Sex, meditation, and hair

This week we have questions about topical issues currently.

Q. Sir, don’t you think children should be punished for having sex?

A. The short response is, “No”. We have been socialised to look at sex in negative ways. We therefore rush to punitive approaches in the effort to get children to fit the expectations of negative and even hypocritical society.

When sexuality is approached in positive ways, we are better able to start off by acknowledging that we are sexual beings. Children, while living with raging hormones, are indeed more prone to experimenting and so on. However, we do well if we engage them as intelligent beings and speak positively about sex and why it is best reserved for adulthood. This conversation does not require threats and the invocation of God’s wrath and condemnation to hell.

The age of consent should not be increased. And children should not be criminalised for having consensual sexual activity. Punitive approaches will not prevent children from having sexual urges and sometimes acting on them in inappropriate ways. To be clear, I believe children should be children and that they should stay far from adult activities which also call for adult responsibility.

Q. Should Christians get involved with meditation and yoga when it is not in the Bible?

A. Christians, like anyone else who practise meditation, stand to gain from various benefits which have been substantiated by science. The evidence shows that people have benefited physically and mentally from eastern meditation practices. Since yoga sharpens focus and a sense of inner wellbeing, it is not surprising that it would also open pathways for spiritual awareness.

Although I am a Christian and an Anglican priest, I am also a yogi who practises meditation. These various roles are not contradictory. Yoga and meditation enhance our capacity to move from sound to silence and from movement to stillness. In Luke 5:16, there is a reminder, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” In Psalm 19:14 a well-known petition is, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

Is there room here for seeing the spirit of Eastern meditative practice in this context? Might there be a place for perceiving the place of silence and stillness as preparatory states for a deeper sense of divinity? As we engage this God-given breath, may we affirm that our energy and frequency work are only possible with this breathing-inspired meditation?

Maybe, we sometimes miss that breathwork is an important part of our stewardship. May we move beyond the literal building to the image of temple being applied to the human body? When we exercise this cognition, we then engage Psalm 48:9: “Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.”

People from different religious and textual traditions may engage this breathwork meditation from their own perspectives. Meditation does not require you to impose your belief onto anyone.

Q. What do you think about this matter with boys not cutting their hair to follow the rules?

A. In The Sunday Gleaner of September 11, 2022, on Human Rights Day and the MOEY’s dress and grooming policy, I observed, “The policy guidelines beautifully affirm rights and the matter of inclusion on the part of the child as a rights stakeholder. What mechanisms are, however, in place to ensure that this actually happens in schools? Is the ministry aware of how many schools have complied with the preferred best practices re compiling such guidelines? Is the ministry privy to the information contained therein?”

Every year, we may expect this same quarrel at the start of the school year, the calendar year, and near to graduation time. I also noted, “These are issues that Parent/Teachers’ Associations, church, and other stakeholders ought to become involved with. It is time to stop waiting for the next hair quarrel in the news, followed by the usual anger and calls for justice. The MOEY must lead and facilitate rules and guidelines, informed by the principles of human rights.”

Still about hair, I call on those with the power to move beyond empty platitudes and act for human dignity. I repeat as I said in that piece, “In a country where we have often traditionally revered long-haired images of Jesus Christ, the Nazarite, and Bob Marley, the Rasta, it is a matter of urgency that we move beyond racist, classist, and white supremacist value systems which continue to protect and promote European aesthetics. Let us empower our children to think, to express, to be themselves, to love their identity, and to resist anti-African systems of oppression.”

Fr Sean Major-Campbell is an Anglican priest and advocate for human right and dignity. Please send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and seanmajorcampbell@yahoo.com