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From Chapter 6: Sex and Religion
Religion has often dictated rules governing sexual behavior as a means of social control. Consider how Christianity has combined sex, politics, and religion. In the Book of Exodus, the Seventh Commandment states: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Biblical scholars understand this to mean, in the context of the ancient Hebrew tribes and clans, that a man should not have sexual relations with a married woman who is not his wife. The commandment does not prohibit sexual relations with slaves, with multiple wives, or between unmarried men and women. Nor does it prohibit other sexual behaviors. However, the Westminster Greater Catechism, written in 1649 and still followed by some Protestant denominations, interpreted the Seventh Commandment differently. The Catechism states:
Q 139: What are the sins forbidden in the Seventh Commandment?
A. The sins forbidden in the Seventh Commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are:
Adultery, fornication, rape, incest, sodomy, and all unnatural lusts;
All unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections;
All corrupt or filthy communications, or listening thereunto;
Wanton looks, impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel, prohibiting of lawful, and dispensing with unlawful marriages;
Allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews*, and resorting to them;
Entangling vows of single life, undue delay of marriage; having more wives or husbands than one at the same time;
Unjust divorce or desertion;
Idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, unchaste company;
Lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stageplays, and all other provocations to, or acts of, uncleanness either in ourselves or others.”
*A "stew" is a brothel.
The authors of this 1649 Catechism broadened the literal meaning of the 7th Commandment to prohibit a host of sexually-related behaviors, including what most would consider normal human activities, desires, and longings. The proscriptions are very tight and nearly impossible to achieve. If you are the professed gatekeeper to God and salvation, you can dictate the rules. What easier way to exert social control over your flock than through restrictions to sex, pleasure, and fun? Religion’s interest in defining sex in terms of values is nothing less than raw assertion of power over the very meaning of humanity.