Christian Sex Magazine Soon Getting English Edition
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, March 18, 2008
- Viewed 99
- (16) comments so far
“You won’t find any information on, say, masturbation, oral sex or how to spice up your sex life in the Bible. So the only thing one can do is to take the general guidelines that were given to us and apply it to the best of our knowledge and with guidance from the Holy Spirit.”
Readers reacted positively from the start despite the team having braced itself for criticism from religious sources. Some of the most loyal readers were ministers, sexologists and conservative readers and more than a third were men.
An online sex shop (http://www.intiem.co.za) had also been very successful. Each magazine issue also offered a choice of “mild to hot” toys to spice up readers’ sex lives, which are encouraged for use with partners.
“Sex shops are not women-friendly places and lots of women still see them as sleazy and ‘dark’. We aimed to provide a friendly place from where women could order toys without having to pluck up the courage to visit one of these places,” Van der Merwe said.
The quarterly Afrikaans version, which has a 30 000 distribution run and a LSM 8-10 readership, will be translated and adapted for English-speakers to appeal to a multicultural audience. The original target market’s readiness for a controversial, niche publication had been underestimated, she said
“While we believed that it was only Afrikaans women from a Calvinistic upbringing who had a need for a magazine which speaks openly and freely about sex, we soon came to realise that this was not the case. This was the obvious next step.”
OK… let’s hear your thoughts on this one…
Demand for an Afrikaans sex magazine that targets married, Christian women has increased so much that an English version will hit the shelves next month. The launch edition of Intimacy - which features lap-dancing, submission and a tricky question about parental sex on the cover - follows a 300 percent growth in demand for Intiem magazine, which was launched in 2006. “We strive to empower Christian women not to feel guilty for enjoying this God-given pleasure which is sex, but rather to embrace it,” said managing editor Liezel van der Merwe. Writing on sex from a Christian perspective had been a difficult challenge, with sex and religion both highly sensitive topics and few guidelines in the Bible, said Van der Merwe.
Comments
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Peter Hamm on Tue, March 18, 2008
Adventures in missing the point… the latest chapter…
kent on Tue, March 18, 2008
Wow, uhhhh, yeah….okay….ahhh, huh, how about that. Well not much more to say about that.
Daniel D. Farmer on Tue, March 18, 2008
Well, I’m not gonna go following any links to check this out, so I’m not speaking from an informed perspective here. But I see no reason, in principle, why something like this wouldn’t be perfectly appropriate. Certainly I think the medium is problematic—conversations such as these should take place in intimate relationships fostered within the Church.
Given the very real problem that is Christian fear of sex however, this may be a possible solution. The trick, of course, is to celebrate God’s gift of sexuality in the right context without leading brothers and sisters (or non Christians) into a fall (e.g. by constantly focusing on this one issue, or by making singleness seem less noble).
My two cents.
-Daniel-
Adam A. Gregory on Tue, March 18, 2008
I am gonna get my wife a subscription. I mean who would protest this. It’s not God didn’t write a manual for the Hebrews in Song of Solomon, we just don’t translate most of that stuff all that well. You know like “your neck is like a tower of Lebanon and your skin is like a flock of sheep”, stuff like that doesn’t fly with women these days, but had cultural sexual meaning back in the day.
Anyway this is cool with me and I think that sex is a gift from God for a husband and wife to ENJOY! So lets ENJOY IT! If this magazine gives tips on how to do that, then awesome!
Lori on Tue, March 18, 2008
At first I thought I was in the “Humor” section of the website.
While I believe women should not feel guilty and should have good information on being intimate in the marriage, there are many good resources that help in this area. I think a magazine in genre of “Cosmo” might not be the best way to keep women informed and educated. Instead it seems to drift towards the “immodest”.
IMHO
Jermayn Parker on Tue, March 18, 2008
mmmm no wonder that Africa which is often said the most religous continent has one of the biggest issues of AIDS.
While I think proper education of sex is good is this going a little too far?
Jared on Wed, March 19, 2008
What’s “parental sex”?
Parents having sex? And how is that any trickier than non-parents having sex?
Maybe that is a typo obscuring “pre-natal”?
Ricky on Thu, March 20, 2008
“You won’t find any information on, say, masturbation, oral sex or how to spice up your sex life in the Bible. So the only thing one can do is to take the general guidelines that were given to us and apply it to the best of our knowledge and with guidance from the Holy Spirit.”
To even imply that the Holy Spirit give guidance in sex is borderline blasphemous.
Christ said that the Spirit would “judge the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). I find NOTHING regarding our sex lives at all, although I believe that such a publication as mentioned in the article would be included within the “sin” jurisdiction of the Spirit.
Ricky on Thu, March 20, 2008
Daniel Farmer: “Certainly I think the medium is problematic—conversations such as these should take place in intimate relationships fostered within the Church.”
Why should they? Have you no understanding of the biblical purpose for the Church?
Somehow I can’t see how “sex talk” represents Christ to the surrounding society…except for the fact that society has so infected todays “churches.”
Peter Hamm on Thu, March 20, 2008
Although I think the magazine is ludicrous, Ricky… if the church isn’t about us HOLISTICALLY living our lives in Christ then what is it about? Jesus came to give us abundant LIFE… not just a theological system.
David on Thu, March 20, 2008
Ricky Wrote: “Why should they? Have you no understanding of the biblical purpose for the Church?”
I mean this in all kindness and sincerity, but, do you? If the biblical purpose of the Church is to proclaim Jesus and live as a testimony to His person, as God in the flesh, and to His message then the Church is under the responsibility to affect their culture for God. If Jesus’ only message was to “repent for God’s kingdom is at hand,” then why did He weep with those in pain? Why did He turn water to wine at the wedding in Cana? Why did He talk of marriage and divorce with such strength that we now quote His words at weddings all over the world? If there is a message of repentence or the kingdom of God in these, I don’t see it.
What I do see is a God who deeply cares about all aspects of our lives, a God that is heart-broken over how we have messed up what He has given us, and desperately wants to be invited into all aspects of our lives. If this is not the case then why do we talk at church about the need for being a Christian even when we’re not at church? If the purpose is seen as merely converting people, then I fear we fall dangerously short of Jesus’ call to us, and God’s desire for His creation. We are to be restored to God, to have each and every aspect of our lives imbued with God’s goodness, the movement and power of the Holy Spirit, and the grace to forgive ourselves (and others) when we fail to live out this mission perfectly.
If we cannot discuss honoring God in our sex lives then we have no right to proclaim from the pulpit or Sunday school class that sex before marriage is wrong. After all, what does God and the work of the Church, biblically, have to do with this? Do you see the conundrum? Our Churches can now boast absolute uniformity with the secular world in the matter of divorce and that is a very real problem. If we cannot speak openly and honestly about these things in Church, then we force people to go to secular avenues to learn, and some who have little support or strength to cope will simply give up and consent to divorce. If that happens, we have let it. If we have done nothing to stop the trend then we are guilty for allowing it to continue without even the attempt to resist.
Churches have ministries to divorced parents, drug addicts, abused people, and a host of other groups because we are to impact our world as salt and light. Yes, I believe the Holy Spirit can move in these ministries to fulfill some work of God that is not expressly mentioned in the Bible. Sin changes, adapts to the time to make one falter; so the church must change with the time to fight against such faltering. Sex is not beyond the reach of the church. And it should never be.
Thomas Rasmussen on Fri, March 21, 2008
I have to admit… I am kinda curious as to what the centerfold would look like in Christian sex magazine. :^) But seriously, this sounds like a really interesting and useful idea.
Does anyone know when subscriptions will be available in the U.S.?
paula on Sat, March 22, 2008
Daniel wrote:
>Given the very real problem that is Christian fear of sex however
HUH? Daniel, that is NOT a given. Those of us characterized as having a ‘fear’ of sex are those of us who have a sense of propriety about sex and have it in persepective. I.E. we wouldn’t waste resources on publishing a magazine about sex any more than we would waste ministry resources publishing a magazine about scrapbooking. IT HAS LITTLE OR NOTHING to do with the church’s mission! It may be a part of a larger lesson on marital counseling but that is IT. This is a distortion and a distraction from the church’s primary mission which is to be a witness for the gospel in the world, not to preach a message that could be titled “your best sex life now.”
paula on Sat, March 22, 2008
Adam wrote:
>I am gonna get my wife a subscription.
Bad idea. Maybe she could give you a subscription to “meeting all your wife’s emotional needs” How would you take that, especially if you felt you just couldn’t possibly figure the woman out?
Here honey, here’s a magazine that will help you please me better…
Very romantic.
Melody on Sat, March 22, 2008
I think that it’s very possible to publish a useful magazine addressing women’s issues, including frank discussion of sexual issues from a Christian worldview.
I suspect that quite a few married Christian women have questions or things that they are curious about, but have no resources to consult except secular magazines such as Cosmo at the beauty shop or to register a pseudonym at a women’s internet forum to ask these questions anonymously.
Sex involves the brain as well as the reproductive organs, so I hope that the magazine addresses these matters. Articles enlightening women on how the male psyche and physiology works, for example, could be helpful to many marriages. So could discussion of birth control and other reproductive health issues.
I just don’t find the subject matter objectionable. It’s no something one would typically leave on the coffee table, especially if there are children in the house, but it’s not inherently immoral. In fact, if it’s encouraging spiritual and physical intimacy between husband and wife, most should find that a good thing.
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