Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: brendan@cs.uq.oz.au (Brendan Mahony) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: sex, marriage, sin Message-ID: Date: 22 Mar 91 03:54:59 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 51 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Jeff Fields writes: >I personally know non-promiscous monogamous couples who would die for each >other their love is so strong. They make sexual love, but are not married. >I see no sin in this. The only possible sin I can see in this is their unwillingness to publicly (and perhaps privately) proclaim and acknowledge a marriage that is surely blessed by God. Tim ARNOLD writes: >Who cares whether you see sin in it or not? The crucial question is does God? We know that all love comes from God, and that he blesses many unofficial marriages with that gift. Karl isochronal Henning writes: >MARRIAGE (or any close relationship) will lead to more "suffering" than >if it is avoided. When one maintains any long-term relationship, >differences of opinion will inevitably arise, and some of these inevitable >disagreements will likely prove painful. So what? It happens to everybody, >and the alternative is isolation and loneliness -- no, /realistically/ >the alternative is social ineptitude, which entails its own particular >"suffering". Whilst I cannot disagree with the text of this passage in isolation I feel that in the context of the overall discussion (and especially the next paragraph) the implication here is that close relationship should be understood to mean close sexual relationship, whence the whole thing becomes a bit unsettling. There are many people who do not partake of sexual relationships who are anything but socially inept and remain very capable of entering into very close, ;ong-lasting and rewarding personal relationships. >You may put off learning how to discuss sex (itself, how it applies to >your own sensory experience, how it affects the other ways people interact >socially), or even (gasp) put off Applied (as well as Theoretical) Sex, >until some "marriage" with Mr or Ms Right; but the "growing pains" >involved in learning one's way in such a relationship are no more >intrinsically soul-rarefying than riding a bicycle. I would just point out that some would see the relationship as the point of the exercise rather than the "awakening" of one's sexual awareness. -- Brendan Mahony | brendan@batserver.cs.uq.oz Department of Computer Science | heretic: someone who disgrees with you University of Queensland | about something neither of you knows Australia | anything about.