@MollyCox , you are so right it's scary. The very same words have spilled from my lips and raced across my synapses.
Everything we do is somehow a sin because people tend to judge and say it's either good or bad. The way I see it, is if I feel good about it then it's a good thing and f*** everything else lol
For monks and nuns centuries ago, "Sexual transgressions, of all things, were supposed to be atoned for through corporal punishment. Supposedly women couldn't endure blows on their upper backs, so instead they had to expose themselves to the father confessor from the navel down to receive their birch strokes. That offered the Dominicans and Jesuits a welcome opportunity to enjoy a voyeuristic sight and some sadistic activity." - Sexualia, Clifford Bishop, ed.
"Yes," wrote the German aphorist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-1799), "nuns haven't only taken strict vows of chastity, they also have strong bars on their windows." "At that time, the bars were necessary, since many of the women hadn't taken the vow of their own free will. Many a hard-to-marry maid was forced to take the veil. The Italian Giacomo Casanova reported in 1755 that many of the women who became nuns did not want to live the pious life that they felt was being forced on them when they entered the cloister. They schemed to obtain a little freedom, and were often successful, especially during carnival time, when they dressed up as ladies or gentlemen and let courtesans disguised as nuns take their place for a while. They were "Brides of Christ", but they seem to have had lovers from monasteries." - Sexualia, Clifford Bishop, ed.
Ten meters tall?! I would love to have a miniature of this on my mantel, though... From Wikipedia: The Imperia is a statue at the entrance of the harbour of Konstanz, Germany, commemorating the Council of Constance that took place there between 1414 and 1418. The concrete statue is 9 metres high, weighs 18 tonnes, and stands on a pedestal that rotates around its axis once every four minutes. It was created by Peter Lenk and clandestinely erected in 1993. The erection of the statue caused controversy, but it was on the private property of a rail company that did not object to its presence. The Imperia shows a woman holding two men on her hands. The two men represent Pope Martin V and Emperor Sigismund. Martin V was elected during the Council while Sigismund was the king who called the council. Both are naked except for the crown and papal tiara, respectively, that they wear as symbols of their power. The statue refers to a short story by Balzac, La Belle Impéria. The story is a harsh satire of the Catholic clergy's morals, where Imperia seduces cardinals and princes at the Council of Constance and has power over them all. The historical Imperia that served as the source material of Balzac's story was a well-educated Italian courtesan who died in 1512, nearly 100 years after the council, and never visited Konstanz.
In Mainz, Germany, around the middle of the 15th century, Archbishop Dietrich launched an official complaint against the citizens on the basis that he alone had the right - for a suitable fee, naturally - to grant licenses to run houses of prostitution.
I also think it would be sinful behavior to not indulge in Paris Now that would require some repenting lmfao Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Welcome to my world! haha (although I feel as a local, the temptation of the girls would put me in the poor house really damn quick! LOL)
Couple of Bible parables about actions taken when you find what you truly value: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it." - Jesus (IMO, the Ranches may not be Heaven, but you're gettin' close!)
Since this is a thread about religion and sex, I thought about the statue "Belle" in Amsterdam. It's the world's only monument in honor of sex workers, and it stands in De Oudekerksplein (Old Church Square) within Amsterdam's famous Red Light District. A plaque on the statue reads, in English, "Respect sex workers all over the world." I like that the statue is so close to a church, and an important one - the oldest building in Amsterdam. Yet in fact, as we all know, Belle's profession goes back much further than the church! Moreover, the juxtaposition of De Oude Kerk and the RLD is to me a symbol of hope - religion and sex (that often go together like oil and water) can coexist. Original photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/76099968@N00/918574171/
Well I'm an Ordained Minister.... If you want to play with me in the brothel I can offer ministerial counseling afterwards.
Yes it would.... I've enjoyed a couple of encounters that were bucket list items for my lovers who wanted to consummate a number of perversions with a religious figure.
So who were you, MOM, or Mary Magdalene? I've always thought there was more than a little oedipus going on with JayZOOS!
Going? No you can go anywhere and it's not a sin, it's the things that you and the girls you are with do once you get there that some would consider a sin. But hey some of the most things in life are considered a sin. Someday you will die and this isn't Dragon Ball Z, you cannot be wished back so have a little fun
I agree. I've heard that word thrown around quite a bit, maybe not as much in the last few years, but maybe I've stopped listening. For me, the idea of "sin" doesn't enter into it, but for a lot of Catholics I talk to, they mention that word quite a bit (about other topics) and recurring guilt that they've grown up with. It might occur to me for a few seconds, and that's all I would give it before thinking about more important things.
Oh hell no......I've been there many times Always seems like heaven to me, and feels much too good to be sin
In 1990 former Franciscan priest Brennan Manning wrote a book called The Ragamuffin Gospel where he talks of the brutal impact that religion-based fear, shame and stigma can have on a young man just trying to enjoy a baseball game: "Here is a routine situation that every Catholic of my generation had to deal with: You are at a baseball game at Yankee Stadium on a Friday night in June, 1950. Catholics are forbidden to eat meat [on Fridays] under penalty of mortal sin. But you want a hot dog. Now, just considering eating meat on a Friday is a venial sin; wanting to is another. You haven't moved in your seat and already you've sinned twice. "You call the hot dog vendor, you take the money out of your pocket, and you buy a hot dog. You figure you can go confess your sin to the priest on Saturday night. But wait! Does a venial [less severe] sin become mortal when you commit it deliberately? That's a chance you take. What if you've forgotten it's Friday? In that case, eating the hot dog may not be a sin, but forgetting it is Friday is. What if you remember it's Friday halfway through the hot dog? Is it a venial sin to finish it? If you throw it away, is wasting food a sin? Within five minutes you have committed enough sins to land you in purgatory for a million years." Now take "hot dog" and replace it with "sex." Shame and stigma, both societal- and religion-based, weigh down men and oppress women.
Define sin first and foremost. You can't get two people to agree on what pizza to order from Domino's, morality doctrine is a bigger battlefield
The hotdog parable makes me question whether people know what morality really is. Is it immoral to deny a hotdog vendor a sale? No one ever considers the hotdog vendor's point of view. He lost a sale because of a silly man made law. He could have done something useful with that extra $2.00. I like the Cato Institute's phil0sophy on morality and trade: The most principled case for free trade is a moral one: voluntary economic exchange is inherently fair, benefits both parties, and allocates scarce resources more efficiently than a system under which government dictates or limits choices. Moreover, government intervention in voluntary economic exchange on behalf of some citizens necessarily comes at the expense of others and is inherently unfair and inefficient, and subverts the rule of law. When people are free to buy from, sell to, and invest with one another as they choose, they can achieve far more than when governments attempt to control their decisions. Widening the circle of people with whom we transact brings benefits to consumers in the form of lower prices, greater variety, and better quality, and it allows companies to reap the benefits of innovation, specialization, and economies of scale that larger markets afford. Free markets are essential to prosperity, and expanding free markets as much as possible enhances that prosperity. We are all better off because of legal prostitution. The secret is, you don't need to actually hire a prostitute or participate in any way, but you can still benefit from it. If those anti-prostitution activists get their way, all of us will have less choice and be a little bit poorer.
I agree, and I like that you quoted the Cato Institute on it. Excellent perspective on it. Someone I know mentioned something that I found funny: a) you can hand money to any random person, and the law won't care. b) you can have sex with a random person (18+, of course), and the law won't care... c) you hand money to that person you are having sex with, and suddenly that's wrong for some reason - that is, for a reason besides the fact that someone made a law out of it......... d) UNLESS you are filming it, then it's ok to get paid for having sex? Although, I wouldn't be surprised if some states have weird laws... But yeeaaahh....that makes total sense...if you sniff enough glue....and even then...
"Growing up I always thought Jesus & God were like Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader in that the son's not as powerful but the dad has some serious anger issues." - John Fugelsang Yup. The first time I read the Bible as a kid I pulled it off the shelf and opened up Revelation. My take? God's mean! That never seemed to resonate with the rest of the Sunday School class, tho...
Wow, I was thinking about what I would reply to this thread. I think you all are very forward-thinking to bring this topic out up for discussion!
