Here’s an attempt to look into the links between salvation or wholeness and the brokenness of humanity especially as it is perceived in general media and specifically in religious environments.  It is a good idea to  define some of the terms before we dive into the connections that exist.  The New Testament uses carnality (the carnal person’s attributes) to define man’s wayward and unenlightened attitudes and behaviors, but it is popularly used to define behaviors confined to the body.  Now that analysis is surely inadequate, because the body’s functions are either out of or under control, so an attitude of anguish or despair will appropriately come from our own efforts.

Carnality and immorality are more than sexual misdeeds

Carnality comes from Latin, carnis, FLESH or MEAT.  Gee, perhaps one day someone will tell us that human beings are not flesh and bones, but something else.  How can people cling to saying we were all threatened by being flesh and are stuck with carnality, but we might be inspired by the caterpillar who goes from having many legs to having two wings in a most dramatic fashion.  I suggest we humans have an equally dramatic transformation, with receipts.  A couple of men have disappeared from the planet and the speculation has run all the way from (a) they are on some other world that has not been subjected to the judgments and fleeting fortunes of planet earth, to (b) these guys are basically with God.  “With God” is already a fantastic fact made possible by the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Fellowship or intimacy with God is already at maximum for any flesh, and there is an intimacy that awaits when flesh gets transformed.

The pervasive appetite denial

You may have noticed that some foods have the characteristics of the forbidden tree.  A food item is to be expected to be eaten freely .  See the “eat eat” of Genesis 2:16.  When an  item looks good, and has added benefits beyond assuaging hunger a pleasure is clearly in view.  People who spend most days fasting have little appreciation for the gift of appetite.

APPETITE is closely related to and expressed by the terms that define a person’s life (chayyah), being (nephesh), and belly (koilia).  Good luck on having any kind of personhood without a functioning stomach, soul (conscious being) and life force.

When the woman saw that the tree was GOOD FOR FOOD, and that it was a DELIGHT TO THE EYES, and that the tree was DESIRABLE TO MAKE ONE WISE, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6, NASB)

Mixing justice and harems

In the wider sense we find carnality attached to drunkenness, drug abuse, and sexual acts outside of marriage, and gluttony.  In this regard we should note that having an “appetite” does not mean engaging destructive desires.  To claim that we have no appetite means we are trying to be God.  There is, for example, latent mutual desire for cohabitation between males and females, and yet in some circles a woman is expected to be the target of desire.

Sexual wellness and ignorance

A lot of religious rhetoric and propaganda comes out of sexual imaging, and it is not as if the rhetoric and propaganda acknowledge that sexual desire and experiences (good and bad) and part of the fabric of the human race.  Did anyone ever think that without sexual desires fulfilled there’d be no future?  Without sexuality we would all disappear, presumably leaving the planet in the hands of robots and droids.

All up inside your religiosity

Misogyny is probably one of the more irrational attitudes that has been around for so long as to make it seem normal.

Attitudes are the seedbed of behaviours.  So let’s realize that the proliferation of criminal acts all over the globe tells us that people are not guarding their attitudes.  A good attitude takes the time to notice the world around us, takes the time to intervene appropriately, in short, cares about more than me, myself, and us.

It is said that appetite triggered the perennial human crisis

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6, NASB)

The narrative does not talk about appetite as hunger and thirst.  The couple in Eden could not be hungry.  The forbidden tree had unusual fruit.  Curiosity seems to have gotten the best of Adam and Eve.

• the woman saw that the tree was good for food
• it was a delight to the eyes,
• and that the tree was desirable to make one wise (Genesis 3:6a, NASB)

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6, NASB)

I would hate giving us another list, so let’s just try to have an attitude that we can be proud of and I am sure we will find ourselves at home.  The title spells out casa, Spanish for home🏠 .  No matter how hard we try, by rant or rave, all the puritanical resolutions – from Muslims, Christians or Jewish believers – we are going to learn to adopt a healthy respect for the squeaky wheels.  These are the carnal, greedy, sex-starved and sex-bound and low esteem persons for whom no boundaries exist in God’s agenda for humans to be at home with him.