On this last day of 2010, thoughts turn to… sex! Why not? With all the attention through out the year to the various sex-o-pades of celebrities and of course the on-going sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, one can not escape all the attention that sex and religion garnered.
I’ve heard it said elsewhere that religion is very concerned about what you do when you are naked. It seems sometimes that religion, especially Christianity, is overly preoccupied with people’s sex lives. Anyone who grew up in the Catholic religion will attest to how much guilt is put upon kids if they dare to even think about sex. I could never understand how priests could sit in the confessionals listening to various teenagers “confess” their intimate thoughts and actions regarding sex and not have some stirrings' in their loins.
The Catholic Church still insists that sex should only be between a married man and woman (who’s been paying attention to that?) and don’t get them started on homosexuality! Just recently the Pope opened a door, so to speak, on the use of condoms. I was surprised by all the attention it got. But the bottom line is, who cares? As long as the sex abuse scandal continues to unfold, the public will continue to engage in sex in their own way, straight or gay and not care what some old dude in white says.
With the foregoing in mind, a recent post in Frank Schaeffer’s blog (www.frank-schaeffer.blogspot.com) caught my attention recently -
In the light (or should I say "dark") of the Republican's stand against repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" we need to understand the wider context of the fight that pits human rights against the conservative Christians who have taken over the Republican Party.
If there is one thing all Christians should have learned by now it's that we -- of all people -- should never, ever cast aspersions on anyone else's sex life!
When it comes to pointing the finger over sexual "sin" the worldwide Christian community -- from the halls of the Vatican, to some Evangelical conservative "home church" established in somebody's basement two minutes ago -- is in the morally compromised position of a sometime violent habitual rapist criticizing a shoplifter for stealing a candy bar.
We're not talking about "a few bad apples," but the whole edifice of religion top to bottom.
So we have the churches, Catholic and Protestant, pontificating about how people should conduct their sex lives while not presenting a very good example. I think it’s time to put religion in the closet of bad ideas for a time and tend to more pressing problems, like ending wars, creating jobs and preserving our environment. Think about it.