Religious views on sexual intercourse
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Religious views on sexual intercourse vary widely between religions, between different sects of the same religion, and even between different members of the same sect.
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[edit] Abrahamic Faiths
[edit] Judaism
In the bible, fornication is defined as idolatry or adultery, that is, the breaking of the covenant vow with God or the breaking of the holy wedding vows. To worship another god (idol) is to cheat on God, and is against the First Commandment. In the Bible, God says that those Israelites who worship idols have fornicated against Him[1].
Orthodox Judaism restricts sexual activity to a legally permissible marriage between a Jewish man and a Jewish woman. A man and woman are prohibited from being in a closed room alone together if they are not married, a law called yichud. Orthodox Jews refrain from all physical contact with adult members of the opposite sex other than their spouses, a practice called shemirat negiah. Within marriage, there is no taboo against either the man or the woman enjoying sexual activity, except during the wife's menstruation and the week immediately following (see Niddah). Talmudic law dictates that the duty of reproduction ("be fruitful and multiply") binds the man and not the woman, and abstinence from marriage is normally sinful. At the same time the wife has the right to sexual satisfaction at minimum intervals (onah) depending on the husband's occupation and station in life.
Sexual relations between a man and a woman who are not married are considered less serious (they are referred to as zenuth) than the Biblically prohibited unions such as adultery (a married woman having relations with another man) and incest; the latter are referred to as ervah (literally "nakedness"), have more severe penalties and there are serious restrictions on children of these prohibited unions (mamzerim).
Coitus is one of the events the Talmud (Kiddushin 2a) specifies for effecting a marriage (provided the intention to marry is present), though this method is no longer employed.
[edit] Catholicism
The Catholic Church affirms the sanctity of all human life, from conception to natural death. The Church believes that each person is made in the "image and likeness of God," and that human life should not be weighed against other values such as economy, convenience, personal preferences, or social engineering. Therefore, the Church opposes activities that they believe destroy or devalue divinely created life, including homosexuality, euthanasia, eugenics and abortion.
The Church teaches that Manichaeism, the belief that the spirit is good while the flesh is evil, is a heresy. Therefore, the Church does not teach that sex is sinful or an impairment to a grace-filled life. As God created the human body in his own image and likeness, and because he found everything he created to be "very good,"[2] then the human body and sex must likewise be good. The Catechism teaches that "the flesh is the hinge of salvation."[3]
However the Church does teach that sexuality outside of marriage is a capital sin because it violates the purpose of human sexuality to participate in the "conjugal act" before one is actually married. The conjugal act "aims at a deeply personal unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul" (Catechism 1643) since the marriage bond is to be a sign of the love between God and humanity (Catecism 1617).
Pope John Paul II's first major teaching was on the Theology of the Body. Over the course of five years he elucidated a vision of sex that was not only positive and affirming but was about redemption, not condemnation. He taught that by understanding God's plan for physical love we could understand "the meaning of the whole of existence, the meaning of life."[4] "The body, and it alone, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus to be a sign of it."[5]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church indicates that sexual relationships in marriage are a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator's generosity and fecundity[1] and lists fornication (premarital sex) as one of the "Offenses Against Chastity" [2] and calls it "an intrinsically and gravely disordered action" because "use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose."[6]
[edit] Protestantism
Translations of the New Testament say: "Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers,... will not inherit the kingdom of God". 1 Corinthians: 6:9-10. The original Koine Greek word translated as fornication is porneia. The Greek term is used by conservative churches to include a wide range of sexual misconduct including fornication, adultery, sex with prostitutes, etc., even though there is some debate as to the scope of the meaning of the word, which in Classical Greek refers to prostitution, etc. and is etymologically the same root as in the English "pornography", which literally means writings having to do with sexual immorality.
[edit] Islam
In the Qur'an, sex before marriage is strictly prohibited. Islam stresses that sexual relations should be restricted to the institution of marriage in order for the creation of the family; and secondly as a means to protect the family, certain relations should be considered prohibited for marriage. Islam recognises that sex is enjoyable and makes no prohibitions on sex for pleasure (between a husband and wife). In fact being available for, and pleasuring, your spouse is a duty on both the husband and wife. Fornication and adultery are both included in the Arabic word 'Zina'. Belonging primarily to the same category of crimes, entailing the same social implications and having the same effects on the spiritual personality of a human being, both, in principle, been given the same status by the Qur'an.
In Shiite Islam, the concept of a temporary marriage exists. This kind of marriage can be just for "fulfillment", as many will say primarily for a sexual relationship.
[edit] Dharmic Faiths
[edit] Hinduism
Hinduism preaches that the material world, also termed as maya, is responsible for all of man's sorrows. Hindu texts, such as the Bhagavad Gita, describe fornication and lust as acts of material bondage which drives a man away from spiritual wisdom.
Alternative Hindu schools of thought such as the Tantric branches of Hinduism, is markedly less reserved, teaching that enlightenment can be approached through divine sex. Divine sex is one path whereby one can approach Moksha (Nirvana), a oneness with a higher spiritual level. As such, the Tantric practices, through writings such as the Kama Sutra seek not to repress sexuality, but to perfect it. By perfecting the act of divine sex, including masturbation, as seen depicted at the 10th century Hindu temple of Khajuraho, one clears the mind of earthly desires, leaving the soul on a higher level devoid of such worries, filled with bliss, and relaxed. However, the institution of marriage is strong in Hinduism and Hindus believe in a strong family system. The trust and faith of the husband and wife is to be always maintained.
[edit] Buddhism
In the Buddhist tradition, under the Five Precepts and the Eightfold Path, one should neither be attached to nor crave sensual pleasure. The third of the Five Precepts is "To refrain from sexual misconduct". For most Buddhist laypeople, sex outside of marriage is not "sexual misconduct", especially when compared to, say, adultery or any sexual activity which can bring suffering to another human being. Each may need to consider whether, for them, sexual contact is a distraction or means of avoidance of their own spiritual practice or development. To provide a complete focus onto spiritual practice, fully ordained Buddhist monks may, depending on the tradition, be bound by hundreds of further detailed rules or vows that may include a ban on sexual relations.
[edit] Other
[edit] Secular humanism
Most secular humanists believe that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, consensual sexual intercourse does no harm in the world. Secular humanism therefore considers most sex acts as morally irrelevant and up to the individual.
[edit] Wicca
In the Gardnerian and Alexandrian forms of Wicca, "The Great Rite" is a way of expressing love through sexuality. The ritual is not an excuse to have sex with someone, nor is any sexual activity in a properly consecrated circle a Great Rite. [7] Any sexual acts dealing with Wicca, whether literal or symbolic, is encouraged to take place between two consenting adults, even more so with two involved lovers.
The Charge of the Goddess says "in the words of the Goddess, all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals."[8]
The Witches' Way states that "the Wiccan attitude about sexuality as wholly natural, and goes on from there to seek a fuller understanding of masculine-feminine polarity and of how to make constructive use of it — both psychologically and magically."[9]
Wicca, like other religious philosophies has a spectrum of adherents including those with conservative views to liberal views. However nothing in Wiccan philosophy prohibits sexual intercourse outside of marriage or relationships between members of the same sex. On the contrary, the Wiccan Rede "An it harm none, do as thou wilt" is interpreted by many to allow and endorse responsible sexual relationships of all varieties.
[edit] References
- ^ see Hosea 1-3, Ezekiel 16 and Jeremiah 2:20-36.
- ^ Genesis 1:31
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1015
- ^ Pope John Paul II (29 October 1980). General Audience, 6. L'Osservatore Romano. Retrieved on September 15, 2006.
- ^
- ^ Persona Humana:Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics, Section IX. Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (December 29, 1975). Retrieved on August 29, 2006.
- ^ "Sex, Wicca and the Great Rite". The Blade & Chalice Spring 1993 (3).
- ^ Alternative Sexuality. Tangled Moon Coven (2006-08-08). Retrieved on December 30, 2006.
- ^ (1984) The Witches' Way. Custer Washington: Phoenix Publishing, 156-174. ISBN 0-919345-71-9.
