Exposing religious sexual hypocrisy is, as the cliché goes, like shooting fish in a barrel. If you follow the right Twitter accounts, literally every day there’s a new story of religious conservative leaders philandering, downloading illegal pornography, cruising for gay sex on the down low, or, by far worst of all, sexually abusing minors or other vulnerable people. [...]
But conservative Christianity is institutionalized reaction formation. Socially, culturally, and theologically, it drums in the message that sex is bad, that you are bad for wanting it, and that people who say they want it are even worse than you. This is not true for liberal Christians (or Jews or Muslims); but it is true for almost all conservative Christians (or Jews or Muslims).
That’s why, when yet another pastor falls from grace—with boys, girls, women, men, it almost doesn’t matter—it’s not seen as a refutation of Christian doctrine, but a confirmation of it. See, none of us is above sin. That proves that all of us are sinners and are only hope is the grace of God. [...]
This is also why the majority of these offenders are conservative, not progressive. To be sure, there are also liberal philanderers and liberal sexual offenders—my own Jewish Renewal community is still reeling from one of them, a serial offender named Marc Gafni who has since resurfaced as Whole Foods founder John Mackey’s personal guru. But in general, religious conservatives have it exactly backwards. The sexual liberals of the world aren’t more sinful when it comes to sexuality. Because they’re healthier, they sin less—and by “sin” I mean actually harming other people, rather than inserting tab A elsewhere than slot B. Once sex isn’t some demon to be repressed, but is simply part of the human experience, a capacity that can be used wisely or unwisely—well, then it’s just not that big of a deal anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment