Sexual Sin: Why so appealing?

[Joya]

I would not expect you or any other a woman to understand the experiece of being a man and what it is like to keep our male sexual nature under control.

I am speaking strictly about the physical allure. There is no peace in illicit sex whatsoever. Peace can be only found in the love of God.

Men rarely will admit to their wives the darker reality of male sexual nature so it doesn’t surprise me that you believe that good christian men do not have a dark side to their sexual nature.

Sexual disease and infidlity are an unfortunate part of life and proof that sexual sin has consequences.

Abortion is by far the single biggest crime committed against a holy and loving God in the history of humanity. Truly God must weep with every single brutal murderous act committed against his little ones who just want to be at peace as they grow in their mother’s womb. He will repay those who are involved in promoting abortion. I believe there is a special corner in Hell for those who do this for financial gain.

What are women to me? Women to me are truly God’s most beauiful and wonderful creatures and the perfect gift from the God the father to man. Women give life. Women give love. Women civilize the savage side of mankind and give depth and purpose to life. There are no mountains, sunsets or anything else that occurs in nature that can match the beauty of a woman.

Have I ever truly loved? Can any among us truly know what marital love as God intended look like? Will our fallen nature even allow us to achieve it in this lifetime? In my limited human understanding of love, I can honestly say that I love my wife dearly. I’ve been with her for 30 years now. She has been a real light in my life. Every day I thank God for her.

As a woman, it would be impossible for you to understand me. To tell you the truth, one of my goals in life is for ME to understand me!

Excellent response to Grace’s statements. I am a woman, much younger than you, married for less than a decade, and I do understand the questions you are pondering.

There is a radio talk show host named Dennis Prager who tackles these very issues. He devotes an hour each week to male and female sexuality. Perhaps you already know about him. The segment of the radio show airs every Wednesday and is called The Male/Female Hour. All shows are archived at Pragerradio.com. He has been the most instrumental sex educator I’ve ever had (in addition to the Church’s teachings, but his were more practical for me).

Thanks for bringing this up.

 

[TLM08]

Excellent response to Grace’s statements. I am a woman, much younger than you, married for less than a decade, and I do understand the questions you are pondering.

There is a radio talk show host named Dennis Prager who tackles these very issues. He devotes an hour each week to male and female sexuality. Perhaps you already know about him. The segment of the radio show airs every Wednesday and is called The Male/Female Hour. All shows are archived at Pragerradio.com. He has been the most instrumental sex educator I’ve ever had (in addition to the Church’s teachings, but his were more practical for me).

Thanks for bringing this up.

Yes, I have heard of him. Although he is a little too liberal for my own tastes, he has one of the healthiest views on human sexuality that I have ever heard. In this age of Ecumenism, one would think that the Church would begin to consider some of these ideas and incorporate them into her moral teachings.
God Bless.

 

[DD2007]

Why are the physical pleasures and allure of illicit sex so much more intense than the sacramental, procreative sex of the marital embrace with the mother of one’s children? Clearly an affair with the gorgrous secretary at work is immoral, but why is the thought of it so appealing to the reproductive system and “animal” brain of man?

Strip clubs, one night stands with attractive strangers… etc. Why is something so wrong capable of generating such incredible excitement? I’ve never acted out any of this, but it isn’t necessary to go to Europe to know something about it… if ya know what I mean!

Ladies, I suspect you experience this is a slightly different way but the concept is the same. I’ve been wondering about this for a long time.

I think it’s because everyone is naturally depraved since the fall. I think everyone is afflicted with a different type of sinful desire most people has some issue with something sexual because that is a common human drive that is easily perverted.

I think these kinds of urges can be defeated through faith and the works that come from faith. However some have a greater degree of affliction than others and find it harder to control. For instance the members of the Clergy who should have the faith to defeat this but fail anyway.

 

[Joya]

Yes, I have heard of him. Although he is a little too liberal for my own tastes, he has one of the healthiest views on human sexuality that I have ever heard. In this age of Ecumenism, one would think that the Church would begin to consider some of these ideas and incorporate them into her moral teachings.
God Bless.

Thanks for your response. May I ask for clarification? If you think he has one of the healthiest views on human sexuality, then what do you find too liberal about him?

Regarding your 2nd statement, I don’t think Prager’s views and the Church’s views are too different. However, I do think Prager would dissent on the Church’s opposition to contraception.

I find contemporary thinkers like Christopher West too conservative on this issue. I like Prager because he is well-balanced, from my perspective.

God Bless You, too.

 

[manualman]

I take it TLM isn’t married, or if he is he’s chosen not to have kids so far.

As for one of his assertions - total BS. NFP couples know what I mean here: You REMEMBER the days your kids were conceived like no other experience! No one night stand could compare.

 

[The_Stig]

Because we have a lot of nerve-endings there, and lots of instincts that push us to use them.

Catholics need to beware of making the grave theological error of claiming that desire itself is the result of the fall.

Desire for the opposite sex is part of God’s design of man. The unfallen state would not erase this desire, but would allow our charity to govern it fully.

 

[Earnest_Bunbury]

Because we have a lot of nerve-endings there, and lots of instincts that push us to use them.

Catholics need to beware of making the grave theological error of claiming that desire itself is the result of the fall.

Desire for the opposite sex is part of God’s design of man. The unfallen state would not erase this desire, but would allow our charity to govern it fully.

As I understand “Theology of the Body”, the giving of love is inherent in the desire for the opposite sex. The disordered aspect is in the selfish mode contracted after the fall. The desire as it is now is the result of the fall as we cannot know what the desire was like prior to the fall.

 

[fbl9]

TL and i have about the same battle on our hands,from what i know about him from here.He is one of the persons here that i can most identify with.I can tell by the what he posts sometimes where he is at in this war we both are fighting.And by the sounds of this thread he has won this battle.
Like it has been said it is the allure of sexual activity outside of the marital embrace,that causes the issue…Tl knows there is only a hint of satisaction in these “activities”…Never in my lifetime has any activity outside the marital embrace ever come close,in terms of feeling “pleasured”,to even the “worst” of the martial embrace.But still i chase this “feeeling” at times and i know it is wrong, i know the results,both physically and spiritually.So why why do i do these things.Saying it is just our fallen nature just does not seem to be a satisfactory answer.

 

[TLM08]

Thanks for your response. May I ask for clarification? If you think he has one of the healthiest views on human sexuality, then what do you find too liberal about him?

Regarding your 2nd statement, I don’t think Prager’s views and the Church’s views are too different. However, I do think Prager would dissent on the Church’s opposition to contraception.

I find contemporary thinkers like Christopher West too conservative on this issue. I like Prager because he is well-balanced, from my perspective.

God Bless You, too.

Prager’s assertion that that masturbation isn’t immoral bothers me. While I believe that masturbation is an extremely natural and perhaps even a physically healthy human activity, there are moral factors that cannot be ignored. I don’t believe that God approves of it. There are too many potential emotional and developmental problems that can accompany habitual “self-sex”. Pornography often becomes a part of this activity and that can in itself become very addictive to the individual and and destructive to male / female relationships as well as marriage.

The church’s position is that primary purpose of our sexual faculties is to bring forth new life. Therefore the church declares that masturbation is immoral because it is considered sex contrary to it’s intended purpose.

While sexual activity brings forth new life, the reason we eat food is to sustain that life yet I don’t see church leaders condemning the eating of a generous slice of double cream fudge cake with two huge balls of Haagen Dazs chocolate chip ice cream thirty minutes after eating a life sustaining meal. How is unnecessary snacking in between meals any different from a little relief via a “whack” in the dark after an evening of a little too much “eye candy” at the night club?

I am not trying to justify either one… just raising a question.


The church says that all sex acts are permitted as long as the finality of the act is open to life. How in the world could anal sex be perfectly fine as long as the man finishes inside of the woman’s “vag”? How could this be okay? In my opinion, there is nothing more unnatural, disgusting and potentially hazardous to your health than anal sex. To the best of my knowledge animals don’t even do this!

If the church as banned anal sex, someone please correct me.

Prager is very balanced, unbiased and honest when it comes to sexal issues. Often his views thread the needle between common sense and puritanical morality.

 

[TLM08]

I take it TLM isn’t married, or if he is he’s chosen not to have kids so far.

As for one of his assertions - total BS. NFP couples know what I mean here: You REMEMBER the days your kids were conceived like no other experience! No one night stand could compare.

Sorry manualman… Been married three decades to the same woman. We have raised three children to adulthood, and we have grandchildren. I love my wife dearly and have been faithful to her and intend to remain so.

From a spiritual standpoint you are right. There is no greater spiritual pleasure than the day my children were conceived and later born into this world. But before I met my wife my sinful flesh found it’s most intense physical pleasure and excitement in a one night stand with an attractive acquaintance.

You seem to have entirely missed my point in the original post.