Great Erotic Poets: Ovid

Ovid and his lover Corinna, from a engraving by the Italian artist Agostino Carracci (1557-1602). Although a not very sensuous work, it is remarkably graphic for its time. Erotic art has existed for a long time.

Recently I have been reading the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC-17 AD). He has become a great favorite of mine. Vergil (70-19 BC) used to be my favorite Latin poet, but Ovid writes about things that are, right now, more intriguing to me. Vergil is the more serious of the two, often considered the greater. His main work, the Aeneid, deals with the mythical foundation of Rome by the Trojan exile Aeneas, following the Trojan War. As an intended rival to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid is a celebration of Rome’s greatness, especially under the first Roman Emperor, and Vergil’s overall patron, Augustus. So beloved was Vergil thereafter that the great Italian poet Dante (1265-1321) uses him as an example of pagan pietas to guide him through the Inferno in his Divine Comedy. Vergil is perhaps the most spiritual, and even proto-Christian, of all Roman poets. For that reason he is also highly appealing to me.

Ovid, however, writes about more titillating subjects. He wrote many things, the most important of which are his Amores (“Loves”) a series of elegiac love poems, his Ars Amatoria (“The Art of Love”), which is a poem on how to pick up women; and his Metamorphoses, which is long poem on mythological transformations. The Metamorphoses is the classic work of Greek and Roman mythology. Its influence on subsequent Western art, literature and overall culture has been immense.  Urbane, witty, sophisticated, Ovid appears through his poetry as a man who loved life, enjoyed pleasures, pursued erotic adventures, and wrote about it all quite brilliantly.

Statue of Ovid in his birthplace, Sulmona in Italy. The Italians enjoy honoring their great Roman past.

To illustrate the difference between Vergil and Ovid: while the Emperor Augustus loved Vergil, the shy, reclusive, almost rustic bard of Roman greatness, he disliked Ovid, the poet of wit, scandal, eroticism and sensuousness so much so that he even sent him into exile for the rest of his life in a far off corner of the Roman Empire, Tomis, a small town on the Black Sea in what would be today modern Romania. It was basically like being exiled to Alaska. Although an overall mystery as to why he was sent into exile, ancient evidence from Ovid’s own writing refers (in Latin) to a “carmen et error” as the reasons, which mean, “a song and error”. The song most likely was the Ars Amatoria, which did not appeal to Augustus’s prudish nature, as well as his desire to reestablish old time Roman values, and the error may have referred to an affair Ovid may have had with Augustus’s granddaughter, the notorious nymphomaniac, Julia. But we will never know for sure.

I bring in Ovid here because I want to write more about how eroticism is often expressed through literature, especially poetry. I have been focusing a lot on the visual arts, and trying to define what is and what is not porn therein, but the written word also has a long and celebrated history of eroticism. Erotica is often considered not simply visual, but written as well.  Although we could find examples of this throughout all of literary history, such as with Shakespeare or Donne, or D.H. Lawrence, or with Joyce’s Ulysses being banned in Boston for its perceived sexual improprieties, certainly the most common and popular example of this today would be the Romance Novel, often referred to as “Chick Porn”. Indeed, some of the more recent Romance novels published over the last decade or so display an even more graphic depiction of sex than their predecessors, although the Romance Novel has always pushed the boundaries of female sexual desire. Modern prudes will often put the Romance Novel on their “to be avoided or eliminated” list of sinful items. The explosion of erotic writing on blogs is also another good sign of this fundamental human desire for some type of erotic expression and entertainment.

Like Ovid, I enjoy beautiful women.

Poets like Ovid show how erotic writing has been around for milennia. His exile shows that it always comes with controversy. Yet, despite the best attempts of the sexually repressed and prudish types to eliminate eroticism from art and literature, human nature has not changed since Ovid’s day, despite our vastly differently cultures of today. Most or many people simply enjoy reading, writing or viewing erotica. It is a form of entertainment. What makes Ovid so delightful is that he understood this, and his own love poetry is really a facade of irreverence and pure entertainment. For instance, his supposed mistress that he writes about in his Amores, Corinna, was most likely a fiction, something made up so Ovid could have fun with the genre. In his real life he did enjoy women, marrying three time, and finding true happiness in his final marriage. As someone once described him to me, “He was fascinated with women”. Yet he channeled this fascination, this love of women, into some of the finest literary art the world has seen. Ovid is a classic, firmly placed within the pantheon of historically great poets, in part because he wrote so well on such randy topics. Even today he is still a bit controversial in some settings.

I can understand and admire all Ovid was doing. In many ways my own blog is nothing more than a testimony to my own fascination with women, especially their hidden sexual natures which are so alluring, enchanting, and intoxicating. For there are few things I enjoy more in life than sharing eroticism with a woman, especially if I can give her the greatest pleasure she has ever experienced. I also enjoy immensely the artistic expression of eroticism, in art or music or literature, especially when done with charm and beauty. I enjoy writing erotica myself, or writing about it, or posting erotic images, much to the consternation of some former readers of mine, especially the more religious ones (some of whom, despite their misgivings, still secretly visit my blogging den of iniquity–and they are most welcome to come here, always!). I think Ovid, who was a master of expressing eroticism in ways that were charming and beautiful, would have understood these things.

If it is true that Ovid had an affair with the Emperor's granddaughter that led to his exile, then like me, Ovid loved highly sexual women who loved sex.

So I have much more to write on Ovid, and I intend to provide some examples of his poetry, as well as the importance of eroticism in art and literature as well. It is really an inexhaustible topic…and any good suggestion out there on good erotic writers and poets would be most appreciate

The Morality Police

Some people simply do not like erotic beauty.  This is how a lot of uptight conservatives would have reacted to the Birth of Venus.  Fox News would be cheering this on.

 

Another Example of Why Religious Fundamentalists Are So Dangerous

I like posting nudes because 1) I like nudes, 2) nudity really pisses of the religious fundies, 3) I like nudes, 4) erotica makes religious fanatics uncomfortable, 5) it is an act of freedom to be able to post erotica, 6) I like nudes, 7)sexually repressed religious types think all nudes are "porn" and evil and from the devil himself and should be eliminated from the face of the earth, along with the people who produce them, blah, blah, blah... Oh, and she has quite a lovely and luxuriant bush too...

The following article is a good example of why the religious fanatics are so dangerous, whether Christian or Muslim:

http://gawker.com/5832740/how-michele-bachmann-is-tied-to-the-ugandan-movement-to-execute-gay-people

Recently in Uganda, which is a majority Christian country, a bill was debated on whether to pass a law that allows homosexuals to be executed. We think this sort of thing is usually reserved for Muslim countries, but we see what can happen in a Christian country as well.

Apparently this potential law gave a lot of conservative Christians in this country a hard-on, so they went to Uganda to support the measures, or at least try to convert gay Uganda’s away from their sinful lifestyle to a more pure Christian life style.

One of those individuals, Peter Waldron, is (at least when this article was written) a staff member for Michele Bachmann’s campaign. Waldron is friends with a certain Ugandan minister named Martin Ssempa, one of the chief supporters of this bill that would both criminalize homosexuality and allow for homosexuals to be executed under certain conditions.

Waldron and Seempa are buddies. The reporter of the article says, “”The Sunday I attended Ssempa’s church, after he finished his sermon, the pastor told his audience that he had a special guest to introduce, a visitor from the United States. All eyes fixed on a stocky white man with a thick moustache, who wore a gray safari suit. He introduced himself as Dr. Peter Waldron, of Wyoming.”

The article also goes on to describe Seempa’s methods of combating homosexuality: “He preaches that gay people “eat poop” and shows gay pornography in his church to disgust and inflame his followers.”

If this is the kind of gay porn Seempa shows at his church, I may have to join.

So Seempa shows…gay porn!!! And he shows it to his holy congregation. This is so laughable as to not even be funny. Well, you know for sure this guy is himself a closet homo if he is showing gay porn to his fellow Christians.

But Seempa has many friends here in this country who are sympathetic to the idea of executing homosexuals for being gay. The article continues: “He’s no stranger to American evangelicals—Rick Warren has hosted Ssempa many times at his Saddleback Church in Southern California. As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has repeatedly demonstrated, Uganda is sort of a playground for right-wing American Christianist politicians, who view it as a laboratory of sorts for theocratic policy initiatives. Sen. James Inhofe is a frequent visitor.”

As I have written before, and what I am becoming more and more convinced of, religious fundamentalism is the most dangerous thing in the world today. Both Christians and Muslims practice it. That any Christian in this country, or anywhere, could defend anyone who wants to kill others simply because they are homosexuals, is a dangerous person. And yet Michele Bachmann has her followers, people who will vote for her. Her husband, a psychologists, has a practice where he tries to “convert” homosexuals back into a straight life style, and one of her staffers, Waldron, is a religious fundamentalist nut job. The recent Value Voter’s Summit, at which all the Republican candidates participated, was in part organized by people who openly advocate the criminalization of homosexuality in this country. And you thought this could only happen in Uganda? Perhaps you might say, “So what, I am not gay, so who cares.” No, after they got done with eliminating the homos, trust me, they would come after you for whatever moral impurity they deem you to have committed. Fanaticism and fundamentalism knows no bounds.

So I wonder what all those homophobic Christian men think of girl on girl porn? Or lesbos in general. I bet, like most men, they enjoy watching. I wish I were that girl's hand.

If they ever attained enough political power in this country, the religious fundamentalists would impose a theocracy, all in the name of family values, and they would not hesitate to jail or even kill those who they deem morally impure. This article is more evidence of that.

If you think I am overreacting, remember, it has happened before. Much of the history of Christianity is sadly one of one group of Christians persecuting or killing other groups of Christians, or unbelievers. As this article shows, this phenomenon is still alive, to various degrees, in different parts of the world, including our own country. History teaches us that nothing really ever changes.

Be vigilant.

Faith, Love, Beauty and Eroticism

Good art can capture the mysteries of eroticism

What do I believe in? God, Jesus Christ, the Christian faith, the Catholic Church. I must believe in these things. When I study the ancient world, and see the plethora of beliefs and philosophies, I am glad that I am Catholic, because the Catholic Church has at least sifted out for me what is true and not true belief. For instance, recently I have been reading about Gnosticism, and it was, and is, and extremely complex mixture of various ancient philosophies and traditions which were commingling with various early and later Christian communities. I simply do not have the time to work out for myself what to believe and not believe in many of these matters, so the Church guides me through these beliefs. From that point on it is my choice what to believe and not believe. If I wanted to leave the Church altogether because I chose not to believe certain things, then I would, but I choose not to.

I don’t claim to be any kind of philosopher or theologian. I just enjoy the world around me, want to learn more about it, and want to write about it. Faith, religion and spirituality are part of this. They are an integral part of my belief system. I understand these are not for everyone, but for me, they are essential.

My areas of disagreement with the Catholic Church in particular, and with Christianity in general, are mainly in the areas of sexuality and human relationships. I simply believe the Church needs to evolve in its teachings on human sexuality. As far as theology, I pretty much believe all the teachings of the Church, from the divinity of Christ to the Eucharist to the Sacramental system of the Church. These have always been easy for me to accept. I enjoy the mysticism of Catholicism, as well the antiquity of the Church. It has sustained me for well over a quarter century. The prayer life offered by the Church is also quite rich. It is something I practice on a daily basis. After two millennia, it is a system that has been refined and perfected as none other. The fact also that the Catholic Church has existed for two millennia now, in all sorts of different places, circumstances, conditions, some quite adverse, from the persecutions of Nero to the Communists, without ever essentially changing it fundamental, core belief system, is also a source of strength and comfort for me.

In addition, I think for most people searching or practicing a spiritual life, prayer is the single most important aspect of that, followed by some sort of sense of community. Prayer draws us individually closer to whatever spiritual world we are seeking. For Christians, it draws us closer to God, and unites us with the divine. But there is also communal prayer as well. The word “religion” comes from the Latin word “religio” which means “a binding together”. That is really all a religion is, a joining or binding together of different people in a common belief system. I am sure in some fundamental way it appeals to our innate need for a sort of tribal belonging, something which is increasingly difficult to achieve in our complex and fragmented modern world. I belong to a Church because I need that sense of communal belonging as well, even though there are many problems with any communal belief system, as I have written here.

Despite my criticisms of Catholicism, there is something I am not critical of: the Church has always promoted beauty. To this day, it is one the last stalwart defenders of pure beauty in a world that is surrounded by ugliness. For me, much of modern culture, art and architecture is ugly. Strangeness and distortion are often a favorite of modern artists, which is fine, but it is something that does not appeal to me. Often this modern ugliness springs out of a nihilism which I cannot accept. I prefer as more traditional type of beauty: balance, proportion and harmony. Catholicism has always been a great promoter of this.

Over at CL, a little debate sprung up recently over sex and eroticism http://curmudgeonloner.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/false-teaching-a-follow-up Many of us were criticized by others as being “purveyors of porn”, “porn addicts” and in general, degenerates.  I was accused by someone of being filled with hatred, and mocking of God and ridiculing the Catholic Church. All in all, it was an amusing discussion. I understand my promotion of erotic beauty is controversial within a Christian setting, but it is something I feel is important to discuss, because so often eroticism is a secret, shameful thing within Christian belief systems, when it should not be. It is simply a part of life, the part of life that is, in itself, life giving. Eroticism is part of who we are as human, fleshly beings.

I don't see what is so wrong about nice depictions of love making.

But this discussion did shed light on one of the major problems that confronts me within religion: when you question certain things, or point out certain truths, such as the difficulties of sexuality within the Catholic theological system, others immediately want to label you as somehow being less than perfect, not true to the faith, or outside of it all together. A sort of rigid narrowness takes hold, and an unwillingness to objectively and rationally discuss certain issues that are real and pressing within today’s religious bodies, whether they be sexual or otherwise. It is this sort of thing which I dislike the most about religion and which I find most difficult to overcome, the judgments that others make on you when you look at the world differently, the “I am right, God is on my side, and you are wrong, God is displeased with you, and therefore your are a bad, sinful person.” Taken to its extreme, which it often is, this lead to conflicts and even violence among members of the same or different religious groups. All in all it is always an ugly, distasteful, and frustrating phenomenon. It is one the things that keeps most people away from religion all together. I suppose it is inevitable within any group of people, especially religious groups, but still, it is something I try to avoid of as much as possible. I simply dislike dogmatic narrowness.

Catholicism unfortunately does lend itself to being a rigid, dogmatic belief system, but I believe it is falsely assumed by many Catholics of the more orthodox stripe that we are simply to obey whatever the Church tells us. This cannot be true. To not question things would be to deny our full humanity. And I know the Church has always opposed this, as it has always taught “free will”, and in particular our freedom as freely thinking, autonomous beings was reinforced at the Second Vatican Council. It is a complex thing really, balancing what you believe from your experiences of the world around you, as opposed to what an institution such as the Catholic Church, which I chose to belong to, tells us as believers what to believe.  As I said, I am not theologian or philosopher, so I offer no answer to these problems, except through my own experiences, which may differ from the official teachings of Catholicism. So on some matters within the Catholic Church I simply choose not to believe, rightly or wrongly. I will let God be the final judge of that.

But back to the main theme of this blog: beauty, especially erotic beauty and the spiritualism within erotic beauty. In the CL blog linked above, one person criticized my “twisted” attempts to try to join the two together.

So I ask the question: what is wrong with nudity? What is wrong with depicting acts of love or sex between two people? What is wrong with our God-given desire to express our world around us in artistic ways, even if those ways are expressing eroticism? To me, eroticism is beauty. Expressing erotic beauty does not mean promoting promiscuity, or encouraging behaviors which can be destructive both physically or psychologically. It is not necessarily a “sinful” thing. Rather, expressing eroticism is simply to acknowledge the world around us as God created it, the goodness and beauty of that world, and, more importantly, the goodness and beauty of human love and devotion and connection through desire and passion. A person can be chaste, and still be fully erotic. Perhaps I am completely outside the Catholic Church on these matters, but that is my choice. I am free to choose, correct? As I mentioned above, is there not something in Christianity called the “the doctrine of free will”?  So as far as my choices on these matters, I will let God be the final judge of that.

Why are beautiful nudes, such as this, so scandalous to so many?

To me there is something mysterious about eroticism. Good erotic art and photography captures that. Yes, it can even be a spiritual experience. Love is one of the most powerful mysteries of life. Erotic love is one of the more, perhaps the most, intense experiences in the world. They are all related. The world would be a cold place if these things did not exist, or if we could not express them in different artistic forms. Call me a “purveyor of porn” if you like, or that my blog is an “occasion of sin”, but for me, these are simply things that should be expressed and acknowledged, as humans have been doing now since the dawn of time.

Egyptian Blogger Girl Protests Religious Fundamentalism with Erotica

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, nude Egyptian blogger protesting religious fundamentalism.

Here is an interesting blog, from an Egyptian woman, a  20-year-old college student named Aliaa Magda Elmahdy. http://arebelsdiary.blogspot.com/?zx=ed093cc531978182 I found about from Ferds other site, “In Bona Fide”.  As well as containing nudes photographs of herself, it contains both erotic art and photography from and by Egyptians.

According to Jezebel: “20-year-old college student Aliaa Magda Elmahdy has sparked outrage in Egypt by posting naked photos of herself to her blog as a protest against the country’s conservative culture. She says she’s upholding the spirit of the revolution, but in addition to conservative Islamists, she’s angered liberals who believe the scandal will hurt them during the country’s parliamentary election next week, the first since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted.”

The blog has only one entry from late October, but already has 1.5 million views.

I am not sure what the exact political situation is in Egypt right now, and there is certainly the real threat of an Islamist state taking hold, but this blog shows how people from all over the world, even in societies that are drenched in religious fundamentalism, desire to express eroticism in different ways. I am sure there must be other blogs of this nature out there in such societies, but this is the first I have seen. The phenomena of eroticism is part of human nature. We see it in all times, all places, all throughout history.

As the New York times reports, she expresses her reasons for her blog in a statement:

“Try nude models who worked in Fine Art Faculties in the early 1970s, hide all art books and smash naked archaeological statues,” read the statement, alluding to some recent protests staged here by ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafis. “Then take off your clothes and look at yourselves in the mirror, then burn your body that you so despise to get rid of your sexual complexes forever, before subjecting me to your bigoted insults or denying my freedom of expression.“

As I have written recently on this blog, I believe religious fundamentalism is a dire threat to our world today, both politically, intellectually, and culturally. She is reporting in this statement how the religious nut cases in Egypt are smashing naked archeological statues, burning art books, and trying nude models. As I wrote in my post on Michelangelo’s David recently, the religious fanatics in this country, Catholic and Protestant, The Legion of Christ cultists and the Opus Dei wackos, would not hesitate to do the same things to art works here that they deemed offensive.

I have a friend who is Egyptian. A few months ago on a warm, late summer day we were both enjoying the visual pleasures of different women. It was a jovial occasion, one that reveals how men are really the same, no matter where they come from. All men enjoy the sights of attractive women.

Only the religious fundamentalist fanatics of today are adamantly opposed to the pursuit or expression of eroticism in different forms. They will destroy everything they deem offensive. They will even kill you if they find you offensive. After all, they hang homosexuals in Iran, for simply being gay. If you convert to Christianity in Saudi Arabia, you can be executed.

More loveliness. The religious conservatives who want to eliminate such beautiful images can go fuck themselves.

The fight for true freedom in our time is now against religious fundamentalist conservatives. Let them gain power, and they will take away your freedoms, even your life, all in the name of their God.

The Religious Fundamentalist Sexual Hall of Shame

A naked woman....how sinful and shameful!!!

Here are some of the stalwart warriors of the religious fundamentalist movement who were themselves enjoying the fleshly pleasures of life, while telling others to abstain.

James Bakker:

Remember him? He was banging some church secretary back in the 80′s while building his tv empire with his wife, Tammy Faye.

Jimmy Swaggart:

I am sure you remember him. Again, had a tv empire of fire and brimstone evangelical Christianity, until it turned out he enjoyed the services of prostitutes. Was caught a number of times too with them, after repenting. Oh yeah, he enjoyed porn too.

Fr. Ken Roberts:

From Playboy to Priest author, this guy sold a lot of books telling his conversion story. Turns out he still enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh, especially the masculine kind, and particularly at that great fraud called Medjugore. It was reported he would enjoy sex acts with male penitents. I remember seeing him on EWTN quite a bit.

Ted Haggard:

Crusading against homosexuality while himself enjoying the pleasures of homosexual sex, and drugs too. If you ever see some of his sermons, when he was on top of the evangelical world, you could not help but think this guy was quite creepy.

Deal Hudson:

Former editor of orthodox Catholic magazine Crisis, and neo-Conservative gate keeper for Catholics in the G. W. Bush White House, apparently while as a married, openly Christian and politically conservative professor at Fordham University he enjoyed getting blowjobs from some of his female students. I don’t have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with someone who is pushing conservative public policy while doing that at the same time. Again, an ex-EWTN favorite.

Fr. Maciel Marciel

I wrote on this guy before, but he is worth repeating. Head of the one of the most powerful and orthodox groups in the Catholic Church, the Legion of Christ, beloved of Pope John Paul, it turns out he was a child rapist for many decades, drug addict, and fathered a few children from different mistresses. I find it funny that the Pope refereed to him as “an efficacious guide to youth”. As if no one knew about this guy? Yeah, right. Yet while the Pope was praising this child rapist, he was condemning and silencing theologian Fr. Charles Curran at Catholic University for simply raising questions about the Churches teaching on sexuality.

You can see how fucked up things are in the Catholic Church on these matters.

George Reker:

Helped that Christian stalwart and anti-porn crusader James Dobson form the Family Research Council in 1983. A strong advocate of “family values”. A crusader against homosexuality, he himself enjoyed the services of homosexual prostitutes through “Rentboy.com” agency.

Fr. Thomas Euteneuer:

Described by one conservative blogger http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/otoole/110129 as “former head of Human Life International and Notre Dame Class of ’84 and once-bold critic of all public figures who supported abortion and sexual perversity…” Notice the phrase “sexual perversity”. This is a favorite of the religious fundies. I personally love being as sexually perverse as possible with as many hot women as I can who love the same…But to get back to this public figure. Apparently as an exorcist he enjoyed exorcizing some of his own sexual demons through the services of the possessed women he was exorcizing, if that makes any sense. To put it in more simple terms, he enjoyed the sexual pleasures of the flesh with various women while himself publicly proclaiming the sinfulness of such actions. Again, another former favorite of EWTN.

The above blogger blames his sexual exploits of demonic infestation. You can see how medieval so much of Catholic thought still is in human sexuality. No, the guy just never learned how to healthily integrate that hard-on he woke up with every morning, and fasting and prayer were not quite cutting it, so he took advantage of some willing and available pussy when he had the chance, like most horny and frustrated guys would. It’s called sex.

Fr. John Corapi:

This guy was the last straw for me. One of the most popular and militant of Catholic speakers, apparently he enjoyed prostitutes, sexting, etc, while making a ton of money on the foolish idiots who would buy his theological, cultural, and political rants in the name of Holy Mother Church. Now, once he was outed, he left the priesthood and wears a leather jacket and dresses like an aging biker while spouting fundamentalist dogma. Again, another favorite of EWTN, no longer around.

Islamic Fundamentalists:

Well, you know these guys have all sort of dirt on them, but since they tend to kill their enemies over there, it is hard to get real information. But you know many a goat and child have been sodomized by these nut cases. The homosexual subculture of Islam is a ripe topic for discussion, if anyone were brave enough to take it, because, as I mentioned, they will kill you if you speak badly of Islam. They hang homosexuals in Iran, for instance. Any society that is highly misogynistc, and sequesters women to preserver their purity, is ripe for homo loving, such as Ancient Greece or Modern Afghanistan under the Taliban. From what I understand, homosexual child molestation is quite common in most Islamic countries.

This is only the tip of the iceberg of sexual hypocrisy.

The Entire Catholic Church:

Read Richard Sipe, http://www.richardsipe.com/who has documented the clerical sexual subculture quite well, not only as a former Benedictine Monk, but as a clinical psychologist who has been working with sexually troubled clergy for almost fifty years. His are the best and most comprehensive writings on this topic. It is a fact that there is simply a large subculture of sexually active clergy within an institution whose official teachings are that all sexuality outside of marriage is sinful, and all clergy are to be celibate. That this is a serious problem is obvious, and for those fundies who refuse to see this, all we have to do is look at the massive sex abuse scandal that has plagued the entire Catholic Church now for at least a decade, but  is in reality something that goes back centuries, if not two millennia. That is the reality of Catholic sexual teachings.

All Christian Denominations:

This does not even mention other Christian denominations, especially the fundamentalist ones, but as with the Swaggart and Haggard examples above, you know that these sexual hypocrisies exist among them, to varying degrees of severity, in one form or another.

As I said,  this is only the tip of the iceberg, and the things we know about. You can image what else is out there, especially by those who crusade against “sexual perversity”.  I myself have known many people, friends and priests, who were tormented by Christian teaching on sexuality. Eventually they could not take it anymore and either left the Church, or priesthood, and embraced honesty. Two friends of mine, when I met them, were devout, pious Catholic young men, very conservative and orthodox, who eventually admitted to themselves that they had same sex attraction and were living a lie all along and using Catholic orthodoxy to cover their true natures up. But while they lived that lie they were miserable. One related to me how he was a compulsive  masturbator while repenting of his sin only to go back and masturbate some more in guilt and shame and secrecy. It was a really neurotic, vicious cycle and there is simply too much of this in Christianity.

Christian teachings on human sexuality need to change, because clearly very few people, including most self professed Christians, have ever really followed them and so most ask, what is the point?

Is This Porn?

This is Michelangelo’s David. Now, when this was completed in 1504, it may have been somewhat controversial, in that it is clearly a somewhat erotic male nude. Michelangelo thought human aesthetic perfection was reached in the male, and not the female form, and this was a common idea throughout much of the history of art. It is has been only relatively recently, within the last century or so, that a greater acceptance of the nude female has arisen.

It is hard not to argue about the eroticism of this statue. If you ever see it in person, and you notice the crowds of females giggling as their eyes wander down the statue’s body, you know there is some kind of eroticism going on.

Very few would consider this porn, today. Few would even consider it an erotic piece. Yet to me, especially when you see the entire statue like this from all sides, there is an erotic element. Any nude has to be, by its very nature, somewhat erotic. Michelangelo enjoyed beauty, and in this statue he is depicting perhaps what is the greatest representation of masculine beauty in sculpture. At 17 feet tall, it is truly impressive when seen in person. It is one of the best examples of the blending of the Classical and pagan past with Biblical themes that are so common in the Renaissance. The statue could not have been created without the rediscovery of the classical past, especially in art, and yet the theme is still born out of the contemporary religious beliefs. Michelangelo was a particular master of this sort of thing.

And yet Michelangelo was never without controversy. To quote Wikepedia: “Censorship always followed Michelangelo, once described as “inventor delle porcherie” (“inventor of obscenities”, in the original Italian language referring to “pork things”). The infamous “fig-leaf campaign” of the Counter-Reformation, aiming to cover all representations of human genitals in paintings and sculptures, started with Michelangelo’s works.”

Nudity makes many people uncomfortable. Now most people I would not care to see naked anyway, but in art, nudity is perfectly acceptable, especially when it is devoted to beauty, as with this statue. And yet today I am sure Michelle Bachman, Tony Perkins, James Dobson and others of such ilk would love to destroy this, as being contrary to “Family Values”, etc. We know for a fact that the Taliban would not hesitate to destroy this, and so we can assume most fundamentalist religious groups would probably feel the same way, Islamic or Christian or otherwise.

This kind of art and the culture that created it are worth fighting for.

The Christian Blogosphere is One Fucked Up Place

Beneath the holy, orthodox purity of some many Christians lies the earthly realities of flesh and blood. Erotic beauty is one of those realities.

If you think the Manosphere is a bizarre world, try reading some of the blogs on the Christian blogosphere. Reading many of these blogs has probably done more to damage my beliefs than anything else, except perhaps holy orthodox Catholic priests like Maciel Marciel fucking little boys or stalwart crusaders like Fr. John Corapi enjoying the services of prostitutes.

Here is what I find so amusing about these places. And I say this as someone who has believed and practiced my faith much, much longer than most of them. Many of them are recent converts, so their zeal is great. They have yet to be corrupted by the realities of human existence. Eventually they will.

The first thing that appears is the contentious bitterness that exists in many of the comment sections. This is true of most religious arguments. Everyone is convinced of his righteousness, everyone believes God is on their side, so they must be correct. This makes for some of the most bitter and entertaining fights. I always love to see how much Christians love each other. The blogging world sheds the bright light of honesty on this.

One of my old favorites was Alte: http://traditionalchristianity.wordpress.com/  She used to have a nice little blog, but then, in the name of spreading Traditionalism to the masses, she decided to try for a bigger and more serious blog. Now the woman is completely full of herself and she enjoys threatening to “ban” anyone who does not conform to her standards of commenting purity. On her old blog I could post comments with sexual innuendos and it was all part of a humorous, fun kind of  environment. Now, on her new blog, such comments of mine are deleted by her. She is serious now, oh so serious now. Her blog is pat of the “New Evangelisim” preached by John Paul “The Great” when we  wasn’t, like Joe Paterno, looking the other way while clerical buddies of his were anally raping little boys. And as if blogging can ever be a serious activity.

I don’t really follow her blog anymore, because it has become so boring. Most of the comment section is made up of the same people, sprouting the same views about the same topics, etc. Endless topics about baking, homeschooling and what color burka to wear are unappealing to most men. An atmosphere of holy purity has overtaken the site. Then again, it is mostly made up now of granny panty wearing, knitting, Michelle Bachman nutcase supporters, whose perpetually dry vaginas make them particularly susceptible to constant bitterness and cattyness. There is also some virginal teenage boy names Svar who thinks he knows something about women. It is all hilarious.

Just fucking enjoy the pleasures of life, while you can. I am not sure where licking a girl’s ass, which is one of my favorite activities and one that most girls like, goes on the sin meter scale, but I am sure it is one that the lowers bowels of hell is reserved for.

This blog is still ok for me: http://curmudgeonloner.wordpress.com/ At least I have not been banned there yet for making sexual comments. I am sure I will eventually. The author of this blog used to have me on her old blogroll, but apparently in the name of holiness I am not permitted on her new blogroll. I might corrupt some of her holy readers, I suppose. What I find most interesting is that Alte apparently has banned both the authors of this blog from her blog, for some reason I do not know, even though they used to be regular contributors. Intra-blogging infighting is so entertaining, especially among holy and orthodox and righteous Christians. Ah, see how the Christians love each other!

I find it humorous, but being banned from certain blogs and no longer being on certain blogrolls reminds me of when I was in seventh grade and a certain girl did not want me at her party because I was not cool enough, and when I showed up, I was kicked out. I find many of the Christian blogs, and especially the female bloggers, have that same mentality, the mentality of virginal 12 year old.

For instance, another strange blog is by this girl who is trying to reform her life from sexual impurity. I won’t say much on her, or give her web address out of some respect for her beliefs, except to say that in one of her recent posts, she was worried about having sex dreams. Sex dreams? I also wrote a comment on her blog, nothing salacious but a simple statement about certain things but was never allowed to post. Why have a comment section when you edit comments which are simply honest questions, nothing lewd or derogatory, but simply statements or questions? Obviously she clearly does not like people questioning her arguments, in her small, religiously cult like world. But then again most fundamentalist types are like that. They preach to a choir, and will not listen to other perspectives. Nevertheless, she is hot, and once liked to trade naked pictures of herself with men, and loved to masturbate, but since converting she has repented. She is obviously a girl with a high sex drive who wants to have sexual pleasure but feels tremendous guilt over her natural sex drive. Hence, she is becoming neurotic and intellectually rigid. Nothing more needs to be said on that. I will simply refer to her as “reformed masturbation girl”. I once read another anti-masturbation blog post by another female, and in her comment section one girl was constantly writing in about how she masturbated, felt guilty, repented, then masturbated, felt guilty, repented again, over and over and over again, etc, ad nauseam. She wanted to stop, was praying to God for help constantly, but could not stop. It was actually sad to read. Just masturbate and enjoy it.

As I have said repeatedly, Christian women are not allowed not masturbate. It is against God's holy law. Otherwise they will go to hell. Most secretly and shamefully still masturbate though.

As someone who has been through all this when younger, I find it all kind of sick really and it makes me wonder why I continue to believe in certain things spiritually. The longer I believe, the less and less I believe in certain things. The older I get, the more my focus is simply on God and my relationship to God, not what others tell what that relationship should be. That includes the Catholic Church. The nuttiness of the blogging world is putting me over the edge on all this.  I can finally see how people really think with all civil niceties stripped away. This open and often unintentional honesty is one of the more interesting things about blogging.

This is for a different post, but after over a quarter century of a Christian faith journey, I have come to the conclusion that Christianity needs to change on sexual matters. I was once as enthusiastically orthodox as these holy blogging warriors are now, when I first came to believe. But now, after my own experiences, as well as what I have seen in the world around me, it seems that many Christian denominations are  hopelessly naive about human sexuality, and a belief system based on biological understanding of the human person, rather than quaint Biblical stories and mediaeval scholastics, would make sense to more people. The fact that masturbation is still a sin that can lead to hell in the Catholic Church, despite the fact the most Catholics, and most people, masturbate, and that medicine has actually shown the benefits of masturbation for men (cleaning out the prostate of semen is healthy and reduces the chances of prostate cancer) is a good example of how outdated these notions are. I simply reject them now outright.

I love Christian women. Many are such little hypocrites. For many, Christianity is nothing more than a series of rigid rules to live by. I find Christian women to be often the most insufferably doctrinaire about their faith, in a rigid and truly unfeeling way. They talk about marriage and family, they want the white picket fence, and yet so many of them are still women, with vaginas that can tingle under the right circumstances and with the right man. Often married to morally repressive husbands who are afraid of sex, most long for some excitement and danger, some real passion and sexual pleasure. And yet they are too holy to admit it. Alte herself is ripe for seduction, if you read some of her posts. Like all Christians trapped in a traditional view of sexuality, they will flagellate themselves to death over some small sexual fault. The reformed masturbation girl is a good example. Then again all women love to wallow in their own guilt, cry into a big tub of ice cream, and feel sorry for themselves for whatever moral error they may have committed. But they still love the thrill of committing the error. It makes them wet and they will soon commit it again, to start the whole cycle over. I know, having enjoying the pleasures of seducing many of these same types. They love the moral conundrum of sexual passion and pleasure and because of this the are so easy to seduce.

Homosexuality is a sin, leading to hell. Yup, it is one of the big ones. And yet how I love to see two girls getting it on. A lot of girls like it too.

Christian men are humorous too. They are the warriors, the crusaders against things like porn, and yet they still want to enjoy the view of a hot girl, watch a little porn, and even fuck the Church secretary while on a Promise Keepers retreat. Many of them enjoy crusading against homosexuality, while being themselves secretly homosexual. Righteous, holy, and absolutely pure, they are the head of their families, strong and virile, true patriarchs, the foundation and leaven of a morally perfect society.

I would love to know how they would feel when they learned that their perfect little girl when going off to a good Christian college is just as sexually active as a girl at one of those big, bad, hedonistic, liberal and secular state schools. Yes, thats right, holy warrior Daddy, your pure little girl is sucking some football players big dick at some frat party somewhere and taking a nice creamy load in her mouth at the Christian Bible school your spending $30,000 a year to send her, the same mouth that is going to kiss you when you come visit her the next day. Good job on being the perfect, holy warrior dad. Your daughter is still a flesh and blood creature who craves sex like everyone else, despite your best efforts to keep her pure. I suppose in the name of traditional morality some of Neo-Traditionalists bloggers will start advocating clitoridectomies for their little girls. After all, a lot of these traditionalist bloggers do have a secret hard-on for Islam or Islamic practices, such as head covering, frumpy modest dressing, women as pure vessels of holiness to be sheltered from society for their own good, etc.

Oral sex is bad. This too will lead you to hell. Yes, one blogger once related how she asked a priest whether she should let her husband come in her mouth. Given the stats on the pervasiveness of practicing homosexual clergy in the Catholic Church, I bet the priest had lots of experience...with men coming in his mouth.

In addition, they often send their sons off to these weird little Christian camps, where, in an attempt to make sure they do not turn into homosexuals, a strange militancy is preached, and where, I bet, many of the holy men leading these children are a little shady in their own sexual preferences. I saw a promotional video from one of these places some time ago, and it was really fucking weird. As the Penn State thing shows, adult men with keen interest in young boys usually have something else going on. As a Catholic I know how rife my own Church is with this problem. I am sure other denominations are the same.

But I digress…the point of this is the blogosphere. When I started blogging I had a more religious blog, but quickly grew tired of it because of the preaching some would do in the comment section. I learned to despise the nuttiness of it all. Plus I like writing about erotica more. And I don’t take blogging seriously. To me, this is little more than entertainment. Anyone who thinks blogging can influence the world around them beyond their tiny, meaningless readership is delusional.

And, as I said in the beginning,  there is the fighting, so much fighting and anger and bitterness among so many of these bloggers of different Christian persuasions, each one so convinced in their own righteousness, that God is on their side, that other person is wrong, and somehow less holy because of that and they must prove that….over and over and over again. It gets old after a while.

Many holy and orthodox Christians are secretly enjoying my filthy blog as much as I enjoy--no, love--doing this to a woman. Haha...at least I am honest about my enjoyment of sex and erotica.

What I find most amusing, however, is how many of these holy, orthodox Christians actually visit my blog, with all my dirty pictures and stories. Many of them were even regular visitors to the great Roissy, the grandaddy of all blogging sexual nihilism. Yes, beneath that veneer of holiness, many in the Christian blogging world like to be bad too. Or at least, they really would like to enjoy some kind of sexual pleasure outside of their rigid ideas of sexual propriety. I will help them with that. I think a “special” post on Alte is long over due, especially now that I am too rakish for her new holy blog. Then again…no…I got better things to do than to waste my time on such holy and pure saints. I would rather write to women who enjoy such erotic attention.

I love them and God bless them! God bless sexual women! God bless sluts! I love them all!!!

How I Love Beautiful Women!

This is a nice photo. I love the soft smoothness of her creamy white skin, the lovely curves, her delicate structure, the way she holds her hair up. There is always a pleasure in seeing such a sight. It is beauty. She is beautiful. Loveliness has no boundaries. It gives joy to the soul.

A woman’s back is also quite lovely. How delightful it is to run your hands down her back, feeling the curves and smooth skin, until you reach her soft ass, where more delights can be explored.

Feminine charms are indeed powerful. Women are beautiful! How I love beautiful women!

Great Spiritual Artists: Raphael

The Madonna of the Meadow, by Raphael.

One of my favorite artists is the Italian Renaissance great Raphael (1483-1520). He is usually ranked with Leonardo and Michelangelo as one of the three great artists of the Italian High Renaissance. For centuries his works were considered the apex of all artistic perfection, and became the models for many of the formal schools of academic art. In the Nineteenth century, however, especially with the Pre-Raphaelite movement in Britain, a reaction arose against his style of art. Since then he has generally been held in lower esteem than Leonardo and Michelangelo. These artistic trends are all subjective of course, but I still enjoy his art nevertheless.

There is a calm classicism to his art. I especially like this piece, The Madonna of the Meadow, with the Madonna and Child and St. John the Baptist configured in a triangular form, which was something he learned from Leonardo. The triangle form is often used in art, especially Renaissance art, to convey a sort of Neo-Platonic harmony of body and form and spirit. As religious art, the calm and serenity of such a scene reflects my own desire for a calm spirituality, rather than the more frenetic type found among certain religious groups. No snake tossing or speaking in tongues for me.

I also like his colors: lots of blues and reds, yellows and golds and creamy whites which are happy and uplifting, at least for me. The hazy background of hills and water is also reminiscent of Leonardo’s landscapes. It hints at an expansive mystery and wonder. All and all, it is a nice piece: calm, relaxing, yet still joyful, beautiful, and, for those believe in the religion, ultimately meaningful in a spiritual way.

One of the things I enjoy about Renaissance art is the perfect blending of spirituality, sensuality, and Classicism, all wound up in beautiful representations, and done so without apology. It was a unique period in art and one of great beauty. If you study the art and period, you get a sense of how much the artists and the consumers of such art loved beauty for the sake of beauty.

And yet they were still men. Raphael enjoyed women and, according to Vasari, who wrote a life of Raphael at the time,  is said to have died after a night of excessive sex with one of his lovers. No one knows if this is really true, but I would like to think it is.

The period has always fascinated me: the love of beauty, sex, religion, spirituality, intellectual growth and discovery, new learning created and old rediscovered, the New World still a freshly found mystery, all these things fomented to create a new society. Art such as Raphael’s reflect this quite well.