Let's talk about sex

[TallahasseeGrannie]

and men and the Catholic Church.

I'm curious. I am assuming the masturbation is still considered a sin by the Church. And priests must remain celebate. And gay men, as well. So... the Church believes that a whole segment of male society (and I guess we could include women in this debate at well) has absolutely no sexual urges? Would it not be impossible to be a man and get through life without some form of sexual release?

And what about erotic dreams? Do they have to be confessed as well?

I am absolutely not looking for snarky discussion here, I'm truly curious as to how this whole thing is supposed to work. I can see that perhaps men of a certain age might stay within the bounds, but young men? There seems to be a whole lot of denial going on. I am in many ways a supporter of much the Church does and has done, but I see a disconnect here that I can't understand.

Or is masturbation no longer a confessable sin?

[sweetheart]

1. sex and the soulmate religion

Lots of people believe that there is a spiritual soul mate (sex) that one is supposed to
meet and be with in a lifetime. . . that the religious experience is seen to be a sweaty
long shag with that soulmate, and whole websites and global businesses are out there
satisfying this religion of romantic fulfillment via sexual relationship.

And then, as with many religions, the 'completing' element is outside of one's self,
another partner, and life is seen as a material dualism by the eyes of the religion,
trapped, for not finding the completing element within, but hardly blamed, for a gazillion
television shows selling the soulmate bullshit story in the new church of state breeding.

[Evoman]

2. I asked a relapsed catholic friend of mine a similar question one time.

He told me that the church made masterbation a confessable sin so that the priest in the confession room could...ahem..to put it politely...use it as kindle when he started his own fire, if you get my drift. He's older, so I don't know if all churches or all catholics still think of masterbations as a confessible sin.

I kind of find it creepy to think that anybody would care (including god) how much you spank the one-eyed monster.

[sui generis]

3. I think the bigger social construct of religion is

to have an administrative basis of power. So you have high priests (popes) at odds with kings throughout history, and still in the 21st century in America where the king is now replaced with a more democratic president we have the church stepping in to try to legislate their particular "morality" to govern everyone's reproductive life.

You have to control who your people marry, and you have to control the behaviors that interfere with reproduction and making your base of power/ideology larger. So many organized religions forbid marriage outside the faith, forbid sex except for the purpose of procreation, forbid birth control, masturbation, and the right to do with your reproductive organs as one pleases. In a disfunctional adoption of this principle, we now have supreme court justices and legislators claiming that the state has a valid traditional and prurient interest in procreation as a reason to deny same gender people the right to marry.

So if violating those principles is an absolute "sin" that requires confession, then failing to have children should also require confession.

What more can we expect from a medieval religious doctrine in the 21st century? I think the original idea of the confessional was that farmer A would confess he had stolen some sheep from farmer B, or lusted after his neighbors daughters when he had a perfectly good wife of his own. But we are not 14th century peasants who require babysitting by our clergy.

[Strathos]

4. Forgive me Father, it has been 10 days since my last confession

and I've jacked-off twice each day.

Priest-Tell me, my son, ALL about it

Beater-Well, I get the urges and my, uh, you know, gets hard and..

Priest-(moaning), uh, yes son, tell me more, LOTS more

Beater-well, I get to climax and have to do it all again

Priest-Yes, yes, oh, yesssssssssss! Okay my son, say twelve hail Marys and go home and beat it again and come back tomorrow and tell me all about it


Corrupt beyond belief.

Controlling what we do with our bodies is amazingly archaic and such bullshit!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

9. There are some things that happen when you are young that you don't

recognize as exploitation. For example, when I was 17, young and nubile, I was in the hospital and the intern came in and lifted my gown and grabbed both my breasts. This was no exampination, this was copping a quick feel.

More to the point, as an Episcopalian, I don't do confession very much, only when feeling very pious. And that's not very often. The first time I went I was in high school...convent boarding school. The priest was an old rogue with one very crossed eye who always wore one of those hats with a pom pom and a long black cape. He was married and had two sons, but still he wore this get up. Anyway, I had recently had my first kiss and was very conflicted about it, because it was a boy from the wrong side of the tracks and my mother would have killed me. As a matter of fact, he was the reason I was in boarding school. It was a very chaste kiss..or series of kisses. So after reading this little guide they gave out, I chose "I have used my body immorally." I was 14 at the time. The priest just about jumped through the screen and started asked me questions like "over your panties or under?" I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Yet I blamed myself for years, until I finally figured out that he was the one who was wrong.

I was not upset to hear that the jerk was arrested later on drug charges, of all things.

[stellanoir]

5. Yikes

the minimalization of the divine feminine is absolute horseshit.

It's all about demonizing our very birth (which is in itself, a miracle.)

Original sin is impatience. It's not sex.

Get that through your craniam's and you may start to heal.

People at odds with themselves start wars. People at peace do not.

Peace

[rug]

6. There is a loophole.

Paragraph 2352 - Catechism of the Catholic Church

To form an equitable judgment about the subjects' moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that can lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

7. Fascinating

So if you are feeling a little tense....

[rug]

8. I think the first few times it's serious.

After a thousand times or so you have the "force of acquired habit" defense.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

10. LOL

[catnhatnh]

11. Of COURSE it is confessable.....

....however, no matter how adroit one becomes at this it still remains poor form to BRAG about it.....