Christian Virtue is a Team Sport - What is it about Sex?

Tom Wright laments that when groups of Christians are faced with outside opposition, our tendency is to turn on one another with factional fighting.  In wondering about why moral discussions in the church center on "a few favored issues, especially sex:.." he offers that this discussion might be "a 'displacement activity' when we can't cope with the question of how, why and when a whole family of Christians should (but can't) come together in mutual love and support.  That doesn't mean that sexual ethics are unimportant.  On the contrary, they are symptomatic of the health or unhealth of the wider community."


"Personal morality is enormously important, but over-concentration on it can function as a displacement activity when we don't want to address the larger, equally important issues."


          What these "larger, equally important issues" involve are:  when the "rule" against embezzlement is broken, the "larger issue" is that trust is destroyed.  When the "rule" against adultery is broken, the "larger issue" is that the entire faith community "suffers a kind of moral electric shock" that undermines the moral fabric of their world.


          So (me here) the ongoing struggle within our denomination over sexual ethics - including both the insertion and deletion of the "fidelity and chastity" standard for church officers - is a distraction (a displacement activity) from the larger issues of our lack of unity on a myriad of other matters.  (Insert your list here).