A way to stop Christian youth from doing the dirty deed
Offline On the intenet, I was poking around my old haunt the SDAs and found their news network. A pastor in California is suggesting the adventist do more than just preach abstinence about sex to their youth. He even throws out something another denomination did as a suggestion. It is hilarious. But the comments on the article shows the old biddies coming out-Ah memory lane. Had my share of them breathing down my neck.
There are congregations outside of our denomination trying to creatively address this dilemma. Some set aside times for health professionals to come answer questions and provide information on contraception access and usage. Other churches conduct STD screenings for the community and congregation. They provide condoms for those in attendance. I know of one pastor who talks to his teens individually about relationships and dating. He stresses biblical principles of sexuality and that abstinence is the best choice. After discussion and prayer, he gives them a condom with the church information and pastor's picture printed on the wrapper! He hopes that even if they choose to disregard Biblical council, they'll have the condom and use it. One of his young congregants later testified about an instance with his girlfriend where arousal was high but reason was low -- having a tangible reminder of his conversation with his pastor gave him enough pause to contemplate his actions. He and his girlfriend decided not to have sex.
Pretty creepy, huh?
http://news.adventist.org/2011/05/the-way-we-teach-sex.html
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
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Damn do they ever get psychologically fucked up. And I thought apologists were good at twisting things.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Not so much creepy as futile and unhelpful to their "great moral dilemma"...
and the occasional stink of hypocrisy.
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
Churches have it completely wrong. They do not need to teach sexual abstinence or that premarital sex is sinful.
The only thing they need to teach is advanced theology, angelology, demonology and several methods of software development. After that it is guaranteed that none of the students will stumble upon a sexual opportunity.
Perhaps the pastors already thought of that option, but were afraid it would cause dying out of the religion itself. After all, a nerd remains nerd even after a marriage.
Secondly, Christians and specially the young ones are not in charge of themselves. They're indoctrinated since birth and controlled by their parents and community. They will not make decisions that are the most well-informed and well-educated, because that would mean ditching the faith, in the first place.
Beings who deserve worship don't demand it. Beings who demand worship don't deserve it.
First off, why you need to insert a fictional friend into sex is absurd.
Just like all other risks in life, sex has risks too. Not having sex is the best way to avoid the risks sex can have. DUH. But how that equates to a magical invisible friend existing is absurd.
I will give them this, at least they are accepting part of the reality that people are going to do things despite the risks.
I think it is SICK to take natural biology, both the enjoyable sides of sex, and the risks of sex and hold it hostage to gain club members.
You don't need a sun god to observe the sun. A preacher is not a proctologist, or urologist, or gynocologist or a psychologist. Now while it is a no brainer to say that disease or teen pregnancy is bad and condoms can reduce these things, a preacher has no place giving medical advice or relationship advice to anyone.
You don't need Posiden to explain hurricanes or tsunamis. All you can do with teens is to explain the risks of sex and the cost of pregnancy and how to prevent those things. You don't need a fictional super hero to threaten or bribe or to be used as a crutch to explain biology.
"You need god to avoid risk", No, you simply need to be armed with data about the risks.
Superstition and invisible friends do nothing for any aspect of life, and more often than not, by inserting such, does more harm. A placebo may provide a distraction, but it is not a solution.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
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That is just lovely, it's not enough that Mr. Invisble is going to torture for all eternity one for having sex. You have to tell the facts about pregnancy and STDs as a backup. I guess the indoctrination plan ain't working too well.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
I still don't get why these guys think abstinence is a Biblical principle. In the OT, Yahweh told soldiers to take virgin girls captive as spoils of war, and if a man saw a woman he wanted, he could "marry" her by raping her (he just had to pay her father silver) and he could have as many concubines as he wanted - and let's not forget King Solomon - he had over 700 hos, and Yahweh considered him the "wisest man who ever lived".
The only thing Yahweh had a problem with was having sex with another man's wife, or with a woman cheating on her husband or not being a virgin on her wedding night - if a woman was single, she was fair game.
As far as Jesus' statement about "whoever looks lustfully upon a woman hath committed adultery", he was only referring to women who were married - woman's rights were not a big concern in that day and age.
Optimism is reality, pessimism is the fantasy that you know enough to be cynical
I wonder what they'll do once we have a cure or vaccination for STDs.
And how do these churches justify demonizing sex when the Bible has verses like these:
If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her. (Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT)
Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves. (Numbers 31:7-18 NLT)
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I'm not totally sure why fundamentalist Christians are so hung up on sex - but my theory is that it's part of their cult-like nature. They want to discourage having romantic ties with anyone who may be an outsider to their organization, and therefore want all relationships to be "approved" by their organization ( "marriage" ). As well as just supress individualilty and loyalty to anyone other than their group, because they know that people with ties to something other than their cult have the potential of becoming disloyal - hence they want to remove all the "love" from sex and relationships ( "sex is for the sole purpose of having children... who will grow up to be loyal members of our cult" ) and view relationships like a commodity (such as a new car) or a business partnership instead of above love. The only relationships they tolerate are those which have a purpose in serving the cult.
Of course they won't say this outright, and I doubt most fundies actively think these things - the people who founded their cult ideologies were self-trained in the art of manipulation and thought control, so they knew what they were doing, but to the average fundie, it's just an intuitive part of being brainwashed, and they don't actually think about it. So they lie and claim "it's about preventing STDs and abortions" or "it's about encouraging commitment" - no what it's really about is destroying the individuality of the cult members so that they'll be easier to control.
Optimism is reality, pessimism is the fantasy that you know enough to be cynical
Recovering fundie: You're right, maybe the fundies see an intimate relationship of a young couple as a threat to the relationship between a fundie and Jesus or a fundie and all their fellow fundies. You know that feeling, you're lonely, horny, for a long time, and then there's a couple in love nearby, kissing and whispering loving words. It is a little unnerving, isn't it? Well, the intolerant religious people must be driven crazy.
Consider, that whatever superlative adjective the fundies may find just remotely possible to stick on Jesus, they will stick it on him. Whatever they can think of, they will theatrically elevate Jesus above that. In their thinking, if there is anything better than Jesus, it's a direct insult of Jesus and a threat to salvation.
Of course, as you say, restricting access to sex is a historically popular method of controlling people.
Beings who deserve worship don't demand it. Beings who demand worship don't deserve it.
I couldn't say for Bronze Age Israel, but during Antiquity, most Mediterranean women of patrician or higher (royal) social status had rights approaching and sometimes almost equal to their male spouses. Plebian women, on the other hand, had their place firmly in common agriculture, as housekeeping chattal, or in the kitchen. Likewise, most Christian women of the roman empire were plebians. Disproportionately so, in fact.
Strangely enough, after the fall of Rome and the rise of the Dark Age of Europe followed by the Middle Ages, Christianity's influence soared, yet women's rights (and the rights of everyone except a knight, lord, or king) took a steep drop off. This paved the way for further clusterfucks such as Torquemada, the Cathars, and Elizabeth Bathory's abuse and murder of some 800 female peasants.
“A meritocratic society is one in which inequalities of wealth and social position solely reflect the unequal distribution of merit or skills amongst human beings, or are based upon factors beyond human control, for example luck or chance. Such a society is socially just because individuals are judged not by their gender, the colour of their skin or their religion, but according to their talents and willingness to work, or on what Martin Luther King called 'the content of their character'. By extension, social equality is unjust because it treats unequal individuals equally.” "Political Ideologies" by Andrew Heywood (2003)
Lol, that right there is classic. I'll remember that, thanks.
Optimism is reality, pessimism is the fantasy that you know enough to be cynical
Yahweh should be convicted as a war criminal. Sounds like he may be back ordering the troops around in Libya.
It's a power thing. They hijack women's vaginas for control. So many men are pussy whipped into 'believing'.
When men use threats of torture to coerce women to have sex against their will we call it rape. When men use threats of torture to coerce women to not have sex against their will we call it religion.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen