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Unrestrained Sex and the Celibate Witness
Young, Evangelical, and Catholic ^ | 8/14/2010 | Brantly Millegan

Posted on 08/14/2010 10:39:35 AM PDT by markomalley

"As women, we have the right to make decisions regarding our bodies. These include decisions regarding the ability to control if and when we have children, regardless of whether we want several children or no children at all. Birth control is fundamental to our ability to have autonomy in our lives, and it helps us to understand our bodies and to enjoy our sexuality safely with men.” – Our Bodies, Ourselves 2005


The above quote captures the sentiment of many pro-contraceptive women, as well as men, non-Christian and Christian.

The quote seems to make a good point. We do have the right to make decisions regarding our bodies. The problem is that its logic has one glaring problem. The author, as many who would agree with her often do, assumes that such control is gained through the use of birth control, presumably contraception.

Maybe I’m just stuck in Christendom as it existed from the first century until the mid-20th century, but I thought the way to avoid children was to not engage in the behavior that leads to children, or in other words, not have sex. For the above author, and many in our society today, such an option is no option at all. Sex is a given. Of course people will be having sex. For someone not to have sex is unhealthy, and worse, oppressive.

Sadly, evangelicals have walked like lemmings right along with the world, except for maintaining the caveat that sex is only for marriage. Many evangelicals consider sex for married people to be like food – it’s inappropriate, unhealthy, and even wrong to expect or encourage married couples to abstain from sex for any period of time.

And like lemmings, they have followed the world off a cliff.

Since when is sex something that we must have, especially married people? The world and our separated brethren think that birth control gives them control over their bodies, when all along what it really does is encourage them to have no control over their bodies. It’s all a big lie. What they call freedom is actually slavery. True control over one’s body is the ability to not have sex when one doesn’t want to have a baby.

In other words, the answer isn’t birth control, it’s self control. This is the true freedom.

But people in our society today have so little control that the option to abstain cannot even be considered. It’s not even entertained as a virtue to which we should aspire. In their minds the choice really is between all women being pregnant their entire reproductive lives, or the use of contraception, something that all Christians for millennia had deemed a grave perversion, until Protestants, even supposedly conservative evangelicals, decided to follow the world in the mid-20th century.

So it is now more than ever that our world needs the celibate witness. Celibate priests, monks, and nuns, even lay people who are living the single life – we need you to stand as witnesses to the world and to our separated brethren, and as a constant reminder to married couples within the Church, that we do not need sex, that sex does not lead to happiness. Unrestrained sex is not the answer. Lust will never be quenched. It is a black hole that leads only to hell, in this life and the next.

There is another way.

We do not need a pill that makes the woman’s body act as if it is diseased to be free. We do not need a piece of plastic to ‘protect’ the woman from the man’s seed. We need the grace of Jesus to help us all to have self-control over ourselves, especially the sacred gift of our sexuality. Our celibate brothers and sisters prove to us that sex isn't required for the happiest and most meaningful lives.

Some evangelicals have just recently started to reevaluate the Reformation’s almost total rejection of celibacy as an option. I encourage those that are feeling the call: look to the Church. It is a beacon. Although Protestants have lost their way, the Church has stood as the city on the hill. The Church has maintained the true teaching all these years. You do not need to reinvent a theology of celibacy. There is already a place, the only place where it can be truly lived, the only place where it has its full meaning, the Church, where you can join in and be, in an age of unrestrained sex, the celibate witness.


TOPICS: Catholic; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: autonomy; celibacy; celibatewitness; fornication; sexualimmorality
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To: msamizdat

So are you saying that contraception is better than Natural Family Planning?

BTW, I have five children and 10 grandchildren


21 posted on 08/14/2010 1:28:05 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: ansel12

Protestants put Obama in office. Millions more Protestants voted for Obama than Catholics.


22 posted on 08/14/2010 1:42:11 PM PDT by vladimir998 (Part of the Vast Catholic Conspiracy (hat tip to Kells))
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To: vladimir998

Sure gross numbers will have that effect and while I haven’t run the 2008 numbers I imagine that gross population numbers meant that Protestants may have outnumbered the Catholics voting for Obama and surely have in other elections, but it ignores what makes a group favor an ideology and it is something of a childish denial, especially for conservative activists like ourselves that are interested in making American voters more conservative.

Some Catholics and homosexuals vote Republican and some Protestants vote Democrat.

What is it though that turns the majority of Christians of Catholicism into liberals and what makes the majority of Protestant Christians conservative?

What happens to a Hispanic that makes him conservative when he leaves the Catholic community and becomes a Protestant?


23 posted on 08/14/2010 1:58:39 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12

You wrote:

“What is it though that turns the majority of Christians of Catholicism into liberals and what makes the majority of Protestant Christians conservative?”

I don’t think that is the case. All Protestants by definition are religiously liberal. Some Catholics are politically liberal, but not all Catholic Democrats are. They might be liberal on some issues, but not others. I think you should worry about your own house since your people put Obama in the White House. Obama is a Protestant too don’t forget.

“What happens to a Hispanic that makes him conservative when he leaves the Catholic community and becomes a Protestant?”

Again, I don’t think that is the case. I know plenty of conservative Hispanic Catholics.


24 posted on 08/14/2010 3:38:22 PM PDT by vladimir998 (Part of the Vast Catholic Conspiracy (hat tip to Kells))
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To: vladimir998

There sure aren’t very many Hispanic Catholics that are conservative, because the great majority of them vote for the pro-abortion left.

Something makes the majority of Catholics pro abortion liberals and something makes the majority of Protestants pro-life conservatives. This has serious ramifications as we keep importing more Catholic voters for the Democrat party.

The refusal to even acknowledge such a simple thing as their role in the vote, might account for how Catholics can often write and speak like conservatives yet in the privacy of the voting booth vote for the liberal agenda and do so generation, after generation, after generation.

Protestants by definition practically, are what we call conservatives in America. The majority of the Catholics would be identified as liberal.


25 posted on 08/14/2010 4:24:46 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: markomalley
The author is scripturally ignorant and pridefully trying to force his own standards to everyone.

1 Cor 7:9 "But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." Clearly Paul was endorsing marriage for the purpose of sexual gratification.

Mat 19:10-11 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. Jesus himself declared that not everyone is enabled to be a enuich. By extension, people have differing sexual needs.

Rom 14:4-6 Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. This ignorant author is doing exactly what the scriptures say not to do in that he is applying his own standards to everyone.

26 posted on 08/14/2010 5:00:37 PM PDT by The Truth Will Make You Free
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To: ansel12

You wrote:

“There sure aren’t very many Hispanic Catholics that are conservative, because the great majority of them vote for the pro-abortion left.”

and yet they are dwarfed to the power of ten by the number of Protestants who vote pro-abort and do so with the INTENT of supporting abortion. Obama is a Protestant - much like you.

“Something makes the majority of Catholics pro abortion liberals and something makes the majority of Protestants pro-life conservatives.”

Protestants put Obama in the White House. Obama is a Protestant - much like you.

“This has serious ramifications as we keep importing more Catholic voters for the Democrat party.”

And yet Protestants put Obama in the White House. And Obama is a Protestant.

“The refusal to even acknowledge such a simple thing as their role in the vote, might account for how Catholics can often write and speak like conservatives yet in the privacy of the voting booth vote for the liberal agenda and do so generation, after generation, after generation.”

And what proof do you have that that ever happens? What is more likely is that those who speak, write and act like conservatives are conservative. Protestants, however, are liberals and they put Obama in the White House. Like they put Clinton in the White House. And Jimmy Carter in the White House. All three of those liberal presidents are Protestants.

“Protestants by definition practically, are what we call conservatives in America.”

They put Obama in the White House and he shares their sectarian faith.

“The majority of the Catholics would be identified as liberal.”

And yet Protestants put Obama, Clinton and Carter in the White House. You are apparently doing nothing to stop liberalism from running rampant in Protestantism.

Every liberal ever elected to the presidency was put there by people who are Protestants like you. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.


27 posted on 08/14/2010 5:21:56 PM PDT by vladimir998 (Part of the Vast Catholic Conspiracy (hat tip to Kells))
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To: The Truth Will Make You Free

You wrote:

“Clearly Paul was endorsing marriage for the purpose of sexual gratification.”

No, he did not. He said, “it is better”. In other words, it would be better for a man to marry and find gratification in that sexual union - a union blessed by God - then to BURN IN HELL FOR COMMITTING SEXUAL SINS OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE. St. Paul would never recommend marriage SOLELY for sexual gratification.


28 posted on 08/14/2010 5:25:01 PM PDT by vladimir998 (Part of the Vast Catholic Conspiracy (hat tip to Kells))
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To: vladimir998

This game you play is childish and it sure does not help America in any way.

Trying to pretend that a category of people that are consistently THE anti-liberal, conservative voting block is liberal because their majority voter numbers do not equal 100% and pretending that a consistently anti-conservative, liberal voting block is not liberal, is a form of mental gymnastics, evasiveness, and intellectual dishonesty that does not belong on a conservative web site, and it is being done by a Catholic on the religion threads no less.


29 posted on 08/14/2010 5:50:01 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: The Truth Will Make You Free; vladimir998
1 Cor 7:9 "But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." Clearly Paul was endorsing marriage for the purpose of sexual gratification.

I am not certain how you can read that from the verse you cited. In the verse you cite, St Paul was clearly advocating marriage for those who can't control their sexual impulses. Clearly, St Paul was endorsing marriage as a chaste alternative to masturbation or fornication.

In the same passage, did not St. Paul write, 29 This therefore I say, brethren: The time is short. It remains, that they also who have wives be as if they had none?

If he was advocating marriage for the purpose of achieving sexual gratification, why in the world would he suggest in the same passage for married men to act as if they had none?

Perhaps the scriptural ignorance does not lie with the author of this piece...

In the second passage you cited, you did not cite it in context. The full context is talking about divorce.

7 They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" 8 He said to them, "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who married a divorced woman, commits adultery."

10 The disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry." 11 But he said to them, "Not all men can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it." (Matthew (RSV) 19)

Jesus is talking about a gift that not all men can receive. You tell me: is he talking about men who are celibate or is he talking about men who take a knife to themselves? Does your church pass out knives?

This ignorant author is doing exactly what the scriptures say not to do in that he is applying his own standards to everyone.

Maybe you should follow your advice and read the whole scripture rather than out-of-context verses.

30 posted on 08/14/2010 7:43:18 PM PDT by markomalley (Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus)
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To: ansel12

You wrote:

“This game you play is childish and it sure does not help America in any way.”

What a perfect description - of your incessant posting of the same message. I will continue to post as you post. I see no reason to do otherwise. Obama is a Protestant - much like you. Protestants put Obama in the White House, and Clinton and Carter.

“Trying to pretend that a category of people that are consistently THE anti-liberal, conservative voting block is liberal because their majority voter numbers do not equal 100% and pretending that a consistently anti-conservative, liberal voting block is not liberal, is a form of mental gymnastics, evasiveness, and intellectual dishonesty that does not belong on a conservative web site, and it is being done by a Catholic on the religion threads no less.”

The vast majority of people who voted for Obama were Protestants. Obama is a Protestant. Protestants put Clinton and Carter in office too.


31 posted on 08/15/2010 4:29:46 AM PDT by vladimir998 (Part of the Vast Catholic Conspiracy (hat tip to Kells))
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To: markomalley

I went ahead and copied them over.


32 posted on 08/15/2010 6:41:25 AM PDT by SeƱor Zorro ("The ability to speak does not make you intelligent"--Qui-Gon Jinn)
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To: vladimir998

The difference between our postings are that I am posting actual political information important to conservative activists. You also totally ignore the effect that the Catholic vote has had on the Congress and local elections for 170 years, in New York for example.

You bring no information to this political web site or this discussion, only a mantra in an attempt to stop conservative political discussion

It is pretty silly to be trying to talk to a black bigot that claims to be a conservative, about swaying the black vote to conservatives, and instead of him joining in the discussion, he gets racial and starts childishly defending his racial identity by pointing out that blacks always need a portion of the white vote because whites are so numerous, even though the left has not won the white vote since 1964.

Of course in a nation created by Protestants, and majority Protestant, there will always be a portion that will vote liberal but they are a Protestant minority, what keeps liberal Protestants a minority of their voting block, what makes liberal Catholics the majority of their voting block?

The question in politics is less, how do you win 100% of a voting block, and more, how do you win a majority of a voting block.

What can we do to lead a majority of Catholics to start voting as pro-life, conservatives? Do you even care? What can make you start examining that conservative voting strategy and assisting it rather than trying to stop discussion of it?

The purpose of tracking voting is to gather useful information, conservatives need to unravel what is in Catholicism to make them liberals and what is in Protestantism to make them conservative.

The majority of Protestants voted against Obama and the Clintons, and Carter, yet they won the majority of the Catholic vote, just as Al Gore did in 2000, luckily it was not enough to overcome Protestant conservatism in 2000, how do conservatives use this information to help us to win every time in every election?.

Do conservative politics matter to you at all, does winning elections with pro-life candidates matter to you at all?


33 posted on 08/15/2010 9:32:53 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12

You wrote:

“The difference between our postings are that I am posting actual political information important to conservative activists. You also totally ignore the effect that the Catholic vote has had on the Congress and local elections for 170 years, in New York for example.”

I ignore nothing. Protestants put their fellow Protestant, Obama, in the White house. How is that not “actual political information important to conservative activists”?

“You bring no information to this political web site or this discussion, only a mantra in an attempt to stop conservative political discussion”

Again, Protestants put their fellow Protestant, Obama, in the White house. How is that not “actual political information important to conservative activists”?

“It is pretty silly to be trying to talk to a black bigot that claims to be a conservative, about swaying the black vote to conservatives, and instead of him joining in the discussion, he gets racial and starts childishly defending his racial identity by pointing out that blacks always need a portion of the white vote because whites are so numerous, even though the left has not won the white vote since 1964.”

Clearly the left won enough of the Protestant vote in 2008 to put their Protestan buddy Obama in the White House. Why aren’t you posting about that since you and Obama are both Protestants?

I think you need to be honest and admit that your fellow Protestants put Obama in the WH. You need to work on that.


34 posted on 08/15/2010 10:39:59 AM PDT by vladimir998 (Part of the Vast Catholic Conspiracy (hat tip to Kells))
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To: vladimir998

I asked you straight up and you have made it clear, conservative, pro-life politics do not interest you.


35 posted on 08/15/2010 11:33:21 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12

You wrote:

“I asked you straight up and you have made it clear, conservative, pro-life politics do not interest you.”

Your Protestant buddies saddled us with Obama. Handle your own sects. You can do exactly nothing to change anything among any group of Catholics. Since you’re a Protestant, like Obama, like the Protestants who put him in the White House, maybe you should concern yourself with why tens of millions of Protestants put him in the White House.


36 posted on 08/15/2010 12:50:27 PM PDT by vladimir998 (Part of the Vast Catholic Conspiracy (hat tip to Kells))
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To: vladimir998
You can do exactly nothing to change anything among any group of Catholics.

For the sake of America, you better hope that we can change the Catholic vote.

37 posted on 08/15/2010 1:44:14 PM PDT by ansel12
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Comment #38 Removed by Moderator

To: newguy357

Well, pound sand also.


39 posted on 08/15/2010 3:05:50 PM PDT by newguy357
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To: ansel12
"Protestants always vote pro-life right."

Protestants like George Tiller?

40 posted on 08/15/2010 3:10:25 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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