Ex-Evangelicals Admit Their Religion Killed Their Love Lives: I’m ‘Literally Thinking About Hell’ During Sex
(Link): Ex-Evangelicals Admit Their Religion Killed Their Love Lives: I’m ‘Literally Thinking About Hell’ During Sex – Raw Story Site
(Link): ANONYMOUS EX-CHRISTIANS OPEN UP ABOUT THEIR DAMAGED SEX LIVES
Excerpts from Raw Story site:
In a confessional piece on The Feed, ex-evangelicals lamented the oppressive influence their faith had on their sex lives and personal relationships with their partners, saying they were haunted by feelings of guilt and shame.
As pointed out by Hemant Mehta at the Friendly Atheist, former fundamentalist Christian Ruby Bisson (Claire) who writes about Christianity at The Gravity of Guilt, has been compiling stories told her by her readers who detailed not only how their deeply-held religious beliefs crippled their sex lives, but the lingering effects after they lost their religion.
According to one anonymous woman, “I can’t orgasm because I can’t relax. I’m literally thinking about hell. It’s been three years since I left Christianity but I can’t shake the thought that a guy who isn’t a Christian just wants me for my bod and I project that insecurity onto him. This is ultimately what ended my only two relationships.”
She then admitted how she tried to make it work.
“I made him pretend he was religious and didn’t want to have sex,” she explained. “I had to convince him it was a good idea. I made him pray at the end of the bed. Through that role play I was able to be the other person and that power allowed me not to freak out.”
Another former Christain said that she spiraled into a world of pornography at the age of 12, that left her secretly living in “shame and self-hatred.”
“If porn was ever discussed it was only for the boys and men. There was complete and utter silence when it came to women using porn, or getting addicted to it,” she wrote on Facebook.
“So, when I stumbled across porn when I was 12, and continued using it compulsively until I was 22, I felt I had nowhere safe to turn. I truly believecd I was the only woman struggling with it, I was a freak. I wondered if I had too much testosterone, if something was biologically wrong with me for liking porn. I lived in shame and secrecy.
“Which only made my addiction worse, and bred an intense self-hatred… If someone had just stood up from the front and said that women also use porn, and can get addicted to it, and there’s help for them…my life would have looked different.”
According to Bisson, “Jake,” the gay son of an Anglican Minister said he still struggles with sexual intimacy.
… Bisson writes, “Most of the people I spoke to didn’t have an issue with the belief that sex should be saved for marriage. The primary concern was with the way this was communicated by their church, predominantly during childhood,” before confessing about her own experiences, including the trauma of being raped.
Continuing from The Feed’s site (link):
…Dr. Josie McSkimming, Clinical Social Worker and author of Leaving Christian Fundamentalism and the Reconstruction of Identity told me that the enforcement of no sex before marriage can “lead to people marrying in haste, often experiencing enormous confusion and self-hate about their sexual feelings. When this is combined with God-given assumptions of male leadership and female submission, the possibility of abuse and violence increases.”
Over Facebook Messenger Tim*, a former Sydney Anglican who received a year of formal Biblical training with his Christian wife tells me that while he didn’t feel “especially unprepared” entering marriage, his wife was.
–start quote–
It was hard for her to transition from viewing sexual desire and action as deviant, to viewing it as healthy…
She hadn’t explored to find what gave her pleasure, so she couldn’t give me much guidance, and she felt guilty about exploring herself…
It has mostly only caused tension for me, as I’ve never really been able to get what I wanted – because my desire in sex is to be with someone who’s also seeking their own physical pleasure, and who knows what they want, so I’ve always kind of felt unsatisfied.
Since stepping away from faith, this has led me to bring up the idea of a more open marriage arrangement (just sexually, not romantically).
But that’s very much incompatible with my wife’s religious views (and just her personal desires as well) so it’s pretty unlikely to happen any time soon.
–end quote–
Related Posts:
(Link): The Secret Women’s Porn Problem (article about Christian women who use porn)
(Link): Groundbreaking News: Women Like Sex
(Link): When society isn’t judging, women’s sex drive rivals men’s
(Link): A Day In The Life Of An Abstinence Ed Teacher by S. Gomez
(Link):Some Christian Women Use Pornography – No Duh. I’ve been saying this all along.
(Link): Yes, Some Women Use and Look at Pornography
(Link): Why are we denying that women used Ashley Madison? by R. Margolis
(Link): Why Doesn’t Your Husband Want to Have Sex? by E. Bernstein
(Link): Why Are Christian Guys Silent About Abstinence? by C. Hill
(Link): People Were Asked to Guess A Virgin From A Group Of Strangers. The Results Were Unexpected
(Link): Why Are Young Feminists So Clueless About Sex? by M. Wente
(Link): We’re Casual About Sex and Serious About Consent. But Is It Working? by J. Zimmerman
(Link): No, Christians and Churches Do Not Idolize Virginity or Sexual Purity
(Link): Stop Pretending Sex Never Hurts, By D.C. McAllister
(Link): Are You Ashamed of Biblical [Sexual] Purity? by J. Slattery
(Link): When Adult Virginity and Adult Celibacy Are Viewed As Inconvenient or As Impediments
(Link): An Example of Mocking Adult Virginity Via Twitter (Virginity Used As Insult)
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