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	<title>Comments on: &#8220;The battery that powers our lives&#8221;: more on sex, faith, justice</title>
	<link>http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/07/21/the-battery-that-powers-our-lives-more-on-sex-faith-justice/</link>
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	<pubDate>Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:15:11 +0000</pubDate>
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		<title>By: Spartakos</title>
		<link>http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/07/21/the-battery-that-powers-our-lives-more-on-sex-faith-justice/#comment-423086</link>
		<dc:creator>Spartakos</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:46:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/07/21/the-battery-that-powers-our-lives-more-on-sex-faith-justice/#comment-423086</guid>
		<description>I don't know, man...let me make sure I'm reading you correctly:  sex is not merely a matter of 2 people (or more, if you're into polyamory, I suppose) showing their love and affection for each other 

"He created me, and my wife, and you who are reading this for the purpose of Tikkun Olam: healing the world. None of us is insignificant, none of us is without a potentially vital role to play in redeeming the world."

While I can agree in theory, I don't feel this means that every action we take needs to revolve around our "mission" on this earth.

All of the above is my own opinion (not trying to tell you yours is wrong), and all questions are honest (asked out of curiosity), not rhetorical.

Peace.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I don&#8217;t know, man&#8230;let me make sure I&#8217;m reading you correctly:  sex is not merely a matter of 2 people (or more, if you&#8217;re into polyamory, I suppose) showing their love and affection for each other </p>
<p>&#8220;He created me, and my wife, and you who are reading this for the purpose of Tikkun Olam: healing the world. None of us is insignificant, none of us is without a potentially vital role to play in redeeming the world.&#8221;</p>
<p>While I can agree in theory, I don&#8217;t feel this means that every action we take needs to revolve around our &#8220;mission&#8221; on this earth.</p>
<p>All of the above is my own opinion (not trying to tell you yours is wrong), and all questions are honest (asked out of curiosity), not rhetorical.</p>
<p>Peace.</p>
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		<title>By: Hugo Schwyzer</title>
		<link>http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/07/21/the-battery-that-powers-our-lives-more-on-sex-faith-justice/#comment-422135</link>
		<dc:creator>Hugo Schwyzer</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:56:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/07/21/the-battery-that-powers-our-lives-more-on-sex-faith-justice/#comment-422135</guid>
		<description>Progressive street politics is hardly the only form of doing justice, STF.   There are many ways to take the energy generated from a good sexual relationship and put that energy towards &lt;em&gt;tikkun olam&lt;/em&gt;.  

I appreciate your response, however, as it reminds me how I need to work on making a case that is more compelling, more winsome, and more galvanizing.  If this is thin gruel, I need to make it more stout.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Progressive street politics is hardly the only form of doing justice, STF.   There are many ways to take the energy generated from a good sexual relationship and put that energy towards <em>tikkun olam</em>.  </p>
<p>I appreciate your response, however, as it reminds me how I need to work on making a case that is more compelling, more winsome, and more galvanizing.  If this is thin gruel, I need to make it more stout.</p>
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		<title>By: Sweating Through Fog</title>
		<link>http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/07/21/the-battery-that-powers-our-lives-more-on-sex-faith-justice/#comment-422131</link>
		<dc:creator>Sweating Through Fog</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:43:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/07/21/the-battery-that-powers-our-lives-more-on-sex-faith-justice/#comment-422131</guid>
		<description>Ahhh Hugo!  Somehow I just knew you were going to bring Jensen into this!  Rather than write one of my now tired diatribes against the man, I'll reflect more on what you said about the meaning of marriage, sex and love in my own life, and draft a more measured and more considered response.

While we disagree, I have to admit you do trigger an urgent need for inner reflection, which is an exceedingly good thing. 

I do, however, have to report that my initial reaction to this second part is one of great disappointment -  that the promise of "doing someone" justly now seems to seems little more than a means of supporting a mutual commitment to progressive street politics. I had hoped for a more demanding, and more exacting, standard for "doing" your lover justly. Absent is any understanding that your primary and irrevocable role on this earth is to love, support and care for God's gift to you - your spouse, your partner, your lover, your baby-mama or your Craigsliat hookup....whatever  Whoever God's gift to you might be, and whoever you happen to be worshiping any particular night, it sounds like they're on a short leash until they demonstrate that they won't whine too much about their own feelings and needs, lest they inhibit enthusiastic participation in that evening's party caucus, and the quest for global justice.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Ahhh Hugo!  Somehow I just knew you were going to bring Jensen into this!  Rather than write one of my now tired diatribes against the man, I&#8217;ll reflect more on what you said about the meaning of marriage, sex and love in my own life, and draft a more measured and more considered response.</p>
<p>While we disagree, I have to admit you do trigger an urgent need for inner reflection, which is an exceedingly good thing. </p>
<p>I do, however, have to report that my initial reaction to this second part is one of great disappointment -  that the promise of &#8220;doing someone&#8221; justly now seems to seems little more than a means of supporting a mutual commitment to progressive street politics. I had hoped for a more demanding, and more exacting, standard for &#8220;doing&#8221; your lover justly. Absent is any understanding that your primary and irrevocable role on this earth is to love, support and care for God&#8217;s gift to you - your spouse, your partner, your lover, your baby-mama or your Craigsliat hookup&#8230;.whatever  Whoever God&#8217;s gift to you might be, and whoever you happen to be worshiping any particular night, it sounds like they&#8217;re on a short leash until they demonstrate that they won&#8217;t whine too much about their own feelings and needs, lest they inhibit enthusiastic participation in that evening&#8217;s party caucus, and the quest for global justice.</p>
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		<title>By: B</title>
		<link>http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/07/21/the-battery-that-powers-our-lives-more-on-sex-faith-justice/#comment-422051</link>
		<dc:creator>B</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:57:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid>http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/07/21/the-battery-that-powers-our-lives-more-on-sex-faith-justice/#comment-422051</guid>
		<description>Your thoughts here mirror my observations of people I know who endlessly and tirelessly work to sleep with multiple people (and, to a much smaller degree, my own sex outside of a committed relationship) - it never seems to make them happy. It's like they're filling and filling this hole that will never be filled.

I think that, most of the time, mass consumption of people of the gender you're attracted to is more about self esteem deficiencies than anything else - every person I know in the real world who dates or sleeps with an unending revolving door of people and obsessively focuses on it to the point where I just don't feel like talking to them at the moment is attaching his or her self worth to the number of people who "want" them ("want" because it's obvious that random sexual partners really could care less who YOU are).

You vision of sex definitely has more potential for creating fulfillment in a person's life. And as you said, sex &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; important in our lives - but it's not the end-all-be-all of our existance, and I always want to yell at my friends who fall prey to the idea that it is, "THERE IS MORE OUT THERE THAN THIS!" (In case anyone thinks I'm terribly rude, I always fall to a kinder way of suggesting that their endless persuits appear to be making them miserable and that maybe finding some other hobbies and concerns will lighten their life)</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Your thoughts here mirror my observations of people I know who endlessly and tirelessly work to sleep with multiple people (and, to a much smaller degree, my own sex outside of a committed relationship) - it never seems to make them happy. It&#8217;s like they&#8217;re filling and filling this hole that will never be filled.</p>
<p>I think that, most of the time, mass consumption of people of the gender you&#8217;re attracted to is more about self esteem deficiencies than anything else - every person I know in the real world who dates or sleeps with an unending revolving door of people and obsessively focuses on it to the point where I just don&#8217;t feel like talking to them at the moment is attaching his or her self worth to the number of people who &#8220;want&#8221; them (&#8221;want&#8221; because it&#8217;s obvious that random sexual partners really could care less who YOU are).</p>
<p>You vision of sex definitely has more potential for creating fulfillment in a person&#8217;s life. And as you said, sex <i>is</i> important in our lives - but it&#8217;s not the end-all-be-all of our existance, and I always want to yell at my friends who fall prey to the idea that it is, &#8220;THERE IS MORE OUT THERE THAN THIS!&#8221; (In case anyone thinks I&#8217;m terribly rude, I always fall to a kinder way of suggesting that their endless persuits appear to be making them miserable and that maybe finding some other hobbies and concerns will lighten their life)</p>
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