“Thou shalt have rumpy-pumpy” declared the front page of the Daily Star last week, along with a picture of Pope Francis. They returned to the theme on the front page yesterday.

Their story concerned the pope’s comments that sex is a gift from God (does anyone who is not a tabloid journalist actually refer to sex as “rumpy-pumpy”?). This really should not be news. Many church leaders have been saying for years – and in some cases centuries – that sex is a sacred gift.

Admittedly, the pope has made the comments in the context of a controversy over a book written by a Roman Catholic cardinal, which makes it a bit more newsworthy. However, I doubt the Daily Star is especially interested in internal Catholic squabbles. What really makes it newsworthy is the reality that mamy readers will find it surprising, because so many people expect Christians to be negative about sex.

As a Christian, I think we’ve only got oursevles to blame for this perception. The Christians who tend to speak loudest in public and media debates are those who want to condemn same-sex relationships and sex outside marriage. If pushed, the tend to say that sex is a gift from God if rightly used, but such additional comments are rarely much heard. Those Christians who disagree with them have rarely done a good job of speaking up as clearly as we should do.

The Bible is positive about sex. Of course there are a few more negative attitudes in certain parts of it – it’s a vast collection of books – but I maintain that the Bible is on the whole sex-positive (I recommend the Song of Songs, an erotic poem found in the middle of the Bible). There’s not space here to go into debates about particular biblical passages (though I readily do so elsewhere!), but I suggest that sex-negative interpretations of scripture are influenced by centuries of negative attitudes that did not really begin until some time after the Bible was written.

Chrisitanity in western Europe really became negative about sex from around the fourth century onwards. Augustine of Hippo developed the doctrine of Original Sin, arguing that sin is passsed on by sex and that babies are born guilty. This doctrine was rejected by some (but sadly not all) Protestants from the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century.

It’s notable that Augustine was writing shortly after the Roman Empire had effectively stifled Christianity by domesticating it and turning it into the imperial religion. Wheras Christian theologians had previously challenged violence and imperial rule, they began instead to defend them. Augustine himself played a major role in developing Just War Theory, which replaced early Christian nonviolence.

As Christianity moved from challenging empire to upholding it, the focus of discussions about sin moved from violence, oppression and poverty to concern for individuals’ sexual behaviours. For Christians, being negative about sex has often gone along with being positive about power, wealth and war.

So for left-wing and inclusive Christians today, positivity about sex shold naturally go along with seeking to demonstrate the solidarity with the marginalised that is displayed in the New Testament.

I am not of course saying that we should support all sex! Christians should be at the forefront of condemning sexual abuse, sexual violence, violations of consent and sex entered into for selfish reasons or with disrespect for others. These things are sinful. They are sinful not because they involve sex, but because they involve the intrusion of sins such as violence and inequality into what should be loving and Godly activity.

So let’s get out there and start championing the good things about sex. Just as long as we don’t have to call it “rumpy-pumpy”.