a Style of a Mogul

Let's Talk Universal Spirituality! 

Religion is Sexual…The Christian religion begins with a virgin who gets pregnant, outside of marriage, something the religion itself dogmatically forbids. Merry Christmas!

From the huge child molestation scandal that has racked the Catholic church to sex scandals by Protestant preachers from Jimmy Swaggart to Ted Haggard (former president of the National Association of Evangelicals and a former ORU college mate of mine), it seems that more than ever, the story of sexuality and Christianity has become a case of “Do as I say, not as I do.” Why the proliferation of sexual misbehavior among “holiness people,” and especially among ministers?

The Reality show, "LA Preachers" has raised the subject of sex, "sin" humanity and indeed reality in a way that has people considerably interested in discussing the delicate subject anew.

In religious circles, human sexuality, especially homosexuality is a profoundly delicate and passionately avoided taboo. Christian religion is subtly built around sexuality and sexism. After all, it begins with God supposedly impregnating a teenage virgin already pledged to, presumably a much older man. You would think God would have chosen an uncommitted, slightly older woman.

From the outset of our cherished religion, the God we are taught to revere and worship, all but breaks up a home and commits a form of adultery. Adultery is one of the foremost sins banned by the Ten Commandments, so is this an act of holy hypocrisy? If so, it was perhaps the First Hypocrisy in a landscape littered with faith leaders and “fathers” who professed sexual purity in public only to engage in lewd and lascivious acts behind closed doors…until they were found out.

Christian theology teaches that Jesus bore our sins, actually becoming sin while not necessarily sinning, and yet the Holy Spirit is said to have impregnated Mary while she was betrothed to another man. How this actually took place remains a mystery we are expected to accept by faith. We can either assume it to have been “spiritual insemination” or that somehow the third member of the Trinity actually had physical intimacy with a 12, or 13 year old girl. Today, that would be considered statutory rape. The Holy Spirit would have to be arrested and prosecuted for such a crime. The thought seems preposterous indeed. Imagine the prep walk, the plea, the press conference: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Mary…” And then we wonder why our subculture has such a preoccupation—a forbidden yet irresistible fascination—with sexuality and the sexual act. It’s not a mystery. The Christian religion begins with a sex act that we have spiritualized and sanctified as holy and even wholesome. Our salvation is tied to it.

Christianity, like most religions, is a fertility religion founded on the idea of the sacredness of life, beginning with its procreation and followed by its consecration and preservation. Fertility religions emphasize the importance of life and its origins, beginning with human genesis, (genetics) sexual or spiritual. Both were revered as the beginnings of life. From the start of the human race there has been a preoccupation with how we got here and where we go when we leave. Since life comes through male and female conjugal relations, our first reverence and forms of worship revolved around sex and its attributes.

We are taught that we Christians are God’s spiritual seed and that we should be randomly scattered over the planet in order to extend God’s family on earth. Millions, particularly our Catholic family, even call Christ the Immaculate Conception. And even though Mary had at least six more children (presumably by Joseph), she is still revered and worshiped as a Virgin. Did her many sexual acts with her husband in later years simply not count, or would we rather ignore them? Our entire Christmas holiday (holy day) revolves around a pregnant virgin chosen by God to be the mother of Christ if not of Christianity itself. Are we missing something here?

-  Carlton Pearson dec. 14, 2013

Tyra Banks in a gown in shadow

Mother's protest