Baylor University, a conservative Baptist school in the heart of Texas, has been attempting to amend its student conduct code to appear to be more tolerant of LGBT individuals. On Thursday, the student senate approved language that would remove the term “homosexual acts” from the list of sexual activity that is not condoned at the university…. [T]he re-wording of the conduct code actually has the potential to make Baylor’s official approach to human sexuality more problematic. If university officials approve the change, the term “homosexual acts” will be replaced with the phrase “non-marital consensual deviate sexual intercourse.” Not only does that new phrase specifically label homosexual relationships as “deviate,” but it also expands the definition of negative sexual activity to include all sex outside of marriage.
I’ve always been fascinated by the seemingly reflexive desire of Conservative Christians to control the sexuality of others, as if they’re aghast at the idea that adults might be having fun. When you define “fun” as “not being totally, completely, and unwaveringly focused on God,” I suppose it makes sense. When you get right down to it, though, I think it comes down to two things: 1) the desire to control the behavior of others, and 2) a fear of sexuality and its expression. If you view sexuality as being primarily (and, in some cases, only) about procreation, you get the Baptists in charge of Baylor University, whose approach to sexuality can fairly be described as archaic and heavy-handed.
The proposed change in Baylor’s student conduct code- banning “non-marital consensual deviate sexual intercourse”- is at best an intrusion into the private matters of consenting adults and at worst an imposition of outdated values upon the student body. The idea that a one-size-fits-all code of sexual mores based on archaic (and arguably non-Biblical) values can be imposed upon 18-22 year-olds is laughable. The policy reads like something written by someone desperately in need of getting laid themselves:
Baylor will be guided by the understanding that sexuality is a gift from the creator God and that the purposes of this gift include (1) the procreation of human life and (2) the uniting and strengthening of the marital bond in self-giving love. These purposed are to be achieved through heterosexual relationships within marriage. Missuses of God’s gift will be understood to include but not limit to, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sexual assault, incest, adultery, fornication, and homosexual acts.”
What makes the idea of proscribing “non-marital consensual deviate sexual intercourse” even worse is that it’s so broad and vague that it could be interpreted as equating consensual heterosexual or homosexual sex with rape. And “understood to include but not limit to” is a prescription for imposing the values of a repressed antisex/asexual drudge upon benign sexual behavior he or she disapproves of.
When did Christianity become about controlling sexuality and its expression? Where in Scripture does it say that sexuality is and should be only about procreation? The truth, of course, is that you can’t find in Scripture…because it’s not there. In the same way Wahhabi Islamists in Saudi Arabia use Sharia law to justify banning women from driving, the Baptists who run Baylor use their “Christianity” to control the sexual behavior of those they have the ability to exercise authority over.
Perhaps if they spent less time trying to control Baylor’s student body and more time focusing on the teachings of the Jesus Christ they profess to revere, they might recognize their folly. Of course, that would mean letting go of the narrow-minded self-righteousness that leads them to view sex and sexuality as something out of The Handmaid’s Tale. That’s not Christianity, that’s just the abject fear that students might be having sex because (GASP!! Oh, the humanity!!) it’s fun.
As Jerome Corsi, that walking, talking example of leading a Christ-like life said recently, “Sex isn’t about fun. If you want to have fun, read a book.” Sounds as if someone hasn’t gotten any since the Reagan Administration, eh?
I wonder if Corsi works at Baylor?
