Men and women are often segregated, perhaps not as much in our culture as in many others, but it’s still there. And, ironically enough, it seems that there is more segregation in conservative evangelical Christianity than in the rest of the culture. I say that ironic because it seems that Christ broke down these barriers.
Category: Gender, Relationships, and Sexuality
Book Review: Friendships That Run Deep
At the suggestion of a friend, I recently Friendship That Run Deep by Keith R. Anderson. (For the record, this book was published about 14 years ago.) There are several things found in the book which I felt worth sharing. The first is, in searching for a definition of friendship, Anderson settles on the concept
The Difference Between Gender and Sex
I appreciated some new insight I gleaned from a book I read recently. In it, the author talks about how there is a difference between sex and gender, even though the terms are often used interchangeably. In a sentence, “Where sex is tied to reproductive physiology, gender is a cultural construct.” (Struthers, p. 136) This
The Beauty of Freedom in Love
One idea which I picked up from Dan Brennan I’ve just recently been thinking about. I recognize that in the romantic myth, and typically in our culture, the thinking is that a person will find one other person to be the object of all their love, and the primary if not sole source of all
Rethinking Friendships and “Romance”: Misc. Thoughts
I’ve said a lot about relationships here recently. I’m still trying to sort things out. If you haven’t seen it, you might look at the comments on my review of “Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions”. I came up with how I would have organized chapters, which was really just a way to help me sort out
Rethinking Friendships and “Romance”: Emotional Intimacy
One of the most difficult subjects which I’ve yet to make up my mind about is that of emotional intimacy. For example, many view emotional intimacy as something only for marriage, and engaging in emotional intimacy with someone other than one’s spouse is considered emotional adultery. In our culture, where marriage is based mostly on
Rethinking Friendships and “Romance”: Cross-gender Friendships and Communication
I’ve been thinking and writing through a lot here recently. I think there are two main issues I’m running into: the existence of “romantic” passion, and what to do with it when discussing singles. These are questions which I feel Dan doesn’t answer very well. Most people have sexual desire, which has the real potential
Real Men, Real Women
Recently I’ve been seeing more and more written in the broad category of gender issues (or maybe better described as gender identity), and specifically discussing men (Dan Brennan/Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions, Where Have The Good Men Gone?, Church For Men). This has got me doing quite a bit of thinking. In some areas, I have
Book Review: Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions
So, I finally got around to purchasing and reading Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions by Dan Brennan. I’ve been wrestling a lot here recently with his ideas, so it only made sense that I read his book in order to try and obtain a more full understanding of what he is trying to communicate. At it’s
Rethinking Friendships and “Romance”: Marriage
This seems to be in part continuing from the previous post regarding exclusivity. Presently, I’m exploring the questions: What is marriage? What makes marriage marriage and not something else? Or another way of putting it, What is exclusive to marriage? I explore these questions with some trepidation. I am not married, nor have I been