Our subject matter today represents an awful, terrible distortion and perversion of God’s good gifts of life, youth, and sexuality. We would rather not have to discuss such matters; such behaviors and the forces at work to justify or rationalize them, however, thrive in the darkness, and would rather us not consider them and to continue to look away. We owe it to all those who have been affected by such ungodly behavior to present the light of Jesus and the Gospel in regards to these matters, yet fully understand why what we are about to consider might be too much, too difficult, or too painful for many.

Throughout time, various forces have conspired in various ways to sexualize children of different ages for different purposes. There have always been some who have desired to treat children as objects of their sexual desire and fulfillment, no matter what it might mean for that child’s development, health, and life.

These days we speak of such behaviors according to three different categories: pedophilia, in which an adult or older teenager experiences sexual attraction toward prepubescent children (defined generally as younger than 12); hebephilia, in which an adult experiences sexual attraction toward children of pubescent age (defined generally as 10 to 14); and/or ephebophilia, in which an older adult experiences sexual attraction toward children of later adolescent age (defined generally as 13 to 19). “Pedophilia” is often used as shorthand to refer to any or all of the above phenomena.

While some of our definitions or delineations regarding these phenomena might be of more recent coin, the tendencies remain quite ancient. The ancient Greeks remain infamous for the practice of pederasty among the elites, in which an older man of means would show romantic affection for a younger man in his young adolescent or teenage years. We can see the celebration of such relationships in the texts of many of the Greek philosophers (e.g., Plato’s Symposium). Similar kinds of relationships also existed in cultures in parts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania; most of them involved same-sex relationships among men or women.

While many cultures throughout time have considered pedophilia shameful, both hebephilia and ephebophilia were normalized, and remain normalized, in many cultures to this day. Minimum ages of consent and age of marriage in many societies was as low as 11 or 12 in a good number of places until fairly modern times; to this day it is not unheard of to hear of girls of 11 or 12 being married off in some parts of the world, although in all such circumstances it would require parental consent.

While most everyone in Western society today finds the prospect of families marrying off their 11- or 12-year-old daughters revolting, their societies also not long ago normalized the sexualization of children. Popular love songs of the 1950s and 1960s attest to the idolization of sixteen-year-old girls. Many among the elite would maintain inappropriate relationships with teenage girls; sometimes such behavior proved scandalous, yet many such people retained their employment and social standing. Child sex abuse, which we today believe takes place to at least 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys, may not have been considered approved or appropriate behavior, but it certainly did not come with the kind of condemnation and stigma we maintain for such behaviors today. Some today, in a misguided nostalgia, seek to continue to justify hebephilia/ephebophilia, attempting to create stronger distance between these phenomena and pedophilia, and seeking to rationalize and justify sexual attraction to and the pursuit of very young women.

Jesus affirmed God’s intention for a healthy expression of sexuality within marriage from the beginning: a man should leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two become one flesh (Matthew 19:4-6; cf. Genesis 2:24). Anyone thus married who nurtures sexual desire for anyone else commits adultery in his or her heart (Matthew 5:27-30).

The Apostle Paul had much to say regarding porneia, “sexually deviant behavior,” often translated “sexual immorality”: he often condemned it as a work of the flesh and declared those who participated in such things would not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Galatians 5:19-21). Paul would elaborate on the concern: one could not well glorify Jesus and join a member of His body, a Christian, to a sex worker (in Greek, porne; 1 Corinthians 6:12-17). The person who commits porneia (related to porne, and thus can overall be understood as “the kinds of things one would do with a prostitute”) sins against him or herself, and Christians should instead glorify God in their bodies (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

In this way Paul critiqued and condemned the pagan Greco-Roman society in which he lived, for it normalized visiting with sex workers. Likewise, he perceived the justification or normalization of same-sex sexual relations in Greco-Roman society as a result of their rejection of the God of heaven as God and their elevation of things He created to the place of gods (cf. Romans 1:18-27). While Paul’s concerns go beyond pederasty in Greek society, they certainly would include it. Paul would also warn Christians about sexual uncleanness and lustfulness, and encouraged all Christians to strive for holiness, honor, and purity in their sexuality and expressions thereof (Galatians 5:19-21, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7).

Other aspects of what God has made known in Christ and in Scripture can be brought to bear on these considerations. The marriage bed is undefiled when husbands and wives love one another and display mutual respect and submission (Ephesians 5:21-33, Titus 2:1-15, Hebrews 13:4, 1 Peter 3:1-7). Attempts to overpower or lord power over others are not commended in Christ; they are deemed as the way the Gentiles and the world work, and it should not be so among Christians, who should seek to serve one another in humility (Matthew 20:25-28, 1 Peter 5:1-4). Christians are also called upon to submit to the earthly authorities and respect the sword of justice they wield (Romans 13:1-7).

On account of all of what God has made known in Christ and through Scripture, therefore, Christians should stand against and resist the sexualization of children.

There can be no defense, justification, or rationalization of any adult sexual behavior with children of any age, whether it be pedophilic, hebephilic, or ephebophilic sexual behaviors. Young children have no capacity to be sexual beings; even as they are developing sexually, adults should be providing them guidance and support as to how to best manage their development and maturity, and any sexual practices imposed upon them can only corrupt and degrade their humanity and sexuality. Pedophilic, hebephilic, or ephebophilic sexual behaviors are sexually deviant behaviors and should be roundly and forthrightly condemned.

For far too long, Christians have made too easy and convenient associations between those who participate in same sex sexual behavior and pedophilia, as if anyone who has same sex sexual desires would also naturally have pedophilic desires. As we have seen, the witness of Scripture provides condemnation of same sex sexual behaviors as well as pedophilic behaviors, and both are appropriately deemed sexually deviant behaviors. No doubt there are some who have both same sex and pedophilic sexual desires, but one does not require the other.

Most Christians recognize the sinfulness of pedophilic, hebephilic, and ephebophilic sexual behaviors and well and often condemn them, at least in the abstract. Sometimes it seems the level of concern or hostility regarding such behaviors has to do with how well or poorly those accused of doing such things align with preferred political, social, and cultural viewpoints: many Christians seem quite willing to castigate and condemn the inappropriate sexual behaviors of those “on the other side,” but conspicuously fall silent when some on “our side” are exposed.

Unfortunately, many times it is those who profess Christ who are accused of acting on pedophilic, hebephilic, or ephebophilic desires and have committed child sexual abuse. Sometimes other Christians have responded appropriately by appropriately disciplining those who would do such things, handing them over to the appropriate secular authorities so they might suffer the appropriate secular consequences, and have sought to provide appropriate encouragement, strength, and support to those who have survived their predations. Unfortunately, far too many times other Christians have responded poorly. Christians have too often shielded child sexual predators from accountability from secular authorities. Christians have too often instead attempted to foist blame upon the children involved, as if they “seduced” the adult or encouraged the adult to act the way s/he did in some way or another.

Sadly, in some of these unfortunate and sinful reactions to such behaviors by Christians, the normalizing of hebephilic and ephebophilic tendencies is manifest. Yes, boys and girls in their teenage years are beginning to experience sexual maturity and thus sexual desire. Yes, in previous times and cultures, and even in some cultures today, girls were married off often by their late teens, and even in their early- to mid-teen years. There might well be times in which boys and girls will think, feel, and act in sexual ways which ought to be reserved for marriage, either among fellow young people or even toward adults. Yet in all these matters we must remember such young people remain children, and adults have no business or right sexualizing them and/or participating in sexual behaviors with them. Instead, Christian adults should continue to strive to maintain their bodies in holiness and purity. If they transgress, they should make no excuses for their behaviors, and they certainly have no justification in blaming children for their own moral failures as adults.

Likewise, Christians would do well to be on better guard against grooming behaviors. Grooming, in a sexual context, takes place when an adult works to establish an emotional connection with someone in a more vulnerable or less powerful position and/or their family members, all with a view of gaining greater access to that person in order to develop a sexual relationship with them. Those who have and wish to act on pedophilic, hebephilic, and/or ephebophilic behaviors will often participate in grooming in order to gain the trust of the child so they can eventually sexually abuse the child. Grooming is a great perversion of the kind of relationships Jesus would have Christians cultivate with one another; after all, it is good, right, and appropriate for older Christians to take a spiritual interest in the welfare of children and young people and to provide appropriate encouragement, mentorship, and support. Distorting and perverting such adult and child relationships by introducing sexual exploitation is damnable and shameful.

What stands behind all the various matters we have considered today is the sexualization of children, and Christians therefore do best when they stand firmly against any and all sexualization of children. We do well to forthrightly condemn all pedophilic, hebephilic, and ephebophilic sexual behaviors, and we should condemn any attempt by older people to sexualize young people in any way, shape, or form. We should condemn all child sexual abuse, and seek to provide appropriate encouragement, strength, and support for all those who have survived child sexual abuse. May Christians fully stand against any and all sexualization of children while finding ways to support and strengthen children who have been sexualized, and thus glorify and honor God in Christ!

Ethan R. Longhenry

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