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Sex And Religion
by Morton & Barbara Kelsey
What is the source of our fear of talking
about sexuality and sexual conduct? Why is the subject so delicate and forbidding for
adults that they are uncomfortable discussing it with children? We believe the heresy of
gnosticism that has permeated many of the sexual attitudes of the Christian Church is
responsible for a great deal of the sexual negativity and unwholesomeness of our culture.
Where It All Started
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Gnosticism had an ancient history and has
continued in many forms up to the present time. In many ways it was a creative force
keeping alive ideas that the church refused to acknowledge. However, its influence in
sexual theory has been one of the most negative influences within the church. All
gnosticism does not continue the myth we shall describe, but the gnosticism that
influenced the church contained it. There are many forms of gnostic belief. In the
Protestant Church it helped form much of the point of view of Puritanism, and in the Roman
Catholic Church it dominated the attitude of Jansenism that influenced the training of
many men and women's Catholic religious orders. When we went to Notre Dame in 1969 we were
surprised to find even more sexual repression among students raised in parochial schools
than we had experienced in our Puritan background. In the Old Testament we find almost
none of this negativity toward sexuality. In fact, sexuality, sexual relationships,
copulation, childbearing and rearing were all considered perfectly natural, normal and
acceptable.
In the New Testament, with the exception
of a few passages in St. Paul, there are few negative statements about sexuality. It isn't
until St. Augustine of Hippo in the late fourth century that we find the gnostic viewpoint
about sexuality predominating. Early in the Church's life a conflict arose about the
nature of evil that wasn't resolved until the end of the fourth century. The mainline
Christians accepted the Old Testament as scripture and believed that the God revealed
there was ultimate spiritual reality. Along with the Hebrews they believed that the
physical world was an expression of the Divine, the direct creation of God, and therefore
good. The gnostic attitude toward creation on the other hand sprang out of Persian
thinking that saw two equal and opposite divine creative forces <197> the light and
the dark. In the Persian view both the light and the dark were present in the spiritual
world and in nature. The main purpose of human morality and religion was to support the
forces of light and so enable them to conquer darkness and bring salvation to the
universe.
Changing Views
Ultimately, however, a perversion of this
Persian viewpoint developed and became a seductive Christian heresy. The dark force became
equated with matter, with physicality and with the God of the Old Testament, while the
light force became equated with spirit, spirituality, asceticism and Jesus Christ. In
gnosticism matter was seen as ugly, recalcitrant, irredeemable and evil. The creation of
human beings in this point of view was an imprisoning of pure and holy spirit in vile
matter. If we believe that spiritual reality is a realm of bliss, harmony and ecstasy
(what the gnostics called the pleroma) then the mingling of spirit and matter becomes a
cosmic catastrophe rather than purposeful, orderly and good.
In the myth of gnosticism, such a cosmic
catastrophe did occur; the realm of blissful spirit exploded and little fragments of
spirit became imbedded in the earth where they became human beings. In the midst of such a
catastrophe, how is salvation achieved? Through asceticism, by eliminating any
attachment to the world of physical reality and by getting rid of emotional involvement
and physical pleasure. However, there is something far worse than failing to be detached:
bringing more soul or spirit into the world of matter thus becomes the ultimate evil
conception becomes the worse possible human act. Carrying this idea to its logical
conclusion, one extreme Gnostic sect, the Manichaeans, taught that intercourse with
preadolescent girls was not ultimately evil because pregnancy was not possible. Even the
Roman Emperors were shocked by this idea and outlawed the sect.
Gradually the idea developed within this
sect that anything to do with conception or copulation or sexuality or genital organs was
evil or ugly. St. Augustine was a fringe member of the Manichaean sect for nine years and
although he eventually disengaged himself intellectually, he never entirely disengaged
himself emotionally. His little book "The Good of Marriage" has some
passages on marriage that are well nigh unbelievable. Even normal sexual intercourse
within marriage can be venial sin; the quicker married people abstain from all sexual
relations the better for their souls. For Augustine all sexual acts or pleasure outside of
marriage were mortal sins -- acts sufficient to separate people forever from God
and so consign them to hell.
One of the many areas affected by this
viewpoint is the attitude toward masturbation. Children are sexual beings and exploration
of the body is natural; so nearly all children play with their genitals and many children
masturbate at two or three. When parents slap their hands as a form of control,
impressionable, sensitive children can be traumatized and sexuality itself is seen as bad,
wrong or evil: children learn much more from parental acts and attitudes than most parents
realize. Children are more influenced by what we do than by what we say.
 This
article was
excerpted from
"Sacrament of Sexuality: The Spirituality and Psychology of Sex"
by Morton and Barbara Kelsey
Info/Order book
About
The Author
Morton Kelsey is an Episcopal priest and marriage/family counselor.
He is also the author of 19 books. Barbara Kelsey is a well-known speaker and counselor.
She has presented hundreds of workshops in spiritual development with her husband. The
above was excerpted with permission from their book, "Sacrament of Sexuality",
©1991, published by Element Books, Inc. 42 Broadway, Rockport, MA 01966.
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