In last Wednesday’s column, Sophie Prell eluded to wanting a conversation on a controversial topic, so let’s talk about sex. It seems we want sex to be our end-all to get the max pleasure at the least risk. We feel that if one person is not meeting our needs we can try someone else, be it a man or woman to bring us that moment. We even have all the artificial means to prevent pregnancy and if these fail, we can get it “taken care of” through a “safe,” “legal” abortion. However, we still feel confused, broken, hurt and possibly diseased from all these hook-ups hoping that “getting some” would have made us happy.

Jews and Christians believe that when God created Adam and Eve in the garden the first command he gave them was to be fruitful and multiply. Amazing, isn’t it? When our world rings out a message of population control and environmental consciousness, often at the expense of the human person, we seek to restore the harmony in many aspects of nature, which is very good to be stewards of our natural resources, yet we thrust chaos upon the natural laws and rhythms of our bodies and inner-spirits. We as a culture do not value life because we do not truly value the means of life via sexual relations.

Christians believe that through his passion, death and resurrection, Jesus redeemed humanity from all sin including that first sin of Adam and Eve, which made it hard to see clearly the goodness in their bodies. We are then given a model to follow in living this redemption. Jesus gave his life on the cross freely and totally, he did not waver from the end, and through his death, God opened for many the path to new and eternal life. Faithful, monogamous, heterosexual marriage is the only way of living that describes this type of love. If we stick by the rules of the game, we won’t get burned, and if the possibility of a child is not at a good time for us, well we can always pause from the “action.” Anything else will leave us to “keep looking, looking for something more,” as Sara Evans sang about. Sexual acts as properly understood by the late Pope John Paul II are meant to reflect the divine love relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Wow, what a concept. Our bodies are then seen as a means of glory and praise and not something dirty and dark, which keeps our minds thinking of the “ew.”

The choice is ours: Design our own rules for the “heat of the moment” and the shame, brokenness and often STIs that go along with it, or live a true liberation in love, freely, totally, faithfully and fruitfully given to participate in the creation of the designer. What will we choose? System of a Down’s song still plays in our heads: “… Eating seeds as a pastime activity, the toxicity of our city, of our city Now, what do you own the world? How do you own disorder, disorder? … ” Keep riding our whirlwind, or be led by God’s spirit?

Daniel Rajewski is a graduate of geological and atmospheric sciences.