And on the seventh day, there was no rest for married couples. A week after the Rev Ed Young challenged husbands and wives among his flock of 20,000 to strengthen their unions through Seven Days of Sex, his advice was — keep it going.Young, an author, a television host and the pastor of the evangelical Fellowship Church, issued his call for a week of “congregational copulation” among married couples on November 16, while pacing in front of a large bed. Sometimes he reclined on the paisley coverlet while flipping through a Bible, emphasising his point that it is time for the church to put God back in the bed.“Today we’re beginning this sexperiment, seven days of sex,” he said, with his characteristic mix of humour, showmanship and Scripture. “How to move from whining about the economy to whoopee!”On Sunday parishioners at the Grapevine branch watched a prerecorded sermon from Young and his wife, Lisa, on jumbo screens over a candlelit stage. “I know there’s been a lot of love going around this week, among the married couples,” one of the church musicians said, strumming on a guitar before a crowd of about 3,000.Young said that after a week of having sex every day, or close to it, “some of us are smiling”. For others grappling with infidelities, addictions to pornography or other bitter hurts, “there’s been some pain; hopefully there’s been some forgiveness, too.”Young advised the couples to “keep on doing what you’ve been doing this week. We should try to double up the amount of intimacy we have in marriage.”Young, known simply as Ed to his parishioners, and his wife, both 47, have been married for 26 years and have four children, including twins. They have firsthand experience with some of the barriers to an intimate sex life in marriage.But if you make the time to have sex, it will bring you closer to your spouse and to God, he has said. You will perform better at work, leave a loving legacy for your children to follow and may even prevent an extramarital affair. “If you’ve said, ‘I do’, do it,” he said. As for single people, “I don’t know, try eating chocolate cake,” he said.The sex-starved marriage has been the topic of at least two recent books, 365 Nights and Just Do It. This is not a gimmick or a publicity stunt, Young says. Just look at the sensuousness of the Song of Solomon, or Genesis: “two shall become one flesh”, or Corinthians: “do not deprive each other of sexual relations.”“For some reason the church has not talked about it, but we need to,” he said, speaking by telephone on Friday night on his way to South Africa for a mission trip. There is no shame in marital sex, he added, “God thought it up, it was his idea.”Those who attend Fellowship’s location here or one of several satellite churches in the Dallas area and one in Miami are used to Young’s provocative style. But the sex challenge was a bit much for some of his church members, who sat with arms crossed in uncomfortable silence. It is not always easy to devote time for your spouse, Pastor Young admitted. Just three days into the sex challenge he said he was so tired after getting up before dawn to talk about the importance of having more sex in marriage that he went early to bed. His wife tried to shake him awake, telling her husband, “Come on, it’s the sex challenge.” But Young murmured, “Let’s just double up tomorrow,” and went back to sleep.
