[
Replying to 2ndRateMind]
And in an important way, I think celibacy to be the worst of all sexual perversions, since all the others have at least something to do with sex.
I do not understand what you mean by celibacy being the worst of all sexual perversions. You think being celibate is a perversion? How so? Not engaging in sex is not perverting something anymore than it would be considered perverted to not sing. Also, celibacy does have to do with sex. We are sexual beings. Our bodies are a sex. We are male or female. Our maleness and femaleness is embodied in our entire being – not just our plumbing – though there is that too.
But suppose I wasn't celibate. Suppose I was promiscuous. And suppose that way of life suited me.
Your way of life would still be wrong. Let’s switch the word promiscuous to cocaine user – Suppose I was a cocaine user. And suppose that way of life suited me, etc. Of course a cocaine user would be likely to believe/think his cocaine use suits him and that it is his right to engage in such a lifestyle. But our knowledge of the world we live in and man’s relationship with this world shows us such cannot be the case. Using cocaine will not bring you the happiness and fulfillment you think it will. It might be a temporary distraction. It might be very pleasurable in the moment – many things are, but this pleasure does not mean something is right or good.
By what right would you, or the church, or some part of the church, seek to impose a way of life you are contented with, and suits you, on me, who wouldn't be thus content and wouldn't be thus suited to it?
This is simply the age old comment, “Something that is true for you is not necessarily true for me.� We call this moral relativism and it is illogical. It’s also self refuting:
You: There is no absolute truth.
Me: Is that true?
Truth exists. The world works in a certain way. Right and wrong are something that can be known by man by simply observing the world we live in. We are subject to the design/order/function of the world. We don’t have to give God credit for this design/order, but we do have to acknowledge the universe has rules/laws
You claim that God wants this or that, and this or that is good and right and virtuous
I never made this claim – you did.
, and, as it happens, what God wants and what is good and right and virtuous matches your preferred way of life.
It does? I would love to eat nothing but hot fudge sundaes, I would love to not have to make my family dinner every night, I would have loved to know what taking heroin feels like, etc.
I, however, like G.K. Chesterton would not want a church that is right when I am right. I would want a church to be right when I am wrong.
Surprise, surprise. How convenient for you.
Really? Convenient for me? I believe the Church’s teaching on contraception is true. As a result, I have 8 children – not exactly convenient.
Trouble is, God didn't make us in a single mould. 'One size fits all' does not seem to be how God thinks and creates, even if the church would rather He should. God made us diverse, presumably because He thinks diversity to be 'a good thing'
I couldn’t agree with this more. We are all special and unique. My mother-in-law use to describe it as ‘unrepeatable existence’. Isn’t that beautiful? But I think you are getting confused that there can be diversity within the moral law. Following the moral law does not restrict our freedom. Quite the opposite actually. If I am free to take drugs or watch porn and then find myself addicted – no longer to function without these things, is that freeing? Freedom does not mean being able to do whatever we feel like. God wants us to be happy. The Church wants us to be happy. Only when we follow that which is right/good will we be happy.