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Getting real about death, sex and JesusThere are three things Christians are reluctant to talk about: death, sex and Jesus. That's according to Mike Hensman. And as, over a period of fifty years, he has worked with sex offenders in prison and the community, in the field of marriage breakdown, and in church pastoral care, he should know.
"Nothing is so capable of deflecting churches from their real calling as human sexuality” he says. “We don't talk about sex; we simply argue about it, usually from our own defensive positions. We are afraid of it - we don’t know what to say. We don't talk about dying, probably for the same reasons. And we don't talk much about Jesus either, or the state of the church. That’s frustrating, because Jesus is the one who does know, and can actually do something about the way his Church is going”.
It was a desire to inject a note of reality into church debates about human sexuality that prompted Mike Hensman to sit down and produce the book with the compelling title “Talking Death Sex and Jesus”. Originally it was to be called “Three things we don't talk about" but "Talking Death, Sex and Jesus” is much more positive, he says.
Mike Hensman’s professional career was originally with the Probation Service, overlapping with 25 years as a United Reformed Church minister. He writes from extensive experience of counselling, teaching and training in the criminal justice system, and lay training in the Church.
"Talking
Death, Sex and Jesus” is published by Granary, a publishing imprint
of the United Reformed Church on Monday 3rd November at a price of
Ł6.99. ISBN-13: 978-0-85346-267-5. To obtain a review copy, contact
the United Reformed Church bookshop: |
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