Sexpo Johannesburg 2013 set to “blow” minds
Salvation Army to Attend 'Sexpo' Event in South Africa, Show
Christian Example on Sexuality
The Christian-based organization Salvation Army
will soon be sending its troops to an unlikely place: a sexuality expo in South
Africa. Members will attend the event next month as a way of being a
representative of the "Christian understanding of sexuality," say
officials with the group.
Carin Holmes, spokeswoman for the Salvation
Army, said in a statement that the Salvation Army's presence is planned to be a
show of availability, not one of judgment.
"If Jesus Christ was on earth
today, he would be standing beside us at Sexpo," said Holmes, who is part
of The Salvation Army's Southern Africa Territory. "We're not going there
to condemn anyone. We aren't going to lecture people…We're going there to
be available."
Scheduled to take place at the Nasrec Expo
Centre in Johannesburg September 26-29, the Sexpo, or "Health, Sexuality
& Lifestyle Expo", boasts of being the largest adult-themed event of
its kind.
"The aim of the exhibition is to educate,
inform, entertain and celebrate our sexuality in a fun, exciting and safe
atmosphere," reads a Sexpo press release. "Sexpo is not just about
the entertainment though, we offer a vast number of diverse exhibitors ensuring
that there is something for everyone and for those of you on the prowl for that
fun, unique or even special gift options for friends or loved ones, Sexpo will
not disappoint!"
Features promised by Sexpo organizers include
adult film stars, other celebrities, aerial artists, pole-dancing fitness acts,
hypnotists, comedians, various stage productions, a "Music Fest" and
"our world famous amateur strip."
Not all agree with the Salvation Army's decision
to become involved in Sexpo. Barton Gingerich of the Institute on Religion
& Democracy wrote a blog entry on "Juicy Ecumenism" regarding the
Christian organization's involvement.
"First of all, Holmes's statements mark a
betrayal of General William Booth's legacy. While he and his fellow workers
were no strangers to seedy levels of human existence (including prostitution),
they worked to call sex workers and everyone else to repentance from such
lifestyles," wrote Gingerich. "Secondly, participation in a
pornographic conference fails to resemble Christ's habit of breaking bread with
prostitutes and tax collectors. The Sexpo is a place where leaders in the
legalized sex industry advertise and promote themselves – it is where sin is
promoted as an industry. Hardly a parallel exists in the pages of
Scripture."
BY MICHAEL
GRYBOSKI,
CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
August 29, 2013
18 comments:
Bart Gingerich
Evidently, the Salvation Army in South Africa will take part in the ”Health, Sexuality and Lifestyle Expo” near Johannesburg in order to remind people that “sex is not always sexy.” According to the Agence France Presse (AFP) report, the conference also feature “porn stars, pole dancing, hypnotists and an amateur strip show.”
In the same press release, the Salvation Army offered several justifications for this controversial action. The religious organization professes to be raising awareness about human trafficking and sex slavery, saying ”If Jesus Christ was on earth today, he would be standing beside us at Sexpo.” ”We’re not going there to condemn anyone. We aren’t going to lecture people,” added spokeswoman Carin Holmes, ”We’re going there to be available.”
The Salvation Army’s decision remains confusing on many levels. First of all, Holmes’s statements mark a betrayal of General William Booth’s legacy. While he and his fellow workers were no strangers to seedy levels of human existence (including prostitution), they worked to call sex workers and everyone else to repentance from such lifestyles. In the spirit of charity, they offered many services and ministries that allowed those trapped in poverty to escape morally degrading careers. Booth would certainly have been witnessing to Sexpo attendees, probably preaching sin and grace atop a soapbox. He would not have milled about the exposition tables “to be available.” Holmes’s qualms about “lecturing people” belies an anemic understanding of Christian holiness, especially as the Salvation Army has understood it in all of its existence.
Secondly, participation in a pornographic conference fails to resemble Christ’s habit of breaking bread with prostitutes and tax collectors. The Sexpo is a place where leaders in the legalized sex industry advertise and promote themselves–it is where sin is promoted as an industry. Hardly a parallel exists in the pages of Scripture. This does not mean Christians cannot minister in creative ways in response to new avenues for vice; it does mean that the Salvation Army failed to offer bold, solid rationale for its attendance. Unless the Army’s intention is evangelism, it seems irresponsible for Christians to offer credibility to such a vitiation of humanity.
The Sexpo’s very nature clashes with the Salvation Army’s purpose to stop sex slavery and trafficking. The purchase, consumption, use, or any such legal sponsorship of pornographic material worsens the illegal problems. Studies, research, and investigations report that the kind of behavior and business celebrated at Sexpo encourage exploitation of human beings, especially the young and women. And this does not even begin to address the horribly damaging affects that “legal” sexual material has on the human soul. If the Salvation Army does want to fight human trafficking, they are at the wrong exposition.
TSA has already attended some 'sexpo' events - their statements are curiously similar 4 years apart:
2013:
“We're not going there to condemn anyone. We aren't going to lecture people,” said the church's spokeswoman Carin Holmes.
“We're going there to be available,” she said.
2009: Captain Diane Strickland said:
"We're not going there to condemn anybody. We aren't going to lecture people. We're going there to be available," she said.
The report said that Salvation Army officers attended Brisbane's Sexpo this year (2009), where Capt Strickland said they had a great time and were warmly welcomed.
In TSA’s 2010 annual reports (au) and funding document it says this:
Sex and the Salvos
The Salvation Army ran stalls at the annual ‘Sexpo – lifestyle conference’ in Brisbane in 2009 and in Sydney in 2010, to raise awareness of human trafficking, as it pertains to prostitution. The aim was particularly to shed light on social injustice by witnessing to the growing percentage of trafficked people who end up working in legal and illegal brothels in Australia.
It doesn’t state whether their aim was fulfilled there, or what effect their presence had on the attendees, which rather calls into doubt their effectiveness at the events. All it says it that they had a great time and were warmly welcomed.
Nothing said about the spiritual element, which is odd really.
I have to agree with Michael Gryboski’s comment that this venture by TSA is not comparable with Jesus sitting down with prostitutes and tax collectors.
My recollection of scripture is that He didn’t deliberately seek these people out as groups – He met them as individuals and called them to repentance.
Also, the people who will be attending the sexpo event are there reflecting a lifestyle choice – they are happy about being there. I would be interested in learning some statistics from TSA’s last visit to this event. How many people got saved? How many people repented? How many people were looking for a change in lifestyle?
Surely it would be more spiritually worthwhile to be seeking the lost, the fallen and the needy in their own town/city?
Or maybe that’s not ‘high profile’ enough in this publicity-seeking Army.
I'd be interested to know how many salvos will be representing the Army? Cost of the booth? Literature/tracts/NT being distributed and CDs? Uniform being worn? Questionaires? And who are in the adjoining booths?
Unimpressed Aussie - Melbourne
Hmm..... I wonder how many sexpo leaders we'll have at future Army congresses?
Unimpressed UK!
I for one think this is commendable. Remember, the only people Christ condemned were the religious people who were acting pious and hypocritically. He ate with, fellowshiped with, socialised with, every other kind of person. They were his people.
Booth did not preach to the poor, to the prostitutes, etc. He ministered to them. Big difference. He took them, in, loved them, gave them shelter, fought for their rights, but was where they were at.
People will not come to us if we stand preaching to them. That turns them away. The same thing happened in Booth's day. Preaching to people turned them away, ministering to them drew them in. We need to re-look at our history, and what mission is. Have we become so respectable we have forgotten what non-Christians look like or how they think?
Graeme Randall
Former Australian East living in London
HERE'S A VIDEO RECOMMENDATION: LARGE SCREEN SA VIDEO PRESENTATION:
http://www.upworthy.com/who-doesnt-like-to-watch-half-naked-girls-dancing-these-guys-after-they-see-why-its-happening
I for one it is brave and commendable to enter the lion's den and practically 'do' rather than piously 'talk' words of sanctimonious religious condemnation and judgment. We have plenty of Pharisee like salvos in the ranks.
Right at the heart, in the midst off, at the centre of the fire is where it is hottest....brave SA indeed! Misunderstood? Of course but that goes with the territory!
Think of such similar work going on in London, Paris, Amsterdam (and in many other places around the SA world)- not setting out to convert but being a bright light in twilight darkness. Bravo!!
NS
Bright light? The stated intention by the salvos going to sexpo is not 'to do' but to 'be available'. The above comments miss the point. There is ample opportunity to minister to these people in the areas where we live, many of whom will be more miserable with their lifestyle there than people who have elected to go to this event as a lifestyle choice.
If the stated aim was to evangelise, it would at least be a presence with noble intent.
Graeme Randall says of TSA in Booth's day 'Preaching to people turned them away, ministering to them drew them in'.
We don't have to go to 'events' to minister - we can do it in our own neighbourhood.
Oh, here we go again. I could be wrong but due to "writing styles" it appears to me that even just before the HH fiasco this site acquired 2 or possibly 3 new malcontented crapehangers who are positive that the Army is on its last leg and that the Holy Spirit has moved on to somewhere else! As usual I attribute this to a poor historical perspective, and a sanitized view of Army history that NEVER was!
I also attribute this crape hanging to a skewered and "magical" view of the Holy Spirit and a misunderstanding of where it is that the Holy Spirit is present. Without getting into any deep theological discussion about it, in a nutshell God's Holy Spirit is present wherever people give themselves in love and service to others. The Spirit also "continually" renews the church and no one denomination or grouping (mainline, evangelicals, charismatics, pentecostals, etc.)has or ever has had a monopoly on HIM!
Now with all of this said, I must also agree with Graeme and one or two others who have expressed the belief that the Army attending "SEXPO" in Johannesburg (and previously Brisbane) is in the best tradition of Army history and practice. I also agree that the malcontents and crapehangers don't know what they're talking about and would condemn Jesus for being at Sexpo, as he most assuredly would be, if he were alive today and hanging out around Johannesburg!
As for Michael G. and Bart G. and their condemnation, they really shouldn't speak or write of what they know not of as they'd probably be shocked to discover that in the early days of TSA (right up to WWI and even beyond!) in many corps women wore their nightgowns over their uniforms to attract attention on their march to the open-air meeting! No doubt they would have condemned that too as many "spirit-filled" Xians have also condemned the Army for collecting in the pubs!
In 1964 as a young corps cadet I can also remember a well-known American evangelist (actually he was and is still considered today the Pope of American Protestantism!) condemn the--get this--Joystrings on his then very popular Sunday radio program! (So imagine my surprise when at the ISB 120 Celebrations in 2011 I bumped into and was able to attain an autograph from Lt.Colonel Sylvia (Gair)Dalziel. Not only was she the tiniest, sweetest, little Xian woman you could ever want to accidentally bump into but she actually DID'NT have any horns on her head! I doubt if Joy Webb has any horns either.)
Well, if the Protestant Pope was wrong about the Joystrings so can anyone else be wrong about the Army at Sexpo!
Btw, the HH fiasco was a horrible situation that DID/DOES warrant exposure and comment by those who might know something, though I personally decided to pretty much stay clear of commenting too much on it, because I'm not all that privy to any information. Also, as Major Joann Shade pointed out, in the over-all stretch of Army history, bad moves based on personal angers, likes and dislikes really aren't anything all that new!
At any rate, just because people can point to this incident or that incident, and now with the advent of the internet know about every scandal and bad thing that ever happens in every denomination in every corner of the world instead of just their own little area, that doesn't mean that TSA has been abandoned by God or that his Holy Spirit isn't still and won't continue working through TSA in the future.
There have always been a few bad apples in every group and I don't care who the group is either. If one looks at the history of the whole Xian church it seems as if God has always worked through mounds and mounds of garbage! What's important is that in spite of it all, in the end, it is Christ who is crowned and it is he who reigns!
Daryl Lach
USA Central
'..the HH fiasco was a horrible situation that DID/DOES warrant exposure and comment by those who might know something, though I personally decided to pretty much stay clear of commenting too much on it, because I'm not all that privy to any information'.
Daryl - you're privy to all the information that's available - and surely you can tell wrong from right. The saying 'all that it needs for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing' is quite true. If no-one challenges authority, it stays the same - I hope that even you, with your lofty' know-it-all from my living room' perspective can see that. And for two or three people to reduce the standing of a hospital with an international reputation - and a shining beacon of hope in a poor country - to the shell it is now in one fell swoop is some feat - all done in the name of Christianity - sorry, I can't buy that.
You also say that 'bad moves based on personal angers, likes and dislikes really aren't anything all that new!' - that's quite a casual remark, considering people have actually died because of TSA's unchristian actions in the HH case. Because they are 'nothing new', does that make them right? Do you really think these people as church leaders have done a good thing here?
And by not challenging decisions such as these, you are giving the leadership licence to go on doing these deeds, which are surely NOT 'doing the most good'. I haven't seen any articles commending TSA for its actions in Zimbabwe - not even by 'insiders', lowly or lofty. Why? - because its plain wrong.
No-one is saying that TSA is on its last legs, but for some of us, it's not doing 'what it says on the tin'. Leaders call us all the time to holiness, repentance, commitment etc - this series of blogs is merely returning the compliment. It's called the 'priesthood of all believers', where everyone has a voice.
It doesn't really matter what your historical perspective is - poor or otherwise - we are living in the present, and what happens now is what's important, and has a bearing on our future.
The early salvation army proved it was possible to procure a young teenager for the purposes of prostitution by doing so...and then publicising the action... it caused outrage, but it changed the law. The early salvation army took in newly released prisoners- even if they did not repent- and served them with compassion. George Scott Railton protested at officer's councils at the sin of running an insurance company...early salvationists were arrested and imprisoned for their street marches and disturbing the peace. the did not hold to some kind of ridiculous, holier than thou piety. Booth would have had a stall at sexpo... and he would have used it to meet the individuals who needed to be met with.
Daryl, as per usual you are spot on my friend!
The information that is available on HH via this blog is a rather sketchy, loaded, one-sided, third party one. For those in the know there is of course much more objective information available but this is, quite rightly so, not freely available on a blog like this, or even elsewhere.
NS
What are we (TSA) afraid of? Seriously! I'm sick and tired of this attitude by those who sit comfortably in their cushy offices, jockeying for their next promotion to the top. Talk about prostituting oneself! I see it all the time. To the kill-joys and nay-Sayers: Get Over Yourselves!
To the last poster.....and the other kill-joys and naysayers
Yup, get over yourself and get real! Associating yourselves with those with lose morals (whores?) would be below you?
NS
To 'NS' - You would only be entitled to say that if you yourself 'associated' with those with loose morals (whores). Perhaps you do. If so, good on you. If not, shame on you. Your comment also implies that only women have loose morals. Believe me, that isn't the case. Be careful what you say.
"What are we (TSA) afraid of? Seriously! I'm sick and tired of this attitude by those who sit comfortably in their cushy offices, jockeying for their next promotion to the top. Talk about prostituting oneself! I see it all the time. To the kill-joys and nay-Sayers: Get Over Yourselves!"
I think the one but last poster meant those with lose morals, those who prostitute (whore?) themselves whilst sitting comfortably in their cushy DHQ/THQ/IHQ offices, jockeying for their next promotion to the top.
The initial post was far below contempt and not really worth wasting any further time or words on.
ACTIVE UKTI
Confused?
Starting with the first 'What are we afraid of' posting, and ending with the last one starting the same way, I have no idea what they mean. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that the first posting was referring to SA staff? Please enlighten us.
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