INDTRODUCTION
“Sex and religion? Those two don’t really go hand in hand,” commented by a freshmen student from UF. Like this student, numerous people around the world believe this misconception to be true. Whether people argue for or against the importance of sex in religion, more than just what goes on the bedroom has been heating up lately. Many debates have sparked due to the negative connotation associated with sex when confronted about its position in religious cultures. A study done had proven a direct relationship between religiosity and sexual attitudes in college student, but to what extent are their spiritual values influential in their sexual beliefs and what are the reasons behind this (Beckwith, n.pg.). Either way, there is to some extent an influence on sexual behavior, whether it is by gender, ethnicity, or religion. After extensive research and several interviews, I’m determined to find the truth about sex and its importance in religious cultures, its effects on spirituality, and the roles it plays in religion.
BACKGROUND
In the first few readings of the Bible, we are introduced to God, a spiritual being, that made sex a core unit of humanity. In fact, it was his orders to Adam and Eve to “Be fruitful and multiply,” (Genesis 1:28). In this same book of Christian teachings we also see in the book of Songs of Solomon, many poems and singings celebrating sex and the union it creates. According to Christianity, sex is not something to be demonized. Sex is not a sinful act. In fact, God created sex for man to enjoy. It is the union between two people to bring them to a higher spiritual level. For example, in the book of Genesis chapter two verse 24 it says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and...
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...ole does it play in religion? Well, it has become apparent to me that sex in fact is much more than physical actions. As was mentioned, yes sometimes sex can be just pure meaningless sex. Even sometimes when people recognize the true meaning behind sex and understand the deepness it represents but chose to ignore it to engage in just physical actions it becomes meaningless sex. However, it is for those times of strong spiritual connection between couples that makes sex important. In some cases sex is just pure sex. In other cases, sex is the basis of religion, the ultimate meaning of love, the binding of two flesh that become one, and the bringing of a couple to a higher level of spirituality in their relationship. Sex is deeper than just physical actions, sex does have an important role in religion, and sex does have a strong and deep effect on spirituality.
God has declared through His loving kindness and His righteousness how He enjoys heterosexual relationships, as Creator of man and woman. God created a woman from Adam’s rib so that Adam would not be alone. Upon completion of God creating woman, God asked Adam to name her; Adam declared she would be called woman as she was created with man’s rib, but her name will be Eve as she is the first woman. Therefore, that pleased God, and we have the first marriage. A marriage where to people man and woman come together. They were creatively designed by God to fit each other. God did not create man to lay with another man, as their bodies are not designed to fit or complement each other. Adam was given instructions from God not to eat from the tree of knowledge and as head of the marriage; it was his responsibility to enforce God’s command. Yet he failed and ate with Eve from the tree. And later that day, as God was walking in the garden in the coolness of the day, He called out to Adam. Adam and Eve were hiding from Him, as they knew they blew it. When God questioned Adam why did he eat from the tree, Adam blamed Eve. God is fair and just and He loves us all. Even when they had sinned against God, God loved them and clothed them with animal skins. In order for Him to provide the animal skins, He had to kill the animal.
One other concept that goes against this authentic religion notion is modern day sex-ed. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I have heard a pastor make an analogy about how a person, in particular women, are deemed less valuable because they have had sex. They are likened to a chewed piece of bubblegum that nobody wants. Sexual repression also makes people feel terrible for having completely normal and healthy thoughts. This completely flies in the face of the described pursuit of human dignity. It actively makes a person feel a sense of shame about themselves. Sexual repression also does not help in forming “compassionate, constructive relationships” (Kimball 139). Speaking from personal experience, the sexual repression that was enforced upon my current girlfriend and I in our Baptist upbringings has not helped foster a loving relationship. All it has done is hold us back and make us feel awful about loving each other in a physical manner. This isn’t just my story though. Even one of my friends that I used to go to church with still runs into problems with his girlfriend with this very same issue. This kind of doctrine does not bring people closer together. It pushes people away and makes them resent themselves for being a normal human being, and as soon as one party begins to fall into those sexual, completely normal urges, then they are taught to remove those people from their
At the beginning of Songs of Solomon, The Wife warns the Daughters of Judah to not arouse the kind of love she describes very graphically in SOS 2:7. In today’s Christian culture people are taught not to awaken love before marriage, yet sex before marriage is on the rise in the Christian community. I believe this is because those who live in this community try to test the limits and then when they have gone too far they are drowning in sexual desire for their partners rather than love. During the Song of Solomon lecture Dr. Miller explained that sex makes people crazy. Its uncontrollable nature is capable of fooling two people time incompatible people to believe that they are in love with one another.
The Bible does not forbid premarital sex. There is no passage of the Bible that references premarital sex as a sin against God. The association between sin and premarital sex is a new Christian idea. The only possible reference to premarital sex being a sin in the Bible is in the New Testament. This premise although, is generally dismissed by theologians because the Greek word pornei, or sexual immorality is commonly incorrectly translated into the English word fornication.
Upon reading first Corinthians 6:18-20, “Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body” (
In today’s society, there are roughly around 4,200 religions that exist on this planet. Some define "religion" as a cultural system of behaviors and practices that help people make important decisions in life. Out of the many religions, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism have many similarities that connect them to one another. Themes of morality, justice, love are found through both the Buddha's teaching and the Hebrew and Christian Bible.
A considerable amount of religions, object to premarital sex. Religious entities, Christianity specifically, put much stress on the solid association between morality and happiness. Christianity guarantees satisfaction to individuals who are morally upright. Happiness comes as a prize to those who fit in with the general religious standards, which consists of abstaining from premarital sex. The joy you feel when you partake in that activity before marriage, doesn’t compare to the joy you’ll experience when you are married and sex is allowed. What essentially being said is religious teachings validate the perspective that morality is important for
Looking at our past, there have been dramatic changes in the way humans view sex. Long before the 1900s individuals framed their views based on the religious institution. Due to the fact that they strongly centered their idea of sexual thought on religion, they believed that the only purpose of having sex was to procreate. As the 1920’s approached, there were various factors that changed the way individuals viewed sex. The “new women” known, as flappers were women who were confident in who they were. They changed their attire as well as their social attitude. In the 1920s, the flappers redefined sex; customs and traditions were broken and new norms were created by society.
The state of celibacy is exalted above that of marriage in the Church based upon 1 Corinthians 7:32-35, which states, " He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. . . . And this I speak. . . that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction." That's a wonderful ideal, but 1 Corinthians 7:9 says, "But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn ( with passion)."
When a man and a woman come together and bind in holy matrimony, two people become one. In marriage, two people come before the pastor and under God with their partner, to recite promises that are vows. In many religions such as Christianity and Catholicism, sex should be for left only for marriage. Sex is an emotional experience that is for married people to enjoy sexual pleasure together. Love and trust are sacred for the foundation of marriage.
Sexuality has become one of the key determining factors in one’s gender. While many want to initially say that gender is solely based on sexual orientation fail to take in to account many cultural practices, which not only influence gender, but create certain gender roles. The initial creation of Mexican gender roles, as Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez suggests, is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church “over the course of almost five hundred years,” created beliefs that virgins are desirable and that a non-virgin is of a lower moral class (38). From this Mexican women began maintaining their virginity, not because of the moral implications, but because of social mobility. Virginity has been created to be something beautif...
I will begin first with the idea that sexual behavior should not be granted its own moral code. Sexual ethics only makes sense if sexuality plays a unique role in human life. If procreation has significance precisely because it is a contribution to God's ongoing work of creation, sexuality is supremely important and must be governed by restrictive rules, which would therefore prohibit sexual acts that are not for procreative purposes. This justification of sexuality as a unique aspect of human life, however, is dependent on a theological claim that there exists a God who micro manages the sexual lives of individuals. Without the presence of such a God, there can exist no separate restrictive rules on the nature of sexual acts. Even if we grant that there is a God, most people will agree that sex is more often used as a way to intensify the bond between two people and therefor sex is the ultimate trust and intimacy that you can share with a person.
Another, quite different Fundamentalist confusion is the notion that celibacy is unbiblical, or even "unnatural." Every man, it is claimed, must obey the biblical injunction to "Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1:28); and Paul commands that "each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband" (1 Cor. 7:2). It is even argued that celibacy somehow "causes," or at least correlates with higher incidence of, illicit sexual behavior or perversion.
These questions arise from our own desires as Christians to reflect a biblically sound attitude towards sexuality and relationships. That same desire to act according to biblical scriptures is subject to opposition from today’s culture and views about sexual relationships, gender, and roles. A new definition of marriage, sexual orientation, and sexual practices is challenging our relationship with God and our view of human sexuality. Bishop John Spong defines sex and its impact on relationships: “Sex can be called at once the greatest gift to humanity and the greatest enigma of our lives. It is a gift in that is a singular joy for all beings and enigma in its destructive potential for people and their relationships.” (Spong, 1988)
From the book of Proverbs, we are also told that God designed marriage and sex not only as a means for bringing children into this world, but also as God's appointed means for a man to find pleasure in his wife. In the New Testament, we are told that Jesus attended a wedding in Cana of Galilee and miraculously provided wine when their supplies were exhausted. The Apostle Paul also had a great deal to say about the covenant that God ordained between man and woman. Paul assumed that elders and deacons would be married and have bare children. Paul also encouraged younger widows to marry and he claimed the right as an apostle to lead a wife.