Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The churches I've been to have anti-sex and anti-evolution as their cornerstones. I didn't go often but every time I did go, without fail, there would be a sermon on anti-sex and anti-evolution.
Do they tell the newly married couples: "Now you two sleep in separate beds"? Or do they demand everyone in the congregation abstain from sex . . . even the married couples? Must be a small congregation if no one is making babies.
Weird. I've told young couples in marriage counseling that it's a gift to be enjoyed.
So there's a sex talk.
Why would someone talk with a pastor about their sex lives? Are there classes at pastor school that qualify them to discuss sex with the parishioners? Are there classes on human biology, sexuality and the reproductive system? Not speaking about any pastor who may be posting on this forum but the pastor could be getting his/her freak on away from the pulpit and be the least qualified person on the planet to be piously advising a couple on their sex lives.
Do they tell the newly married couples: "Now you two sleep in separate beds"? Or do they demand everyone in the congregation abstain from sex . . . even the married couples? Must be a small congregation if no one is making babies.
No, they would harp on about premarital sex.
Not safe sex or the dangers of reckless sex but on total abstinence.
I'm always suspicious of sermons about any particular sins. As if cleaning up that sin can do the person any good at all in terms of God's Kingdom. It can't and it won't. It's the Gospel that deals with sin, all of them not just the sin of the day.
Granting the concept of sin for the sake of discussion, this is spot on. Particularly you are correct to point out that Jesus is supposed to have placed religious hypocrisy and legalism as sins far above the ones usually railed against by modern preachers. It is right to be suspicious of such sermonizing because its primary purpose is to leverage people's guilt and shame to control them in various ways. That is not "treating the sinner with mercy and grace".
Do they tell the newly married couples: "Now you two sleep in separate beds"? Or do they demand everyone in the congregation abstain from sex . . . even the married couples? Must be a small congregation if no one is making babies.
In my experience there is no issue with standard heterosexual married sex; you are correct that this would not be terribly popular and would render any church that taught it necessarily small. It is the fixation and harping on other forms of sex or even sexual thoughts such that by the time one is married one is so repressed and hung up and unable to talk about it even with one's spouse that it sort of ruins it within marriage too.
I well remember my mother breaking out in a cold sweat trying to give me "the talk" when I was 16 and how I let her off the hook by telling her I already knew all about it. Boy was she relieved! Didn't even ask what I knew, or how! And this was a woman in her 50s by that time. A good Christian fundamentalist for whom discussing something with her own son that the church supposedly affirms was, for her, practically an existential crisis. And this sort of thing is not uncommon.
Well, Christianity does have a very narrow and specific view of sex and sexuality. It's confined only to heterosexuals, generally speaking who are married, and in the most conservative of cases, exclusively with intent to bare a child. This is why even the cool Pope's position on contraceptives is basically pro-AIDs.
Of the churches I've been to, sexuality is hardly even talked about as anything other than an abstract thing. I actually think this is a negative, but I'll get to that in a second. I will say that back in my days of Christianity, my paster devoted a months worth of sermons to romantic love, and as part, dedicated a time to talking about sex. I was in 8th grade at the time, I didn't care to be there, and I didn't want to hear sex talks with my parents in the same pew. Regrettably, I do not remember much. What I do remember is that sex is a gift... for married people. And while that pastor, who I to this day consider to be a very great man and a role model of mine, had no problem with homosexuals and even invited them to the church and to be excepted (fairly certain he was personally against officiating gay marriages, but did not feel it was his place to tell others they shouldn't), sex didn't seem to include them.
Sexuality is an important part of the human experience. To restrict it is to deny aspects of our humanity. I'm not saying go out and have sex with whomever you want without thinking; that's a great way to get an STD or pregnant or whatever. But there's no shame in having an interest in exploring one's sexuality in healthy and safe and meaningful ways. The church tends to disagree. There isn't much exploration and it's only for some people. Which is a shame.
cupper3, why is it that I have been to a lot of different churches and sex was never an issue?
Perhaps you didn't go to the Sunday school for children... or don't remember ever being taught about "proper" sex?
If Churches made sex an issue today, their monetary supporters would leave. Especially if they even mentioned the 10x or more widespread "unnatural" sexual act of oral sex. Some still do, however, if they feel they have a good grip on the majority of their congregation.
But I'd like to know: what is a hermaphrodite in sexually dichotomous religious terms?
Say mordant, have you considered writing a book? Or maybe you have written a book. You have an experiential background and knowledge base coupled with a skill and way of thinking that would make a great advisory book that would, I'm sure, be of interest and benefit to many readers. Just my humble opinion.
The churches I've been to have anti-sex and anti-evolution as their cornerstones. I didn't go often but every time I did go, without fail, there would be a sermon on anti-sex and anti-evolution.
Those are some seriously weird churches.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
They died out because they believed sex was immoral to the point of not reproducing.
