Developing a Pleasure Ethic

Friends Church Calgary Weekly Message

Speaker: Jeff Jarvis

We’ve spent the last two weeks explaining where much of the toxic messaging around pleasure has come from – at least within the Christian tradition. Hint: we don’t think it comes from the bible. We’ve also made the case that pleasure needs to be accessed and celebrated in our lives.

However, this raises questions, and likely it should… Mostly because, like anything, the pleasures we pursue almost always have price tags (either literally or metaphorically).

How much pleasure is enough at any given time? And at what cost? What if your spouse/partner/parent/child/bank account doesn’t support your idea of pleasure? What limitations, if any, should we impose on the pleasures we desire? And why?

This Sunday, we’re going to explore ways we can build a healthy pleasure ethic that hopefully avoids the shame and repression of past messaging on one side while avoiding destructive addictive and hedonistic behaviours on the other. This should be fun!

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