Rachel Ray Sex Advice

Yes, you heard that right. Last week, I was sitting in a waiting room and the Rachel Ray Show was on. "OK," I thought, "This is normal." That is until I heard the topic for the day: Sex. I almost spit my stale coffee back into the styrofoam cup.

I'm no prude or anything, but I thought Rachel Ray was a chef?! What is she doing giving sex advice? Well, I had no other choice than to sit through the rest of this episode as Ms. Ray brought in a "sex expert" to answer audience questions- most of which made me pretty queasy- and Ms. Ray proceeded to continually put in her two cents. I would expect something like this from MTV or Oprah, but not from what I thought was essentially a cooking show. I guess anyone can give you sex advice nowadays as long as it makes money. I mean, really? If I turn on the TV to get advice about making a Thanksgiving turkey, I do not expect to hear advice about the bedroom.

But you know, the church isn't doing a whole lot to help the situation. Sex has got to be the most preached-upon topic in sermon series, and I've yet to hear a good theologically- or biblically-grounded one yet. In fact, there's not a whole lot that the Bible says about sex (it was a whole lot less of a big deal back then as it is now, apparently), and what we do have is kind of ambiguous (for instance- what really is "porneia" in the New Testament?).

Typically, I take my ideas about sex from my doctrine of creation- if the act isn't open to creation, then it probably ain't right. Therefore, I have mostly been against the idea of homosexual ordination in the church. Now you're thinking, "Wait Drew, don't you believe in birth control? Wouldn't that be against your doctrine of creation?" My only answer to that is, "Dangit". Moreover, the fact that I was disgusted over hearing sex advice in public speaks to the fact that I've accepted a public/private split on the matter of sex (so I am making up for it by being red-faced as I type this blog entry). In fact, I've realized lately how, even in marriage, so many of my ideas on sex have been influenced by popular culture (read- people like Rachel Ray), not really my theological perspectives.

What does a biblically-informed ethic of sex really look like? How does this ethic fit with a doctrine of creation? Obviously I am disgusted by the idea of people like Rachel Ray, and not the church, informing our sex life; yet, I have realized how much of my own sex life has been informed by people like her. How should the church teach sex?