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Volume 3 · CenteredLesson 33About 23 minutes

Purity and Shame

Who were you taught was responsible for purity: the one who looks, or the one who is looked at?

Centered edition for believersSwitch to Honest Heretics (for skeptics)

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The center · Matthew 5:28
28but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

In this lesson

Many people who grew up in church in the 1990s and 2000s remember it. Girls were told to cover up so the boys would not stumble. Teenagers signed cards promising to wait. And the warning came with an object lesson: sex before marriage leaves you used, like a piece of gum someone already chewed.

Wanting young people to be careful with sex and with each other is good, and so is a high standard. But what did Jesus actually say about lust, and where did he put the weight? You don't need anyone's permission to measure what you were taught against him.

Measured against the center

A contradiction
Making women responsible for men's lust, and treating sexual sin as permanent damage, contradicts Jesus, who put the burden on the one who looks and sent the woman called a sinner away forgiven.

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