I got an email and an attached letter from a pastor friend in Newington yesterday. He is asking for our help in addressing an outrage at Central Connecticut State University. He has two children attending there; sends tuition dollars there; also pays taxes to the state to support this institution of higher learning.





The outrage? An "event" entitled: Fornication 101 That's right, scheduled to be held this week at the Women's Study Center of the university an educational event on fornication. For those of you who don't know what this more formal "F" word means, think of the "F" word you do know. Yep--our tax dollars, some of your tuition dollars are going to support a forum to encourage college students in the art of fornication. (But don't get too over-taxed. The university has also secured sponsorship for the course from two sex toy manufacturers.)





Part of the description for the event reads: This course is designed to introduce students to carnal knowledge. Let's set aside for a moment the consideration that college students hardly need encouragement in this heretofore extra-curricular activity. Now, it seems, fornication is becoming a sponsored activity. How in any possible way is this the business of the state--or the mission of "higher education?" At your state university funded by your tax dollars? I urge you to call and email the administration of CCSU to register your outrage. Please circulate this information to all other concerned citizens, politicians, and media outlets to get the word out about this offense to decency. Phone number for the Women's Study Center is 860-832-1655. E-mail address: cobbina-boivinj@ccsu.edu



Now to Corinth. We have just launched a study at Wellspring entitled Cultures Clash at Corinth. The first century Corinthian believers lived in a culture that was quite antithetical and opposed to the values of the Kingdom of God. To be Christ-followers, they had to walk in a different way than the world surrounding them; the world that had seemed normal before they came to know Jesus; the world in which they still had to navigate.



One way leads to life. Many ways lead to life-as-less-than-it-could-be, or to out and out destruction. For instance, they didn't need a course on Fornication 101 in Corinth. It was going on in the pagan temples, bars and brothels all around them. Just like 21st century Connecticut (minus the pagan temples). The sad truth at Wellspring is that the other pastors and I see really great people (teens, young adults and middle-agers) who love Jesus and really desire to follow him mess up their lives with really poor decisions in the arena of their sexuality all the time. It is heart-breaking to say the least.

Cultures clash. The ways of this world and the Kingdom of Heaven are in conflict. One way leads to life--the other, not so much. And it is not just in the arena of sexual behavior and choices that our cultures and world-views clash. That is just one of the most obvious.

So, I want to encourage you to voice your opposition to the Fornication 101 at CCSU. And I want to encourage you to engage with us in the sorting out of Kingdom values in our attempts and desires to be Christ-followers in this present evil age.

Blessings,

RM