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natural self-centered self is sufficient to define and meet all personal needs
for itself, but the Bible teaches that the source of true satisfaction always
lies outside ourselves and that humble self-knowledge should lead us acknow-
ledge we are not "sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves;
but our sufficiency is of God" (2 Co 3:5).
4. It makes sex nonrelational
The fourth reason Christians cannot accept therapeutic morality is
because it makes sex nonrelational. By placing exclusive attention on indivi-
dual selves, therapeutic sexual morality hinders couples from working on
relational goals that go beyond individual wants and desires. If sex is all
about self-satisfaction, then building a relationship with one person in
particular does not matter, and if a partner fails to satisfy there is no
relational purpose to justify staying around to work out common problems in
order to reach common goals.
God at creation revealed two main purposes for sex, both of which are
relational. First, he made sex for generation and made this clear in comman-
ding Adam and Eve to be "fruitful and multiply" (Gn 1:28). Second, he designed
sex for relational union and explained that at the institution of marriage (Gn
2: 24). Both generation and relational union are matters of relationship that
demand cooperation between sexual partners. And, because God designed sex for
relational purposes, sex is never moral when it is made nonrelational. With-
out relational purposes to lift sex above self-centered competition, thera-
peutic morality treats sex like a ride in bumper cars at an amusement park.
But relational purposes in biblical morality affect sex like glue that joins
parts in a whole that surpasses the value of its parts and achieves goals far
beyond anything the parts could ever achieve independently.
5. It disintegrates sexuality
A fifth reason for opposing therapeutic morality is because it empties
sexuality of meaning and leaves it in pieces with no plan for how they should
fit together. Like Humpty Dumpty who fell into so many pieces "all the King's
horses and all the King's men" could not put him back together, therapeutic
morality leaves sexuality in a heap with no particular shape or purpose.
"Integration" has to do with fitting pieces together in a way that forms
something harmonious and whole. It assumes a master plan that assigns each
piece a place and requires something to hold them together once the pieces are
properly assembled. By comparison, "disintegration" is when pieces meant to go