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le what I have come to call a “belief
grid.” Some of these beliefs are at a low
level at which we feel at liberty to use our
discretion, while others are at a very high
level, which might even involve us in lifeor-death
decisions. As we face the daily
task of living, we filter the opportunities
or difficulties that arise through our
belief grids in order to come to lifedirecting
decisions. This whole function
is protected by what we commonly call
our “conscience.” For humans, then,
intrinsic religion is not a play zone;
instead, it’s a zone of great seriousness,
because we know that if we do well by
our beliefs, we are able to retain a sense
of integrity. If we become duplicitous, we
can diminish ourselves significantly.
Another researcher, Kurt Lewin, 6 coined
a name for this inner dimension: our “life
space.” 7 The visual image this name suggests
is a “space” inside us in which life
happens. And the life that happens in the
inner space ends up influencing and
guiding what is seen on the outside.
Allport and Ross developed a list of
things that they saw domiciled in the
life space, which include highly personal
beliefs about life: identity and
sexuality, family and origin, expectations
of self and others, attitudes
ality. Interestingly, Allport and Ross link
identity and sexuality together as a pair,
which suggests an inherent understanding
that identity and sexuality are
parts of our basic makeup—part of who
we perceive ourselves to be.
Embedded in our belief grid and
linked to our sense of personhood is
our sexuality, domiciled within the
intrinsic realm of the human mind in
which we hold things sacred to us.
Implications of Infringement
Since sexuality is part of the intrinsic
zone in which we hold sacred things, if
it is not properly reverenced and is
treated tritely a person will feel diminished
and infringed upon. The misuse
of sexuality or the infringement upon it
by someone else becomes both offensive
and damaging, because the inner sanctum
of life was trampled upon. People
who have been victimized sexually, for
example, are often overtaken by a sense
of diminished personhood. It’s not
unusual for a victim of sexual mistreatment
to exhibit a sense of self-loathing,
even to the point of depression.
When such a person realizes the
depths of the offense they have suffered,
they sometimes become fearless,
THERE’S A DEEPER DIMENSION UNDERLYING
HUMAN SEXUALITY THAN WHAT WE COMMONLY
toward personal risk-taking, life goals
and relationships, personal hopes and
dreams, and ideas we use to make sense
of life. 8 They form the inner essence of
our lives and are “sacred” to us in that
we hold them in such high esteem that
we revere them. They not only give us a
sense of morality, direction, and purpose
but also our sense of identity. Who
you perceive yourself to be is derived
from these very ideas.
The order in which Allport and Ross
set things down is also intriguing. Identity
is mentioned first, because our
sense of who we are is foundational to
life. The second item on the list is sexu-
UNDERSTAND.
unafraid to confront the perpetrators of
the deeds done against them. They
struggle to feel whole again until they
have done so. Their very sense of being
clamors for justice and restitution.
Reverencing Sexuality
If, indeed, sexuality is part of the intrinsic
zone, or life space, and linked to identity,
then it should be reverenced, protected,
carefully tended, and held as
sacred. I believe this is why Paul wrote the
counsel he did, and why for so many centuries
societies have attempted to protect
sexuality by the establishment of taboos.
Certainly, those taboos have not all been
good, but their existence testifies to an
inherent human understanding of a certain
“sacredness” to sexuality that is missing
almost entirely from current culture.
On the positive side, because sexuality
is domiciled in the life space, when it’s
respected, preserved, and guarded as
something sacred, it can become the
means of a deep bonding between two
people. When two people who have preserved
their sense of sexual integrity
consent, in love, to willingly offer themselves
to each other, it’s not just their
physical bodies that touch, but their
intrinsic dimensions as well. Love and
volition allow the intrinsic dimensions
to open without any sense of infringement.
Their sexuality becomes an instrument
of a profoundly intimate bond that
is theirs alone to enjoy and be blessed by.
It is this inner aspect of human sexuality,
the idea that personhood and sexuality
are linked, that is all but gone from popular
culture. This is what leaves us with
such a deficit in spite of all our knowledge
and information. It’s an aspect that Christians
are well situated to address powerfully,
if we would but reverence the gift
God has given us by way of this very complicated
thing we call sexuality. n
1
Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, Premarital Sex in
America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think About
Marrying (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
2
Quoted from a review in First Things, August/September
2011, p. 53.
3
Ibid., p. 55.
4
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy
Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by
Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
5
Harding Journal 9, no. 2 (1990). (This journal was once
associated with Harding Hospital, but is now defunct and
can no longer be found.)
6
Kurt Lewin was a notable person in the field of psychology
and best remembered for his pioneering work in
group dynamics.
7
The idea of “life space” in Lewin’s thinking can be
quite expansive, enough to include all events in a person’s
past, present, and future that help shape and affect them.
But it begins with the internal dimension describing a
person’s motives, values, needs, moods, goals, anxieties,
and ideals. The term is used here in the internal sense.
8
Harding Journal.
DAVID E. THOMAS IS DEAN AND A
PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICAL
THEOLOGY AND APOLOGETICS
DEPARTMENT AND CHAIR OF THE
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
AT WALLA WALLA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY.
26 (554) | www.AdventistReview.org | June 20, 2013