Multiply vs. Making Disciples

Content Warning: this particular  blog post has some adult themes and talks about sexuality in a way I haven't really done, before. Go forth at your own risk.

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"Go forth and multiply." It's often used as an arguing point in Evangelical American Christian circles to argue against homosexuality. It stems from Genesis 1. It's often used as a reference for how sex is most appropriately used for procreation purposes, not pleasurable ones. It's often a rebuke against masturbation and homosexuality, even forms of sexual interaction that are not coitus, such as oral or anal situations. It, along with some other passages, have been the foundations of American purity culture in the Church. 

In today's America, we have seen conservative politicians try to push not only taking away abortion rights, but also basic contraception. Because condoms means you can have sex without consequences, and how dare you? This is a holdover from our days as Puritans, who outlawed dancing and games and music that wasn't hymnal. We watch movies like Footloose and can't help but think communities still stuck in those old ways are juvenile at best and genuinely stupid at worst. But we act the same way when it comes to couples wanting to have sex. 

When I was married, my partner and I used contraception regularly. Early on it was the Pill, though we found that affected her well-being too much, but it was always condoms. We were making mature, adult choices. We were not financially or relationally ready to have kids until we were ready. And asking a monogamous, married couple to refrain from having sex so that they don't risk having kids is ridiculous. Asking them to risk financially ruining themselves before they're ready because you'd like to leave things up to chance and "God" is stupid. God allows us to suffer the consequences of our actions all the time. When we make foolish choices, we have to reap the consequences. So... we made wise choices. And now we're better off for it. We have a couple of great kids, kids who are growing up with loving and stable parents. Because we had access to the contraception we needed when we needed it. 

What's funny is that this insistence on controlling women's bodies has other consequences. They want you to have sex for purely reproductive purposes, even though God DESIGNED it to be pleasurable, and for women to have access to insanely more pleasure through the process, when it's done right, than men. But by threatening to remove contraception, they are encouraging people to explore non-heteronormative relationships. Same sex relationships definitely not gonna have kids involved, unless you try really hard, either by IVF or adoption or the participation of a third party. Sexual relations that don't involve coitus, like anal or oral or manual stimulation, all come out safer. Which is why some conservatives wan't to even outlaw "recreational" sex. Crazy, right? I mean, even in the depths of stupid purity culture, I grew up being told that married couples should have sex on the regular, so as to foster stronger bonds. 

My answer to a lot of this has more to do with the rules that Jesus rewrote. His major takeaways from his ministry had to do with the two most important commandments from the Old Testament: loving God and loving our neighbors; as well as the Sermon on the Mount, and the Great Commission. It's the Great Commission that really replaces that age-old commandment to "go forth and multiply." Found in Matthew 28, Jesus instructs his disciple to go and "make disciples of all the nations." Not multiply. This changes the focus from procreation, and ethnic culture, to education and inspiration, and meta-culture. 

There was an infamous conflict between the Apostles Peter and Paul. Peter felt like anyone converting to follow Jesus needed to become Jewish, like Jesus was Jewish. That meant getting circumcised, eating kosher, forswearing your old ways. Paul chastised Peter for that position, basically arguing that you could easily tack on the most important parts of following Jesus, loving God and loving others, onto any other cultural tradition out there. So... today, we have European Christians, Chinese Christians, Latin American Christians, Korean Christians, Russian Christians, African Christians. The things that definite a culture: shared languages, foods, musics, fashions, values, traditions, those are all equally valid under a meta-cultural view of Christianity. Jamaican fruitcake and Puerto Rican coquito are equally welcome at my Christmas table, you know what I mean? 

If you've followed me through any of my other posts, you may have noticed my own focus on memetics in the Christian context, in the context of the Body of Christ. I believe when Jesus made the Great Commission, he was shifting the focus from one of procreation to one of education, from genetic reproduction to memetic reproduction. And, historically, that's something Queer folk are quite good at. Shamans and nuns and monks and all kinds of people that didn't fit into the heteronormative roles of society have been excellent at preserving or furthering cultural pursuits. They're so often those "cool uncles or aunts" that have lasting impacts on their families, despite not having children of their own. So, stop trying to act like who someone has sex with has any bearing on how good a Christian they are, and start looking at how well the convey the values of loving God and loving humanity. Because that's what Jesus really wants us to focus on.