Typical Erroneous Teaching About Adult Celibacy Rears Its Head Again: To Paraphrase Speaker at Ethics and Public Policy Center: Lifelong Celibacy is “heroic ethical standard that is not expected of heteros, so it should not be expected of homosexuals” (ie, it’s supposedly an impossible feat for any human being to achieve)
The Bible not only demands celibacy from homosexuals, but from un-married HETEROs as well, (or, in the case of married HETEROs, when the married couple is apart, or one is too sick and cannot have sex, etc).
I am over 40, was engaged, have a normal libido, and am still a virgin mainly because I believe the Bible teaches that pre-marital sex is sinful.
It is a fallacy that lifelong celibacy is impossible. It can be difficult at times, but not impossible, nor is it necessarily a cruel teaching, as both secular Non Christians and some Christians continually maintain. A human being can live without sex; sex is not a necessity.
This actually proves a point I’ve raised before on the blog. And here it is:
So many hetero Christians, when they write of sex and celibacy, assume that lifelong celibacy is a special superpower that only a few tiny amount of people are capable of (because God supposedly grants them the ability, or removes their sex drive).
When the fact is, God does not gift of choose anyone to be single and celibate, nor give them a special grace, gift, or power to abstain.
Remaining celibate all comes down to WILL POWER, SELF DISCIPLINE, and SELF CONTROL, and it is something anyone and everyone can accomplish. *(As to the role of “personal conviction” please see the note at the conclusion of this post)
With some celibate adults, particularly Christians, there may be other factors at play that aid them in abstaining, such as wishing to avoid contracting a sexually transmitted disease, being obedient to Jesus Christ out of love and devotion, etc.
There is no magical solution that keeps me celibate this long.
The problem is, most people are selfish, lazy, and undisciplined. They get horny, cave in, and have sex.
This comes from an article at Slate:
(Link): The Collapse of Anti-Gay Religion
Excerpts:
- By William Saletan
….For 15 years, the Ethics and Public Policy Center has hosted the Faith Angle Forum, a regular conference on religion and public life. Several weeks ago, the group met again to discuss current issues. Transcripts of the conference have just been posted on EPPC’s website. They underscore the extent of the anti-gay collapse.
…. During the Q-and-A, Michael Gerson of the Washington Post, a former senior aide to President George W. Bush, raised his hand to ask about “the idea of strong genetic predisposition” to homosexuality. This belief, he testified,
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- is changing the way not just liberal Christians, but conservative Christians think about this issue, particularly homosexuality.
If there’s a strong genetic disposition, then you have a situation with an expectation—pastoral expectation—of lifelong celibacy, which is a heroic ethical standard that’s not applied to heterosexuals.
- That seems unfair according to Christian ethical principles.
Yes, lifelong celibacy most certainly is applied to heterosexuals.
Heterosexuals get the same exact Bible as the Homosexuals, and that Bible says sex outside of marriage, with marriage being understood as one man, one woman, is a sin.
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* RE PERSONAL CONVICTION and Sexual Behavior
(*A brief word about convictions:
personal conviction, in regards to sex, without self control, self discipline, will power means nothing, no matter how strongly held your conviction is.
You can be personally and deeply convicted all day long that pre-marital sex is immoral, but if you lack self control, will power, and self discipline to not engage in said behavior, you will cave in and commit fornication. Personal conviction alone does didley squat when it comes to sexual sin.)
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Related posts this blog:
(Link): Some Researchers Argue that Shame Should Be Used to Treat Sexual Compulsions
(Link): Newlyweds Forced to Be Celibate After Bride Diagnosed With Cervical Cancer Just Days After Honeymoon
(Link): Sometimes the Bible is Clear – Regarding Rachel Held Evan’s Post
(Link): Sex, Love & Celibacy by Christian Author Dan Navin
(Link): Nobody Bats An Eye at Condemnation of Hetero Sexual Sin – Observations from Duck Dynasty Controversy
(Link): Church Touts Homosexuality as a Gift, Not a Sin
(Link): The Activist Who Says Being Gay Is Not A Sin – double standards for homo singles vs hetero singles
(Link): Why So Much Fornication – Because Christians Have No Expectation of Sexual Purity
(Link): Being Against Gay Marriage Doesn’t Make You a Homophobe (editorial by a homosexual man)
Christian Pundit 
Just in order to quicken your task, I am the author of this essay. http://www.scribd.com/doc/49207268/Your-Body-Is-Not-The-Temple-of-The-Holy-Spirit – please don’t dismiss this out of hand, but just read what I have to say.
I do believe you already gave a link to that page on another post a few months ago, and I skimmed it over. I don’t agree with your interpretation.
The Bible teaches that sexual sin (including having sex with anyone but a marriage partner) is wrong.
Hence, you must remain celibate if you are single, and if married, and apart from your spouse, celibate also (to have sex with someone else is adultery is defined as sin in the Bible.)
1 Corinthians 6
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”] 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Well firstly with respect to Corinthians it’s most definitely not *my* interpretation. It’s what the church used to teach. You may check this yourself. Check with an orthodox or RC source. Most of the others in England/America are influenced by the translation you yourself just quoted.
Look all I can say – and I assure you I am not lying here – is that it does NOT say that in my bible (Norwegian). It does not say that in the King James, and it does not say that in the Vulgate, nor in the Greek. What it says, to paraphrase using the slang “yous” is the following:
1 Corinthians 6
Do yous not know that yous’s bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
16 Do yous not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”] 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.
19 Do yous not know that yous’s BODY is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in yous, whom yous have received from God? Yous are not yous’s own; 20 yous were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with yous’s BODY.
The first “do yous know that yous’s bodies” refers to our BODIES being members of Christ’s Body, the Church. The rest refer to THE BODY. Your translation has changed this. I can’t help you there.
@ Viking.
Your changing it from “You” to “You all” does not negate that sex outside of marriage is considered sin (if that is even your point in continually bringing this up?).
A single “you” in a group of “you’s” will still be sinning against himself, his body, and God and/or the body of Christ.
Even if you wish to view it as “you all” not “you,” it is still saying it is sin for a YOU to screw around because YOU screwing around attaches that sexually immoral act to YOU ALL. It’s still a sin.
The Bible teaches if you are a Christian you are a part of YOU ALL (the body of Christ), even if you do not attend a local church in a brick and mortar building.
And, there are plenty of other passages in the Bible, in Old and New Testaments, that assume that sex will be considered appropriate only within the bounds of marriage. Scroll down this page to see my other reply to you where I gave you links to pages by other people.
Please be so good as to qualify what you mean that the bible teaches celibacy if you have not already done so in your blog. The Church and traditional Christian teaching most certainly does teach what you say. However, I should be grateful if you would direct me to at least one biblical passage you are thinking of to justify your claim.
I am not interested in having an argument with you (or anyone else on this). I can make any reply not here, but privately if you like. My wish is to clarify this point. I have read the bible entirely from cover to cover thrice – and unfortunately that exercise did not make me more certain about things, rather the opposite.
The Bible repeatedly depicts sex as being for married couples only, from Old to New Testaments.
(Link – off site): Biblical reasons and Verses in support of celibacy
(Link – off site): 1 Corinthians 7 (Abstinence, Celibacy, Cohabitation, and Marriage)
(Link – off site): Is Premarital Sex a Sin? Bible Scholars Respond
(Link – off site): Actions Punishable By Death in Old Testament
Excerpts:
Lying about virginity. Applies to girls who are still in their fathers’ homes, who lie about their virginity, and are presented to their husband as a virgin. The accused is guilty until proved innocent. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21)
Celibacy means not having sex. I think that’s pretty obvious.
And if it’s a “tradition” among Christians (at least Protestants), it is because they found support for it in the Bible itself.
The Bible teaches only married couples may have sex with each other, so if you are not married, or your spouse is not available for sex, that means no sex for you.
If God were hunky dory fine with singles having sex, we would not find Paul telling people to marry rather than burn, or God advising in the Old Testament that fornicators be stoned to death.
If God were fine with the un-married having sex, this would not be in the Bible:
There would be no reason to tell horny singles to marry if God were fine with them having sex outside of marriage.
Please direct me to any Bible passages that gives God’s stamp of approval to pre-marital sex, homosexual sex, and adultery.
You won’t find any such passages.
If you think the God of the Bible is hunky dory and fine with un-married people having sex, then I want to see those biblical passages, verses, or principles.
And I find it odd you are asking me to cite examples, and are apparently claiming you see no support for this view in the Bible.
In the Bible, it is simply assumed that one will save himself for marriage.
I do not like people who have sex outside of marriage, or who are considering doing it, and who then go into denial mode (“the Bible does not teach against pre martial sex!”), because they are seeking to ease their guilty conscience. They are not interested in what the Bible says, or in getting to the truth, they are looking for loopholes to have sex outside of marriage.
If you are here to defend extra-marital sex, please don’t waste your time, I will probably block you on the blog. I’m not here to debate about it. On my blog it’s a given: the Bible condemns pre-martial sex, as well as adultery.
If you want to have sex outside of marriage, have sex, but don’t sit there and play dumb and tell me “But golly, I have studied the Bible all over, backwards and forwards, and I don’t see anywhere that it says sex is for marriage only.”
If you are trying to defend the idea of fornication, you remind me of the people I talked about in this post:
(Link): Why People Rationalize Sexual Sin – You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours
And, (Link): I Notice It’s the Fornicators Who Want to Ignore or Downplay the Bible’s Teaching that People Are To Stay Virgins Until Marriage
(Link): When Adult Virginity and Adult Celibacy Are Viewed As Inconvenient or As Impediments
(Link): Stop Rewarding People For Their Failure – Christians Speaking Out of Both Sides of Their Mouths About Sexual Sin – Choices and Actions and How You Teach This Stuff Has Consequences – Allowing Sinners To Re-Define Biblical Terms and Standards