Contemporary Issues

• Love


  Kind, passionate, tender, devoted and warm-hearted feeling
• Types of love in classical Greek


  • Philia (love for a friend)
  • Eros (love towards the opposite sex)
  • Storge/stergo (love between parents and children, rulers and people)
  • Agape (divine love or love expressed to God)
• Sex


  A bonus gift from the Almighty, blessed and ordained by God for the procreation of the human race. It is a beautiful expression of one's individuality restricted to matrimony.
• Reasons why God designed sex


  • To propagate the human race
  • To provide mutual pleasure in marriage
  • To reduce sexual temptation
  • To produce mutual ownership
  • To produce a unique union and a means of communion that is not possible on any other level
• Sexual abuses


  • Rape
  • Adultery
  • Unnatural sexual acts (homosexuality)
  • Abnormal sexual acts (sodomy, pedophilia, necrophilia)
  • Pre-marital sex
• The Four R's of Sex


  • Right Place
  • Right Time
  • Right Person
  • Right Circumstances
• Biblical perspective on love and sex


  Love and sex are gifts from God, to be expressed in the encounter of man and woman. God created man and woman as sexual beings.
• God sanctified sex and therefore, it must be treated with proper respect and its use must follow the rules set by God himself
• One rule concerns faithfulness. It means that man is to relate sexually only to his wife and the woman only to her husband.
• The Bible warns that people who engage in sexual immorality are actually doing harm to their own bodies and surely God will execute judgment on them
• Pre-marital sex


  A sexual activity practice by a person who is unmarried
• According to the National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) in 2013, one (1) out of ten (10) young Filipino women age 15-19 has begun childbearing, and one (1) out of five (5) (20%) young adult Filipino women age 18 to 24 years had initiated their sexual activity before age 18
• Christianity clearly teaches that pre-marital sexual intercourse is immoral
• Gender


  The attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person's biological sex
• Sex


  Biological differences such as male and female chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs
• Gender role


  The characteristics and behaviors that different cultures attribute to the sexes
• Key issues on gender situation


  • Patriarchal system
  • Economic system
  • Colonialism and globalization
  • Gender inequalities
• Biblical perspective on gender equality


  • Equality is stressed in the creation account
  • No hierarchical order existed between Adam and Eve
  • Leadership among women in the Old Testament is encouraged
  • Men and women have full equality in the salvation history
  • Men and women have equality in church services
• Homosexuality


  Sexual acts and affections between members of the same sex, including lesbianism
• Causes of homosexuality


  • Glandular disturbance
  • Genetic causes
  • Dominant mother and weak father
  • Overindulgent mother
  • Cruel or detached parents
  • Overt homosexuality
• Many people said that homosexuality is a result of misguided upbringing. To gays themselves, being a homosexual is an identity. To conservative moralists, it is a sin, a willful choice by one who is going against the law of the Creator.
• Treatment of homosexuality


  Individual counseling therapy provides a wholesome attitude, warm and non-critical atmosphere for homosexual
• Homosexuality


  Developed under circumstances in which the individual has no access to the opposite sex, usually found in the military, prisons and exclusive schools
• Homosexuality is a result of misguided upbringing according to some, but to gays themselves it is an identity, and to conservative moralists it is a sin, a willful choice by one who is going against the law of the Creator
• Treatment of Homosexuality


  1. Individual counseling therapy

  2. Group Therapy

  3. Psychotherapy

  4. Hypnotherapy

  5. Self-realization
• The Bible's condemnation of homosexuality is very clear and very strong. God says that homosexuality is an abomination and the Old Testament teaches that the people who are convicted of the crime of engaging in homosexual behavior should be put to death
• Marriage


  A state of being married, a legal contract, entered into by man and a woman to live together as husband and wife
• Nature of marriage


  • Religious (ordained by God)
  • Legal (sanctioned by the state)
• Elements of marriage


  • Love
  • Fidelity
• Ingredients of meaningful marriage


  • Total commitment
  • Total acceptance
  • Loving communication
  • Genuine forgiveness
  • Spiritual rebirth
• Family


  A set of people related by blood, marriage, agreed relationship, adoption who share primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society
• Functions of family


  • Sexual regulation
  • Biological reproduction
  • Organizing production and consumption
  • Socializing children
  • Providing emotional intimacy and support
• God designed marriage to keep people from being lonely. The Bible says, "and they shall become one flesh". In marriage, sex is constituted in the union of two persons
• Divorce


  The legal act which dissolves the marriage contract and grants to the married couple the right to remarry
• Annulment


  The action of the court in terminating a valid marriage. Marriages subject to annulment proceedings are classified as "void" or 'voidable"
• Legal separation


  A contract entered into between husband and wife by which they agree to live apart, or a judicial separation. Separation does not dissolve the marriage relationship
• The Bible clearly condemns divorce and teaches that marriage is a permanent union
• Domestic Violence


  A physical or emotional harmful act between husband and wife or between individuals in intimate relationships
• Forms of abuse between intimate partners


  • Emotional or verbal abuse
  • Denial of access to resources or money
  • Restraint of normal activities
  • Sexual coercion or assault
  • Threats to kill or harm
  • Physical intimidation or attacks
  • Death of the partner
• Domestic violence is sometimes referred to as intimate violence