CARNAL NATION

"Sex is like Super Glue. It's a spiritual thing, an emotional thing," says Rev. Ed Young, pastor of a Christian mega-church with five locations across Texas and a television ministry. He is one of many who, during the last year, have had their married congregation members commit to having sex every day for a week–or a month.

The Super Glue metaphor–which brings to mind scenarios of unintended erotic tragedies (see the “Sex Disasters” column for possible exit strategies)–is not the only thing about this church-sanctioned sex concept that is strange. It is an unconscious recognition of the power of sex, which was intentionally used by many religions before today's all-too-widespread taboo against it.

The idea of these ministers is that "As Christians, we should understand that the God who created sex has a purpose for it,” according to Pastor Mark Seversen in Prairie Village, Kansas. "Almost every view of sexuality is distorted, in our culture and even in the church."

Well, I say “Amen!” to that.

So let's investigate–from outside the Christian paradigm–what other religions have to say about sex and its purpose.

Spiritual practices seem to fall into two fundamentally opposed philosophical camps that have a direct impact on the whole idea of sex. One set of practices is based on asceticism, that is, abstinence from worldly pleasures. It is practiced in religions around the globe, and is based on the idea that the pleasures of the world distract spiritual seekers from their goal of Eternal Pleasure in Heaven. Heaven, or any other realm more divine than this one, cannot be reached when one is too attached to this world, and liking something too much is attachment. This is the “Enjoy Now, Pay Later” principle turned on its head.

Indulging ourselves in our favorite vices does not diminish their attraction for us. Rather the attraction strengthens, sometimes to the level of addiction, creating a craving that keeps our souls stuck in the physical realms. This stuckness is easier to avoid when you've forgotten how much fun something can be. Abstaining helps you forget, and makes it clear that you can live without those vices. This philosophy, to some extent, pervades most practices and theologies of the modern world, including Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam.

The other extreme is hedonism, the belief that pleasure is the ultimate goal or purpose of life. Self-described hedonists with spiritual motivations claim that pleasure is the gods' way of telling us that we're doing the right thing. After all, why would the divine give us pleasure in something and then deny us that very enjoyment? Unless your deity is a sadist, that is crazy. (The masochists' god is a story for another day.) And yes, there are hedonistic practitioners in all those very same above-named religions.