Regarding "Chaps'," the former chaplain's message at the web site http://prayinjesusname.org, which condemns Obama's effort to terminate the "don't ask, don't tell" military policy regarding homosexuality...
Many factors lean common sense toward utterly ignoring people's sexual preferences, in or out of the military, so long as they don't alienate others around them. I intend to reveal and discuss some of those factors.
The Bible and what God wants
I imagine Chaps took his main cues and clues regarding religion and sex from the Holy Bible. It doesn't matter which version.
And that right there makes the point better than all our elocution about this topic. Version, like a non-unanimous Supreme Court opinion, means the truth jury has not returned with a verdict, and probably won't. Oh, we can choose one version or viewpoint or the other, but we simply cannot know whether we have chosen the right one. We cannot even know whether we made our selection from the right RANGE of choices.
Speaking of which, if you have read Thomas Paine's Age of Reason, and if you have followed his logic, you know without question that the Bible impeaches its own credentials. We cannot have certainty, for example, that Moses wrote the Pentateuch because, among other reasons, the author wrote about Moses' funeral. Moses certainly could not have authored that. If our whole reason for accepting the Pentateuch as the "Word of God" lies in the fact that Moses, chosen by God, authored the Pentateuch, then we have lost our reason for believing the whole Holy Bible is the Word of God at all.
And if you have noticed the ambivalence about the nature of God in the Bible, you cannot help suffering confusion. The early Hebrews saw him as a tribal deity better than other tribes' deities, later Hebrews saw him as the only deity, but an intrinsically evil, hateful, vengeful deity who, for example, ordered Saul to murder all the people and livestock in the Amelakite village, and who ordered Joshua to sweep into Palestine and pillage, loot, and murder the occupants, and who ordered men to stay awy from women during menstruation, and who apparently condoned Lot having sex with his two kinswomen, and ordered the murder of homosexuals. Later, Isaiah revealed God's loving nature, and yet later, Jesus revealed God's fatherly nature, a nature that Islam and Judaism have not yet fully recognized or realized.
Which God shall we honor and believe in? The fire-starting rape-encouraging, murder-condoning, jealous, vindictive tribal Yaweh of Horeb, or the loving Heavenly Father of Jesus?
How can anyone possibly find cohesion, consistency, or plausibility in all those characterizations of God? One cannot, and remain honest and sincere at the same time. Thus, the fog begins to lift, and we finally see the light of truth. The Bible reveals the EVOLUTION of the CONCEPT of God in the mind of primitive, superstitious, corrupt human beings. It does not reveal the changing nature of God. We must assume that any worthy god has a consistently loving nature, the very nature Jesus revealed in his life and teachings.
Thus, all the hateful denunciation of people in the Old Testament for pursuing pleasure through sex with other creatures, or even by one's self, amount to just so much moralistic malarkey. Bottom line (get used to it), God loves you regardless of whom you fuck.
The Bible and what God wants
I imagine Chaps took his main cues and clues regarding religion and sex from the Holy Bible. It doesn't matter which version.
And that right there makes the point better than all our elocution about this topic. Version, like a non-unanimous Supreme Court opinion, means the truth jury has not returned with a verdict, and probably won't. Oh, we can choose one version or viewpoint or the other, but we simply cannot know whether we have chosen the right one. We cannot even know whether we made our selection from the right RANGE of choices.
Speaking of which, if you have read Thomas Paine's Age of Reason, and if you have followed his logic, you know without question that the Bible impeaches its own credentials. We cannot have certainty, for example, that Moses wrote the Pentateuch because, among other reasons, the author wrote about Moses' funeral. Moses certainly could not have authored that. If our whole reason for accepting the Pentateuch as the "Word of God" lies in the fact that Moses, chosen by God, authored the Pentateuch, then we have lost our reason for believing the whole Holy Bible is the Word of God at all.
And if you have noticed the ambivalence about the nature of God in the Bible, you cannot help suffering confusion. The early Hebrews saw him as a tribal deity better than other tribes' deities, later Hebrews saw him as the only deity, but an intrinsically evil, hateful, vengeful deity who, for example, ordered Saul to murder all the people and livestock in the Amelakite village, and who ordered Joshua to sweep into Palestine and pillage, loot, and murder the occupants, and who ordered men to stay awy from women during menstruation, and who apparently condoned Lot having sex with his two kinswomen, and ordered the murder of homosexuals. Later, Isaiah revealed God's loving nature, and yet later, Jesus revealed God's fatherly nature, a nature that Islam and Judaism have not yet fully recognized or realized.
Which God shall we honor and believe in? The fire-starting rape-encouraging, murder-condoning, jealous, vindictive tribal Yaweh of Horeb, or the loving Heavenly Father of Jesus?
How can anyone possibly find cohesion, consistency, or plausibility in all those characterizations of God? One cannot, and remain honest and sincere at the same time. Thus, the fog begins to lift, and we finally see the light of truth. The Bible reveals the EVOLUTION of the CONCEPT of God in the mind of primitive, superstitious, corrupt human beings. It does not reveal the changing nature of God. We must assume that any worthy god has a consistently loving nature, the very nature Jesus revealed in his life and teachings.
Thus, all the hateful denunciation of people in the Old Testament for pursuing pleasure through sex with other creatures, or even by one's self, amount to just so much moralistic malarkey. Bottom line (get used to it), God loves you regardless of whom you fuck.
How do we know this? Well, for some simple examples, consider these Bible excerpts:
Has any authority higher than Jesus ever walked this earth and brought a message to us directly from the Father himself? Not that I know of. So we might want to start heeding the above scriptures. Apparently Obama intends to in this one issue.
The Pressing Personal and Social Need
FURTHERMORE, people cannot help their sexual yearnings. I believe people become homosexual because of brain anomalies. Others believe homosexuality comes from some kind of neurosis, psychosis, chemical imbalance, or social conditioning. I don't believe the cause of homosexuality matters. Why? Because people feel inexorably, irresistibly attracted by and driven to certain other creatures for the pursuit of sexual gratification, and they typically only choose a target different from the one they prefer because they don't have their preferred target available.
Among Semites the custom of selling women to suitors made women largely unavailable to impoverished men. So men turned to boys and other men for sexual gratification, as a matter of social custom. I can only presume that women likewise gave and received sexual pleasure with other women. The same happens in prisons - men choose other men for sex partners largely they have no access to women for that pleasure pursuit. This has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality.
Moreover, contraceptives did not exist In Moses' and Jesus' days. Nothing but abstinence could prevent unwanted pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, abstinence became a moral imperative, EXCEPT when one did not risk pregnancy. Thus, the Bible handed down to us that moral imperative, also a community imperative of refraining from sex till married.
Look around you and you will clearly see the absurdity of such a notion these days. YOUNG teenagers, we often find, readily engage one another sexually because a) they feel the physiological urge, b) they want to emotionally and intellectually, and c) it has become socially acceptable in most circles. Why shouldn't it when they see it on TV and in the movies so much? Why shouldn't they when their parents and so many others around them do it? And why shouldn't they when it constitutes an expression of HUMAN NATURE to give and receive sexual pleasure with an attractive prospective partner?
WHAT should hold people back from such expressions? A Bible that contains antiquated, inconsistent, implausible, impractical, psychologically problematic religious and moral lessons? Not likely.
Our western societies have, largely because of the Bible's influence, hopelessly conflated morality with religion. Preachers encourage the conflation to make people feel guilty and penitent for enjoying a robust sex life with a variety of other partners, as though God somehow does not approve.
The Complication of God's Intention
Clearly, God intended us to have a robust sex life, or he would not have built into us such a craving for it. Thus, to discourage it seems incongruent with God's actual intentions. In other words, he WANTS us to have sex with one another, TO OUR HEARTS' CONTENT. He just does not want us to have serious complications and troubles as a result, like unwanted pregnancies, STDs, broken homes, and so on.
So what should we do about all of those complications that prevail? Well, we should not denounce sex, because preachers have tried that for millennia and it simply does not work. Nor does it make an iota of sense, for it worsens quality of life while solving no problem.
We should do something practical that eases the stress of pleasure pursuits so that those do not interfere with other ambitions in life, like earning a living, creating and maintaining families, and rearing children to become healthy, strong, humane, and productive. And, of course, becoming more like God - developing majestic and well-balanced personalities.
The Only Practical Solution
I propose that American society put an omni-gender "pleasure palace" in every community and on every military base and every Navy ship. Society should make socially acceptable and fully legal the pursuit of pleasure, including sex, in those pleasure palaces. Society should encourage those who wish to volunteer for a season in service there to learn the practice of sexually satisfying a partner. Sexually aware children might even avail themselves of the services rather than "experiment in the hayloft." I would have loved it if my parents had sent me on regular outings to the Pleasure Palace as a young teen. Marriage partners could encourage their mates to avail themselves of the services. All could use the services or volunteer for service without social stigma or legal repercussion.
Surely, this Andy-Rooney-style suggestion horrifies hard-core bible-bound Christians and Muslims. Eventually, they will have to "get over it" Why? Because:
The Solution's Amazing Bounty of Benefits
The solution provides numerous benefits.
- Matthew 6:14-15 - For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
- Luke 10:25-28 - On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
- John 13:34-35 - “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
- Matthew 5:19 - Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands [the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:3-14] and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Has any authority higher than Jesus ever walked this earth and brought a message to us directly from the Father himself? Not that I know of. So we might want to start heeding the above scriptures. Apparently Obama intends to in this one issue.
The Pressing Personal and Social Need
FURTHERMORE, people cannot help their sexual yearnings. I believe people become homosexual because of brain anomalies. Others believe homosexuality comes from some kind of neurosis, psychosis, chemical imbalance, or social conditioning. I don't believe the cause of homosexuality matters. Why? Because people feel inexorably, irresistibly attracted by and driven to certain other creatures for the pursuit of sexual gratification, and they typically only choose a target different from the one they prefer because they don't have their preferred target available.
Among Semites the custom of selling women to suitors made women largely unavailable to impoverished men. So men turned to boys and other men for sexual gratification, as a matter of social custom. I can only presume that women likewise gave and received sexual pleasure with other women. The same happens in prisons - men choose other men for sex partners largely they have no access to women for that pleasure pursuit. This has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality.
Moreover, contraceptives did not exist In Moses' and Jesus' days. Nothing but abstinence could prevent unwanted pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, abstinence became a moral imperative, EXCEPT when one did not risk pregnancy. Thus, the Bible handed down to us that moral imperative, also a community imperative of refraining from sex till married.
Look around you and you will clearly see the absurdity of such a notion these days. YOUNG teenagers, we often find, readily engage one another sexually because a) they feel the physiological urge, b) they want to emotionally and intellectually, and c) it has become socially acceptable in most circles. Why shouldn't it when they see it on TV and in the movies so much? Why shouldn't they when their parents and so many others around them do it? And why shouldn't they when it constitutes an expression of HUMAN NATURE to give and receive sexual pleasure with an attractive prospective partner?
WHAT should hold people back from such expressions? A Bible that contains antiquated, inconsistent, implausible, impractical, psychologically problematic religious and moral lessons? Not likely.
Our western societies have, largely because of the Bible's influence, hopelessly conflated morality with religion. Preachers encourage the conflation to make people feel guilty and penitent for enjoying a robust sex life with a variety of other partners, as though God somehow does not approve.
The Complication of God's Intention
Clearly, God intended us to have a robust sex life, or he would not have built into us such a craving for it. Thus, to discourage it seems incongruent with God's actual intentions. In other words, he WANTS us to have sex with one another, TO OUR HEARTS' CONTENT. He just does not want us to have serious complications and troubles as a result, like unwanted pregnancies, STDs, broken homes, and so on.
So what should we do about all of those complications that prevail? Well, we should not denounce sex, because preachers have tried that for millennia and it simply does not work. Nor does it make an iota of sense, for it worsens quality of life while solving no problem.
We should do something practical that eases the stress of pleasure pursuits so that those do not interfere with other ambitions in life, like earning a living, creating and maintaining families, and rearing children to become healthy, strong, humane, and productive. And, of course, becoming more like God - developing majestic and well-balanced personalities.
The Only Practical Solution
I propose that American society put an omni-gender "pleasure palace" in every community and on every military base and every Navy ship. Society should make socially acceptable and fully legal the pursuit of pleasure, including sex, in those pleasure palaces. Society should encourage those who wish to volunteer for a season in service there to learn the practice of sexually satisfying a partner. Sexually aware children might even avail themselves of the services rather than "experiment in the hayloft." I would have loved it if my parents had sent me on regular outings to the Pleasure Palace as a young teen. Marriage partners could encourage their mates to avail themselves of the services. All could use the services or volunteer for service without social stigma or legal repercussion.
Surely, this Andy-Rooney-style suggestion horrifies hard-core bible-bound Christians and Muslims. Eventually, they will have to "get over it" Why? Because:
- Pursuit of sexual gratification "is here to stay."
- Pleasure palaces address and solve an array of pressing moral, legal, and social problems.
The Solution's Amazing Bounty of Benefits
The solution provides numerous benefits.
- It gives people pleasure they otherwise could not morally, legally, or ethically obtain.
- It increases longevity of marriages by removing sexual pleasure as the reason for marrying.
- It keeps people from using deception to lure others into sexual involvements.
- It eliminates guilt associated with sex, making people feel better about their own morality.
- It reduces incest and associated problems in families.
- It dramatically reduces unwanted pregnancies and STDs.
- It reduces the burden on criminal justice systems.
- It virtually eliminates sexual predators from society, aside from the psychosis rapists suffer.
- It allows government to raise revenue by taxing the usage of the services.
- It provides an honorable avenue for earning money for those who want to work in the facility rather than merely volunteer.
- It gives volunteers and workers there experiences valuable to their marriages, both by avoiding boredom from sex with a spouse, and by encouraging more versatility in spousal sex, to keep marriages flourishing.
- It eliminates the social stigma and revulsion against homosexuality.
- And let us not forget the best benefit of all. It pleases God to see his children put their sex organs to good use without causing the terrible moral, legal, and ethical problems of the past.
Summary and Conclusion
The bible contains a mishmash of ancient proscriptions of the one free irresistible urge for physical pleasure virtually everyone can gratify alone or with one or more partners. It does so out of practical necessity - prevention of disease and unwanted pregnancy. In order to give proscriptions moral force, religious leaders claimed "It's wrong and God doesn't like your doing it with anyone but your spouse, and then only to make babies". It included homosexuality and bestiality in its proscription dragnet for no obviously beneficial reason.
People have always intuitively ignored the proscription when they could get away with it. The proscription makes no sense in modern times because people can easily prevent unwanted pregnancies and STD's if they want to. Furthermore, logical analysis reveals that the bible's proscriptions against sex have no real religious basis. Obviously, God wants people to enjoy sex, or he wouldn't have built humans to lust and yearn for it.
I have proposed socially and legally acceptable community pleasure palaces and voluntary and paid service in them as the solution. I have shown numerous benefits to the change in laws and morality needed to support them. I have elucidated no drawbacks because I see none.
Modern preachers need to realize that the proscription they teach against sexual expression has confused and annoyed society for thousands of years. It has given their flocks the wrong idea about God, and made him seem unnecessarily cruel.
So, preachers need to stop telling people that God does not want people to have sex with anyone but a spouse when such a proscription obviously has no basis in truth or fact. Preachers need to STOP HARASSING homosexuals, prostitutes, and the sexually promiscuous.
Bottom line, preachers, chaplains, Imams, and other religious leaders need to encourage the construction of pleasure palaces in every community, on every military base, and on every Navy ship. Then, they need to exhort people to pursue sexual pleasures in pleasure palaces when they have no mate or when the mate "has a headache."
They should encourage prospective and actual couples to discuss this matter and state their expectations, needs, and what behaviors will cause a breakup. They should discourage couples from marrying for the sexual pleasure.
I predict the emergence of Pleasure Palaces in communities around the world. I doubt that it will happen until long after I have achieved terrestrial escape.
I predict the emergence of Pleasure Palaces in communities around the world. I doubt that it will happen until long after I have achieved terrestrial escape.
By the way, I welcome your comments, questions, rationalizations, admonitions, condemnations, denunciations, reproofs, rebuttals, rebukes, exhortations, edifications, and refutations. However, I adjure you against calumny.
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