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Date Posted: 06:20:28 05/30/03 Fri
Author: Gabriel
Author Host/IP: proxy.senselan.ch / 194.153.188.3
Subject: Countdown to Rock Am Ring...
In reply to: RachelX 's message, "OK, this is the longest thread ever! (Or, it will be with a bit of luck!)" on 05:56:14 02/10/03 Mon

one teeny, weeny, motherfucking week!

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[> On Sex and Catholicism -- Lijdrec, Bishop of Death!, 00:29:08 06/03/03 Tue (oc-nas-04-s59.cinergycom.net/216.135.22.59)

Sex and the City – Of God
By John P. Blessington

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m starting to think sex and religion do not mix. It’s not just the Roman Church or Christianity that struggles with sex; Jews and Muslims do as well. It is likely that all religions are lost in this desert.

Born with a drive to procreate, God’s law of nature has made it a pleasure center, an exciting drive. So little is said about pleasure within our faith, we have to hunt for it here and there. Too often, sex is spoken of in such high tones and lofty words, it little resembles what we feel or what actions we take when we are acting sexually.

This is not an article about sexual mechanics—I’m too Irish for that. Here I wish to ask: Do you see what I see? Do you see a disconnect between our sexual realities and the way we approach it within our religions? In the name of orthodoxy, we have sanctioned killing for adultery. Of course, it was mostly the women who were to be killed—you know how they go about tempting us poor guys. Within our Church, sex is always spoken of as love, the begetting of children, and the love of each other attached to the love of God. There is more incense than perfume in the air. The organic becomes spiritual and the organic is not seen or heard of again. The bed disappears and heavenly music surrounds the topic.

We canonize virgins at a fair clip, but we have few married saints. Maybe having a spouse and children decreases our virtue, although the mother of 10 was spoken of as saintly. Praised, but not canonized. As Christians, we’ve elevated sexual purity to an unequal virtue, condemning sins of the flesh that are sexual above the other sins of the flesh. I suspect we simply do not know what to do about our organic sexuality. We believe it comes from God, but question what God had in mind; no sex, no people. But then virginity and celibacy are often deemed the highest of callings. However, if we all answer that call, we will be back down to just Adam and Eve, and like our Shaker cousins, we will go out of business.

Dare we try for a new set of insights? Can we accept the organic and hard driven business of sexual attraction as both a path to expressing our interdependence and our need to bond? If we accept this as part of God’s design, we may have to accept some other aspects as well. We may have to teach our children the important moral and social value of the Commandments, while also addressing our appetites and pleasures. And we may have to frame sexuality in terms that encompass the mechanics and cautions, but also speak of sex in terms of justice and charity as well.

As for single people, young and old, or divorced or widowed, we may have to open our minds to the nature of our sex drives not being harbored only within marriage. There is virtue in love, and we ought not to deny its presence when it is there. And while we may be confused by same-sex love, I know I see it in dear friends. I grew up rejecting it and subjecting some to cruel jokes, but I am no longer that ignorant. Do I understand why some men are drawn to men and women to women? No. But I now share with many other people of faith and morality a need to back up and listen with respect and leave it to God to explain what is, clearly, a different call within nature. Science reveals we are neither male nor female at the start in the womb. Then nature sets our course and it is obvious that not all of our nature is understood.

In the City of God, we are what we are; but in this temporal city we need to be humble and accepting of our sexual nature and of those around us. Then we will be a purer minded religion and maybe freer to be happy.



John P. Blessington is a freelance executive producer for CBS Television, cultural and religious unit. An educator, author, husband and grandfather, he lives in Cos Cob, Conn.


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