Not quite up to expectations

One of the well-known writers and speakers  in the evangelical world (from the US) was in Córdoba on Tuesday. He is currently doing a tour of South America on the theme of Sexuality. I went along on Tuesday with high expectations.

In the morning sessions he gave an outline of God's purposes for sex and the Bibles teaching on love. In the afternoon he then went into some more specifics dealing with themes such as sexually transmitted diseases, contraception and other hot questions for young people (the conference was designed as training for those working with young people). 

The positive way he presented the Bibles teaching on sex and sexuality was very helpful. He showed clearly that the Bible´s restrictions on sex come from the love of God, the God who provides for and protects his people. He also did a good job of uncovering some of the myths and lies that the world presents on the topic.

But I was left a little disappointed overall.

Firstly, because he spoke all day in Spanish. And to be honest, his Spanish wasn't adequate. That might sound a bit rich coming from me, a foreigner, who continues to make lots of errors. But basically his Spanish is at an intermediate level, and on the lower end of intermediate. He made lots and lots of basic mistakes. He had someone there to help occasionally with a word he didn't know, but she couldn't interject all the time, because she hadn't been asked to translate.

For a full day conference on an important and delicate topic it wasn't really adequate.

To give you an idea, at one stage he said....Dios quiere experimentar sexo bueno.
I think what he wanted to say was.... Dios quiere que experimentemos sexo bueno.

The difference: the first is- 'God wants to experience good sex'.
The second- 'God wants us to experience good sex.'
Quite a difference.

It meant that the people listening had to work really hard to try and guess what he was getting at. It was a real shame, and I'm not sure why he did it. At one stage he mentioned a shortage of money. But we had paid AR$100, a significant amount for a one-day conference without lunch.

The other thing that irked me was the assumption that nobody else was dealing with this issue. Sure, it might be true that sexuality has not been spoken about much in Argentine churches. But it simply isn't true that Nobody is talking about it or dealing with it. His continued insistence that nobody at any of his conferences has any clue about this topic, or that no pastors know how to talk about it, got a bit tiring by the end of the day.

And it was interesting to note that it was not just my Aussie anti-US feelings coming through... my US friends actually felt a little embarrassed by his manner as well. It didn't help me when he started the day explaining... if you want me to sign your book, you need to come with the book open at the right page, if you want a photo with me, you need to come with the camera ready, I don't have to time to waste waiting for you to get your camera ready...

Perhaps in the end that was the problem for me... it was a TOUR, not a brother seeking to help his brothers and sisters with an important issue.