Sex Ed According to the Bible

HERE is the Sex Ed Resource List for this week, including book recommendations, discussion questions, and ideas for parents/caregivers.

When you’ve got the strength for it, sit down and read Genesis 38. It’s not pretty. And it’s not the vision of sexuality that you ever heard in church before. First off, God kills one guy for using the withdrawal method—when does that get discussed? Then there’s the incest that God blesses. And there’s the prostitution that is called “rightesous.” And that’s just a sample.

This book we call sacred is unnerving. And it’s not just that it’s completely unhindered in its approach. It’s also that it pounds home the point of unlikely people using unlikely means to find their God-give agency and to participate in God’s plan.

Tamar has been discarded, but doesn’t let shame get the best of her. She flips the script and refuses being ‘damaged goods’ and instead seizes the moment—dressing like a prostitute and ensnaring her father-in-law, first by getting her pregnant and secondly by outsmarting him when he tries to kill her. She’s the one who comes out on top, so to speak, of this couple. And God blesses her for taking agency, finding her voice, and reversing the cultural scripts that put down women, blamed them for infertility, and made them financially dependent on men.

If you’re open to it, read Genesis 38 honestly and ask what kind of message do you get out of it.