Bell can be tricky to interact with. His message frequently rings true but what he offers is usually incomplete or misleading. His book Sex God is no different. Much of what he says is true – and much of what he says is not true. I will not spend much time saying why Bell is wrong, but I want to draw out the core of Bell’s message, making the problems more visible.

In Sex God Bell focuses on the state of humans in a fallen world. We are each broken in some way and the primary problem is the disconnect between God, my fellow human, and me. This problem has been present since the fall of Adam and Eve. In the fall Adam and Eve decided to break their connection with God. Fallen nature isn’t original sin; it’s the brokenness that continues to exist between us.

With our sexuality we realize that something is missing from our lives. We engage in all sorts of activities to try to set things right. Often these activities make things worse. We try to fill the void in our lives with greed and selfishness. What people really need to do is give up self and serve others, becoming united with them.

We are often reluctant to form connections with others because of the risk it carries. When we extend ourselves to others, we risk rejection. The other person might turn down my friendship or my affection. Bell says that this is the same sort of suffering God faces in his dealings with us. When others reject us we share in the suffering of God. The cross was not about atonement but was God’s way of showing that he understands rejection, “The cross is God’s way of saying, ‘I know what it’s like.’”

Bell says the phrase the ground at the foot of the cross is level means that the cross experience is the same for all people. But it also means “the ground at the foot of the cross is level for God too. In matters of love, it’s as if God has agreed to play by the same rules we do.”

Heaven and Hell are realities that can be experienced here on earth. Bell says that Heaven is that state of being where things are done according to the will of God. Hell is the state where things are contrary to God’s will. When we treat people humanely, we bring Heaven to Earth. When we strip people of their humanity, we bring Hell.

The Eucharist reminds us of our humanity. Bell says that while communion does have some significance because of the cross, its chief importance is to lead us to “reflect on the truth that we’re all in this together, one body, and that [Jesus'] body being broken and blood being spilled are for our union.” Through communion we are all reminded of our humanity and through the cross Jesus identified with our suffering and rejection.

Bell does a good job of examining sin, though he never uses that word. He prefers to talk about lusts. As with many of his discussions some of what he offers is good but he leaves a lot out and his solution is very different from what has been presented by the church through the ages. He rightly says, “lust promises what it can’t deliver… it always leaves us wanting more.” The solution he offers is to redirect our desires: “It’s not about getting rid of desire. It’s about giving ourselves to bigger and better and more powerful desires.” In life we should try “channeling [your God-given life force] and focusing it and turning it loose on something beautiful, something pure and true and good, something that connects you with God, with others, with the world.”

Connecting with others involves our sexuality and the act of sex is the highest expression of sexuality. Bell rightly limits sex to marriage, which he speaks of as being between a man and a woman. Part of the significance of sex is in its mystery when it is kept as a mystical act between husband and wife. But the impact of sex goes beyond the married couple, as indicated in the phrase making love: “Their making of love makes the world a better place to live, a place where there is more love for all of us.” Sex is also a picture of what we can expect in Heaven, though he doesn’t clarify if he means heaven-on-earth or some eternal dwelling. Toward the end of the book he offers some questions about sex and Heaven: “Is sex in its greatest, purest, most joyful and honest expression a glimpse of forever? … Is sex a picture of heaven?”

We are left with a world in which man’s only real need is to show more love. Bell indicates that we already have the capacity for love; the question is whether or not we will use it. The God he presents is somewhat deistic – he did his part and has stepped back to see what we will do. The fate of the world is in our hands. God gave us creation and expects us to finish what he started. Bell is optimistic that humans can overcome the destructive lusts that have caused problems in the past. We can create Heaven on Earth.

I suspect Bell is in for a disappointing surprise.