David (our language school friend), Tim and I walked by a store today that had out front a banner with a naked woman on it. Naked. David said something to the effect of, “Gee, I wonder what they're trying to sell. After all, she's not wearing anything.” Isn't it interesting that sexuality is such a powerful part of our lives that it has been stolen (in Peru) by beauty salons, cell phone companies, and solar water heater salesman to market their products? Whatever happened to creativity in marketing? Somewhere along the way, advertisers made note of the profound power of sexuality and decided to appropriate it for their own purposes. At this point, it's sometimes hard for me to remember that God created sexuality and not Playboy magazine.

The people of God (when following God) have always stood apart from the culture in terms of their perspective on sexuality. Do we stand apart now? Our holier-than-thou attitudes claim that we do, but the statistics don't support it. The darker parts of our culture would like to claim that sexuality belongs to them and redefine it for us, but God says it's His own idea, gift, design for the world.

How can we as the people of God reclaim His own picture of sexuality? Beyond the personal level, I think the most I can offer is a willingness to talk about sexuality in the right contexts. It seems to me that in this culture more than in America, the view of the Church (Catholic and Evangelical) is clearly stated but never discussed. Women, and especially young girls, are left at the mercy of those who do talk, and with low levels of education and self-respect, it's not a good story. I am reminded again of something I read while preparing to come here: What is most personal is most universal. That makes sense to me in this context. And while sexuality is deeply personal, it is also obviously universal and universally problematic.

I guess I don't have any answers, particularly not ones I would find appropriate to share on the Internet to billions of unknown readers. Not that billions of people will read this, although I probably and unfortunately will get a lot more hits today from random Google searches. I don't know how to confront the tragedy of misused sexuality on a global level. What I know (sort of) is how to love one person at a time, share my life with her, and be honest about the things that matter most to me.

PS: I just found an article about sex in advertising on Wikipedia, which was not that fascinating but included this quote from Calvin Kline: “Jeans are about sex. The abundance of bare flesh is the last gasp of advertisers trying to give redundant products a new identity.” Wow. Someone could write a thesis on that.

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