Quakers Integrating Spirituality and Sexuality

A Basic Sexuality Library for Friends Meetings

Compiled by Peggy Brick

Hoping to encourage discussion and education about sexual issues in their Meetings, participants in the 2001 FGC workshop, Sexuality: Our Continuing Search, requested this starter list. Comprehensive, annotated bibliographies, including one on "Religion, Spirituality, and Sexuality," are available at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of US website, (http://www: SIECUS.org).

1. Did the Sunshine Before You Were Born? Sol and Judith Gordon, pb.1992. $8.95

   For children ages 3 -7, this warmly told story of where babies come from is truthful and culturally sensitive. Beautiful illustrations show various kinds of families. Children love it.

2. It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex & Sexual Health. Robie H. Harris, illus. Michael Emberley, pb.1996. $19.15 - hardback is best for this one!)

   Delightful illustrations enhance this popular book for preteens which answers their most important questions about bodies, puberty, sex, families and babies, and staying healthy.

3. Changing Bodies, Changing Lives: A Book for Teens on Sex and Relationships. Ruth Bell, pb.1998. $16.10

   Teens return to this classic again and again as they face new challenges throughout their adolescent years. Accurate information, plus stories of how real have faced difficult decisions, makes this an invaluable resource.

4. Sex and Sensibility: The Thinking Parent's Guide to Talking Sense about Sex. Deborah Roffman, 2000. $26.

   This wise book provides parents with "new ways of thinking and talking" about communicating with their children at different stages of development. Savvy about the real world young people face, Roffman gives concrete ways to give information, clarify values, set limits, provide guidance.

5. Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century, 25th anniversary edition. Boston Women's Health Collective, $16.80.

   This classic has changed the way women experience their bodies, their relationships, their sexuality, fertility and child-bearing. Over 700 pages of up-to-date information and advise for women of all ages.

6. The Intimate Connection: Male Sexuality, Masculine Spirituality. James B. Nelson, pb. 1991. $18.95.

   A profound exploration of how traditional male sex roles have impeded male sexuality and spirituality. Nelson addresses the unfinished business of the sexual revolution: an understanding of the true meaning of love and intimacy.

7. For Each Other: Sharing Sexual Intimacy. Lonnie Barbach, pb. 1983, $11.96.

   Barbach, a sex-therapist, provides an explicit program for couples seeking to establish an intimate and meaningful sexual relationship. She gives specific suggestions for common concerns about arousal, orgasm, desire, and communication.

8. Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America, 2nd edition. John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, pb, 1997. $15.

   Essential reading for everyone who wants to understand the importance of race, gender, and class in determining sexual values and behaviors, as well as attitudes about contemporary controversies including sexuality education, abortion, and sexual orientation.

9. Gays, Lesbians and Family Values. Elizabeth Say and Mark Kowalewski, pb, $11.16

   The authors address many of the controversial issues through interviews with actual family members.

10. Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Reflection. James B. Nelson and Sandra P. Longfellow, pb. 1994, $20.96

    32 authors contribute an excellent variety of essays on the meanings of sexuality and the relationship between sexuality and spirituality.

Comments/suggestions welcomed by Peggy Brick