Sex

Maclean's: "Are We Blushing Yet?"

Now that I’ve got your attention, I’d like to talk about… well, sex.  But only because Maclean’s started it.

Their Canada Day somewhat thin double issue’s special report boasts how Canada is “The Best Place on Earth.”  Apparently “we are wealthier than the Americans, live longer than the Swedes, and eat better than the French.  We even have more lovers than the Italians.”  I think Maclean’s is implying that these are good things.

The fact that needing to make comparisons against others to make one feel good is rather juvenile notwithstanding, the unquestioned pursuit of health, wealth and sex (it looks like “sex” has replaced or is simply equated with “happiness”) is all rather anti-Kingdom of God.

I struggle with wealth; I idolize money as well as the next guy.  And then I hear Jesus say, “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.”  I trust in God.  “…But just in case He fails, I’d like to have a decent stockpile of cash nearby, please,” I’m tempted to think to myself.

In regards to health, I can thank the abundance of good (not necessarily always nutritious) food I constantly have within arm’s reach.  In fact, I have so much that I either end up throwing it out, or I eat more than I should.  Poor self-restraint.  I can hear Jesus saying a thing or two about that, as well.

But it’s the sub-article about sex that really gets my blood pumping.  “Not only do we have more partners than the French, Spanish or Italians, we’re more sexually adventurous, too.”  As I said, I think Maclean’s implies that these are good things.  (I admit that the next line made me laugh: “During those long, cold winters, we have to do something to keep warm.”)

Wanna hear the numbers that back up Maclean’s claims?  Canada beats both Italy and France when it comes to the average number of sexual partners one has in a lifetime: Canadian men have an average of 23 partners and Canadian women have an average of 10.  It’s in addition to these stats that Canadians are more adventurous, too.  How much more “adventurous” can one be?!  And did I mention that Maclean’s implies that all this is a good thing?

So disloyalty and infidelity, disposable relationships and broken lives are all the rage in Canada these days.  These are celebrated as the characteristics of an advanced civilization.  I cannot help but ask how much more advanced – truly advanced – we’d be if we took Hebrews 13:4 seriously:  “Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”  In light of the other criteria Maclean’s uses to rank Canada so highly, consider also the verses the follow:  “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’  So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can human beings do to me?’”

We have lots of wealth, health and sex.  Ironically, as far as I can tell, the articles in Maclean’s say nothing about how content Canadians are.  Perhaps we’re too busy pursuing wealth, health and sex instead of pursuing the Kingdom of God with His help and strength to realize how pathetic so many of us truly are.