Posts Tagged ‘ Chastity, Sex, and Marriage ’

Robert Frost has a poem that should speak to us, with how marriage-minded and homeward looking we are. Know it by it’s first line, “She is as in a field a silken tent.” The woman he describes is a woman who has filled her duties and obligations with love enough that they scarcely seem duties anymore. A tent is kept up, not tied down, by its various cords, and so she. She is “loosely bound By countless silken ties of love and thought . . . And only by one’s going slightly taut In the capriciousness of summer air... Read more »

Wendy’s comment in the latest SSM thread provoked an interesting discussion between my wife and I yesterday. Wendy wrote: Is same-sex kissing a sin? What about same-sex flirting and dating? Can a same-sex couple live together, love each other, come to church holding hands and sit together in the chapel, hold callings and be okay church-wise, as long as they don’t have sex? This comment relates to the broader issue: What exactly does the law of chastity prohibit? Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

I’ve been trying to put my finger on what is so troubling to me about some of the recent discussions of abortion. Aside from the distressingly obvious lack of female participants in the discussion, I think the thing that makes me twitchiest is the discussion of whether or not rape victims should be *allowed* to hear from a compassionate bishop that abortion is an acceptable course. I’ve been thinking a lot about how a bishop could provide appropriate and helpful counsel in that situation, and I have to say that I think the odds are stacked against him, even... Read more »

OpinionJournal concludes that abortion took 12 million potential voters out of the citizenry for the 2000 elections, 18 million potential voters in this election, and 25 million voters out of the citizenry for 2008. I suppose one could run similar calculations for everything. How many bloggers were aborted? How many converts has the gospel missed out on? Quite a few. True, it’s not as simple as just totalling up the abortions, since some would use contraception otherwise, but still quite a few. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

Joshua Livestro on Dutch Marriage: He reports that only a small fraction of gay couples have actually married and that heterosexual marriage rates have sunk while illegitimacy rates have risen. Susan Shell on the Liberal Case Against Gay Marriage: a society without the means of formally acknowledging, through marriage, the fact of generation, like one without the means of formally acknowledging, through funeral rites, the fact of death, seems impoverished in the most basic of human terms. Maggie Gallagher on Mitt Romney and Massachussetts: In birth... Read more »

The University of Chicago has conducted an extensive investigation into the sex lives of Chicagoans. This isn’t some Kinsleyesque voyeurism into the mechanical details, but an investigation of the social mechanics–who whom? in what kind of relationship? The fruits of the survey (served here with a little whipped polemic on top) include two items of particular interest: women have happier relationships when they know their men through church or extended family, and women have happier relationships if they marry young. Let’s not kid ourselves that we Saints have all our marriage customs right, but maybe we have them less... Read more »

Somehow I ended up on the official Church website for UK and Ireland and found this on the top of the page: “The Gender Recognition Bill, which is currently being considered in the House of Commons will allow a man to become a woman in law (and vice versa). This means transsexuals will be able to marry in their assumed sex. The legislation also makes it a criminal offence to disclose the birth sex of a transsexual. We stress that this Bill poses a real threat to religious freedom and we oppose it because we believe it runs counter... Read more »

Some of the plausible and specifically Christian arguments for socially sanctioned gay unions–I think Kaimi’s advanced it on this board–is that an irreducible core of the homosexually inclined simply do not have the choice to be chaste. Under the circumstances, the argument goes, perhaps its best that society encourage them to refrain from the sin of promiscuity even if they can’t be discouraged from the sin of homosex-uality. Now Gordon has found a variant of the same argument: society should accept and discipline promiscuity into ‘polyamory,’ because some people simply do not have the choice to be faithful. I’m... Read more »

As is often the case, Matt Evans was way ahead of the curve when he discussed polyamory back in January with the post, “The Conservative Case for Group and Sibling Marriage.” But here is a new angle (at least to me): some Unitarians are now actively promoting polyamory. The money quotation: It’s the new polygamy, and according to the Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness, their relationships are at least as ethical as other marriages — gay or straight. At least as ethical? The implication, of course, is that they may be even more ethical. How so? Consider this from... Read more »

AT&T fired an employee who wouldn’t promise to ‘value homosexuality,’ though the employee, a benighted Christian, did promise to not discriminate. Luckily the employee was able to salve his distress with a lawsuit. (Hat tip: Clayton Cramer) Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

A recent article about the Justice Department committing new resources to prosecute a “war on porn” has started lots of discussion in the blogosphere. (See here, here, here). Many people think that setting up an office with 32 prosecutors, plus assorted investigators and FBI agents, is a misguided use of resources, given current budget deficits and the ongiong war in Iraq. And this isn’t child porn we’re talking about — some of the targets of the new investigation include soft-core cable programs on HBO, and adult movies offered at hotels on pay-per-view. What should we think of this effort,... Read more »

I have spent the last week or so working on a child sex abuse case at work. As a result, I have been reading a large number of judicial cases describing various forms of sexual abuse of children. Be the first to like. Like Unlike Read more »

John Derbyshire, the toast of New York, has reviewed a history of homosexuality. He speculates that some core of homophobia (what a victory for our enemies is that word) is innate, just as some core of homosexual attraction may be, and heterosexual attraction too. No one on this board–No saints that I know–have made much of the supposed naturalness of homosexuality, so in that sense the innateness of homophobia (Oh bother. Let’s call it same-sex disgust) has very little to say to us. The speculaton does serve to remind how hard it can be to sort through habit, and... Read more »