Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 GARFIELD 20/11/84; site garfield.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!utai!garfield!johnf From: johnf@garfield.UUCP Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc Subject: Re: Sexual Attitudes (questions about Stuart Gathmans article) Message-ID: <2208@garfield.UUCP> Date: Thu, 18-Sep-86 10:03:02 EDT Article-I.D.: garfield.2208 Posted: Thu Sep 18 10:03:02 1986 Date-Received: Fri, 19-Sep-86 01:28:39 EDT References: <54@houligan.UUCP> <1092@hoptoad.uucp> Sender: perry@garfield.UUCP Reply-To: johnf@garfield.UUCP (John Field) Organization: Memorial U. of Nfld. C.S. Dept., St. John's Lines: 56 Keywords: Go forth and multiply, already... Summary: In article <1092@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes: >Until very recently, very few Christians would have made the concessions to >modern attitudes about sexuality that you mentioned. Almost all would have >been quite overt about feeling that sex was at best a neccessary evil. This >is the attitude throughout the New Testament, which recommends at least >celibacy and at most self-castration. (Squeamish moderns will deny that >Jesus really advocated castration, but he openly supported men "making >themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" - castration was >a fairly common practice in various religious sects of the day, and if this >were meant to be figurative, Jesus would certainly have inserted a warning >to that effect.) >Christianity has always been prudish and anti-sexual, and the recent >concessions concerning sex within marriage being good even if not for >procreation (which a few Protestant sects have made) sit very uneasily with >most Christian leaders. The majority attitude within the fundamentalist and >Catholic worlds, as well as most Protestant church leaders, is still that >sex is evil and disgusting. When concessions are made to the beauty of sex, >their motive is obviously to slow down the drifting away from Christianity >that has been caused in large part by more enlightened sexual attitudes. >These attitudes result directly from the efforts of humanists like Sanger, >which were viciously opposed by all mainstream Christian denominations. >-- >Tim Maroney, Electronic Village Idiot and Self-Assigner of Pretentious Titles I'd really like to know where you get your information. The attitude of Catholicism is NOT that sex is dirty; at least, *I* was never taught that, nor were my parents, nor were *their* parents (this in a place that was up until recently somewhat dogmatic in its observance of church laws, be they Catholic or Protestant). We were always taught that sex was a wonderful, precious thing. God made it enjoyable, not Satan. We are simply taught that sex is wrong only outside of marriage, because it was meant to 1) bond a man and a woman together in body as the marriage binds them in spirit and 2) to bring itty-bitty bipeds into the world that God put here for us. In the Old Testament, God said "Go forth and multiply"; in the New Testament, God (the Son) says that in marriage, a man will cleave unto his wife (and vice versa), and they become ONE (He doesn't mean only spiritually, but PHYSICALLY, too; God is saying, OK guys, party time...). As a matter of fact, the Church believes that inside a marriage having sex FOR IT'S PLEASURES' SAKE is ok, wonderful, fine. It's just that the door must be left open to procreation: children are supposed to be a blessing, not a curse. Now where in the New Testament does Jesus say one must castrate oneself? Could you at least give me a few chapters and verses to work with? And as for the watching of naked bodies and the like, Jesus Himself said that nothing that goes into a man from the outside can make him unclean; only that which is in his heart can do so. (Sorry I can't give chapter and verse right now, but I don't usually tote a Bible with me wherever I go, pious as I am 0|-). I'd leave an e-mail address (if I knew what it was). Is it the same as ean or not? Qvid, me anxiovs svm? John. Waiver : These views are personal and in no way reflect the views of this university.