Product Description

Are you ready to respond to the most relevant questions of sexuality today?

Lifetime monogamy is passé. Pornography infiltrates nearly every home. Homosexuality is accepted. Lust has been redefined. The family as an institution is questioned.

We are reminded every day that assumptions about what is right and wrong, sexually, are different today than they were fifty–or even ten–years ago. Christian principles that formed the pattern for generations of American families are conspicuously absent. What happened and why? How do we respond to the dramatic shift in our culture’s perspective on sex?

As one of today’s most influential thinkers, Dr. Albert Mohler addresses these critical topics in a thoughtful, cut-to-the-chase style in Desire and Deceit. As you follow Mohler’s guidance in applying biblical solutions to today’s most highly charged issues, you will be not only equipped but also inspired to speak the truth in a society hungry for answers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #267165 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-16
• Released on: 2008-09-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781601420800
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author
Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. is president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention. Recognized by such publications as Time and Christianity Today as one of the country’s most influential leaders, Dr. Mohler has appeared on Larry King Live, The Today Show, Dateline NBC, Good Morning, America, and The O’Reilly Factor and hosts a daily radio show that is broadcast on more than eighty stations nationwide. He and his family live in Louisville, Kentucky.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
PREFACE

Sexuality is now a major fact of public life in America and around much of the world. In one sense, this is hardly new. After all, sexuality is a major part of human existence–an unavoidably complex and potentially explosive dynamic of human life. But sexuality is now a public issue–front and center in some of the biggest and most contentious debates of our times.

Sex and sexuality now drive much of our advertising, entertainment, and the cultural scripts that citizens use in common conversation. The sexual revolution of the 1960s was, in retrospect, only a signal of what was to come. By the early years of the twenty-first century, issues of sexuality were seemingly unavoidable. Elementary school students are being introduced to “family diversity” curricula, and major newspapers report on the phenomena of sexual promiscuity in homes for the aged. There seems to be virtually no part of the culture that is not dealing with sexuality in one way or another–and often with significant controversy.

Christians have a special stake and stewardship in the midst of this confusion. In the first place, Christians know that sex is both more and less important than the culture of laissez-faire sexuality can understand. Unlike the naturalistic evolutionists, Christians believe that the realities of gender and sexuality are intentional gifts of the Creator, who gave these gifts to His human creatures as both a blessing and a responsibility. Unlike the postmodern relativists, Christians cannot accept the claim that all sexual standards are mere social constructs. We believe that the Creator alone has the right to reveal His intention and commands concerning our stewardship of these gifts. Unlike the marketing geniuses and advertising gurus, we do not believe that sexuality is intended as a ploy to get attention and to create consumer demand. Unlike the pandering producers of sexualized entertainment, we do not believe that sex is primarily about laugh lines and titillation. Unlike the sexual revolutionaries of recent decades, we do not believe that sexuality is the means of liberating the self from cultural oppression.

In other words, we believe that sex is less important than many would have us believe. Human existence is not, first and foremost, about sexual pleasure and the display of sexuality. There is much more to human life, fulfillment, and joy. Sex simply cannot deliver the promises made by our hypersexualized society.

On the other hand, sex is far more important than a secular society can envision. After all, the Christian worldview reveals that sex, gender, and sexuality are ultimately all about the creature’s purpose to glorify the Creator. This frame of reference transforms the entire question and leaves the creature asking this: how do I celebrate and live out my stewardship of my sexuality and my exercise of this gift so that the Creator is most glorified? Needless to say, this is not the question driving the confusion in our sex-saturated culture.

This book is an attempt to look at many of today’s most controversial and troubling issues concerning sexuality from the perspective of biblical Christianity. Every one of us has a stake in this, and Christians are responsible for a special witness to the meaning of sex and sexuality.

And all this, we know, is not only about how we are to think about these issues, but how we are to live.

Customer Reviews

Outstanding--but what, what are we going to do?
Anyone with a heart has to be disturbed by the state of marriage in our country. Illegitimacy is closing in on 40% of all births, living together is standard, and marriages tend to last as long as the expiration dates on milk cartons.

This is a great tragedy for our nation, and for the 50% of all children in our country who will expereience living with only a single parent. These children are at hugely higher risk for abuse, neglect, emotional problems, drug and alcohol abuse, promiscuity, and, at hugely higher risk later on of criminal behavior. (For statistics, please read "The Abolition of Marriage".)

In fact, our culture has become toxic to children.

Mohler's small, thoughtful book tackles the problem from the perspective of a Christian pastor. He states sadly that "All manners of faith and morality are now considered by a majority of Americans to be issues of mere private preference" (p47). The bitter fact is that "the left wing of the Enlightenment has finally won the day...a majority of Americans now reject the very notion of absolute truth" (p 47).

He discusses pornography and the effects of Kinsey, and the shattering of the once strong Christian ethics in our nation.

A disturbing but necessary book.

An Important Book to Read
Even before I bought this book, I didn't expect it to be a fun book to read. The topic is one that deals with the proliferation of evil in our world. There is almost no way to do anything except feel hopeless when we look at how people have been able to take sinful activity and make it look good and wholesome, but Mohler covers the subject truthfully and with a gentle spirit. This book is not enjoyable, but it is an important book for everyone to read because it shows the problems that accepting sex, in all of its forms, as the saving grace of our society is causing.

Balanced perspective on the dangers of sexual tolerance, and the Christian response
Christians everywhere are surrounded by an ever increasing level of sexual permissiveness in our post-modern society. With pluralism, moral relativism, and subjective truth as the philosophical crown jewels in the modern Western worldview, even mainstream churches are being swept away by the floods of sexual tolerance. With homosexual pastors preaching from the pulpit, same-sex marriages gaining ground, and pornography running rife throughout the church, R. Albert Mohler Jr. takes a solid stand on the word of God as the standard for all relationships and behaviour.

Presenting an overview of the infiltration of sexual tolerance throughout society, Mohler is a trustworthy guide through the treacherous landscape of false doctrine, cultural implications, effects on manhood and the family, etc. in Desire and Deceit. Mohler fills the pages of this brief, yet vitally relevant volume with lucid, thought-provoking prose that pulls no punches. In a world filled with compromise, Mohler is anything but, clinging to God's word as the only standard for human sexuality

Mohler contrasts the modern, secular viewpoints of lust and homosexuality with the orthodox Christian response to ungodly arguments. As a fairly new believer I was always confused by the growing acceptance of homosexuality within the church when the Bible seems so clear on the topic. Mohler's examination of the growth of the modern homosexual movement, and the flawed theology this movement is based upon are laid out in order that Christians may be equipped to deal with these questions as they walk in the world daily.

Though Mohler cuts to the chase and isn't afraid to step on toes, these rebuttals of today's free-for-all stance on sexuality are far from being condemning. He continually points readers towards Christ, and makes clear the fact that we are all of us sinners -- the sins of the heart no less damning than those of the loins. With this clearly in mind, it becomes clear that Mohler's perspective is balanced, free from legalistic overtones, and filled with grace. He seeks not to vilify those leading sexual lifestyles in contrast to God's design, but rather to inform Christians of the dangers, and cultural ramifications inherent in accepting the all too common moral stance, "Do whatever you like, as long as no one gets hurt." All of us are desperately in need of Jesus; one sin isn't more hell-worthy than another; and, with this in mind, Mohler's readers are lead into a compassionate desire to pray for those suffering in bondage.

Statements such as the following reveal Mohler's balanced and theologically accurate view on the subject of homosexuality (to which he devotes much of his treatise.)

"Salvation and repentance must be preached to homosexuals -- and to heterosexuals as well. East of Eden, not one of us has come before God as sexually pure and whole, even if we have never committed an illicit sexual act. Our ministry to homosexuals is not as the sinless ministering to sinners, but as fellow sinners who bear testimony to the reality of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ."

Presented as a compact hardcover, I read through Desire and Deceit rapidly. It provides a concise exploration of modern sexual mores and their Christian rebuttal while remaining charmingly readable. Mohler has been accused of writing in a scholarly voice, but I found his thoughtful reasoning charming. I won't be adding `polymorphous perversity' to my daily vocabulary anytime soon, but I found his work forthright and delightful to read.