The Moral Compass
June 28th, 2007Our Sexual Ethics Interactive has been re-dubbed The Moral Compass. I’m out in the field with my trusty fellow News21 camerapersons asking all the tough Sex Eth questions for our online video supplements; for example, how does YOUR religion feel about masturbation, divorce, premarital sex and dancin’ in the streets? Ok, I left off the dancin’ in the streets part. So far it’s been a wonderful education. I’ve learned about “Virtue Ethics” based on the teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas from Jesuit scholar Lisa Fullam. According to Fullam, Virtue Ethics is not as much about the act (adultery, sex before marriage, etc) as it is about the intention or the outcome. Virtue Ethics asks, Who do you want to be? How are you going to get there? and How do your actions contribute to your becoming the person you want to be? As Fullam explains it, a young man masturbating to a Victoria’s Secret Catalog may very well fall into the category of normal sexual development, and shouldn’t necessarily be judged in the same way as similar acts with negative motivations and outcomes. You’ll have to see the video to get the full story, so stay tuned.
One of the questions I now routinely ask is about something I’m calling God Sex. I mean it in the most respectful way, as it’s something I’ve experienced myself. It entered our video conversation by way of Southern Baptist Amanda Phifer who talked about how the sexual relationship between married partners can bring them closer to God. So I began to ask the question of others and have heard at least one “Yes, definitely!” and an acknowledgement among some of the Christians I’ve interviewed that, within their faiths, sex and spirituality are connected. The Song of Songs has been mentioned as biblical poetry that speaks to both faith and expresses passionate sexuality. Check it out.
