Sexuality
Thoughts about how faith affects our approach to gender and sexuality
!["Looking for Ways to Build Bridges" "Looking for Ways to Build Bridges"](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/59280.jpg?h=123&w=220)
Fifteen months ago, this blog began with a conversation with Katelyn Beaty about my hopes and dreams for Thin Places. As I conclude this blog, we thought it fitting to have a concluding conversation as well. Katelyn and I had a chance to talk about the most exciting and most challenging aspects of ...
![Nine Favorite Posts from Thin Places Nine Favorite Posts from Thin Places](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/59208.jpg?h=123&w=220)
One of the wonderful aspects of blogging is that I get to write about pretty much anything that is on my mind and might connect with readers. Over the past 15 months of blogging for Christianity Today, I've written or edited nearly 200 posts. As I wrote last week, many posts soar to the top of ...
![Contraception and Faith Contraception and Faith](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/56316.jpg?h=123&w=220)
I've been interested in the topic of contraception and faith for quite some time, both in light of my own unwillingness to think about contraception in theological terms in the early years of my marriage (an unwillingness I have observed in others as well), and also in the way decisions about ...
![From Depo-Provera to Natural Family Planning From Depo-Provera to Natural Family Planning](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/56319.jpg?h=123&w=220)
As this series on contraception comes to a close, Emily Heady offers a Protestant perspective on Natural Family Planning.
When my husband and I married in 2001, we were graduate students with tiny salaries, tiny living quarters, and gargantuan workloads. It was not a good time for a baby. So a few ...
![I Stopped Using Natural Family Planning I Stopped Using Natural Family Planning](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/56314.jpg?h=123&w=220)
My her.meneutics colleague, Liuan Huska, joins the conversation today in describing the choices she and her husband have made to first use NFP and then a barrier method as forms of contraception. I am so grateful for Liuan’s gracious approach to this topic:
When my husband and I first married, ...
![Why I Had a Vasectomy Why I Had a Vasectomy](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/54634.jpg?h=123&w=220)
As I mentioned last week, we will be offering a variety of personal essays about the choices Christians have made about the use of contraceptives. Today, Matthew Towles, PhD, explains why he decided to have a vasectomy:
I wonder how many life-changing conversations happen in the parking lots of doctors’ ...
![From Banned to Mandated From Banned to Mandated](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/54703.jpg?h=123&w=220)
Last week, I began a series of blog posts about contraception and faith. Rather than rehashing the debate that ensued, please refer to Friday's post that discusses contraception, Margaret Sanger, and women's health in the developing world. Last week also featured a doctor's perspective on ...
![Why I Have Seven Children Why I Have Seven Children](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/54705.jpg?h=123&w=220)
Mary Alice Teti offers the first of a handful of personal Christian perspectives on contraception here in the United States. She writes about how her Catholicism has shaped her view of marriage, and next week we will hear a diverse series of Protestant views:
Any young person who was raised in a Christian ...
![A Doctor's View on Hormonal Contraception A Doctor's View on Hormonal Contraception](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/54589.jpg?h=123&w=220)
Dr. Emily Gibson has written about contraception for her.meneutics in the past, and I asked her to offer her perspective as a physician when it comes to the questions Christians might want to ask about hormonal contraception in particular. I appreciate her measured tone and informative approach:
As ...
![Contraception Saves Lives Contraception Saves Lives](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/54587.jpg?h=123&w=220)
To begin our conversation about contraception and faith, I asked my friend and colleague Rachel Marie Stone to reflect upon her time working as a doula in Malawi. Here are her reflections on contraception and global health:
The young nurse was one of eleven living children -- one of eighteen, if you ...
![Are Christians Afraid to Talk about Contraception? Are Christians Afraid to Talk about Contraception?](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/54592.jpg?h=123&w=220)
The Christian response to contraception tends to make news headlines, particularly in recent years. When the Affordable Care Act mandated employers pay for contraceptive methods, both Protestants and Catholics objected. Lawsuits ensued. Decades after the introduction of “the pill” to ...
![What Google Searches Tell Us about Sex What Google Searches Tell Us about Sex](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/54079.jpg?h=123&w=220)
I had been married for a few years when an engaged friend asked me about sex. She wondered if I had any advice for her wedding night or beyond. I told her two things. One, that sex is more wonderful than our culture ever admits. Two, that sex isn’t nearly as dramatic as our culture (including ...
![The Myth of the Exceptional Woman The Myth of the Exceptional Woman](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/51003.jpg?h=123&w=220)
I had been at Azusa Pacific University for less than a semester when I found myself riding along with my mentor, Sarah Sumner, to a speaking engagement in downtown L.A. Once we arrived, I was floored by the depth of her knowledge and by her captivating teaching style. She taught for five hours with ...
![Sex and Sunday School Sex and Sunday School](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/49129.jpg?h=123&w=220)
In anticipation of my new book, Small Talk: Learning From My Children About What Matters Most, each week I'm featuring a different writer for a guest post. These posts dicuss the ways children's questions, comments, or actions have prompted deeper reflection for the adult. The series began with ...
![Kids--Naked and Unashamed Kids--Naked and Unashamed](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/40415.jpg?h=123&w=220)
I've heard Christians say that if we still lived in the Garden of Eden, we would all be walking around naked. The story in Genesis 2 seems to support this idea. It was only after God confronted Adam and Eve about their tragic and rebellious decision to eat the fruit that they realized they were ...
![How Sex, Busyness, Mobility, and the American Dream can Impede Friendship How Sex, Busyness, Mobility, and the American Dream can Impede Friendship](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/40078.jpg?h=123&w=220)
I've been thinking about the nature of friendship.
It started, oddly enough, with House of Cards, a show in which no one has any true friends. But as the season progressed Rachel—a former call girl who is trying to keep her head down and create some stability in her life—was befriended ...
![Women Don't Need to Become Men in Order to Succeed Women Don't Need to Become Men in Order to Succeed](https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/39589.jpg?h=123&w=220)
I have always been an overachiever and a perfectionist. It might be because I'm a girl, or because I'm the firstborn of four, or because my parents are type-A personalities or just because. But either way, I remember the panic that shot from the center of my torso in every direction when ...