny are problems everywhere, they take on a particularly pernicious form in Christian churches where those with power have been insisting, since many decades before #MeToo, that this sexually dysfunctional environment is, in fact, exactly how God wants it to be. #ChurchToo turns over the rocks of the church's sexual dysfunction, revealing just what makes sexualized violence in religious contexts both ubiquitous and uniquely traumatizing. It also lays the groundwork for not one but many paths of healing from a religious culture of sexual shame, secrecy, and control, and for survivors of abuse to live full, free, healthy lives.

Download or read book Finding the Hero in Your Husband Revisited written by Juli Slattery and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women know how to work hard at marriage. Often their efforts end up sabotaging rather than building intimacy. Do you want to understand why? In this rewrite of her bestseller Finding the Hero in Your Husband, acclaimed Christian clinical psychologist and speaker Dr. Juli Slattery gently guides women through topics that are inherently woven into every imperfect marriage. Finding the Hero in Your Husband, Revisited, challenges misconceptions and outright misinformation that have misguided women for decades. In truth, women have power in marriage-but they don't often know how to use it. Illustrated with insightful real-life case examples, this book is both an educational resource as well as a practical "how-to" guide for navigating everyday trials as well as deeper difficulties. Juli offers understandable explanations of God's design, healthy expectations that re-frame experiences, and relatable applications that women of faith can practice to influence their marriage and deepen their relationship with God. Finding the Hero in Your Husband, Revisited, will help you more clearly see and encourage the hero within your husband by examining your own heart. Book jacket.

Download or read book Headscarves and Hymens written by Mona Eltahawy and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A passionate manifesto decrying misogyny in the Arab world, by an Egyptian American journalist and activist When the Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy published an article in Foreign Policy magazine in 2012 titled "Why Do They Hate Us?" it provoked a firestorm of controversy. The response it generated, with more than four thousand posts on the website, broke all records for the magazine, prompted dozens of follow-up interviews on radio and television, and made it clear that misogyny in the Arab world is an explosive issue, one that engages and often enrages the public. In Headscarves and Hymens, Eltahawy takes her argument further. Drawing on her years as a campaigner and commentator on women's issues in the Middle East, she explains that since the Arab Spring began, women in the Arab world have had two revolutions to undertake: one fought with men against oppressive regimes, and another fought against an entire political and economic system that treats women in countries from Yemen and Saudi Arabia to Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya as second-class citizens. Eltahawy has traveled across the Middle East and North Africa, meeting with women and listening to their stories. Her book is a plea for outrage and action on their behalf, confronting the "toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend." A manifesto motivated by hope and fury in equal measure, Headscarves and Hymens is as illuminating as it is incendiary.

Download or read book Abusing Religion written by Megan Goodwin and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-17 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sex abuse happens in all communities, but American minority religions often face disproportionate allegations of sexual abuse. Why, in a country that consistently fails to acknowledge—much less address—the sexual abuse of women and children, do American religious outsiders so often face allegations of sexual misconduct? Why does the American public presume to know “what’s really going on” in minority religious communities? Why are sex abuse allegations such an effective way to discredit people on America’s religious margins? What makes Americans so willing, so eager to identify religion as the cause of sex abuse? Abusing Religion argues that sex abuse in minority religious communities is an American problem, not (merely) a religious one.

Download or read book Does God Hate Women written by Ophelia Benson and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2009-07-21 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the role that religion and culture play in the oppression of women. Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom ask probing questions about the way that religion shields the oppression of women from criticism and why many Western liberals, leftists and feminists have remained largely silent on the subject. Does God Hate Women? explores instances of the oppression of women in the name of religious and cultural norms and how these issues play out both in the community and in the political arena. Drawing on philosophical concerns such as truth, relativism, knowledge and ethics, Benson and Stangroom assess the current situation and provide a rallying call for a progressive politics that is committed to universal values. This book will appeal to anyone interested in issues of global justice, human rights and multiculturalism.

Download or read book When Sex Was Religion written by Larry Falls and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2010 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evidence of the connection between sex and religion can be found in fertility cults in all nations of the past. When Sex Was Religion takes a comprehensive look at how sexual practices were originally considered a religion before the introduction of Christianity. Dr. Larry Falls, a registered clinical sexologist specializing in sexual abuse trauma and emotional health, spent five years traveling throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe learning about different religions, cultural history, and sexual behavior while working on his doctoral thesis. In his fascinating exploration into the beginning of human reason and the birth of religious thought includes the importance of reproduction, virgins and temple prostitutes, the original meaning of the cross, Devil worship, witches' Sabbath, and the curse of the evil eye. Dr. Falls also proves that the Kama Sutra, an ancient Hindu religious narrative about pleasure, love, and sexuality was really a Bible designed for the purpose of teaching others to gain favor from the gods by engaging in sexual intercourse. Dr. Falls' examination into sex worship demonstrates that phallic reverence was not only a religion, but also a cause for dominance and sexual exploitation that, to this day, remains part of our social structure.

Download or read book Beliefs written by Jamie Cawley and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2018-12-12 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An accessible, objective understanding of what the major ‘beliefs’ are about. The major beliefs include: Polytheism, Judaism, Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam, Nationalism, Communism and Environmentalism. All have over 100 million followers and the full structure of faith-determined behavioural guidance.

Download or read book Can You Be Gay and Christian written by Michael L. Brown and published by Charisma Media. This book was released on 2014 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we respond to gay people who tell us how much they love the Lord and experience God's power? What do we do with the argument that the Old Testament laws no longer apply? Brown provides solid biblical answers, clearly written and based on sound scholarship, in a compassionate way that causes the reader to wrestle with the issues and discover the biblical truth. He also provides practical guidelines for ministry, and shows readers how they can resist the gay agenda while reaching out to their gay friends and family.

Download or read book Sexuality and New Religious Movements written by J. Lewis and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Issues relating to sexuality, eroticism and gender are often connected to religious beliefs and practices, but also to prejudices against and fear of religious groups that adopt alternative approaches to sexuality. This is especially apparent in connection with new religious movements, which many times find themselves accused by the media and anti-cultists of promoting illicit and controversial views on sexuality. This anthology aims to critically investigate the role of sexuality in a number of new religious movements, including Mormon fundamentalist communities, the Branch Davidians, the Osho movement, the Raël movement, contemporary Wicca and Satanism, in addition to the teachings of Adidam and Gurdjieff on sexuality.