A preacher in Alabama wants you to know that sex will kill your brain cells, make you homeless and was brought by God as a means of punishing people, so you really shouldn’t be enjoying it as much as you do. Many right-wing religious have deep and profound problems with sex. They want to regulate when you can have it, how you can have it and who you can have it with…. “Sex has never been ordained by God,” he says sitting behind two phallic lighthouses. “In fact, it was the first sin, Adam and Eve and the serpent. And you see what happened to the serpent on that. But, like I say, sex is the problem. If you don’t mention sex, two men or two women can live together, share a place, have a place, and one can leave whatever she got, and they can have a ‘merge partner,’ they call it.”…. “I say this to the young people: Sex is a very dangerous thing. As dangerous as can be. As dangerous as cocaine or anything else. If you start, say as a young person, and get hooked on that, and it’ll paralyze your mind where you won’t learn very well like you ought to, most time. And it’s gonna create all kinda problems.”
The ways in which Conservative Christians seek to control our lives never seem to end. It’s almost as if they’re so concerned with what others might be doing that they fail to exercise even the barest minimum of self-awareness. In this case, if Rev. Bubba T. Justus could dial it back just a wee bit, he might just recognize how thoroughly absurd his anti-sex diatribe truly is. To say that “[s]ex has never been ordained by God” is laughable. I get that Rev. Bubba may have some serious hangups when it comes to sex, but that’s his challenge- not something that emanates from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Some folks simply can’t handle the thought that others may be getting far more nookie than they could ever hope to…and I’m guessing Rev. Bubba last got laid during the Reagan Administration. (The good new is that he apparently isn’t breeding.)
That said, spreading fear and loathing of sex is to be selling repression and denial of a very basic human need, not to mention something that can be a helluva lot of fun. Asceticism may be how Rev. Bubba feels he can demonstrate how uber-Jesus-y he truly is, but it’s not a great marketing ploy.
Erotophobia is a recognized fear of sex by the American Psychological Association. As for his erroneous statistics on homelessness and sexuality, 47,000 members of the homeless community are veterans, many of whom are suffering not from sex, but from post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and mental illness. Thirteen percent of homeless people are fleeing domestic violence.
There is no evidence from the American Psychological Association that sex causes homelessness or low intelligence. In fact, actual science shows quite the opposite. According to a piece in the Atlantic, in experiments with mice and rats, sexual activity shows an improvement in mental performance. Sex increases neurogenesis, which is the production of neurons in the middle of the brain (the hippocampus), which is where long-term memories are formed.
A very wise person once said that sex is only dirty when it’s done wrong. That there’s no “wrong” way to have sex should be self-evident. The variations are as infinite as the people engaging in the act. If it’s between two consenting adults, I’m not certain what Rev. Bubba might find so objectionable and sinful…outside of the fact that he’s clearly not getting any.
What’s dangerous about sex are the adults with serious hangups who believe it their calling to mess up the next generation at just about the time they should be discovering what a wonderful, exciting, and fun activity sex really can be.
There’s no objective evidence, nor anything to be found in Scripture, that backs up Rev. Bubba’s clear and undeniable erotophobia. While he’s free to think of (or fear) sex as he wishes, there really should be a line drawn when he and hyper-Christian control freaks like him try to influence and control how others express themselves sexually.
When undertaken with mutual consent and proper precautions, sex can be a whole helluva lot of fun. I’d suggest that Rev. Bubba try it sometime…but I have a feeling that finding a partner might be a bit of a stumbling block for him.
Good luck with that, eh?
