Church and Sex
A crazy week in Philippines. Church and sex have been making headlines. The church is denying “pro-reproductive health lawmakers” Holy Communion. The politicians called it “blackmail”.
The Church has been refusing the idea to promote artificial contraception, it stood by its centuries’ old “natural methods”. They also fight over bills to make sex education mandatory in schools.
The purpose of the government in working on these bills are to curtail the booming population, especially among the young and poor. It is typical sight to see young mothers under 25 with three toddlers hanging around the arms and neck - they are some sort of fashion accessories in the urban area. The whole point is to give the population enough information so they can make informed decision on whether to pursue natural birth planning, or artificial ones. The Church sees this prevention act in the same level as abortion. I think it prevent abortion in some cases.
As The Church is the holiest institution in the world, they claimed that they are aware of the situation. People can live with leavened bread and watery wine once a week, can’t they?
But the sex will be church-approved activity. So I guess all ends well.
11 Responses to 'Church and Sex'
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Definitely a more interesting headline news than what is happening in my side of the world.
You can also read Jemima’s blog post: imperfect
Jemima
24 Jul 08 at 2:48 pm
Children are God’s gifts… I won’t agree to contraceptions too. People need to be educated, not being bound by strict rules all the time
Look at China. The Government tries to make its people stopped at one, see what bigger problems it has now. Don’t meddle with God. .
eastcoastlife
25 Jul 08 at 2:59 pm
I agree with eastcoastlife
You can also read giddy tiger’s blog post: It’s a hard-rockin’… cap!
giddy tiger
25 Jul 08 at 3:28 pm
EastCoastLife & Giddy Tiger
I think I agree with the government. The church won’t allow sex education in schools either. I just came back from tour of the resettlement sites of the poorest part of the country. The families live in a house 4×4m, two adults and at least 4 to 6 children. That’s not a way to live. They are simply too poor and not educated at all. The church can’t help them. International funds are poured in, but they can’t do that forever. The government will need to do something to help their own people. To curtail the population is the most reasonable to do at the moment.
Andie
25 Jul 08 at 4:03 pm
I agree with East Coast Life as well.
You can also read Lauren’s blog post: Checking Up on Your Ex Using the Internet
Lauren
25 Jul 08 at 11:04 pm
This time I’m all in favor of the politicians.
The day to day practice of organized religions is, and always has been, the ruling and disciplining of the moral ideas and attitudes of the believers. By definition they are conservative at best and more often pathetically behind their times. A striking fact of today is that sex related issues keep them busy all the time - telling people to behave as the founding father(s) thought was decent and sensible behavior a thousand or two thousand years ago. Most of the time they want especially the sexual freedom of women to be limited. Pope Benedictus XVI - 81 years old and no personal sexual intercourse experience at all (I hope)- is no exception to the rule.
Fortunately most enlightened believers cling to their own responsibility in making their moral choices. Some go with the Pope, others ignore his teaching on some issues.
Yet I think the overlords of the monotheistic religions have a moral responsibility for their teachings: the plague of HIV/Aids in Africa, the promotion of unlimited procreation by devout poor families which make their large number of children cause even more devastating suffering and child abuse, not to mention the appalling attempts by some members of the clergy to totally invade the privacy of people.
Religion may help to reach some spiritual satisfaction to a lot of people, to givea moral compass to some, to provide comfort in times of grief to many believers- all that and much more. But for the need of progress, personal independence, being an adult citizen, welfare, health, etc you better bet on other institutions.
You can also read colson’s blog post: Partai Pelopor!
colson
26 Jul 08 at 4:14 pm
If sex education is not part of the school’s syllabus, how would the people be educated? I’m for the government. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Progress is not a choice.
You can also read happysurfer’s blog post: Prescription Glasses for as low as $8
happysurfer
27 Jul 08 at 12:22 pm
Lorraine, Colson, HappySurfer,
Thank you for sharing your insights on the matter. The local people here in the Philippines have sided with the government, mostly. I think I know how they feel, with the population booming and the economy is lagging behind, all the young and talented have no choice but to scrape whatever they have to go abroad and pursue better life. This leads to brain drain and no country can benefit from that. The importing country might. The exporting country will be stuck. They are actually training their own people to be asset to another country.
However, I must admit that I have no complete knowledge of what actually happened in China with its one child policy, which I believe was implemented in tyranny-style. Philippines, however, is a different story.
Andie
28 Jul 08 at 12:42 pm
[…] I read this post by Andie Summerkiss on Church and Sex. In short: the Pope promises hell and damnation to those who […]
A Condom Ballooning « Pelopor.nl
28 Jul 08 at 5:39 pm
Halo Andie. In this case, you have to give the thumbs up for the mainstream Ulamas in Indonesia who are ’seemingly’ supportive of family planning and reproductive health campaigns. I wonder why contraceptive use/pre-marital sex has not been made a prominent issue in the Islamic discourse? (don’t tell me because the fundamentalists are busy concentrating on the ‘infidels’
.
You can also read katadia’s blog post: Don’t call me “Ma”!
katadia
29 Jul 08 at 1:47 pm
oh…. right… let’s all come back to that no-word-sex world…… amazing that in a contemporary world, some institutions (religious ones, particularly) like to play power with ‘tabooness’…..
p.s. sorry for not visiting much…. i’ve been mostly offline in these last couple months… now i have a little chance to be online, so i quickly browse your last three postings. enjoy them
You can also read mer’s blog post: [Dayeuhkolot] Being home
mer
29 Jul 08 at 8:51 pm