Reviews for Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality

The average rating for Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-10-10 00:00:00 Erik Dietz I just finished this book and it was amazing! The way Rob Bell put things into perspective was awesome! As I was reading, I was like "wow, I never thought of it like that". He has a ton of wisdom and insight and it's awesome reading what he shares with us. I just wanted to share one part of it that I extra highlighted :) This is mainly for the ladies, but good for the men too. "You don't need a man by your side to validate you as a woman. You already are loved and valued. You're good enough exactly as you are. Do you believe this? Because it's true. You have limitless worth and value. If you embrace this truth, it will affect every area of life, expecially your relationship with men. You are worthy dying for. Your worth does not come from your body, your mind, your work, what you produce, what you put out, how much money you make. your worth does not come from whether or not you have a man. Your worth does not come from whether or not men notice you. You have inestimable worth that comes from your creator. You will continue to be tempted in a thousand different ways not to believe this. The temptation will be to go searching for your worth and validity from places other than your creator. Especially from men. But you don't have to give yourself away to earn a man's love. You're better than that. You're already loved. When you give too much of yourself away too quickly, when you show too much skin, you're not being true to yourself. When you dress to show us everything, then in some sense we have all shared in it, or at least been exposed to it. There is a mystery to you, infinite depth and endless complexity. As the woman says in Song of Songs, "My own vineyard is mine to give". In the ancient Near East, a vineyard was a euphemism for sexuality. She is saying that she doesn't give herself to just anyone. She is fully in control of herself, and she is not cheap and she is not easy. Your strength is a beautiful thing. And when you live in it, when you carry yourself with the honor and dignity that are yours, it forces the men around you to relate to you on more than just a flesh level. You are worth dying for. If you're dating someone, what kind of man is he? Does he demonstrate that he's the kind of man who would die for you? What is his posture toward the world? Does he serve, or is he waiting to be served? Does he believe that he's owed something, that he's been shortchanged, that he's gotten the short end of the stick, that life owes him something? Or is he out to see what he can give? Does he see himself as being here to make the world a better place? These are the big questions that you need to ask yourself. Take him to a family reunion. Do some sort of service project with him. See how he interacts with people he doesn't like. Does he have liquid agape running through his veins?................when a woman is loved well, she opens up like a flower.....What does he expect of you? Does he expect you to sleep with him when he hasn't committed to you forever? Does he want all of you without his having to give all of him? Can you tell him anything? Is he safe? Can he be trusted? Can you open up to him, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, knowing that he will protect, not exploit, that vulnerability? Are you opening up like a flower??"

Review # 2 was written on 2012-01-14 00:00:00 Michael Rose I'm done. I'm so done. I went into reading 'Love Wins' excited, hoping for some cool ideas. I thought it was limp. Shallow. So what do I do? I decide to look into what he has to say about sex. Oh for. GAH. I need to STOP doing this to myself, but I have one more aggravating book waiting for me at the library. I wish for five seconds he would stop pretending to be all hip and trendy. He's like a freakin' conservative in sheep's clothing. 'OHHH, I'm gonna be all DARING and say the word SEX in the title, so I look all cool and edgy!' Screw that. Stop pretending to be something you aren't, dude. And this one is STILL shallow and vague, as far as I'm concerned. But anyway... Where to even start? I mean, his writing style. It makes me want to rip my eyeballs out. It's terrible. It's literary torture. Still reading like he's delivering a sermon. If I wanted a modern sermon, I would go to church. But I would go to a church where the pastor might actually KNOW about real life. Mr Bell, well, he seems to know some Greek and Hebrew, like a good little pastoral student. He can use his knowledge to interpret things, fine. But when he talks about actuality? Real people? Addiction? HAH! So, uh. Let's see. To start, he doesn't seem to have any real understanding of addictions. Smoking is all about the feel of the paper, the opening of a new pack. It's actually from my experience more about stress and reward, and feeling like you need some sweet, sweet nicotine to chill out after work. And food? Of COURSE, his over-eater eating disorder example is a WOMAN, even though rates of eating disorders with men are growing. And its about her CONTEMPT for food? No, again, it's about stress and reward. And the fact that she has a psychological disorder, you twit. It's more like contempt for self and appreciate for food because it helps her deal with things. Fat shaming, yayz! Alcoholics feel contempt for booze and don't care about taste? That isn't true either. Plenty of alcoholics LOVE the taste and get the good stuff. Because, y'know, RICH PEOPLE can have that problem too, y'know? And Ms. JoCo Housewife probably isn't gonna be swallowing Bellows vodka or Wild Irish Rose in a paper bag. It'll be Bombay Sapphire in her gin and tonic. For instance. Oh, yeah, and sometimes, it runs in families, dude. Shopping is fun too, fella. It's not about the hangers and tags. It's about stress, reward, or even FUN. HOLY CRAP! Or the satisfaction of finding that book that you'd sought for simply AGES is now on sale, and you can walk out happily with it and read it and see it's beauty on your shelves. (By the bye, the DESIGN of the cover is the only good thing about this book. This time, Bell doesn't get ANY free passes for any little tidbits of information he gives, because I could find them elsewhere if I were so motivated.) And then we have a complete and total lack of understanding about kink. Depression and contempt lead to whips and leather? *facepalm* Actually, many people in high stress occupations or with high strung personalities enjoy a little flogging. It's cathartic. And, frankly, it's only viewed as dangerous and scary by someone who has NO clue what he's saying when he talks about it. A responsible kinkster is polite and aware of his or her partner and isn't disdainful, except by consent, like in roleplay, for example. I just can't even--! And waaaaayyyy to slut shame, homeskillet. How is it MY responsibility as a woman to make sure some guy behaves responsibly toward me? It's HIS duty, frankly, to view me as a human being and not be a douche if, say, I show a little cleavage. No man EVER has the right to disdain a woman or think she's a slut based on what she's wearing. We don't complain when YOU lot take off your shirts when it's hot, do we? We don't comment or try to rape you. Give us that same respect. If a guy isn't worth a girl's time, he's not worth a girl's time. It's not our responsibility to make him a better man. He should be a big boy and do that on his own. If I wear a short skirt, I am NOT sharing my body with you. It's your problem if you lust in your heart. So go tear out your own eyeball; I'm not helping with that one, chum. ALSO, this whole chastity thing? Guess what! It hasn't lessened rates of STDs, teen pregnancy, or the fact that KIDS STILL HAVE SEX. In fact, from everything I've read, abstinence sex ed just makes kids think condoms don't work, and then they try oral or anal sex, which can STILL GIVE YOU STIs. So, that's great. DON'T educate those kids. See how much worse we can make it for them. Kids in countries with actual sex ed have better chances of NOT getting pregnant (thereby lessening the need for abortions, yo). So Ab-Ed is actually harmful. Sex SHOULD be discussed. It SHOULD be studied. If people don't examine it and learn about it, they have unhealthy ideas about it. If it's repressed and narrowed to mean one thing, it harms an awful lot of people. So STUFF IT, pal, and don't talk about it until you've actually done some research. The problem in America is that sex is examined and discussed in unhealthy, uneducated ways. And women apparently don't like it either? I guess not. This book makes it sound like girls should be chaste little clueless objects for MEN'S sexuality. I've read Ms. Shalit's book, thanks. Actually, NO thanks. And, frankly, Mr Bell contradicts himself within one page at one point. We women are beautiful, he says. We're loved by our Creator. BUT we shouldn't dress inappropriately. And it's okay not to marry, the Bible says so. But a woman truly blooms and is loveliest when she is loved well. By a man. So, I'm great, but in order to be really lovely and fully myself, some guy must love me. So not only was I bored through most of this book, but Mr Bell went a step farther and began discussing things of which he knew nothing. Which, actually, makes this book less dull, but more ire-inducing. And this book is only nominally about sex. Most of this book is discussing relationships and claiming, basically that most relationships are...sexual? A rock concert in which everyone is getting along and on the same wavelength and one is...sexual? I've been to rock concerts. I've felt at one with everyone. But there is a massive difference between unity and sexuality. I was not having an intimate, romantic relationship with everyone there. That would be an orgy, dude. And anyone outside the hetero-normative continuum doesn't exist. So any gay guys, lesbians, trans* people, asexuals, queers--not even discussed. If you write a book purporting to be about SEX, you actually should probably tackle questions of gender and sexuality. Nope. Doesn't happen. If you don't want to come out and say you think it's wrong, you're a wimp. I can only hope he's matured beyond this. But if he has, it's time to amend this book. If he hasn't, then he should maybe be a bit wiser and say less. Because this...this...is only one connection between the sexual and spiritual. Needless to say, I will NOT be reading 'Velvet Elvis.'