Devout Catholics Have Better Sex, Says US News and World Report

[ThomistColin]

Here is my problem with this report. I'm fairly sure that married Devout Christians of any denomination or sect have a healthy respect for sex and its sanctity and sacredness. For that reason, they are more likely to celebrate the love that creates the union within a sexual relationship, thus leading to a better sexual relationship.

 

[presidente]

My comment was more about the supposed 'sacramental' quality of love making: celebrating sacraments involves a priest etc... Btw I still want to know what's so sacramental about 'sex.' There are only two sacraments and love making clearly isnt one of them.

But then again, catholics will call about anything 'sacramental.' The word has lost all its meaning.

I found the use of the term strange. I think Roman Catholic scholars are more careful with the use of the word 'sacrament' than many evangelicals would be. There are a set number of sacraments in Roman Catholicism. The RCC, led by priests in mandatory celibacy, was not positive on marriage and sex if you listen to certain sources. Early Protestants were a lot more positive about both topics. After the Protestant Reformation, the RCC finally got around to acknowledging marriage as a sacrament. So maybe the author includes sexuality as sacramental in a loose sense under marriage, or just doesn't know what he or she is talking about.

 

[Stephen63]

It's the RCC..... & I'm 'sposed to believe it? You'd have better luck selling ice cream to Eskimos.

 

[presidente]

Here is my problem with this report. I'm fairly sure that married Devout Christians of any denomination or sect have a healthy respect for sex and its sanctity and sacredness. For that reason, they are more likely to celebrate the love that creates the union within a sexual relationship, thus leading to a better sexual relationship.

Maybe Roman Catholics have better stats in these areas than other churches in the US because so many churches ignore and don't teach what Jesus says about divorce and remarriage. Maybe the Roman Catholics tend to go into it with a bit more seriousness, if they are serious about their faith. You could be a heavy church goer in a lot of evangelical churches, dump your wife and husband just because you don't feel in love or don't get along, and you may find that no one says anything to you about to correct it. When you go to take communion, even after remarrying adulterously, a lot of churches wouldn't say or care anything at all.

If you get divorced and remarry if you are Roman Catholic, in most cases, you can't take communion and you aren't really officially accepted. They may not go as far as the Bible as not keeping company. I don't know. But you aren't in good standing with the RCC if you do that.

Now, the RCC does grant annulments, with a very huge percentage of them being given in the US, I've read. There are areas where I think they can be very contrary to the word on marriage. I've read of them not recognizing marriages between Protestants and Roman Catholics done outside their church. A couple can remarry in the RCC or get some special dispensation to recognize it if the officials think the Protestant spouse won't prevent children produced from being raised RCC. They acknowledge the marriage of two Presbyterians if one or both convert, for example, or two pagans. But if you are Protestant and marry a Roman Catholic who wants to end it, it's possible her religion could lead her to believe that he/she has the full weight of heaven behind her if he/she decides to do so. I'm no expert on this, but I've read accounts.

 

[didymos]

... So maybe the author includes sexuality as sacramental in a loose sense under marriage, or just doesn't know what he or she is talking about.

The latter by the looks of it. I only recognize the two sacraments that were ordained by our Lord btw.

 

[TaylorTG]

Here is what we Catholics believe about the sacraments.
Sacraments of the Catholic Church - Prayers - Catholic Online


snippet 2nd and third paragraphs
The purpose of the sacraments is to make people holy, to build up the body of Christ, and finally, to give worship to God; but being signs, they also have a teaching function. They not only presuppose faith, but by words and object, they also nourish, strengthen, and express it; that is why they are called "sacraments of faith." The sacraments impart grace, but, in addition, the very act of celebrating them disposes the faithful most effectively to receive this grace in a fruitful manner, to worship God rightly, and to practice charity.

Worship is integral to our lives as Christians. When we engage in the prayer and ritual of the Church, we are formed as Church. Our sacramental rites are of primary importance while we are gathered.


Sacraments are basically fonts of God's light. Scripture view reveals that marriage is sacred: Israel is personalized as God's bride during the times of the old testament, while in the New Testament, the Apostles attribute the church to God's bride.

Both the old and new testaments emphasize the holiness of marriage, its importance in maintaining both the temporal and spiritual health of mankind, hence why the church views it as a sacrament, and has encoded strict laws to protect its dignity.


The church allows Catholics to marry non-Catholics. The conditions for such a marriage are:

• 
  [*=9]The children be raised up in the Catholic faith.

​

• 
  [*=9]The local bishop must approve of, or "witness" the impending marriage.

 

[kepha]

Correlation does not necessarily equal causation. Over the past 50 years, more and more people have started wearing seatbelts. Does that mean seatbelts cause divorce? There are FAR too many outliers for you to make such a conclusion.

No, seatbelts don't cause divorce. Physical and chemical barriers to true love creates a climate of selfishness that often leads to divorce. You can't quantify morality or immorality. But anecdotal data is still data. So explain why we have skyrocketing divorce rates after the 60's when The Pill usage went up. Because of seatbelts? Sorry the Catholic Church is opposed to to agony of divorce and more fatherless children. I'm more sorry about the number of Catholics that don't listen to the Church's teachings.

Before 1930, every church on the planet opposed contraception. Please explain the flip- flop.

Little girls do not grow up dreaming of hopping from bed to bed and contraception. They dream of a man who will sweep them off their feet and love them forever, and of having his many children. A cynicism born of the sexual revolution has brought emptiness to the hearts, wombs and lives of far too many modern women. This emptiness and pain can be avoided or redeemed and healed by the love of Christ and adherence to His teachings. The Catholic Church believes in such dreams because God wrote them on the human heart. And there are men who long for such a woman to love and cherish.Real lovers want to give without reserve in God's own superabundance creating more hearts and lives to love. Contraception is like kissing through a screen door and real love cannot tolerate obstacles. Contraception breeds selfishness and separation that drives a wedge between husband and wife that kills love. Real lovers want their love to explode into the posterity of future generations for all eternity. This is the kind of passion and fulfillment God wants for His children. Contraception limits what should be boundless. It spits in the face of this glorious passion and love's true abandon; and that is why it is a sin. It seeks to "tame" love, thus killing it. The Catholic Church is the last bastion on earth of true romance. The modern world has suffocated love and made sex a thing of deadness.

That might explain why devout Catholics have more fulfilling sex lives.






If you use the calendar method to decrease your chances of getting your wife pregnant, then you're attempting to have sex with the intention of not having a child. So if you believe sex must be had with intent of bearing children, then you're sinning.

I read a comment where a guy talked about how him and his wife have had sex hundreds of times in just a few years and him and his wife were happily married... with 6 children! There's no reason to have massive families like that anymore. Not only are children a financial strain many people can't afford, but it's harder for parents to divide their time between children in today's society unless one of them is a stay at home parent.[/QUOTE]

 

[kepha]

If you use the calendar method to decrease your chances of getting your wife pregnant, then you're attempting to have sex with the intention of not having a child. So if you believe sex must be had with intent of bearing children, then you're sinning.

Wrong. Natural Family Planning is not contraception, there is no "ception" to "contra". It's selfless fasting from sex for about 3 days of the woman's cycle. The Church does not expect couples to pop out babies one after the other irresponsibly, that is a myth.

I read a comment where a guy talked about how him and his wife have had sex hundreds of times in just a few years and him and his wife were happily married... with 6 children! There's no reason to have massive families like that anymore. Not only are children a financial strain many people can't afford, but it's harder for parents to divide their time between children in today's society unless one of them is a stay at home parent.

And what do you do when contraception fails? Accept it as God's plan or head to the nearest abortion clinic?

 

[Nautilus]

I know plenty of couples with fulfilling sex lives who use contraception because they dont want children. Is it a sin to not want kids? And if so chapter and verse?

 

[kepha]

I know plenty of couples with fulfilling sex lives

Good for them.

ho use contraception because they dont want children. Is it a sin to not want kids? And if so chapter and verse?

What's the point of marriage in the first place? Spot the fake verse!

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply..."
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and raise cats and dogs..."

Gen. 38:8-10. Why was Onan killed?

Exodus 23:25-26; Deut. 7:13-14 - God promises blessings which include no miscarriages or barrenness. Children are blessings from God, and married couples must always be open to God's plan for new life with every act of marital intimacy.

Lev.18:22-23;20:13 - wasting seed with non-generative sexual acts warrants death. Many Protestant churches, which have all strayed from the Catholic Church, reject this fundamental truth (few Protestants and Catholics realize that contraception was condemned by all of Christianity - and other religions - until the Anglican church permitted it in certain cases at the Lambeth conference in 1930. This opened the floodgates of error).

Deut. 25:11-12 - there is punishment for potential damage to the testicles, for such damage puts new life at risk. It, of course, follows that vasectomies, which are done with willful consent, are gravely contrary to the natural law.

1 Chron. 25:5 - God exalts His people by blessing them with many children. When married couples contracept, they are declaring "not your will God, but my will be done."

Psalm 127:3-5 - children are a gift of favor from God and blessed is a full quiver. Married couples must always be open to God's precious gift of life. Contraception, which shows a disregard for human life, has lead to the great evils of abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide.

Hosea 9:11; Jer. 18:21 - God punishes Israel by preventing pregnancy. Contraception is a curse, and married couples who use contraception are putting themselves under the same curse.

Mal. 2:14 - marriage is not a contract (which is a mere exchange of property or services). It is a covenant, which means a supernatural exchange of persons. Just as God is three in one, so are a husband and wife, who become one flesh and bring forth new life, three in one. Marital love is a reflection of the Blessed Trinity.

Mal. 2:15 - What does God desire? Godly offspring. What is contraception? A deliberate act against God's will. With contraception, a couple declares, "God may want an eternal being created with our union, but we say no." Contraception is a grave act of selfishness.

Matt. 19:5-6 - Jesus said a husband and wife shall become one. They are no longer two, but one, just as God is three persons, yet one. The expression of authentic marital love reintegrates our bodies and souls to God, and restores us to our original virginal state (perfect integration of body and soul) before God.

Matt. 19:6; Eph. 5:31 - contraception prevents God's ability to "join" together. Just as Christ's love for the Church is selfless and sacrificial, and a husband and wife reflect this union, so a husband and wife's love for each other must also be selfless and sacrificial. This means being open to new life.
Rom.1:26-27 - sexual acts without the possibility of procreation is sinful. Self-giving love is life-giving love, or the love is a lie. The unitive and procreative elements of marital love can never be divided, or the marital love is also divided, and God is left out of the marriage.

1 Cor. 6:19-20 - the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; thus, we must glorify God in our bodies by being open to His will.
1 Cor. 7:5 - this verse supports the practice of natural family planning ("NFP"). Married couples should not refuse each other except perhaps by agreement for a season, naturally.

Eph. 5:25 - Paul instructs husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, by giving his entire body to her and holding nothing back. With contraception, husbands tell their wives, I love you except your fertility, and you can have me except for my fertility. This love is a lie because it is self-centered, and not self-giving and life-giving.

1 Tim. 2:15 - childbearing is considered a "work" through which women may be saved by God's grace.

Rev. 9:21; 21:8; 22:15; Gal. 5:20 - these verses mention the word "sorcery." The Greek word is "pharmakeia" which includes abortifacient potions such as birth control pills. These pharmakeia are mortally sinful. Moreover, chemical contraception does not necessarily prevent conception, but may actually kill the child in the womb after conception has occurred (by preventing the baby from attaching to the uterine wall). Contraception is a lie that has deceived millions, but the Church is holding her arms open wide to welcome back her children who have strayed from the truth.
read more

 

[Nautilus]

man it must be rough being in such cult-like denominations with all these extraneous beliefs. Lots of human interpretation, because if you follow everything you wrote, you're pretty much implying it is a sin not to have children. Thats not in my bible, but then i don't believe some geezer in Rome is the infallible voice of God either.

 

[ThomistColin]

man it must be rough being in such cult-like denominations with all these extraneous beliefs. Lots of human interpretation, because if you follow everything you wrote, you're pretty much implying it is a sin not to have children. Thats not in my bible, but then i don't believe some geezer in Rome is the infallible voice of God either.

Prior to the 1930s, all Christian denominations stood against contraception.

 

[Nautilus]

Prior to the 1930s, all Christian denominations stood against contraception.

Well luckily most normal denominations wised up that saddling a couple with who knows how many children might not be the best policy? Especially considering it was the great depression and just telling spouses not to sleep together certainly seems like an awful idea...

 

[presidente]

Wrong. Natural Family Planning is not contraception, there is no "ception" to "contra". It's selfless fasting from sex for about 3 days of the woman's cycle.

Not having sex is still a way to prevent conception.

 

[Nautilus]

Not having sex is still a way to prevent conception.

And a good way to hasten divorce or at least cheating.

 

[Agricola]

I would love to know the parameters used to qualify 'best sex' I mean it may be boring sex for all i know.

Your view is one shaped by the world view on sex. I know from experience, that the physical act of sex is good, but when you make love to someone you are spiritually conected with and deeply in love with, then the physical part just becomes a part of the whole process, its difficult to explain unless you have experienced, it, melting into each other and you do feel like you are one.

I get depressed at times because I do not have that anymore, its not the physical sex so much, I could go out and pay for it, but obviously I dont, casual sex may be great in that moment of time, but its meaningless after. What is missing is the spiritual entwining and intamcy when our spirits and souls unite in love. I feel like a part of me has been missing for a very very long time and each year that passes, it gets harder to cope with.

 

[Agricola]

Do we still have this stereotypical image?