Religious and Spiritual Musings: Why I Went Back to Church

So true…

When it comes to faith and spirituality, what is that I strive for? Recently I went back to Church. It was first time in a few months, and after the long absence I felt the need to be closer to God. I enjoyed returning, with all my issues and rebellious thoughts. It is strange, this thing called religious faith. It seems hardwired into us. Or at least into me. Why is it that some people have a deep need for religion, for some sense of God in their lives, while other don’t. I do not have the answers for this. All I know is that I am one of those people who has a deep need for spirituality, religion, and a union with the Divine. Without it my life is gray and lifeless.

When I do not have faith in my life, I feel depressed. When I pursue divine things, I am happier. This is a clear sign for me to continue with my beliefs and practices, despite my difficulties. What I find difficult in many modern versions of Christianity is an excessive and what I believe unhealthy emphasis on doctrinal purity and orthodoxy. Catholicism seems to be rife with this at the moment. This excessive legalism of faith, the endless rules and regulations for the soul, is one of the things that drove me away from the Church for a while. But in the end I discovered those things do not define my relationship with God.

Pope Benedict, like all of us, is a mixture of virtues and flaws. Too many Catholics in the name of doctrinal purity idealize the Papacy to an absurd degree.

I have to remember that the Church, or any gathering of people, is made up of flawed individual, myself included. What I recently forgot is that although I have many problems with certain trends in Christianity today, those trends are not the entire religion. Christianity is about one thing: Christ. Churchiness and religious conflicts will necessarily draw many into certain conflicts, but that does not mean that my faith has to suffer as result.

One of the things I am exploring at the moment, and will write more on later, is the unhealthy attitudes towards sex and sexuality that have existed in Christianity for two millennia (and other religions as well), and continue to this present day. And yet not all people who call themselves Christians have unhealthy attitudes towards sex. Not at all. There are many people, such as CL and 7man, who talk openly about sex and Christianity: http://curmudgeonloner.wordpress.com/ and I think this is a good thing. For the first time really, people of faith can communicate with each other about their experiences with religion and sex, without being subject to ecclesiastical censure. The internet has made this happen. And outside of Christianity, other religions have different mores when it comes to sex. One of the reasons for this blog, among others, is that I want to discuss sex and spirituality in the most open and honest way possible. Oh yeah, and I also just enjoy having fun with sexual things too, such with erotica. I believe the suppression and demonization of sex and sexual desire is one of the most destructive aspects of all religious thought, not just Christianity. The best way to overcome that is by honest discussion about sexuality. If such discussions can be fun, amusing and light hearted too, all the better.

Eroticism and spirituality should not be considered dualistic, as many religions believe.

I am also studying other religions at the moment, not with the goal of converting–no, I will always remain a Catholic, no matter what, even if fall away from the faith–but with the goal of understanding different faiths around the world. What strikes me in my initial and superficial studies are not so much the differences, but the similarities between different religions, similarities which have existed for eons. What is clear from the study of religion that man is homo religiosus, and all societies and cultures have demonstrated this. For instance, one manifestation of man’s desire for the divine is the plethora of beauty created in the name of religion: from ancient temples, to Medieval cathedrals, exotic Mosques, Buddhist temples, and everything in between, art and religion have been united in a common cause of celebrating the beauty of the divine and unseen world since man first painted sacred animals in caves some 30,000 years ago. Art and religion are often a testament to man’s desire to express the transcendent in life, the ineffable power that the divine world holds over him. It is a fascinating evolution, really. Seeing the different truths of different religions makes believing in your own particular religion that much easier, at least for me.

From religious cave art 30,000 years ago…

To the Taj Mahal, ca.1650, man has always desired to express his love of the divine as best he can.

For my personal life, prayer and ritual are two important components of religious expression for me. Prayer is perhaps the most important, and pretty much all psychologists agree on the beneficial aspects of prayer; and ritual for me would be the timeless rituals of Catholicism, and the community of worship that creates. Both these things are nourishment for the soul. Catholicism has a rich tradition of both. So do other religions as well.

But one of the things that I have discovered that makes Christianity unique is this: love thy neighbor. Love one another. Take care of each other. Take care of other people. Help the needy, the homeless, the downtrodden, manifest God’s love through charity towards others. Other religions have this, but not to the extent that Christianity has. I admit these things can be hard for me. I am more inclined to go off into solitude and seek union with the Divine than try to give myself to others, and people can often be quite irritating and annoying; but with God’s help I can find the strength and desire to fulfill social charity and treat others well. With God’s help, the rewards are great.

I believe the Divine can be experienced also through erotic beauty and sexual pleasure…

So one of the things I strive to write about here is how to make Christianity, and religion in general, seem less dogmatic, doctrinaire, and intolerant, and at least try to relate how religion and spirituality can be tremendous, wonderful and life affirming elements of our world, when approached in the right way. I believe that the divine, that the spiritual realm, can also be experienced through eroticism, sexual love and sexual beauty, but a healthy eroticism and sexuality. After all, God is beautiful and loves beauty, as the Prophet Mohammed said. I say Amen to that.

P.S. I will be away for about a week, so if I don’t respond to any comments right away, I will when I get back. Thanks.

Kama Sutra: The Ancient Manual of Erotic Love

The Kama Sutra delves into the timeless delights of sexual pleasures…

I confess great ignorance on this matter, but recently I have been doing some reading on Hinduism, and of course I came across the famous sex manual, the Kama Sutra. Now, again I must emphasize that I know very little about all this, but what I find interesting is that in Hindu philosophy, there is the notion of “kama” which means, among other things, sexual and sensual pleasure. This “kama” is one of the three goals of Hindu life. The Kama Sutra was written as a sort of sex manual to help those achieve this goal of sexual pleasure. It was created between 400 BC to 200 AD. As a sex manual it covers everything from oral sex, spanking, different positions, etc. I have yet to read it, but I plan to.

Unfortunately for the religious prudes, erotica has been around a long time…

What I find initially interesting in all this is the contrast between Eastern and Western spirituality. Many people have commented on this blog about the more open environment towards sexuality in the Eastern religions. The Kama Sutra seems to be an indication of this. I look forward to finding out more about the sexual ethics of other religions, and comparing and contrasting those with Christianity. The fact that there is a portion of Hindu philosophy and religion which is devoted to “kama”, sexual pleasure, is already an interesting contrast to the traditionally negative view that much of Christianity has towards sexual pleasure. My recent post on St. Augustine sheds some light on the traditionally negative view of sex in Western Christianity.

Erotic sculpture from a Hindu temple, ca. 1000 AD.

“Kama” also includes purely aesthetic pleasure, which I find interesting, since I often equate sexual and sensual pleasure with aesthetic pleasures, especially when it comes to erotica. There is an aesthetic enjoyment in good porn.

A lovely silk tapestry of erotic art.

If anyone knows of any good, up to date editions of the Kama Sutra, with traditional Indian drawings, please let me know.

Erotic loveliness transcends time and culture…

And one more thing: the more I journey on a path of exploring different faiths and religions, the more I search for a truly healthy union with the Divine, the more I feel I am coming closer to God. My spiritual life has truly deepened and become more integrated. This is not a rejection of Christ, but rather an affirmation of the truth and goodness in other faiths as well. The world of religion is incredibly complex, and exploring that world is a wonderful experience. I can no longer be trapped in the narrow, bigoted, hate filled ignorance of so much of contemporary Christianity (e.g., Rick Santorum, Michele Bachman, Tony Perkins, The Family Research Council, James Dobson, many Christian blogs, just to name a few), including certain wings of Catholic Church (Opus Dei, The Legion of Christ, Bill Donahue and the Catholic League, etc.). Being free from such things is truly liberating. I thank God for that.

Avatar Makes Me Want To Puke

Avatar. James Cameron should stick to movies that appeal to teenage girls, like Titanic, and not try to make social or political statements with his films. They just come out as silly and stupid.

I just happened to see the movie Avatar, directed by James Cameron, recently for the first time. My reaction? I wanted to throw up. This film was so predictable in its rigid left wing ideology: white man=evil; civilization=evil; peace loving, nature worshiping primitive natives=good. The parallels to American Indians, or any other indigenous culture that had the misfortune to be overrun by the evil white man and his civilization is obvious. It was the worst kind of preachy morality tale that the left can produce. In what seems to be a sort of magnum opus of his admittedly good film career, Cameron produced a conflation of Dances with Wolves, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Titanic. I even found the special effects a bit irritating. Yes, the background scenes are lush, but the figures look like glorified cartoon characters. I also found the dialogue and acting, if you want to call it that, simply insipid. As a piece of fantasy entertainment it is good, but that is all I found worthy in the film. But what I hated the most was the obvious, preachy morality.

I hate it when Hollywood directors get religion, especially left wing religion.

Unlike those who desire a return to some sort of tribal primitivism, which this movie glorifies, I prefer to live in a civilized world, a world with running water, sanitation, paved roads, institutions, fine art and architecture, literacy, education and learning, a world where reason, science and technology and not superstition are the primary engines of social advancement. If these people who produce these movies are so infatuated with primitive tribal cultures, why don’t they move out of their massive, completely technologically up to date mansions, and live in a fucking tepee, without any of the conveniences of modern life, such a toilet paper. Yeah, wiping your ass with your hand instead of toilet paper, as many primitive cultures do, would be a great way to get back to a more simple, nature centered existence. Me, I prefer to flush my shit down a toilet where it will be processed in a waste treatment plant. I like things clean.

This is the one thing I despise about the left: their disdain and hatred for Western Civilization, their wet dreams about the noble savage, the savage who lived in a pure, golden age before the advent of the white man. They make a film which is morality play about the destruction of the natural habitat, and yet their films are a result of the very resources created through mining and exploration. If the West had not advanced as it did over the past five hundred years, James Cameron would never have even had the tools, technology, and opportunity to make his very lucrative movies.

Now, I am all for the preservation of natural habitats, endangered wild life, and treating other peoples and cultures with respect. I believe in those things. But Avatar just seems to be another movie where I am supposed to feel guilty about the history of the West, guilty about being white. Well, I don’t. Not only do I not feel guilty, but I make no bones about the pride I feel in the accomplishments of the greatest civilization ever, Western Civilization, and that I am racially and culturally a part of that civilization. For all those people who feel jealously at our accomplishments, too bad. Instead of bitching about how bad the white man is, why don’t you get off your asses and start accomplishing something, that is, if you can.

Ancient Egyptian Erotica

The Egyptians enjoyed some of the finer pleasures of life...

Here is a piece of interesting art from ancient Egypt. I really do not know the exact date of this item and since Egyptian history spans from at least 3000 BC, it could be quite ancient. Whatever the date, it shows how an appreciation of the feminine form in all its sensuous and evocative nuances is quite ancient. Also, notice how slender the women are. As Roissy often pointed out, the standards for feminine beauty are fairly universal, with well proportioned breasts, waists and hips. These figures are scantily clad, wearing what looks like to be nothing more than sort of thong, and I am sure such an image would have inspired at least a little bit of lust in the observer. Although primitive by today’s standards, this image has a certain kind of beauty, even erotic appeal. After thousands of years such images can still convey the power of the erotic. I am sure Rick Santorum and the American Taliban would consider this part of the “pandemic” of porn and want it destroyed, for the sake of “family values”, etc.

If I were living then I would have enjoyed watching such a dance as these two ancient babes displayed.

St. Augustine on the Evils of Sex, Semen and the Raging Hard-On.

St. Augustine, perhaps the most influential theologian in the history of Christian sexuality.

One of the things I often ask myself is, when it comes to traditional notions of sexuality within Christianity, if sex is so sinful, then why do I get an erection so often and without effort. The erect penis just happens. Not only does it often just happen, but it feels really good too. Of course now we know this is because of human biology: the brain releases hormones which cause the penis to become erect. But as far as those vowed to life of holy celibacy, I wonder what all those poor clergy do when they wake up in the morning with a hard on, begging for attention, when they know that the slightest touch of their engorged organ is a sin. But why is this a sin at all?

For most of Christian history, the phallus has been a rather nagging problem. The erection is associated with impure, corporeal pleasures, sinful sex, and the degeneracy of our fallen world. And yet it is something that every man experiences. It is a source of intense pleasure. So why is the erect penis so problematic? St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) gives us a few answers.

Perhaps the greatest influence on Christian sexual ethics, after Paul, is Augustine. As one of the titanic figures of early Christianity, a man of tremendous learning and intellect, his role in the development of theology has been profound. As a former libertine turned Christian in the late Roman Empire, a man who fathered a bastard child before his conversion, and who delighted in the pleasures of the flesh with women, his influence on the Christian idea of sex has been pervasive now for over 1500 years. He is usually credited with much of the negative views on sex that have dominated Christianity for so long, even up to our present time.

In his great theological work, The City of God, Augustine gives an explanation as to why the erection is a bad. It goes back to the fall of man. He says at 14.24:

“For as soon as our first parents had transgressed the commandment, divine grace forsook them…and therefore they took fig-leaves and covered their shame; for though their members remained the same, they had shame where they had none before. They experienced a new motion of their flesh, which had become disobedient to them, in strict retribution of their own disobedience to God.”

This is bad and sinful...

So, according to Augustine, that raging hard on I often experience is a result of original sin. It is something bad and evil. It is a “new motion” of the flesh, and “strict disobedience to God.” So I wonder, if the erection is so bad, then why does it feel so good? And why does stroking it until I cum feel so good. Or getting a blow job? Or fucking a woman? In Augustine’s world the erection is only part of the problem. Semen is perhaps even worse. Augustine in the same work (13.14) to demonizes semen.

“That semen itself already shackled by the bonds of death, transmits the damage incurred by sin. Every human being ever conceived through semen is born contaminated with sin.”

Semen, the source of all evil in the world, according to Augustine.

Sorry, but I don’t by this. As far as I am concerned, I like my semen. It feels particularly delightful when my erect penis spews forth abundant amounts of that evil semen, preferably all over some girls stomach and breasts or ass. Even all over my hand is fine with me. Semen, as a product of orgasm, is a product I am proud my body produces! I like it. Chicks dig it too. But according to Augustine, and much Christian thought after that, semen is bad, contaminated with sin, and we are products of that sin, since we all come from semen. So I ask myself this. Now why would a God create the world, give us semen to reproduce, command us to reproduce, and then demonize that very semen itself? Oh yeah, I forgot about the whole original sin and fallen world stuff.

Now since the erect penis and the semen it produces are made for sexual intercourse, we know where Augustine is going to go next. Sex within marriage is looked down upon. Augustine praises the married couple that abstains from sex. In one of his Epistles (262.4) he writes to a woman:

“Your husband does not cease to your spouse because of joint abstinence from carnal relations. You will remain the more devout as spouses the more you keep this resolution.”

So, the less sex you have as a couple, the happier you will be. A frigid marriage is a good marriage. Yeah, right.

According to Augustine, this is something a husband and wife should not do..holy chastity in marriage is better than giving into carnal desires.

Perhaps this works for some people, but I wonder why a man who loathed sex as much as Augustine has had such a huge influence on the history of sexuality within Christianity? What is it about sexual pleasure that makes so many people, especially religious, uncomfortable? It is a huge topic that, in the ancient world, is bound up with Platonic and Gnostic notions of spirit-body duality, as well as Judaic prudishness and legalism. Whatever the answer for Augustinian and consequently, Catholic notions of sex and pleasure, I personally reject these and consider them bizarre and even dangerous. However, if you want to develop an unhealthy sexuality, then follow Augustine, in strict obedience, unlike Adam and Eve.

The Divine Pleasures of Sexual Dominance with Religious Women

Discipline is good...

A woman needs to be dominated, to be shown the art of submission. Dominance is an art that needs to be learned, practiced and cultivated. And once you have learned this art, there are fewer things that will bring pleasure to a woman than asserting your sexual dominance over her. Notice I am not talking about relationship dominance, but rather the art of pure sexual dominance. CL and 7man (Curmudgeon Loners: see blogroll) talk well about the art of beneficent dominance within a relationship; I would rather focus on the art of visceral dominance within the bedroom. There is no morality to my pursuit of dominance, except what might bring the greatest pleasure within the sexual experience. However, that is not say there is not a correlation between the pursuit of dominance and religion.

As far as religion, there is a certain element of Catholicism which is conducive to sadomasochism. The Catholic Church is very good at instilling a sense of sin, guilt, and shame in those who violate her laws. If you are bad, you are to be punished unless you repent; even then, if you do repent of your bad behavior, penance must be exacted as the price for a new found purity. This prepares the psyche to be led into the world of dominance, of the mixing of pain and pleasure in the pursuit of sexual joys. Self flagellation is an old Catholic practice. I believe most Catholic women are ripe to be seduced into a such a pleasurable practices. After all, as I just mentioned, the idea of female submission, of obeying authority, of wallowing in shame and guilt for your sins, and then seeking some sort of expiation for those sins, preferably with a healthy degree of corporeal punishment and physical pain, all have prepared the devout female Catholic mind to be lead into the world of dominance and submission, even sadomasochism. The fact that so many women engage in self cutting and other strange, corporeal punishments, such as eating disorders, lends them to some of the more severe forms of discipline. Add to this the silly idealization and pedestaling of women by beta men, and that women in the Church are longing for good and traditional masculine virility, the type of virility which does not hesitate to enjoy and pursue sexually, and it begins to become clear that it would not take much to set ablaze this vast kindling of frustrated female sexuality. There are so many bitchy, prudish, devout women out there, you know that they are not getting what they need from their overly pious husbands. We see many of these women in the comment sections of many blogs, interfering with the discussion, denouncing others, prancing around with a prissy moral preening that is all but intolerable. CL has a good post about this. http://curmudgeonloner.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/unfounded-accusations/

This is what happens when a girl gets too bitchy...and a sure remedy.

These women clearly need to get laid more often, or at least be introduced into the darker and more forbidden aspects of sexual domination. Most likely they are married to beta men. Religious women are no different than other women, and all women enjoy being involved at one time in their lives in some sort of secret, sultry sexual affair, because all women want to know that they possess the power to turn a man into a sexual animal who wants them no matter what. I would say this is even truer for the religiously minded, who have to lead public lives of moral purity, while suppressing their more sinful desires and fantasies.

I often wonder what is the relationship between religion and sexual dominance. It is a question I have no answer for. Often I have found religion creates a strange dichotomy in certain people: the public persona of purity and holiness, the private person of extreme sexual desires and pursuits. This is not limited to the clerics, but infects also many people who are filled with both spiritual and sexual desires. So many religions seem to have this doctrine of physical and religious purity, where the body is something bad, inhibiting the spirit, which can only be truly liberated once the body has been purged of all carnal desires, the sexual desires being the most odious and dangerous. This denial of sexual desire often leads then to the more extreme pursuits of sexual pleasure.

I love the strange contradictions of life...

I search and wonder, where is the religion and spirituality that embraces sexual desire and pleasure as something good, as something not evil and part of our “fallen” world, as something belonging to light rather than darkness. Is there a spirituality that embraces sexual pleasure as a good in itself, and a good that can be enjoyed not simply in the bonds of marriage, but outside of marriage as well? Or are all religions distrustful of sexual desire and pleasure as being too much in conflict with the spiritual world?

In the art of dominance, handcuffs can be fun too...

I do not know. Perhaps that is a topic for a different post. But what I do know is ripping a girl’s panties off and spanking her is a good way to experience a different kind of physical and spiritual pleasure, as well as tying her up, using handcuffs, and whatever else is needed to practice the fine art of sexual dominance. Whatever the case, in the ethereal and physical worlds of spirituality and sexuality there are many ways to achieve both bodily pleasure and spiritual union with the Divine.

Please, Stop Masturbating!

This is what happens when you masturbate...

Please, don’t masturbate! Masturbation is harmful to your health. It causes all sorts of disorders and diseases. It is a violation of God’s holy law, which states unequivocally that all sex and sexual pleasure should be experienced within the confines of a traditional marriage. Masturbation is totally destructive to the entire social order of mankind. It leads to dirty thoughts.

But, most importantly, as this add shows, each time you masturbate, God kills a kitten. Yes, a poor innocent little kitten is slaughtered by an angry, indignant, Biblically based Almighty Lord because you decided to indulge in your selfish pleasures, your lust and filthy fantasies, and touch your naughty and forbidden parts. We need to finally understand, to get in our perverted and obstinate heads the way Sodom and Gomorrah did not, that masturbation is a grave sin! I know this for a fact. A priest once told me in the confessional, after I had confessed to this particularly heinous act, “There are right now in hell countless souls screaming in agony and pain and wishing that they had only one more day of life so that they could repent of the sin of masturbation” He did not add the kitten part, but this was revealed to me some time later. I got the message and from that point onward my epic struggles with this devilish vice reached epic proportions. There were periods of great abstinence, pure and holy, followed by the inevitable slide into sin, with all the accompanying filth and perversions that unbridled, masturbatory lust engenders. Learning how to come multiple times was one such result. I feel so ashamed and guilty at such pleasures. I am sure all the women I have been able to fuck for hours on end and come multiple time with, a skill gained because I learned sexual self control through masturbation, also feel terrible about that. I am sure they regret enjoying such exotic pleasures.

Mutual masturbation is particularly loathsome...because it can be so much fun.

I have read many blogs of reformed or struggling masturbators. Oh, it is such a terrible struggle! One day you feel free from this horrible vice, the next day you have fallen into the terrible pleasure of self stimulation. Both males and females suffer from this malady. Even animals masturbate (I once saw a nature documentary which included some footage, humorously, of an orangutan masturbating). The testimonies of struggling masturbators are most heart wrenching. They go from hope and elation at having conquered this most evil of vices, to the darkness and despair of fallen back into their old habits. Unlike drugs or alcohol, or even more sinister vices, the horror of masturbation is that it is so damn easy to commit. We get horny, our hands are at waist level, and things happen. We need sexual release. And then there is the pleasure, all that damn, intense, orgasmic pleasure. And it is all free. Certainly, such an abundance of pleasure at no cost has to be wrong. God’s holy law would never allow us to enjoy such innocent pleasures without the cost of eternal damnation. The orgasm is only to be enjoyed in the conjugal act, no exceptions.

Such pleasures have to be wrong...because they feel so good.

And then there is the whole porn factor. Porn is the crack cocaine of the masturbator. Imagine, seeing beautiful images of people fucking, or engaging in extremely hot sex acts, being turned on by that, and then masturbating as a result. Is there anything more horrendous? Is there anything more sinful? Is there anything more destructive to the values upon which our whole civilization is built? According to Rick Santorum, we have a pandemic of porn. Yes, porn is as pervasively destructive as the black plague, or the influenza outbreak in the early twentieth century. Remember, when you go out and about your daily business tomorrow, all those people you work with, or just see going about their daily business, are most likely caught up to some degree in this dark, secret disease: the person serving you coffee at the coffee shop in the morning, or working at the bank, the teacher, the firefighter, the mechanic, the computer geek, the jock and cheerleader, the married soccer mom, the homeless bum passed out on a park bench who puked all over himself the night before, your priest or minister, your grandmother…yes, even your grandmother may be into porn! She might be even into double penetration porn…the horrors of it all…

Masturbation can lead to many bad things, like getting caught!

So please…stop masturbating. Masturbation leads to porn, to societal breakdown, to mental problems, to terrible guilt and shame, to the horrible vertiginous struggle in your soul between good and evil, and, perhaps most important of all, God in his vengeful wrath kills a cute, furry little kitten each time you masturbate!

But then again somehow, I think, God does not really care that much about masturbation, if at all. The only people who seem to care about it are the sexually uptight prudes who seem to dominate so many religious bodies.

Pagan Polytheism Is Still Alive, Despite Monotheism’s Best Efforts to Destroy It.

Many Protestants consider Catholicism a pagan religion today. Whatever the case, the Church's indebtedness to pagan Classical antiquity is beyond question.

Recently I just finished a book, entitled, The Religions of the Roman Empire, by John Ferguson. Published in 1970, the book traces the evolution of the myriad polytheistic and pagan religions that drenched the landscape of the Roman Empire, especially from the second to fourth centuries AD. Of course, such a work cannot neglect the role of Christianity at this time, whether for good or bad. He thus ends the book with the following paragraph.

The highest creed of paganism was expressed by Maximus of Madaura to Augustine: “We adore the sole divinity under different names; we render homage to the total divinity under its parts; we invoke through subordinate gods the father of gods and men, whom all men in ways at once different and similar invoke.” To Jews and Christians this was blasphemy. They banged their heads against the wall of tolerance which tried to encircle them; it hurt, but the wall broke. Christianity won, but it had changed in the winning. For one thing, the refusal of Christians to betray their master, itself wholly commendable, led to an unloving intolerance of other people which was not at all commendable. For another, the rejection of compromise, as we have seen, not as absolute as might at first sight appear. For a third, the very achievement of power brought with it spiritual peril. The uneasy question remained. When Jesus said, “No man comes to the Father but by me,” did he mean that only professed Christians could find God, or that all those who come to God are led by the Divine Logos, whether they know it or not? This question still remains.

I find two things interesting in this paragraph vis a vis our world today. First, the statement by Maximus of Madaura concerning the tolerance of paganism and polytheism towards other religions. Admittedly his statement is a rather idealized concept of paganism, although it is generally true. A pagan and polytheistic society is more tolerant of other religions, by its very nature. This is in stark contrast to the intolerance of Christianity, as well as other monotheistic religions like Islam and Judaism, to other religions. Of those three, Christianity is probably the least intolerant, but it is still far less tolerant of differences of religion than most of the ancient forms of polytheistic paganism.

What I find disturbing about much of modern Christianity are the different forms of religious intolerance often expressed and displayed. We see this most clearly in people like Rick Santorum, or Tony Perkins, or many conservative Evangelicals and Catholics. They are intolerant not only of other religious systems, but even more so of those within their own faith based communities who veer from a strict orthodoxy. The Christian hatred of homosexuality is a good example of this modern day intolerance of something that does not fit into orthodox modes of thinking. Homosexuality, despite the clearly biological nature of it, and the fact that it is ubiquitous throughout all of history, is feared greatly by Christians and other religious fundamentalists as a something dangerous to the foundations of society, and contrary to “God’s holy and moral laws”, whatever those are supposed to be. Another form of intolerance would be the disdain of science and evolution by many fundamentalist Christians, or, as the Opus Dei inspired Rick Santorum would put it, “alternative theologies.” There is even a museum in Kansas called the “Discovery Museum” which supports the idea of creationism over evolution, and has displays of dinosaurs and humans together, just to prove the point. Seriously. This stuff exists, and people go to view it, burying their head in a fanatical and fundamentalist religious orthodoxy which does not and cannot yield anything to modern science if it seems to contradict the Bible. I suppose they still think the Earth is flat. It used to be these people were merely amusing distractions in the world, but they acquired a growing political power in this country through the Evangelical takeover of the Republican party, aka, the American Taliban. As Ferguson states above, on the triumph of Christianity over paganism, “The very achievement of power brought with it spiritual peril.” The more the fundamentalist Christians in this country succeed politically, the more power they amass, the more they make Christianity look like a religion of dangerous, ignorant and intolerant fanatics. Then again, this is what most Romans thought of them. After witnessing Rick Santorum, Opus Dei, the Legion of Christ, and the Evangelical fundamentalist nut cases, as well as many other religious fundamentalists in my lifetime, I am starting to wonder if those ancient Romans were not on to something.

We could go even further in all this, and describe the internecine warfare and hatred among different Christian denominations, or even within those denominations. The fighting and intolerance never ends: Catholic vs. Orthodox, Catholic vs. Protestant, Christian vs. Muslim, Muslim vs. Jew, Christian vs. Jew, etc. The “unloving intolerance of other people” is still a sad fact of Christianity. The Christian blogging world is replete with this. The verbal hatred and venom spewed from one Christian to another on some of these blogs would be amusing, if it were not so pathetic.

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was ultimately destroyed by a Christian mob.

Two examples, one ancient, and one modern, will elucidate the problem of religious intolerance. In the ancient world there were many beautiful pagan temples, often great works of art. One was the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Built in 550 BC, and although greatly damaged by a Gothic invasion in 268 AD, it saw its final demise in 401 under a Christian mob led by St. John Chrysostom, one the greatest of the ancient doctors of the Church. Perhaps the temple at that time has been sufficiently damaged by the Gothic invasion of 268 to render it not worth saving; we will never know. Whatever the case, a mob led by a Christian saint in the service of destroying beautiful works of art because they were pagan was not uncommon in the late Roman Empire. It was the final end of that great and monumental work of pagan and polytheistic religious devotion. Christianity simply could not tolerate its existence.

Ancient monumental statue of Buddha in Afghanistan, destroyed by Taliban mob in 2001.

We see the same phenomenon today. On March 2, 2001, the Taliban destroyed two ancient and monumental statues of Buddha in Afghanistan. These revered statues had been in place since 507 and 554 AD, roughly the same time that Christian mobs in the now defunct Roman Empire were demolishing what was left of pagan statues and temples. Like the early Christians, the Taliban simply cannot tolerate another religion in their midst. Statues are an idolatry, a witness of something that existed before their religion came into being. The world pleaded for these great statues to be saved, irreplaceable works of art, but the morally pure Taliban refused to listen. God cannot be affronted by idolatry. The statues were blown to bits, just like the beautiful Temple of Artemis was completely destroyed in the name of God by religious fanatics.

Where the ancient statue once stood, now a sad memorial to religious fundamentalist fanatics, like the leader of the American Taliban, Rick Santorum.

The ancient Christian-modern Taliban/Christian fundamentalist is a parallel that cannot go unnoticed. Religious intolerance is an ugly and dangerous thing, perhaps one of the most dangerous things in the world today. It is the worst form of tribalism, because the tribalism of religious fundamentalism means that your tribe has God on its side, and is therefore good, while the other tribe clearly does not, and is therefore evil, absolutely evil unless they join your religious tribe, and if they do not join, deserves to be eliminated, all in the name of God and moral purity.  I am sure this was lodged somewhere in the distorted minds of the 9/11 hijackers before they flew those airplanes into skyscrapers. They cried out to Allah before they met their fiery deaths, and their one way ticket to hell.

But what is interesting and even ironic about the Christian and Islamic hatred of other religions is this: we still live in a world that is fundamentally pagan and polytheistic. What I mean is this. If someone were to observe the world as a whole, an outside observer say from another planet, he would see different and competing religious systems all over the world. Perhaps Maximus of Madaura was correct when he says, “We adore the sole divinity under different names.” There is not one clear God worshiped by all of mankind, but rather, numerous gods still worshiped. There is the Christian God; there is the Islamic God; there is the Judaic God, all claiming to be the one true God yet all competing with each other. Furthermore, each one of the great monotheistic religions have their hierarchy of little deities within them, whether angels or saints, a clear link to the polytheistic world that existed before these religions came into being. Then there are all other religious systems, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, etc., which are more truly polytheistic in a traditional sense. So there are in fact different gods still being worshiped in different forms, often a myriad of them, as has been the case for all of human history.  But a fundamental difference today is that a per capita majority of those monotheistic belief systems, i.e., Christianity and Islam, deny the validity of all other systems, and claim absolute and immutable truth, and this has and continues to lead to hostility, intolerance, violence and warfare, all in the name of God.

A beautiful nude woman. If Rick Santorum, Opus Dei, The Legion of Christ, Tony Perkins, the Iranian Ayatollahs and Afghanistan Mullahs had their way, you would NOT be allowed to view such an image, all in the name of the God and his holy, and moral laws. I say fuck them all.

How different this is from ancient polytheism, where a variety of different religious systems existed, and people were not killing each other in the name of one god or another. So 1600 years after St. John Chrysostom lead his Christian mob of fanatics to destroy the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, how advanced are we really today? I wonder this, for instance, when I see the Christian conservative John Ashcroft covering statues in the Justice Department because they show a breast, or a museum frequented by fundamentalist Christians because it displays dinosaurs and humans together, because the Bible says so, and I wonder this when I see a bunch of goat fucking peasants in Afghanistan rioting and killing innocent people when one of some of their holy religious books are accidentally burned.

To all of them I say one thing: Fuck You.

Beauty

Loveliness knows no bounds...

It is always enjoyable to see some feminine beauty. My soul thirsts for beauty. When found, it makes the soul all warm and fuzzy. The delight of beauty brings us closer to God. Amen.

Oh yes, and she has a lovely and glorious natural pelt (the GNP). How I love all natural women!

Dolores Hart: From Beautiful Hollywood Star to Cloistered Nun

Dolores Hart, from Hollywood beauty to cloistered nun. I love her eyes.

Dolores Hart is an unusual and in many ways remarkable woman. Born in 1938, in a few short years she went from a Hollywood star, young and beautiful and with a bright future ahead of her, to a cloistered nun. Her most famous film was the 1960′s classic, Where the Boys Are, which tells the tale of a group of college students during spring break in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. This film, made in 1960, is actually fairly good, and not just a cheezy display of stupid college students drinking, dancing, singing and enjoying themselves on a sunny, hedonistic beach. Rather, in many ways it presaged the sexual changes about to be unleashed in the 1960′s. The frank talk about sex during the movie, initiated by Hart’s character in the beginning of the film when she proclaims in front of her college classmates that there is nothing wrong with premarital sex, was highly unusual at the time. There is even one point in the movie where her character discusses the pleasures of reading erotic fiction. The movie denouement is the loss of virginity by one of the girls in the group and the consequences of that for her and the others. In short, the movie deals in a honest way with the issues of sex and eroticism as experienced by the youth at the time.

Hart, in a more sensual moment. I am not sure who the actor it.

Hart was quite lovely. I find her eyes particularly alluring. Her career was short, however, lasting only from 1957 to 1963. In her ten films she played opposite some of the leading men at the time, such as Elvis Presley, Montgomery Cliff, Steven Boyd and Robert Wagner. The turning point of her life seems to have been when she made the film St. Francis of Assisi, playing the role of St. Clare, the religious sister who was quite close to Francis. While making the film in Italy she met Pope John XXIII and said to him, “I am Dolores Hart, the actress playing Clare.” The Pope responded,  “No, you are Clare!”. Apparently this had quite an impact on her decision to become a nun and a few years later, at age 24, she made a one way journey to a Benedictine monastery in CT. where she still remains. In 2001 she was elected the prioress of the community. Amazingly, despite her life as a cloistered nun, she is also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and she still studies movies and votes in the Academy for Oscar awards. She was even honored by members of Hollywood a few years ago. As a former actress, she has spent much of her time as nun promoting the benefits of the arts in the world. Certain great Hollywood names, such as Paul Newman, often help her in this endeavor.

Hart, at a recent Academy Awards ceremony, one of her rare excursions away from her monastery.

Her life is a wonderful example of how we can all experience such sudden shifts and turns when it comes to faith. To go from the glamor of Hollywood, to the Spartan existence of religious life is quite a shift, but her belief in God was clearly the most important thing in her life, and she gave everything up to follow that, including the man she was engaged to at the time. It was not easy for her, as she says on becoming a nun: “It was not a lifelong dream. I did not grow up wanting to be a nun. I wanted to be an actress. If it had ever been suggested I would one day be a nun, it would have been the last thing on my mind. It was a million to one shot I would ever be a nun.” She has discussed her struggles with her faith and vocation, after her entry into the monastery: “I have struggled with this call to vocation all my life. I can understand why people have doubts, because who understands God? I don’t. When you are dealing with something at this level, you are dealing with mystery.” Clearly, this was not an easy and simply thing for her to do, and to live out. But she has.

Feminine, classy, lovely...everything I desire in a woman...

She is an example of all the things that are interesting, fascinating, contradictory, mysterious, and good about faith and religion. Despite my own present conflicts and concerns with certain elements of Catholicism and Christianity as practiced and proclaimed today, despite my struggles and questions, my weakness and personal failings, faith, religion, spirituality and God remain for me a never ending source of mystery and fascination. I believe faith is a constant journey and exploration of the ultimate and divine truth. Dolores Hart represents the unexpected paths that true and humble devotion to God can create.

Hart, with Elvis. She said that the memory of his kiss has lasted for over forty years. Yes, nuns still think about sex too.

And finally, even as a nun she shows that eroticism still exists. When asked how she could go from kissing Elvis to becoming a nun she said: “How much closer to Heaven can you get?”

So here is a show of thanks to Dolores Hart for a remarkable life.