Her.menuetics from Christianity Today has posted a blog from Enuma Okoro on "We're Just Friends. No, Really." I was so enouraged by Enuma. With great courage, she claimed the language of beauty for her cross-gender friendship with Andrew: " I believe my friendship with Andrew...is also beautiful for its own sake, without thought of its broader utility."
Beauty of course, has been ransacked by Hollywood, by romantic comedies, by our hypersexualized culture.
I am so grateful to meet fellow Christians not held captive to our sexualized culture. We may be small in number in the evangelical community, but beauty between men and women is far deeper and broader than what we've seen on comedy movies.
With great courage, Enuma steps into the evangelical mainstream and declares her non-romantic friendship with a man to be "beautiful." Why should romance and sex have all the beauty between men and women?
She is a boundary-shifting friend.
Dan,
Amazon says the book won't ship for 2 to 3 weeks. Is there somewhere else I can purchase it from, or is it available for digital download anywhere?
I don't need to convince myself. I just know what I've been taught and have been judge on concerning my relationships isn't Biblical. It doesn't add up to all the "one another"ing in the Bible. It also creates division between genders and legalism which doesn't exist in the NT.
This verse comes to mind when I'm discussing opposite-sex friendships most of the time:
"For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they do not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law of righteousness to everyone who believes." ~Romans 10:3-4
Posted by: Brian | October 25, 2011 at 10:13 PM
Hey Brian! You can get it from Barnes and Noble faster: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sacred-unions-sacred-passions-dan-j-brennan/1020980611?ean=9780982580707&itm=1&usri=sacred+unions+sacred+passions
Posted by: Dan Brennan | October 25, 2011 at 10:17 PM