PowerPoint on the ethical dimensions of sexuality.

2.  To explore a range of Christian and secular
viewpoints
 To apply these to homosexuality,
contraception and pre-marital sex
 To seek insights from Kant, Natural Law,
utilitarianism and situation ethics

3.  Sex is created by God as means of
procreation (Genesis 1 and 2)
 Sexual relations with other tribes forbidden (1
Kings 11:1-13)
 Adultery punished by stoning (Leviticus 20)
 In Levitical code, women property of men and
socially inferior. Women were “unclean” due
to blood taboo after childbirth etc.

4.  Jesus says little about sexual relations,
mentioning “sexual immorality” once (Mark
7:21) as “making us unclean from within”.
 Paul sees the body as the Temple of the Holy
Spirit, bought back from slavery (1 Cor 6:12-
20). Context: shrine prostitution in Corinth.
 Paul condemns homosexual practices as
abominations (Romans 1: 21-27), deserving
death (he was a Rabbi).

5.  “There is no longer Jew nor Greek, male nor
female, slave nor free: you are all one in
Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28)
 Jesus allowed unclean women to touch him
(Mark 5:30) and wash his feet, (Mark 14:6).
It’s as if the radicalism of Jesus wasn’t fully
grasp by the Rabbi, Paul.
 The woman caught in adultery is not
condemned or stoned. Jesus says “go in
peace and leave your life of sin”. (Jn 8)

6.  Augustine (354-440) saw the Fall of Man as
the origin of sexual lust and passion.
 Before the Fall, sex was an act of will.
 After the Fall, women desired men and men
ruled over women.
 Sexual shame required modesty.
 Sex was for marriage, and should be done out
of duty (to procreate) not pleasure.

8.  The body is the seat of wicked desires and
passions: “sins of the flesh”.
 The soul had to overcome these temptations.
 We “do not do what we want, but the very
thing I hate is what I do” (Romans 7:15).
 The flesh must be “put to death”, says Paul.
This mortification is the origin of self-
flagellation (Da Vinci Code), and is still
practised in Spanish and Italian cities at Lent.

9.  Sex is for procreation, a primary good
 “Any act from which of its nature generation
cannot follow” is wrong.
 Aquinas condemns masturbation,
homosexual acts, and acts where “the
natural style of intercourse is not observed”.
 Adultery “conflicts with right reason”, even
though natural, and breaks the primary
precept of living in society.

11.  Might God have created us with different
natural sexual inclinations?
 Is an “unnatural” sex act (like masturbation)
wrong if it harms no-one or (like living
together) is done with consent?

12. 2357 “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture,
which presents homosexuality as a grave
depravity, tradition has always declared that
homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.
They are contrary to the natural law. They
close the sexual act to the gift of life. They
do not proceed from genuine affective and
sexual complementarity. Under no
circumstances can they be approved”.

14.  Homosexuality is like a disease.
 Breaks the natural relation to sex:
procreation, so contra naturam
 But…if an alcoholic gives up drink the
benefits are clear, yet if a homosexual is in a
loving relationship, what bad effects are
there?

15.  Given that key aspects of human nature
include culture and history, any moral
principle must be tested, verified, retested,
and refined according to human experience,
which may change according to time and/or
place, there can not be one “answer” that fits
for all times and places

17.  “It is an error to think that a conjugal act
which is deliberately made against natural law
and so is intrinsically dishonest, could be
made honest and right by the context of a
lawful married life.”

18.  The regulation of conception appears necessary for
many couples who wish to achieve a responsible,
open and reasonable parenthood in today’s
circumstances. If they are to observe and cultivate
all the essential values of marriage, married people
need decent and human means for the regulation
of conception. They should be able to expect the
collaboration of all, especially for men of learning
and science, in order that they have at their
disposal means agreeable and worthy of man in the
fulfilling of his responsible parenthood.” Pontifical
Birth Control Commission

19.  Look at the nature of the sexual faculty
 Designed for procreation, in marriage
context
 Focus on the individual “act”
 Therefore, each and every sexual act and
expression should be open to the
possibility of procreation; anything that
obstructs this is intrinsically disordered
(contra naturam)
 Key value is following this “natural
function”.

20.  Looks at the individual and the couple in their
whole, real life situation
 Stresses the relational aspects, especially love
and “responsible parenthood”
 Evaluates single acts within this total context
 Key values are personal and interpersonal
flourishing (eudaimonia)

21.  Tension Between Paradigms
 “…objective criteria must be used, drawn from the
nature of the human person and human action, …
which respect the total meaning of mutual self-
giving and human procreation in the context of
true love…”
 Gaudium et Spes, 1965:51
 “it is not permissible, even for the gravest reasons,
... to make into the object of a positive act of the
will something which is intrinsically disordered, ...
even when the intention is to safeguard or promote
individual, family or social well-being.”
 Humanae Vitae 1968:14

22.  Remember the Principle of Conscience in
Moral Living
◦ Sanctuary of Conscience
◦ Sacred Place: Where we meet God
 Safe Place: no outside authority may enter
◦ Primacy of Conscience
◦ Always follow your conscience
◦ Even when “erroneous”
◦ But take care to form and inform it.

23.  Cannot universalise eg adultery – a contradiction in
will.
 Difficult for heterosexuals to conceive a universal
law legalising homosexual acts contradiction in
nature.
 Kant argued that “sexual love is a degradation of
human nature” (link with importance of reason and
his dislike of passions)
 As soon as someone is an object of someone else’s
lust, they are being used as a means to an end.
Breaks second formulation (principle of ends).
 In the contract of marriage, sex is fine.

24.  Marriage is a contract of equals (respect, rights,
dignity).
 Partners surrender rights to each other eg the right
to your own body.
 The sole condition on which we are free to make use of our sexual desire
depends upon the right to dispose over the person as a whole.... If I have the
right over the whole person, I have also the right ... to use that person's
organa sexualia for the satisfaction of sexual desire. But how am I to obtain
these rights over the whole person? Only by giving that person the same
rights over the whole of myself. This happens only in marriage. Matrimony is
an agreement between two persons by which they grant each other equal
reciprocal rights, each of them undertaking to surrender the whole of their
person to the other with a complete right of disposal over it .... If I yield
myself completely to another and obtain the person of the other in return, I
win myself back.... In this way the two persons become a unity of wills.

25.  Pleasure is the intrinsic good.
 Shared pleasure can build happiness in a
relationship.
 Consensual sex is what most seem to desire to be
fulfilled, so maximises happiness.
 Bad consequences eg STDs should be avoided.
 But is consent enough to make something “good”?
(eg sex with minors?).
 Mill saw sex belonging to “lower pleasures”.
 Harm principle eg long term pain of affairs.

26. Pain
STDs
Pregnancy
Emotional pain
Social taboo
Pleasure
Contraception
Sense of value
Love
Loss of taboos
But as some of the “pains” diminish (eg due to contraception) how
do we measure the emotional pain promiscuity may produce?

27.  Sexual shame comes out of parental influences on
the superego.
 Being moral may not accord with our real natures
at all…the conscience needs to mature.
 Failure to control sexual urges will undermine the
development of a virtuous character and can lead
to pathological shame.
 Oedipus complex: unconscious repression of desire
to kill father and possess mother formed aged 3-6
years. Resolved by identifying with same sex
parent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex

30.  Draw a grid, placing the three issues, pre-
marital sex, homosexual sex, and
contraception on one axis and Kant,
utilitarianism and natural law on the other
 Fill in the boxes, summarising different
approaches to sexual ethics

31.  Taking the recent Church of England Report
Issues in Human Sexuality, describe and
explain the differences in moral reasoning
between Anglicans and Catholics on the
issues mentioned here.
 NB There isn’t one RC or Anglican view!