What Western Civilization has to say on the matter is of utmost importance because it's a melting pot of cultures
This is mighty ethnocentric of you.
The Truth About Bible Principles: Chastity and Abstinence
by sabastious 83 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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myelaine
dear sabasteous...
I am a former promiscuous, cronic drug abusing binge drinker who was sexually abused for many years as a child into the preteens by a non-religious married man. any other questions?
love michelle
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sabastious
This is mighty ethnocentric of you.
Western Civilzation affords the people within it to be ethnocentric because it provided freedom in a world where none existed. It solely provided us all with something that was largely regarded as impossible by many cultures and peoples. Consulting a civilization that represents most every culture on earth doesn't merely provide general results, but deep truths. In other words what we (the western world) do, think and feel matters more so than some isolated culture who revered prostitution. On a small scale maybe a culture can keep it under control, but as a culture with hundreds of millions of people sex laws become more viable. Besides, even the Eastern Civilizations generally do not hold any kind of reverence for prostitution. Do you think pimps should exist? I am straining to see your ultimate point.
I am a former promiscuous, cronic drug abusing binge drinker who was sexually abused for many years as a child into the preteens by a non-religious married man. any other questions?
I'm sorry that these things happened to you. My remark was in reference to your brusqueness in regards to the legitimacy of my Christianity.
-Sab
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myelaine
dear sabasteous...
in Jesus Christ ALL things are made new. (rev 13:9)
love michelle
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EntirelyPossible
the pursuit of chastity and abstinence is, at its core, a christian desire to be Holy and "set apart" like the God that is worshipped.
Well that's just wrong. There are many cultures with celibacy and abstinance that had nothing to do with Christianity or the Jews.
that doesn't change what civilization has to say about it which is that prostitution is morally wrong
that's not a universal thing by any means. Civilization has very little to do with the idea that prostitution is a bad thing.
What Western Civilization has to say on the matter is of utmost importance because it's a melting pot of cultures.
And they've all had prostitution. Score one for the whores.
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Joliette
Bookmarking for later! Very intresting subject.
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mP
Sab:
1 Cor 5 is the first known record of this phenomenon within the Christian church. This deviancy is not just pedophilia, but also includes incest and bestiality
mP -> Sab:
For the sake clarity im including the scripture here.
http://www.watchtower.org/e/bible/1co/chapter_005.htm
1 Actually fornication is reported among YOU , and such fornication as is not even among the nations, that a wife a certain [man] has of [his] fathe
It doesnt mention homosexuality, lesbians, beastility or pedphilia. All of these activities were very popular in the ancient world. They were not judge wronged by anyone and were very much a part of typical society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty
Pederasty or paederasty ( US: /'p?d?ræsti/ , UK: /'pi?d?ræsti/ ) is a (usually erotic) relationship between a young man and a pubescent boy outside his immediate family. The word pederastyderives from Greek (paiderastia) "love of boys", [2] a compound derived from πα?ς (pais) "child, boy" and ?ραστ?ς (erastes) "lover".
Historically, pederasty has existed as a variety of customs and practices within different cultures. The status of pederasty has changed over the course of history, at times considered an ideal and at other times a crime. In the history of Europe, its most structured cultural manifestation was Athenian pederasty, and became most prominent in the 6th century BC. Greek pederasty's various forms were the subject of philosophic debates in which the carnal type was unfavorably compared with erotic yet spiritual and moderate forms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_and_cultural_perspectives_on_zoophilia
Explicit legal prohibition of human sexual contact with animals is a legacy of the Abrahamic religions : [2] the Hebrew Bible imposes the death penalty on both the person and animal involved in an act of bestiality. [3] There are several examples known from medieval Europe of people and animals executed for committing bestiality. With the Age of Enlightenment , bestiality was subsumed with other sexual "crimes against nature" into civil sodomy laws, usually remaining a capital crime.
Various classical writers recorded that bestiality was common in other cultures. Herodotus was followed by Pindar , Strabo and Plutarch [citation needed] in alleging that Egyptian women engaged in sexual relations with goats for religious and magical purposes - the animal aspects of Egyptian deities being particularly alien to the Greco–Roman world. [10] [11] Conversely, Plutarch and Virgil make similar accusations of the Greeks, with Plutarch writing in his Discourse on the Reason of Beasts that they committed "very frequently and in many places great outrages, disorders and scandals against nature, in the matter of this pleasure of love; for there are men who have loved she-goats, sows and mares."
Given the NT was written in Greek, any statements about abnormal sex cannot apply to these as they were considered normal. We can see from the above writers that beastiality was also common. Paul was not condemning this.
I dont agree with any of this, but do not try and rationalise your standards as originating from the Bible, because they dont. They are modern inventions by man in much the same way, only recently did slavery become evil.
The WTS like all religions just make stuff up, they did it before and are doing it now. Now here in the Bible is pedophilia or lesbiansm banned, condemned and so on.
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myelaine
dear EntirelyPossible...
you stated in response to: "the pursuit of chastity and abstinence is, at its core, a christian desire to be Holy and "set apart" like the God that is worshipped."
Well that's just wrong. There are many cultures with celibacy and abstinance that had nothing to do with Christianity or the Jews.
from wikipedia: "In some religions, some groups of people are expected to remain unmarried and to abstain from sex completely. These groups include monks, nuns, and priests in various sects of Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. Chastity is required of the respective sacerdotal orders."...
this seems to suggest that in some religions chastity and abstinence is expected of the "priesthood" but the "principles" of chastity and abstinence are not expected of the laity...not so with christianity who's adherents make a personal choice to be set apart like their God.
love michelle
p.s. the "biblical" thing is...even the angels of God were given the personal choice
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startingover
Sab,
I don't agree with most of your thinking, but I think you are right on this time.
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mP
from wikipedia: "In some religions, some groups of people are expected to remain unmarried and to abstain from sex completely. These groups include monks, nuns, and priests in various sects of Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. Chastity is required of the respective sacerdotal orders."...
this seems to suggest that in some religions chastity and abstinence is expected of the "priesthood" but the "principles" of chastity and abstinence are not expected of the laity...not so with christianity who's adherents make a personal choice to be set apart like their God.
mP:
In the old days sacred prostitutes didnt get married to a man or women because they were married to god. We see the same today with nuns often described as brides of Christ. That of course didnt stop them from sex. Marriage was originally a convention about ownership. Sincemost cultures allowed men to have multiple wives the statement of course was the women belongs to the man for breeding and other purposes. He of course has no such committment.