Sex & God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality (38 page)

What is the future of religion and sex? A recent article in the conservative magazine
RELEVANT
called “Almost Everyone Is Doing It” found that 80% of single Evangelicals have had sex outside of marriage while 76% say it is wrong. It also found that 88% of secular singles have had premarital sex. As we have noted earlier, there isn’t much difference between the two groups. The article examines all aspects of the “problem” trying to understand why young Christian people are having sex when they believe it to be wrong.
¹⁹⁴
Nowhere do they examine the obvious – biology happens. It is like they assume humans are not biological but spiritual.

Josh McDowell, one of the key leaders of Campus Crusade for Christ (now rebranded with the name Cru), said it best in a speech, “Unshakable Truth, Relevant Faith,” at the Billy Graham Center in Asheville, N.C.
¹⁹⁵
He warned that sexual immorality through the Internet is “marginalizing the maturity of the witness of Christ … all over the world. It’s an invasive, intruding immorality … that is all just one click away,” adding that the majority of questions young people ask him are about sex, mainly “oral sex.”

This is a Christian leader’s analysis, and I would agree with him in many ways. Religions throughout the world are losing control of sex. Ironically, the result is greater joy and satisfaction, less disease, and fewer unplanned pregnancies and less traumatic guilt around normal sexual behavior.

McDowell had little to offer his listeners. Yet he proposed three ways to deal with the problem of children learning from the Internet. “First, we have to model the truth … Second, we have to build relationships … and third, We have to use knowledge … You better arm yourselves to answer your children’s and grandchildren’s questions … no matter what the question is … without being judgmental. Kids’ greatest defense,” he said, “was the knowledge of truth.” He may as well say,
“Access to truth, reality and reliable information is the greatest threat to religion.”

Unfortunately for religion, modeling the truth, building honest relationships and gaining knowledge will not keep people infected with religious sexuality. Open and honest discussion of these topics will help children resist the crazy ideas religion teaches about sex and, as a result, make better decisions. Modeling the truth will undermine the sexual foundations of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism and any other religion that seeks to control human sexuality.

There are seven billion people on the planet, projected to become nine billion by 2040. In every industrialized country, when a certain level of wealth and education is reached, the population tends to decrease the rate of reproduction. The most secular societies have the lowest reproduction rates. Educated, secular people are choosing to have far fewer children than in the past. Indeed, a large segment are choosing not to have any children.

What does this mean for sex and sexuality? For thousands of years, religion has kept humanity focused on reproducing in the interest of propagating the religion. Policies around birth control have been opposed by religion and continue to be opposed. Evangelicals and Catholics are preaching vociferously against condoms in Africa and the United States. Mormons still oppose masturbation. Southern Baptists are against abortion and birth control for teens.

This has serious implications for sex in our culture and world culture. As we have seen throughout this book, sex is largely for bonding and recreational purposes with 1,000 to 10,000 sex acts for every live birth. With far lower birthrates, improved birth control and in-vitro fertilization (test tube babies), sex plays a decreasing role in reproduction. This means that old religiously-based taboos and superstitions about sex and sexuality no longer have meaning in the context of reproduction. “Be fruitful and multiply” simply falls on deaf ears.

These facts call for a close examination and rethinking about the role of sex in society and relationships. As more countries increase the education and economic level of their populations, it appears that the role of religion will continue to fade and with it guilt and shame. Whether through birth control or ecological collapse, disease or resource constriction, there will be less human reproduction in the future. The era of unrestricted human reproduction is coming to an end. Religions will have to find other means
of propagating or die. With more highly educated populations that have access to vast amounts of information, it will be more difficult for religions to mentally trap people and teach their distorted views of sexuality. The result will be less distortion in our understanding and pursuit of sexual pleasure and relationship building. We will be able to act like the sophisticated social primates that we are.

Go ye therefore and enjoy deity-free sex – have fun!

193
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194
Available online at
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195
Reported by Anugrah Kumar in
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