At the risk of being called a
hater, I have to say that I like Nancy R. Pearcey’s book Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality
(Baker Books, 2018). Not only do I like the book, but I have to agree with her position
on the issues that she addresses. But in all fairness, I also have to admit
that this is one of the scariest books I have read in quite some time. Not scary in the sense of monsters, or
Stephen King novels, but scary in the sense of how did we get to the point
where we, as a society, now find ourselves. Not scary in the sense that the
author is trying to force us to accept a different standard, but the fact that many
people are already making lifechanging decisions based on a new standard which
is based more on feelings than on body reality.
This is also a book which, depending on your worldview, you will either agree with, or absolutely hate. And worldview as it is changing seems to be one of the main points of this book. In a very broad sense, worldview determines how you perceive and respond to the world around you. My understanding has always been that a worldview helps one answer the big questions of life, but in our post-modern, post-Christian world, it almost seems like we are expected and encouraged to answer the questions and then adopt a worldview that supports those answers.
Pearcey
tackles questions that often tend to be major issues for Christians. What person
who goes to church on a regular basis (not that church attendance is the
defining factor of Christianity,) doesn’t have an opinion on things like
abortion, homosexuality, pornography, and all the other things that our
religion tells us are wrong? Sometimes church people’s (or church humans, if we
cave to the pressure to accept personhood over humanity) opinions on these topics
cause an outrage from those with a more liberal point of view, and some church
people have such liberal opinions that other church people have trouble
accepting them.
Change
is often a good thing, but change solely for the sake of change, isn’t always
in the best interest of humanity, but as things are changing in our world, as
worldviews evolve (or devolve, depending on your perspective) humanity doesn’t seem
to matter. For many people the concept of personhood seems to take precedence.
All people are human, but not all humans are people. Thus, a case can be made
for abortion, since a fetus hasn’t yet attained personhood.
Or how
are decisions made concerning gender? In the case of transgenderism, the
standard used to be to mold the mind to fit the birth body, but now it seems
that because someone is not just a human, but more importantly a person, it’s now
acceptable, admirable, and expected to change the body to fit the mind.
Pearcy
makes a strong case for a biblical worldview, a worldview which happens to
concur with many points of a worldview based on the holy books of other major
religions, but which seems to be superseded by an ever increasing tendency to
put the individual above society.
I
received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my review. I
was not required to write a positive review.
4/5
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