We atheist and “recovered” theists love to write about the horrors perpetrated by Christians: crusades, genocides, slavery, inquisitions, misogyny, support for Hitler, fueling hatred in the Middle East, witch burning, exorcisms, homophobia … the list goes on and on. Christians even loved to murder each other: during Roman times, more Christians were killed by other Christians than by the Roman government!
But in terms of misery and heartache, these crimes don’t hold a candle to Christianity’s vilest crime: turning sex from something beautiful, fun, natural, and loving into a disgusting, embarrassing, guilt-laden act. Sex, one of life’s greatest pleasures, an intimate act that brings happiness, comfort, and love, has been ruined for billions of people.
Christians claim otherwise. They teach that sex is sacred in marriage, beautiful, blessed by Jesus and all that. They claim to be pro-sex (in marriage). I say bullshit.
Christianity starts with the premise that sex is fundamentally a sin, that the very act of sex is disgusting, defiling, and unclean. Even if you’re married and making babies! Because, although sex is OK in marriage, the act is only redeemed by the possibility of procreation. In other words, you did a bad thing, but for a good cause, so it’s OK.
Don’t believe me? Let’s check the Bible.
I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
–Psalm 51:5
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.
–Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, 5:12-21
Those two passages are widely seen as the foundation for Christianity’s vilification of sex.
Saint Augustine (Augustine of Hippo), who perhaps shaped Christianity more than any other person, claimed that babies who hadn’t had their sin erased by baptism went to hell for eternal torture—all because of sex. It wasn’t until around 1300 A.D. that the Roman Catholic Church revised this to a “hope” that by entrusting the unbaptized child to God through prayer at a funeral, they could count on “Jesus’ tenderness toward children” to save them from this appalling and undeserved torture.
All because sex is inherently a sinful, ugly, base desire and act.
But what is the actual effect of this attitude? Think of a typical girl of past generations who, prior to marriage, was told that sex would defile her, and that lust was a sign of immorality and weakness. Not a one-time message, but rather a stream of shame starting from childhood and carrying into puberty, her teen years, and adulthood. She was immersed in a culture that shamed her body and her natural and healthy desires. Then her magic day arrives! She’s married, and suddenly she’s told it’s OK to have sex with her husband. Do you think that on that day, such a woman could magically shed a lifetime of shame and enjoy sex without guilt? Of course not. By her wedding day, the vileness of sex of sex had surely become embedded in her view of herself. Internalized. And the act of sex, no matter what they tell her now, feels dirty.
This obviously applies to men too, but the misogyny of Christian culture, starting with the “original sin” of Eve, puts most of this on women.
Billions of humans have internalized this disgusting view of sex, and while having sex, feel like they’re doing something dirty and shameful. Billions of people take no joy in sex, treating it as an unpleasant task, something they must do for their spouse. Billions of people feel shame over their natural, healthy urges.
Christianity has turned one of our most wonderful gifts into a weapon of coercion.
When measured by sheer unhappiness, loss of joy, loss of love, guilt, and anger, Christianity’s teachings about sex far outstrip the misery caused by all the other sins combined. Because while millions may have died or been tortured at the hands of Christians, billions have lost entire lifetimes of joy and pleasure.
Image: Soul in Bondage, Elihu Vedder, ca 1891. Public domain.
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