Crotch Christianity

Summary

The SkyePod – "Crotch Christianity" (May 1, 2026)

Host: Skye Jethani
Theme: Re-examining why sexual ethics have become the central battleground in American Christianity, their political and social implications, and what a healthier, more Christ-centered alternative looks like.

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Episode Overview

In this solo "skydive" installment, Skye Jethani dives into "Crotch Christianity"—his provocative term for the overemphasis on sexual ethics in American Christian morality and politics. Using recent remarks from Pope Leo and reactions from evangelical leaders as a springboard, Skye breaks down why sexual issues dominate Christian discourse, the historical and cultural forces behind this phenomenon, the consequences for the church and public life, and what a faithful, nuanced response could entail.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Community, Belonging, and Holy Post Media's Model

• Listener Connection: Skye appreciates meeting listeners at live events and hearing that the podcast community helps people feel less isolated in their faith.

  "One of the things we hear a lot is how being a part of those gatherings helps people not feel so alone..." ([01:03])

• Supporting Content: The value of sharing the podcast and subscribing to Holy Post Plus for sustainability and editorial independence.

  "We have very deliberately decided not to be a donor based media ministry...a donor based model is not ideal for editorial independence." ([03:46])

• Avoiding Donor/Ad Dependence: Skye explains why the team avoids major donors and advertisers, choosing a subscription-based approach to maintain integrity.

  "Our primary model is a premium subscription based model...that revenue is what keeps us going and allows us to expand." ([04:13])

Episode Set-Up and World Context

• Current Events: Skye frames the episode in light of recent global turmoil, including an oil crisis triggered by war and a brewing feud between the Trump Administration and the Vatican.
  ([07:03]–[07:35])
• Pope Leo’s Press Conference: On his African tour, Pope Leo emphasizes that sexual matters shouldn't be central to church unity or morality.

  Pope Leo: "The unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters...in reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion..." ([08:19]–[09:45])

Evangelical Fallout and the "Crotch Christianity" Concept

• Reaction to Pope Leo:
  • Al Mohler, Southern Baptist leader, claims sexual issues are always doctrinally fundamental and implies that any allowance signals deeper theological decline.

    Al Mohler: "Disagreement over, quote, sexual matters is never limited to sexual matters. Fundamental doctrines are at stake. It's dishonest to argue otherwise..." ([10:29])

  • Skye critiques this response as lacking clarity on which "fundamental doctrines" are compromised and notes that neither Pope Francis nor Pope Leo has changed Catholic teaching on sex.

    "Neither Pope Leo nor Pope Francis in any way changed the Catholic Church's teaching on sexual matters...the teaching of the Catholic Church around sexuality, marriage, contraception, any of these issues are actually more conservative than most white American evangelicals." ([12:14])

Defining "Crotch Christianity"

• Core Definition:

  "Crotch Christianity is the idea that there's a hierarchy of things that God cares about. And at the very top...is our crotches, meaning that what God really cares most about are issues of gender, sexuality, and reproduction." ([13:58])

• Examples:
  • Abortion, gay marriage, LGBTQ rights, gender-affirming care, adultery, pornography, birth control, IVF—all seen as the primary concerns in church teachings and discipline. ([15:10])
  • Contrast with issues like greed, idolatry, racism, or divisiveness, which don't cause the same uproar when leaders are found wanting.

Manifestations in Church and Public Life

• Sermons: No one is surprised to hear sermons on sexuality, but sermons on economics, racism, or social justice are rare and often more controversial. ([15:54])
• Church Discipline: Sexual scandal prompts immediate crisis; other sins like slander or greed generally do not.
• Youth Culture: The "purity culture" era of the 1990s–2000s centered sexual ethics as the defining moral battleground.
• Politics:
  • Abortion as the galvanizing issue for evangelicals for decades, its sudden political irrelevance post-Roe, and the immediate pivot to anti-trans issues.

    "That explains why since the middle of the Biden administration, we have seen that [trans] issue eclipse abortion. They needed something else that fit the criteria within crotch Christianity to mobilize people." ([21:57])

  • Conservative commentators and groups openly acknowledge this switch (references to Lila Rose and Marjorie Dannenfelser reactions to Republican platform changes). ([19:46])

Notable Quote Illustrating "Crotch Christianity"

• Ali Beth Stuckey at Turning Point USA:

  "Most of our problems in society, most of our problems—a huge portion of our problems in society are caused by premarital and extramarital sex. Fatherlessness, abortion, all kinds of sexual depravity, even gender confusion are caused by a culture that prizes irresponsible and perverted sex. That is the truth. Sex is a big deal. It’s a huge deal." ([24:15])

• Skye's Response:

  "It's not just that sexual morality matters. I agree with that...Crotch Christianity is not just believing in the sexual morality as taught historically by the church...it's the idea that sexual morality trumps everything else, that it is the highest, most important issue from which all the other problems kind of disseminate." ([25:14])

The Cultural Lens on Morality

• Bible Interpretation Study: Skye cites Mark Allan Powell’s cross-cultural study on the Prodigal Son parable:

  "Only 6% of Americans remembered and mentioned the famine in the story...whereas in Russia, 84% of people remembered the famine...What Powell shows...is that culture shapes what we see, including in Scripture." ([25:45])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Pope Leo ([08:19]):
  "The unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters...there are much greater, more important issues such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion that would all take priority before that particular issue."

• Al Mohler ([10:29]):
  "Disagreement over, quote, sexual matters is never limited to sexual matters. Fundamental doctrines are at stake. It's dishonest to argue otherwise..."

• Ali Beth Stuckey ([24:15]):
  "Most of our problems in society...are caused by premarital and extramarital sex. Fatherlessness, abortion, all kinds of sexual depravity, even gender confusion are caused by a culture that prizes irresponsible and perverted sex."

• Skye Jethani ([25:14]):
  "Crotch Christianity is not just believing in the sexual morality as taught historically by the church or that we find in Scripture. It's the idea that sexual morality trumps everything else, that it is the highest, most important issue from which all the other problems kind of disseminate."

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:35–05:19: Updates: live shows, Holy Post Plus, maintaining independence
• 07:03–09:45: Pope Leo’s remarks on sexual matters and church unity
• 10:25–13:57: Al Mohler’s response and what’s actually changed (or not) in Catholic teaching
• 13:57–17:04: Definition & history of "Crotch Christianity"
• 17:39–19:46: Expression in church discipline and politics; pivot from abortion to trans issues
• 24:15–25:45: Clip from Ali Beth Stuckey: "most problems caused by sexual sin"
• 25:45–end: Skye on parable retelling study showing cultural selectivity in scriptural focus

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Conclusion (before paywall)

Skye continues to unpack the implications of letting sexual ethics crowd out broader Christian moral concern, promising a look at both overreactions against Crotch Christianity and what a more Christ-centered moral framework might resemble—topics covered in the full subscriber-only version.

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Summary prepared for listeners who want core insights, debate highlights, and key moments without ads or non-content sections. For more, full episodes are at holypost.com/skyepod.

Transcript

[A]

I'm just trying to illustrate this is what crotch Christianity leads to. Hey, everyone.

[B]

Welcome back to the Skypod. I'm Sky Jutani. This episode is being brought to you by Holy Post Media and Hudsucker Industries. We are doing a skydive today, which means it's a solo show. It's just me talking about stuff. Before we dive into the topic, I

[A]

want to cover some updates.

[B]

We did a live show last week in Atlanta. That live recording is now out on the main Holy Post podcast feed. You can get that if you haven't listened to it already. This week our guest was Lecrae. The show was fantastic. Lecrae, who we've known a little bit over the years from some interviews we've done on Holy Post before, was just probably better than I expected, honestly. Like, he was super engaging and transparent and very forthcoming with his whole journey. And I was encouraged by the strength of his faith given some of the challenges that he's been through. If you haven't listened to it or heard more of his story, obviously you can get that from his own podcast, but go check out that episode. The other thing I really like about doing these live events, they can be taxing because they involve travel. And a lot of our team gets caught up in all the details and planning stuff. We haven't done as many as in the past because of that. But what I do love about doing them is getting. Getting to meet our listeners and the people who are big fans of Holy Poet. So one of the things we hear a lot is how being a part of those gatherings helps people not feel so alone. And that came up even in the Q and A session where people were asking, hey, this is great being at a place like this or surrounded by other kind of like minded believers. But what happens when we go back to our communities, to our churches or homes where we feel like a tiny minority? How do we stay connected? I think it's something we still need to figure out, frankly, for Holy Post Media is not just how to have these temporary few hours together where people feel community and belonging, but how do we help you all connect with each other outside of those gatherings or network regionally with people who are Holy Post Media folks. So we're working on that. We're thinking about it. I know it's something that I hope our team can facilitate more. But if you do go to a live event and you interact with other people, exchange email addresses or phone numbers or contact information in some way, just use that to connect with each other. Super important.

[A]

The Other thing I really appreciate is

[B]

so many of you end up sticking around and talking to us afterwards and we hear how important Holy Post Media content has been to all of you. One of the more frequent statements you'll hear at these events or I hear at these events is I don't feel alone or you've kept me sane. And that's super encouraging. Very grateful for that. But a couple things come to mind. Like some people ask flat out, like, how can we support what you guys are doing more? Or how can we help it grow? And the two things that genuinely help the most is one, just tell other people about what we're doing here at Holy Post Media. Share the content we're creating, share a podcast, share a video, share this episode if it's helpful to you. That's super helpful in just expanding our reach. But the other most significant thing you do is become a subscriber to Holy Post Plus. We've talked about this and I've done podcasts on this to explain more of kind of our model and why we do what we do. But we have very deliberately decided not to be a donor based media ministry. And the reason for that is, I mean, I've been a part of those in the past is

[A]

major donors have

[B]

major influence and the ability to say what we think needs to be said to engage the topics we want to engage will be severely hindered if a major donor suddenly goes, oh, you know what, I don't want you talking about this, that or the other thing. So we've decided that a donor based model is not ideal for editorial independence. The other option is to become an ad based model, meaning advertising. And we do have some ads on some Holy Post properties, but that's not our primary revenue source because same thing, an advertiser can say, hey, we're going to pull our ads because we don't like you talking about this thing or the other thing. So our primary model is a premium subscription based model where people sign up for Holy Post plus, they pay a couple bucks a month to get access to all the extra content we create, all the shows, including full episodes of the Skypod and other things. And that revenue is what keeps us going and allows us to expand. And the benefit of that is when

[A]

we create more of the stuff we

[B]

are called to create, we're rewarded by the people who benefit from it, all of you who are subscribers. The other side is it makes us more immune where if a number of people on any individual episode are upset about something we may have said or didn't agree with us and they cancel their subscription. Sad.

[A]

But it's not the end of our work.

[B]

Whereas a major donor walking away or a major advertiser walking away would be a significant crisis. So all that to say we're trying to do this in a way where we can maintain our integrity, we can have editorial independence and freedom and sustainability, and that's what led us to the model that we have. So telling other people about what we're doing, signing up for Holy Post Plus Best thing you can do other than coming to one of our live events and connecting with other people.

[A]

A couple of other just newsy updates

[B]

about what I'm up to right now. I'm going to California this weekend. Some of you know, with some regularity about every other month I'm in Southern California speaking at New Song Church in Santa Ana. So I'll be there again this Sunday. They have an interesting new series that they're doing called what Happened to Us?

[A]

And it was inspired by the Anxious

[B]

Generation by Jonathan Haidt, who's been on the Holy Post before and obviously a huge advocate for phone free schools and phone free childhoods and all the warnings about parameters on social media and things like that. So they're doing a series about what technology has done to us, and I'll be speaking this week on the value of an embodied existence and why our bodies actually matter rather than trying to escape them through technology.

[A]

Also, I speak regularly at the Chicago Fellowship, which is a men's ministry that

[B]

meets on Thursday mornings downtown Chicago in the loop at 7:30 in the morning. So it's early. Obviously a lot of you are not here in Chicago and can't necessarily be a part of that in person. But if you go to chicagofellowship.com, you can see the content that is there both for me and a lot of other wonderful folks who teach there regularly. If you are able to join us on Thursday mornings, the details are also [e-mail] would love to see you there.

[A]

And I have more upcoming travel and

[B]

speaking, not nearly as much as I used to do, but that's on the calendar. And if anybody is looking to try to get me at your event or institution in some way, you can go to withgotdaily.com and there's a section there on my website where you can request

[A]

me as a speaker. Okay, with that out of the way,

[B]

what are we talking about today?

[A]

So the world's a crazy place right now.

[B]

Actually, as I've been looking at travel coming up for me in the fall.

[A]

I have to go to Europe a

[B]

couple times this fall in one case

[A]

for a speaking invitation. And I'm watching the airfare prices just

[B]

skyrocket because of the war with Iran and the shutting down of the Persian Gulf strait and the oil crisis that is slowly impacting global markets.

[A]

And it's just crazy. So in the midst of all these

[B]

current events, I'm also keeping an eye on the ongoing feud that seems to

[A]

have erupted between the Trump Admin and

[B]

the Vatican, in particular Pope Leo.

[A]

And that's not what I'm going to talk about today.

[B]

But in my watching of all of that action, I came across a clip from Pope Leo that was really interesting. So he's been on a tour of Africa and last week on the papal

[A]

jet, I believe it's an Alitalia flight

[B]

that the Pope uses. Anyway, on his airplane he was taking

[A]

questions from the press and one reporter

[B]

asked him about his predecessor, Pope Francis, and some of his remarks about gay couples and the blessing of gay couples.

[A]

And Pope Leo's response was really, really interesting.

[B]

And so we're going to. We'll play a clip of it for

[A]

you here so you can get it in context.

[C]

I think it's very important to understand that the unity or division of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters. We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality that the only issue of morality is sexual. And in reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion that would all take priority before that particular issue. The Holy See has already spoken to the German bishops. The Holy See has made it clear that we do not agree with the formalized blessing of couples, in this case homosexual couples, as you ask, or couples in irregular situations beyond what was specifically, if you will, allowed for by Pope Francis in saying all people receive blessings when a priest gives a blessing at the end of Mass, when the Pope gives a blessing at the end of a large celebration like such we had today, there are blessings of all people. Francis, infamous, famous, well known expression of tutti, tutti, tutti is an expression of the Church's belief that all are welcome, all are invited, all are invited to follow Jesus, and all are invited to look for conversion in their lives. To go beyond that today, I think that the topic can cause more disunity than unity and that we should look for ways to build our unity upon Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ teaches. So that's how I would respond to that question.

[A]

Okay, so that's what Pope Leo said on the flight. And I want to emphasize the beginning

[B]

part of that again, because I think it's really important.

[A]

He said that it's important to understand that the unity of the Church should not revolve around sexual matters and that we tend to, when we tend to think about the church and morality, that the only issue we associate with that

[B]

is sexual, and that's a problem.

[A]

This got my wheels turning and me thinking. And part of it was also the

[B]

responses I saw to what the Pope said. For example, Al Mohler, Southern Baptist, went

[A]

to Twitter and decided to spar with Pope Leo's comments. Here's what he said on Twitter. Disagreement over, quote, sexual matters is never limited to sexual matters. Fundamental doctrines are at stake. It's dishonest to argue otherwise. Yet another liberal pope. Conservative Catholics know the pattern all too well. Evangelicals take note. Okay, so Al Mohler, this is sort of the limit.

[B]

Maybe he's written more extensively than just

[A]

this tweet about it, but interesting. He says disagreement over sexual matters are never limited to sexual matters. But it sounds like a slippery slope

[B]

argument, like, if you allow for diversity

[A]

of thought on sexual morality in any

[B]

way, it's going to spill over into all kinds of other areas. But he doesn't specify what that is.

[A]

And then he goes on to say fundamental doctrines are at stake, but he

[B]

doesn't identify what those fundamental doctrines are. I'm not accusing him of being disingenuous. I think he believes that.

[A]

I would just love to know what are those fundamental doctrines. But it's an interesting example of a response because he's accusing Pope Leo of being liberal. And as far as I can tell, neither Pope Leo nor Pope Francis in any way changed the Catholic Church's teaching on sexual matters. They haven't adjusted the sexual morals or teachings of the Church in any way. And in many cases, the teaching of the Catholic Church around sexuality, marriage, contraception, any of these issues are actually more conservative than most white American evangelicals. So I'm a little bit, I don't know, confused by why Al Mohler thinks the Pope is a liberal. But it does get to this idea that these ideas of sexual morality are just super, super important to a significant segment of at least the American church. And I think the Pope's comment that when we reduce morality to only sexual morality, we're making an error, a fundamental error in our thinking as Christians. So all this fury around the Pope's comments on the plane and reactions to the comments, I think it's an opportunity for us to cover something that I've talked about in the past, but I want to do it here with a little bit more depth and nuance. And that is what I dubbed some years ago as Crotch Christianity. And I know that it's provocative and

[B]

it's a giggle inducing title.

[A]

That's what I do.

[B]

But let me give you some of the background.

[A]

So I first used that term back on Holy Post, episode 419, which was in 2020. First, I want to define what exactly I mean by crotch Christianity. Where did it come from? Why is it so common, and what do I think is malformative about it? Secondly, I want to look at the mistakes people make in reaction to crotch Christianity. In other words, is there an overreaction to crotch Christianity that we should also pay attention to and recognize as problematic? I think there is. And then finally, third, what is the appropriate alternative to crotch Christianity? What is a healthy, faithful response? And actually, I think we get a glimpse of that from Pope Leo and the Catholic Church. So we'll kind of wrap up with that. That's the plan. Define Crotch Christianity. Look at the reaction to crotch Christianity

[B]

and why it can also be problematic,

[A]

and then land at what I think is a healthy response. So let's get in. Crotch Christianity. First, let's get to a definition. Here's how I would define it. Crotch Christianity is the idea that there's a hierarchy of things that. That God cares about. And at the very top of that hierarchy is our crotches, meaning that what God really cares most about are issues of gender, sexuality, and reproduction. So all the ethical issues that revolve around one's crotch. I just like the alliteration. I'm a preacher by background. Alliteration is one of our tools. So these are things like abortion, obviously, gay marriage, LGBTQ rights, gender affirming treatment, hormonal or surgical for adults, and obviously for minors, adultery, sexual sin, pornography, birth control, ivf, whatever, anything that involves gender, sexuality and reproduction, I would clump together into this idea of crotch Christianity. But it's not just that these issues matter. It's the belief that these are the preeminent issues of Christian morality, that these things matter far more than anything else in the hierarchy in the large scheme of things. So the way this kind of manifests itself is. Well, for example, in the church, issues that relate to our crotches tend to be in the spotlight. So think about it this way. If you come from or were raised within an evangelical church in America, if your pastor got into the pulpit on Sunday and gave a sermon around adultery, around sexual immorality, around LGBTQ issues. Most people would not be shocked to hear such a sermon.

[B]

Although, to be fair, I don't think

[A]

I've ever heard a sermon in an evangelical church specifically around homosexuality. I know they're out there, but I don't think I've personally heard one. I think sometimes people outside the church can over index on how much they think that gets talked about in the church, when it's not nearly as much as they would assume. But nonetheless, if an issue of cross Christianity, abortion, pornography, anything like that came up in the pulpit, I don't think anybody would be terribly surprised. It wouldn't shock anyone. Now, compare that to if your pastor got up on Sunday and gave a message about politics or social justice or racism or slavery. Historic issue of slavery, money, in some cases, economics, poverty. Some of those would actually raise more eyebrows in a lot of white evangelical churches than anything around sexuality, because we're just not used to hearing those things. That's one way that crotch Christianity gets expressed. It's just what gets attention and focus in the pulpit and what causes surprise in youth ministries.

[B]

I was in youth group back in

[A]

the 1990s at kind of the beginning of purity culture stuff. It was really common to hear messages in youth ministry settings about sexuality and sexual morality. Now, part of that is super practical. It's just the reality that teenagers are little bundles of hormones and they're wrestling with that stuff.

[B]

It's natural to talk about it.

[A]

But it kind of grew in the 1990s and early 2000s into the purity culture that has kind of become notorious now. The True Love Weights movement. Joshua Harris and I've kissed dating goodbye. We had him on the show a couple weeks ago, a couple months ago

[B]

now, and he talked about the fallout

[A]

in his own life from that stuff. Another way it gets expressed in the church, this crotch Christianity idea is in church discipline and scandals. I mean, think about what really gets a lot of attention if a pastor, elder, church leader is caught in an adulterous affair. Obviously that's just like five alarm fire. All things just screech to a halt. Church crisis unfolds, disciplinary action, all kinds of. And I'm not saying it shouldn't, but like, that is just a massive, massive story in any church community. But what doesn't get attention. Think about a church leader or an elder or a pastor who is consumed by greed or idolatry or divisiveness, slander, gossip. I mean, all kinds of other things that scripture calls out as really terrible sins, particularly among leaders, and we might go, yeah, that's too bad. But it's not a five alarm fire in the church.

[B]

Most church leaders don't lose their jobs

[A]

or have their ordinations revoked over those kinds of sins. But anything that is sexual, it's just treated differently. So there's a sort of a theological interpretation to that. If you were to like corner somebody and ask them, hey, is sexual sin worse than, say, economic sin? They would say, no, it's all the same in God's eyes. And yet practically the way it's dealt with is incredibly different. And that speaks to the different place that sexual sins crotch Christianity ideas play in a lot of our Christian communities outside of our immediate churches and communities. There's also a way it gets expressed in the public square, in our politics, in our social engagement. Obviously, one of the most animating issues for a lot of American evangelicals for the last 50 years has been abortion. And the goal of overturning Roe v. Wade drove lots of people to the polls to vote for the Republican Party since at least the late 1970s, early 1980s. That led to a problem in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with their Dobbs decision. I've done an explainer video about this. Maybe we'll link to it in the show notes. But since abortion law changed in 2022 and it went back to the states, there's been some really interesting things that have happened. One is that the actual number of abortions in the United States has not gone down. They've actually gone up since overturning Roe, which is the complete opposite of what even abortion advocates anticipated. So that's weird. But on the political front, Donald Trump, who still has a stranglehold over the Republican Party, insisted on removing the pro life language from the Republican Party platform, from that plank of the party platform. And some strong pro life advocates within the conservative movement and within the Republican Party kind of lost their minds about this, even though it hasn't been reported on widely. Let me give you some examples. Lila Rose, I think that's how you say her name. A pro life advocate has called Trump's policies pathetic and unacceptable. And she said that Trump is actively attacking pro life laws. That's a quote. Another president of a pro life group, Marjorie Denenfeller, I think that's again, how you pronounce her name, called the administration's position morally indefensible. So though abortion has been the animating issue for a lot of conservative Christian voters for the last five decades, it's suddenly gone because The Supreme Court overturned Roe. That's done. And then the news since then has not exactly been positive because abortions have gone up. And the Republican Party has completely abandoned this issue in its party plank because it's not one that Donald Trump wants to focus on. That left a vacuum in. If you have been formed by crotch Christianity, if you have been taught to believe that sexual ethics, reproductive ethics, gender ethics are the most important things to God and the issue of abortion is no longer available as a mobilizing political issue, what do you do? Well, hello, trans issues. That explains why since the middle of the Biden administration, we have seen that issue eclipse abortion. They needed something else that fit the criteria within crotch Christianity to mobilize people. And the trans issue is what's done it. That means the issue of using pronouns.

[B]

The issue what bathrooms do people use,

[A]

classroom issues, medical treatment of transitioning folks, especially the medical treatment of minors. And that was a huge focus of the 2024 presidential campaign. That issue was huge. Used to beat up first Joe Biden and then Kamala Harris significantly. And it's still being talked about. It's amazing how little we hear from MAGA people about abortion. There's some, but very little because they don't have any. Anything coming from the Trump administration to really hang their hat on or mobilize people anymore because Trump doesn't want to deal with abortion. So what you hear a ton about now is this trans issue. Now, all that to say, I am not arguing that this isn't a legitimate concern. We'll get into this later. I think there are things that are worthy of attention and thinking about, but I don't think that's why it takes on so much importance politically for the conservative movement right now. I think the reason it's so important is because they needed something within the category of crotch Christianity to get their people mobilized. And this issue fits the bill because it deals with gender, it deals with sexuality. And the problem is not that gender, sexuality or reproduction aren't relevant issues. What Crotch Christianity does is it says that these issues eclipse everything else. They just matter more. They're the trump card that should get played above everything else. Let me give you some examples of what this actually looks like. One of them comes from Ali Beth Stuckey. She was at a Turning Point USA event, and there's a little excerpt here

[B]

that I want to play for you

[A]

that I think illustrates Crotch Christianity in practice. Here it is.

[D]

The truth is, and this is uncomfortable and unpopular to say most of our problems in society, most of our problems A huge portion of our problems in society are caused by premarital and extramarital sex. Fatherlessness, abortion, all kinds of sexual depravity, even gender confusion are caused by a culture that prizes irresponsible and perverted sex. That is the truth. Sex is a big deal. It's a huge deal. Sex between a man and a woman is a powerful force, is a bonding force. And when it is within the context of marriage, it's a beautiful thing, an act that can bring life into the world, that can birth the next generation. It sustains the existence of humanity. God has made it good. Sex is a big deal because you are a big deal.

[A]

There it is. I think that clip perfectly captures what crotch Christianity believes. It's not just that sexual morality matters. I agree with that. I think sexual morality does matter, and I do think Christianity and the scriptures have a lot to say about sexual morality. Crotch Christianity is not just believing in the sexual morality as taught historically by the church or that we find in Scripture. It's the idea that sexual morality trumps everything else, that it is the highest, most important issue from which all the other problems kind of disseminate. That's the part that I think links back to what Pope Leo was saying. The danger of believing that when the church talks about morality, what it's primarily talking about is only sexual morality. Here's a strange connection. I think what you just saw in that clip and what you hear from advocates of crotch Christianity falls into an understandable and verifiable human tendency. And it's one that was documented in some research that was done using Scripture. So there's a New Testament scholar named Mark Allen Powell, and he was in a book called what Do They Bridging the Gap Between Pulpit and Pew, came out in 2007. And in this book, he cites research that took the parable of the prodigal son from Luke chapter 15, and they had different people from different cultures read that parable from Luke's Gospel. And then they asked people to close their Bibles and say the story back from memory. And they kept track of what details did people remember and which details did they forget. And the initial study, which has been expanded since then, but the initial study looked at people from the United States and people from Russia. And here's the really interesting outcome. Only 6% of Americans remembered and mentioned the famine in the story from Luke 15:14. So if you don't remember, the story of the Prodigal Son talks about a man who had two sons, and the younger son went to his father and said, I want my half of the inheritance now. The father liquidated his share of the inheritance, gave his younger son this money, and the younger son goes off to a distant country where he spends the money on prostitutes and alcohol and wild living. And then Jesus says that a great famine struck that land, and this young man who's bankrupt and out of money ends up feeding pigs in someone's farm. When the story was retold, only 6% of Americans remember the detail about the famine, Whereas in Russia, 84% of people remembered the famine and recounted that in their retelling of the story. What does this have to do with anything? What Powell shows in the book is that culture shapes what we see, including in Scripture. So don't worry, this is not the end of the episode. There's actually plenty more. But to listen to the rest, you need to be a Holy Post plus subscriber. So head over to holeypost.com skypod and sign up for just $5 a month. Not only will you get uninterrupted episodes of the Skypod, which means you'll never have to hear this dumb announcement again, but you'll also get access to everything else at Holy Post plus, including episodes of Getting Schooled by Caitlin Chess, bonus interviews, live streams, the Holy Post Book Club, exclusive merchandise, and a whole bunch more. And you'll get the warm, fuzzy feeling of knowing that you're supporting our work of creating smart, pro neighbor Christian content. So head over to holypost.com skypod and subscribe.