Suppose you’re shopping around for a religion, and you’re a bisexual who gets a charge out of S&M, cross-dressing, the occasional group-sex scene, and… oh, what the hell… an occasional incestual thing with your parents and siblings and assorted first cousins.
What religions are available that won’t judge you as wrong? Is there ANY religion that does not have any moral code about sexual behavior?
Note: I’m aware that the incest thing brings this behavior into the realm of law enforcement authorities, but then again so do many other activities in certain jurisdactions.
IANAUU, but I’m curious as to what a UU take would be on this (although from what I hear, UU adherents often have very diverse opinions). From what little I know of Unitarian Universalism, they don’t strike me as very likely to judge sex lives as wrong. I know there’s also an Ask the Unitarian Universalist thread.
UU looks like a possibility, since after browsing through the thread and the link of principles it doesn’t seem that they even have adopted the concept of sin, or moral judgement for that matter.
Maybe a modified question would be: among religions in which “sin” exists, are there any in which no form of sexual behavior is “sinful”?
One of the ten precepts is not to misuse sexuality, which is admittedly vague, while still recognizing that sex can cause suffering.
IIRC, satanism, as well as any other hedonism based philospophy (I refuse to dignify them as religions) has no hangups whatsoever about sex. The downside is they don’t do much in terms of helping you to live a meaningful life either.
I don’t know how accurate this is, but I have read that the strict Islamic rules regarding sexuality are in regard only to public displays of sexuality. Privately, it’s pretty much the believer’s call. However, I have trouble seeing Islam approving of private homosexuality. Plus the religion stinks on ice in so many respects, it’s hard to believe it’s tolerant in this one.
I am a UU, and while there are a diversity of opinions, the general consensus is that if you’re doing something to someone that they don’t want done, that’s not OK.
Consensual S&M is OK, rape is not, and incest is also not, because it has the potential to produce offspring whose lives will be miserable due to physical/mental deformities or diseases.
Assuming a 100% effective method of birth control, I don’t see anything inherently wrong with it. If I knew of such a situation, I’d still be fairly creeped out, and would probably disassociate myself from the people involved, but I probably wouldn’t condemn it.
I assume it was at least approved of by the Islamic authorities in time and place - 16th century Tunis.
Anyway, I once read an article on Thailand’s sex trade in Rolling Stone that stated that the Thai version of Buddhism was free of the “sex=guilt” association that most religions. I can’t say how reliable that info is though.
My vote goes for UU too. That is the religion which I most closely align myself and sex is pretty much a free for all, assuming the the parties involved are all willing participants.
However, one of the themes in UU is self-improvement/fulfilment. I think that any sexual practice that seriously diminished one’ s self-esteem or personal worth would be frowned upon. Prostitution springs to mind.
Regarding incest, assuming that both parties were consenting adults, and both were unable to reproduce (for whatever reason) I wouldn’t condem it as morally wrong, only really, really creepy. However, as it is against the law, and I do object, morally, to people breaking the law for selfish reasons - I would object on those grounds.
I know that in regards to Epicureanism, which was a hedonism based philosophy, that isn’t true. Epicureanism wasn’t all that fond of sex in the first place, and frowned on homosexual activity.
ultra filter : I refuse to dignify satanism as a religion because it doesn’t particularly lend itself to leading a meaningful life, attaining spiritual salvation, or making the world a better place. Perhaps this is close minded, but not all philosophies are compatible. My personal philosophy requires me to condemn satanism, hedonism, and nihilism as pointless and possibly destructive.
