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A Call to
Affirmation, Confession and Covenant Regarding Human Sexuality,
1987
Mennonite Church
A Call to Affirmation
We affirm that sexuality is a good and beautiful gift of God,
a gift of identity, and a way of being in
the world as male and female.
We affirm that we can feel positive about our bodies and our
sexuality because we are created in
God's image and know our Creator.
We affirm that sexual drives are a real part of our lives, but
that the satisfaction of those drives is
not the chief good in life.
We affirm both the goodness of singleness and the goodness of
marriage and family in the Lord.
A Call to Confession
We confess that our sexual attitudes and practices too often
fall far short of the biblical standards. No one can boast of
perfection in this area.
We confess that sexism lingers
among us, damaging the self-esteem of women and hindering their
full contribution to personal relationships and to the church,
and denying men a true understanding of themselves.
We repent of our wrong view of the body which keeps us from speaking
openly and honestly about our bodies, including our sexual nature.
We repent of our judgmental attitudes and our slowness to forgive
each other when we fail or when our sexual values differ from
those of other Christians.
We confess our fear and repent of our absence of love toward
those with a different sexual orientation and of our lack of
understanding for their struggle to find a place in society and
in the church.
A Call to Covenant
We covenant with each other to study the Bible together and expand
our insight into the biblical teachings relating to sexuality.
We understand the Bible to teach that genital intercourse is
reserved for a man and a woman united in a marriage covenant
and that violation even within the relationship, i.e., wife battering,
is a sin. It is our understanding that this teaching also precludes
premarital, extramarital, and homosexual genital activity. We
further understand the Bible to teach the sanctity of the marriage
covenant and that any violation of this covenant is sin.
We covenant with each other to mutually bear the burden of remaining
in loving dialogue with each other in the body of Christ, recognizing
that we are all sinners in need of God's grace and that the Holy
Spirit may lead us to further truth and repentance. We promise
compassion and prayer for each other that distrustful, broken,
and sinful relationships may experience God's healing.
We covenant with each other to take part in the ongoing search
for discernment and for openness to each other. As a part of
the nurture of individuals and congregations we will promote
congregational study of the complex issues of sexuality, through
Bible study and the use of materials such as Human Sexuality
in the Christian Life.
Finally, we covenant that as we discern God's will for our lives
and our fellowship, we will seek to obey it, through God's grace
and strength. Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit may continue
to work within us as we relate with understanding to persons
with varied needs and concerns in our church.
Adopted by the
Ninth Mennonite Church General Assembly, July 8,1987, Purdue
University, West Lafayette, Indiana, Proceedings, p.21.
The General Conference Mennonite Church,
Resolution on Human Sexuality, 1986, is nearly identical.
Also
see Loren John's comparison of the statements.
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