Catholic Church and its obsession with sex - Part 3

Why did sex become dirty for the Catholic 

Church?

Why was human sexuality regarded as ‘degraded and unholy at worst and a necessary evil at most’? James Tabor, an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian origins, in his book “Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity”, has an interesting take on this matter.

Spiritual life = non-sexual life

In Greco-Roman culture, the material world, and thus anything to do with the body, was regarded as lower, and of less value than the heavenly spiritual world. This view is known as ascetic dualism. Humans were trapped in two worlds – the material and spiritual, with two modes of being – that of the body and the spirit (dualism). Those who denied the body and lived a celibate life, placing emphasis on the higher spiritual things ‘above’, were viewed as holy and free from the taint of the lower material world (asceticism). Generally, this outlook has not found a comfortable home within Judaism because of the emphasis in the Bible upon the goodness of God’s material creation (Genesis 1). But there are exceptions. Philo of Alexandria, the 1^st century BCE Jewish philosopher, honors Plato, the great advocate of ascetic dualism, next to Moses himself. Philo’s influence, not to mention Plato’s, was enormous on both Jewish and Christian thinkers. Apostle Paul built his theology around an essentially dualistic view of the cosmos in which the earthly was denigrated in favor of the heavenly. He advocated celibacy as a higher spiritual way, though he did not absolutely forbid sex. According to Paul, marriage was an antidote for the spiritually weak who might be tempted toward sexual immorality. It is easy to see how spiritual life began to be equated with nonsexual life.

There you have it. If you are nonsexual, you are spiritual!! The consequences of this mode of thinking, not found in the teachings of Jesus, but borrowed from Greek Philosophers, had wide-ranging and dire consequences for the lives of Christians throughout the centuries to come and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Monasteries and religious congregations were founded on the idea that virginity and chastity were most pleasing in the eyes of Jesus and God. Priests and nuns took the vow of chastity, having been brainwashed during years of formation, novitiate, and probation that the chaste life is a short cut to heavenly bliss. The psychological damage suffered by many in the religious life forced to live against nature and the guilt complex created in the consciences of Catholic laymen, obeying dogmas based on outmoded moral philosophies of ancient men who were the products of completely different social systems, is beyond imagination. 

Neocheating by early Church Leaders

Around 300 CE., Christian theologians discovered the 

ultimate ‘neocheating’ technique to control the faithful.

Neocheater is one who creates false realities or myths in order to gain unearned wealth, as opposed to someone who profits by producing valuable goods and services for society. The success of the neocheater relies on irrationality or mysticism in others.

Christian neocheaters’ technique was to link 

sex with guilt. 

Using this technique, the Catholic Church rose to its 

height in power, causing western civilization to crumble into the mystical dark ages as human well-being and happiness sank to the lowest level in recorded history.

A brief history of neocheating in the early 

Church

During the period 100 CE – 385 CE, the Roman 

empire still appeared vibrant but was surrendering to a new religion, Christianity, whose adherents plunged Rome into altruism and asceticism.

Roman pagan emperors began persecuting those 

Christians who became altruistic and ascetic fanatics and who used any means to meet their goals of destroying the life-enhancing and productive aspects of Roman civilization. Those neocheating Christian leaders had the dual objective of wiping out the pleasures of human life as well as destroying the high standard of living enjoyed by the Romans.

From 385 CE began the rise of the unkempt ascetics in Egypt based on Christian self-torture and denial (e.g., St. Simon, the stylite or pillar saint who achieved notability for living 37 years on a small platform on top of a pillar).

Christians became increasingly preoccupied with sex as they struggled against lust (e.g., by burning off fingers to resist temptation). Thinly veiled, neurotic eroticism steadily increased within the church.

St. Augustine (born 354 CE) promoted guilt through 

his invention of original sin. The sin of disobedience committed by two imaginary human beings Adam and Eve in an imaginary garden Eden eating an imaginary apple is transmitted through human sexual reproduction! Thus, by connecting sex and guilt, he used guilt to turn the goodness and pleasures of man against himself. St. Augustine became a master neocheater by creating problems where none existed.

The decline into dark ages coincided with the rise of 

Christianity. Collapsing under the Christian stranglehold, 6th century Rome was repeatedly ravaged and looted. Rome was abandoned as Christianity took hold.

By 585 CE Catholics argued that women did not have souls and debated if women were even human beings! Sex was reduced by Christianity to an unromantic, harsh, ugly act. Women became pieces of disposable property. Clergy and popes turned to prostitutes and neurotic sex.

By the 9th century, women were considered the 

property of men. The Church sanctioned wife-beating. For the Catholic clergy, sex without values (e.g., prostitute sex, orgy sex, even forced rape or sadistic sex) was not a serious offense, but sex with values (e.g., loving or valuing a woman) was a high sin with severe penalties. St. Jerome had stated that he who too ardently loved his wife was an adulterer.

Christian marital sex was performed only in one 

position and then only to conceive a child. Sex was never to be performed during lent nor on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays, or holiday seasons. The major Christian sin was not sex, but pleasure.

The result of linking sex with guilt was to 

exponentially increase the number and gravity of sins committed by the faithful. Additionally, there was eternal damnation and unimaginable torture awaiting in hell for anyone committing sexual sins. This, naturally, forced more and more of the faithful to flock for sacraments, especially confession. The ultimate result: A Church with enormous power and limitless wealth.

The world of today is drastically different from that of the dark ages. However, the thinking and teachings of the Catholic Church have not undergone much change. Attend any so-called ‘conventions’ held by Christian priests and pastors. There you can still hear them brainwashing the naïve faithful linking sin and guilt with sex.

Until and unless a dead person comes back to announce that there is nothing beyond death, the neocheating and brainwashing will continue unabated.