GOD, GIVE SEX A BREAK!

Catholicism condemns the following sexual activities as very serious sins. It is an example of how religion makes things matter that don't in fact matter. And there is no apology for the human cost.
 
Here they are.
 
Masturbation alone.
 
Masturbation with others.
 
Immodesty - that is dressing in order to excite sexual attraction or sexual desire.
 
Sexual fantasies.
 
Erotic movies and pornography.
 
Sex outside marriage.
 
No sex in a marriage that is not recognised by the Church. Eg if a man is polygamist he cannot have sex with any wife but the first. The other wives are regarded as not being real wives.
 
Gay and lesbian sex.  In fact the Church is clear that not only is sex to happen between a man and a woman that sex cannot happen between people of the same gender.  Anything that is not penis in naturally made vagina is considered masturbation.  Such a doctrine insults and maligns the victims of male rape.
 
Sex between a man and a transgender woman or sex between a woman and a transgender man.
 
Adultery.
 
Sex with animals, sex with a close relative (incest) are forbidden too.
 
Sex with children is permitted in marriage - the Church keeps changing its mind on what the age of consent should be and allowed children to be raped in marriage for centuries.
 
The penalty for these if you don't accept God's forgiveness and mercy is everlasting punishment which will begin at death.
 
To believe a person can deserve this is far more evil than any harm they do to others through sex.
 
The Law of God given to Moses condemns pre-marital sex and by implication masturbation – for that is having sex with yourself - at Exodus 22:16. There we read that a man who seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, has to marry her if the father of the girl agrees. If the father refuses, the man has to pay him the dowry (price for buying a virgin to marry) though the man will not marry her. Some say this law is not about sex but about ensuring that the father will not miss out on the price for a virgin just because his girl is no longer a virgin. They say then that it cannot be used to prove sex outside marriage wrong by itself. But why does God command and force them to marry if the father consents? Does that not tell you that if two unmarried people sleep together they are obligated to marry as a punishment for their sin? Does that not tell you that it is a sin not to marry the person you have slept with for when you have given your body you should give your life to that person too? When you sentence yourself to marriage by having sex out of wedlock it follows that when you are married and have sex with your spouse you are more obligated to remain married than you were to marry. The more sex the more obligation to stay together. Exodus 22:16 is the first hint in the Torah that sex between single people is wrong.
 
All hold that even if the husband and wife are not in love with one another but are freely married and staying married then the sex is not sinful. So sacred sex does not require that the partners be in love. So there is no difference between their sex and casual sex in the sense that they are just after physical gratification. Casual sex or even having several partners is fine but only under four conditions:

That no risk of deadly sexual disease being passed on is being taken. Some diseases may be worth the risk. It depends on the amount of fun! In cases like that the person must make sure that no incurable illness will be contracted and that he or she is regularly tested.
 
That both partners take care to prevent conception
 
That both partners want to temporarily love one another in some sense. For example, each would help the other in a big emergency. Take a life or death scenario. When a person gives you themselves you should have have willingness to save that person's life if necessary. It is mere justice because they give you themselves. The Catholic Church does great harm in ignoring and even opposing this teaching. It simply thinks that sex outside marriage is evil and deserves only retribution.
 
That anybody having casual sex is not using sex as a substitute for love. You have to have the sex because you love yourself and not because you think you are dirt and the only relief you can get is having somebody different in your bed every night. A person like that needs to build up self-esteem without props. That is the only real way to do it.

The claim among Christians that there is still a risk of disease being passed on or conception happening and that this means casual sex should be avoided collapses. Why? For they are the ones that go for unnecessary drives in the car which puts the number of fatal or near-fatal accidents up or who smoke. They are the ones who promote religion which leads very unstable people to kill in the name of God. The point is they do not think small risks make anything bad or avoidable. They say they risk all to follow Jesus and what if they are wrong? They say they follow Jesus. They say that they believe in a God who does not accept sincerity so if they are wrong to follow Jesus they will go to Hell forever. That is a worse risk. They may answer that casual sex deserves everlasting damnation so it is a worse risk to have it. They say that casual sex and homosexuality and many other acts are evil when they could say they are morally neutral under some circumstances. When they deny that moral neutrality exists, what business have they pretending to believe that good is what is best and evil is what is not best for if consequences have any say at all in making an act good or evil then they must make it neutral on occasion too? It really comes down to saying, “Do x, y and z because our God says so”. That is a sure recipe for religious terrorism for obedience is bad while doing right because you see it as right and understand why it is right is good.
  
Modern society is right to enjoy sexual activity and engage its fantasies and laugh at the teaching of the Church. The teaching is harmful to the impressionable.
 
WORKS CONSULTED

A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Catholic Truth Society, Westminster, 1985
A Teenager’s Answer to “Shall I Go to the Prom?” Sherry Burgess, Guardian of Truth Publications, Kentucky
A Work of the Flesh: Sexualism, Weldon E Warnock, Guardian of Truth Publications, Kentucky
Believing in God, PJ McGrath, Wolfhound Press, Dublin, 1995
Biblical Dictionary and Concordance of the New American Bible, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington DC, 1971
Contraception and Chastity, Elizabeth Anscombe, Catholic Truth Society, London
Contraception, John T Noonan, Jr., A Mentor-Omega Book, New American Library, New York, 1965
Courtship and the Dangers of Petting, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1943
Divorce, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, 1946
God Is Not Great, The Case Against Religion, Christopher Hitchens, Atlantic Books, London, 2007
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, Uta Ranke Heinmann, Penguin, London, 1991
Moral Questions, Bishops Conference, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1971
New Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic University of America and the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., Washington, District of Columbia, 1967
Pornography – A Psychiatrist’s Verdict, Melvin Anchell MD, Liguori Publications, Missouri
Preparing for a Mixed Marriage, Irish Episcopal Conference, Veritas, Dublin, 1984
Rediscovering Gay History, John Boswell, Gay Christian Movement, UK, 1982
Rome has Spoken, A Guide to Forgotten Papal Statements and How They Have Changed Through the Centuries, Maureen Fiedler and Linda Rabben (Editors), Crossroad Publishing, New York, 1998
Scattered Vows, Exodus From the Priesthood, David Rice, Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 1990
Sex & Marriage A Catholic Perspective, John M Hamrogue C SS R, Liguori, Illinois, 1987
Shall We Dance? Dick Blackford, Guardian of Truth Publications, Kentucky
Son of Joseph, The Parentage of Jesus, Geoffrey Parrinder, T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1992
The Emancipation of a Freethinker, Herbert Ellsworth Cory, The Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1947
“The Lord Hateth Putting Away!” and Reflections on Marriage and Divorce The Committee of the Christadelphian, Birmingham, 1985
The Pope and Contraception, Brenda Maddox, Counterblasts 18, Chatto & Windus, London 1991
Vicars of Christ, Peter de Rosa, Corgi, London, 1993

The WWW
 
How to Fight the Religious Right, Brian Elroy McKinley
http://elroy.net/ehr/fighttheright.html