Friday, June 10, 2005
DEBATE AT BETTNET
Over at Dom's blog we have had a debate--a disagreement really--about sacred sex that grew out of a brief discussion of Lactivism, the activists promoting breast feeding in public. It has sort of occupied my time this morning, which is why there is nothing posted here yet.
I find it scandalous that Catholics are tossing around the term "sacred sex," particularly at the same time that Catholic priests are making the headlines for abusing children. I seem to be in the minority.
Sacred sex--tantra--is a branch of Yoga. This website dedicated to Yoga discusses it:
Probably the most misunderstood or misinterpreted of all the yogas, tantra, the sixth branch, is the pathway of ritual, which includes consecrated sexuality. The key word here is "consecrated," which means to make sacred, to set apart as something holy or hallowed. In tantric practice we experience the Divine in everything we do. A reverential attitude is therefore cultivated, encouraging a ritualistic approach to life. It is amusing to note that, although tantra has become associated exclusively with sexual ritual, most tantric schools actually recommend a celibate lifestyle. In essence, tantra is the most esoteric of the six major branches. It will appeal to those yogis who enjoy ceremony and relate to the feminine principle of the cosmos, which yogis call shakti. If you see—and are deeply moved by—the significance behind celebration and ritual (holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and other rites of passage), tantra yoga may be for you. Many tantric yogis find magic in all types of ceremony, whether it be a Japanese tea ceremony, the consecration of the Eucharist in a Catholic mass, or the consummation of a relationship.
Does this sound like something a Catholic should be encouraging? Doesn't it in fact hint at ritual sex, given the usual use of sex in the practice of tantra? The website discusses celibacy in connection with tantra. I guarantee it is not representational in that. Yet I keep running into Catholics who see nothing wrong with promoting sacred sex.
Maybe I'm just an out-dated fuddy-duddy, but I have had some experience with marriage--35 years of it--and I know a little more about the marital act than those who know the subject from textbooks and lectures which apparently promote a utopian romantic view of it.
The marriage act is very much a part of our human, and thus profane and fallen nature. It is motivated less by a sense of sacred than by physical reaction to stimuli. It is akin to sacred things because God is essential to procreation, but it is profane in that our fallen nature--our physical bodies--are essential to it. Our bodies cannot be extracted from our concept of sex, and we are not Gods.
This emphasis on sacred sex is just another example of the preoccupation of Roman Catholicism with sexuality in general, and our track record on sex ed is miserable. The discussion over there doesn't give me any reason to hope for a turnaround in the near term.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
