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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (110769)	4/22/2005 4:04:35 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794349

I came across a similarly torturous piece on sex today in my travels courtesy of the Evangelical Outpost. The sex part is at the end. "A Primer on Fundamentalism What is fundamentalism? I’ve seen a lot of blogosphere pixels dedicated to bashing fundamentalists. This is not one of those posts. What I am trying to do here is to explain what fundamentalists believe. Though there are differences among denominations, most fundamentalist evangelical Christian movements have a certain number of shared beliefs which I will lay out below. I can do this because I used to be one. I am doing this because I believe that we can defeat what we understand. 1. The Bible is the literal Word of God It was written by men, but inspired by God. The image I always had in Sunday school was of God dictating to the authors. Presumably the men who chose which books went into the Bible and which did not were also inspired, but I wasn’t told this. This means that stories such as the creation and flood are literal truths rather than greater truths told in the form of stories. It means there is a literal Heaven and Hell. And it means there are a whole lot of rules a lot of us are breaking. 2. God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good Everything God does is for a reason. If we don’t understand it, that is because we don’t have his knowledge. In that case, since God is all-good, then we must trust him. 3. All humans are sinful There is some debate over whether humans are born sinful because of the fall of Adam and Eve, or whether we’re born innocent but inevitably sin as we become self-aware. But the end result is that definitely by the time we’re teenagers, we’re all bloody sinners. 4. Sin separates us from God Because we are sinners, we are no longer one with God. That means God can’t accept us into heaven, as it would make heaven an imperfect place like earth. 5. Because God loves us, he sent his son to save us from our sin All of our sins deserve death, but because Jesus, who was sinless, died in our place, our death sentence was lifted. Note: I don’t know what the doctrinal reason is for our sins deserving death and why God decided that someone else dying for us was enough to save us. My sister and I (this was when I was still a believer) once had a conversation where we wondered why God didn’t say “And because I crush this grape, all mankind will be saved.” After all, he’s the one making the rules. If anyone knows the answer to this, please let me know. 6. But we aren’t just saved because of Jesus death. We have to accept Jesus in some way in order to receive salvation This acceptance varies from “praying Jesus into your heart” to full-immersion baptism (the version I did… twice) 7. We are saved by faith, not by doing good things But… if we really believe, then we’ll be doing those good things, won’t we? And trying hard not to sin. And… here is the part where it feels like a pyramid scheme: we’ll be trying to convince others to join Jesus. Because after all, if we try to be like God, and love everyone, then we don’t want them to go to hell. Just as you wouldn’t let a blindman step into traffic, you wouldn’t let your fellow man go to hell without trying to warn him. ************************************* Those seven principles are the basis of fundamentalist doctrine. But there is one more thing that I’m going to add. It’s more subtle, and not a piece of official doctrine that I know of. But it is an axiom that underlies everything that fundamentalists say about sex and marriage: 8. Sex is physical, not psychological Sex is an act. Not an identity. A person chooses whether or not to have sexual thoughts and whether to engage in sexual behavior. This is why knowledge about sex must be kept from “The Children”–if they don’t know about it, they won’t choose it. This is why homosexuality is a sin. If sex is an act, then you can give permission for that act to a limited number of people. If you are not lawfully married, then you don’t get to have sex, just as if you don’t have a legal driver’s license, you don’t get to drive. No masturbation, no porn, no fantasies. Sex is an act, therefore you can control it. This axiom is in full opposition to the idea that children are born with a sexual identity and that sexual curiousity is natural. If you believe that sexual expression of some type is inevitable for healthy adults, then the fundamentalist idea makes no sense. If you accept that pre-pubescent children have vague sexual longings with a distinct orientation, then you won’t try to marginalize gay people. If sex is a normal part of human existence, then we won’t treat masturbation as shameful, but accept that it’s a perfectly healthy way to deal with sexual desire. Even after I stopped believing in fundamentalist doctrine, this final hidden axiom haunted me. It took me a long time to claim my own sexual identity and escape the guilt. This is what we must understand about fundamentalists in order to stop talking past them and actually debate their ideas. This is how they see the world. This is what they believe." acrosstheatlantic.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (110769)	4/22/2005 4:05:33 PM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794349

I will quote my catholic friend who told me its all about not preventing the sperm from getting to the egg. No fertile eggs involved in periods. Sperm not in a position to get to the egg when abstaining. It makes no sense to me or did it to my catholic friend but there is much in all religions like that.