Q&A: Bad sex and the Church

Oct 13, 2025

In this conversation, the hosts tackle the complexities of sex, relationships, and the Church's teachings. They reflect on audience feedback and the importance of sharing personal stories in theology. The discussion takes a turn to critique traditional views on desire and sin within a Christian context. They also delve into Bishop Sarah Mullally's new role in the Church of England, exploring its potential impact on patriarchal structures. Lastly, practical sex advice from the Church is shared, maintaining a balance between open dialogue and scriptural integrity.

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ANECDOTE

Feeling Exposed By Listeners

Charlotte felt exposed when listeners knew intimate stories about her.
She was surprised a stranger at church recognised her from the podcast.

INSIGHT

Listen Before Repeating Doctrine

Start conversations by listening to real stories before restating theology.
Theology must encounter messy human lives to remain relevant and responsible.

INSIGHT

Theology As Picture Language

Theology functions as picture-language that can fail in complex situations.
When simple theological pictures break, we learn whether we're open to changing our thinking.

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After two full episodes of A God We Could Believe In we take stock and address some of your comments and questions on sex, relationships and the Church. Should we be affirming the “traditional” view of marriage and are we just making excuses to justify our own wants and desires?

Content warning: This series covers issues of sexual relationships, abuse, gender and identity, so listener discretion is advised. Please look after yourselves.

There’s a vanishingly short section answering the question “What’s the best advice we’ve been given by a church or vicar?”. Then, to prefigure a major theme in our next few episodes, we examine what the recent news of Bishop Sarah Mullally’s appointment as the next Archbishop of Canterbury means for the centuries-old patriarchal juggernaut, the Church of England.

Coming up

Episode 3 – Marriage in the Bible is a binfire – is released on 27 October, where resident our biblical scholar Dr Charlotte Naylor Davis takes us on a whistle stop tour through the Bible, as we go hunting for the mythical model of a good Christian marriage.

Our next Q&A episode is on 10 November, so if you’d like to ask a question on anything you’ve heard from the podcast so far, then make sure you get your question to us by Friday 31 October to feature. Contact us via email, social media or our Substack page. You can also leave a comment anonymously, using this form.

Correction - 22 October: A previous version of this description, as well as the episode itself, incorrectly listed the Q&A deadline as Friday 7 November. This has now been updated to Friday 31 October.

About A God We Could Believe In:

A frank and honest look at Christianity as we find it today. We’re examining the things the church says and does that are embarrassing, confusing or even downright offensive. In other religious contexts, your questions might be forbidden but not here. So whether you’re a lifelong churchgoer with the scars to prove it, or you’ve never entered a church and are just interested in the debate, this is a safe space for you.

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