The Virginity Pledge

What do you know about the Catholic Church’s teachings about homosexuality? Now, is that The topic of homosexuality and what the Church teaches about it has been a very controversial issue. There are many misconceptions about this topic that has begun to spread throughout our society, as more individuals have gathered the courage to come out as homosexual. The Church, nor science, knows why homosexuals are inclined to like who they like. Whether it be a genetic gene or an experience the child had, homosexuals should be treated with respect. As previously said, they are humans. They are people just like you and me. While some people might not agree with their “behavior.” This disputed issue has sparked the interest in many to actually find out

Throughout life many of us have our own views on what we believe is right, it is more or less based on the way we were raised and our morals and beliefs. Once we hit puberty and start learning about sex, many of us get curious and begin to experiment in sexual activity. We are influenced by many things in media like movies, shows and songs, almost forcing us to believe that sex is the greatest thing in the entire world. Abstinence is a moral that is almost completely abolished in this modern age. People who do practice abstinence are most likely judged and taken as sexually impotent or prude. This topic brings controversy to many people and religious beliefs because many

To start with, let's take a type of religion, christianity, and the United States’s society and see how their views of sex are. Since the christian religion is large , I will narrow it down to my christianity, Baptist, in order to avoid conflict with other christian

The Church teaches that sexual intercourse has two overall meanings: The Unitive and Procreative Dimension. Unitive Dimension refers to the expression of love towards our spouse and the Procreative Dimension which is the bringing forth of life. The Church teaches that these two dimensions cannot be separated, and both must be accepted. Therefore, when we choose to abort a pregnancy, this is selfishness on our ends. Current society norms includes having intercourse because of the want and desire of it. However, the people whom participate in pregnancies do not want to accept the procreative dimension of

The most difficult part of any modern theological debate is choosing the authority. With the variety of Christian denominations, individual thinkers, and outside influences, and it is often difficult to reach a general agreement. In her essay, “Homosexuality: A Case Study in Moral Argument,” Catholic theologian Lisa Cahill examines four major authorities and different ways to determine how they work together to produce a cohesive Christian ethic. Though she fails to give a definitive, quantifiable method of describing the interactions between the authorities, her final judgment, approval of some aspects of homosexuality, indicates that she values modern cultural context and general

Growing up as a Catholic I was educated in the spirit of living a pure life, learning many aspects about what I should not do. My parents and the entire Catholic community in which I grew up praised a restrictive life, wherein most of the pleasures in life were forbidden. Sex has been always a taboo subject for Catholics. My parents taught me that sexual relationships are only allowed after marriage. People who were known to be engaged in sexual relationships without being married were regarded as sinners and they were not respected within our community. Being raised in this spirit of considering sexuality a sin, I had become to despise the idea of sex, considering it impure and vulgar. As a child I could not imagine myself ever being married and desiring to be involved in sexual relationships, because I was inculcated with the idea that sexuality is

“Purity and Pollution” by Nancy Fischer addresses how our gender and sexuality are constructs of society and our culture. One of the most recent examples of this has emerged in the form of purity balls and chastity pledges. The Purity Movement started during the 1990’s in the Midwest, with the goal to protect women from the sexual sin of the world. Chastity pledges consist of daughters casually pledging their virginity to their father and God until they are married, while purity balls are formal events sponsored by fundamental religious organizations where young women publicly sign a pledge, with their father as the witness to remain sexually abstinent until marriage (Knabe, 2012). Although

The most important recurring issues in the study of the history of Christianity during our time period is sexual abuse amongst the Catholic Clergy and abortion, the killing of a living entity, as it is a sin against God according to biblical doctrine. Many believe that sexual abuse happening in the Catholic Church, is directly related to celibacy. The Churches restriction on priests that directs them to abstain from sexual relations. This issue has been debated since the reformation in which Martin Luther and other reformers opposed celibacy. They based their argument against celibacy on the bible scripture, namely Genesis 1:28, where God wanted people to “be fruitful and multiply”. There is nothing in the bible that directly mentions celibacy. There are many versions that mention fornication and uncleanliness and the interpretation of the Catholic Church seems to have made this deduction based on those scriptures. The other major issue that is common in most of the world’s religions is abortion; the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and the Protestant Church still adopt the early church’s belief to oppose the practice of abortion. Abortion is considered murder and a mortal sin in accordance which many versus in the bible as it relates to each of these faiths. Even between the Old Testament, where the law or Tora refers to the 10 commandments, where Exodus 20:13 states “Thou shall not Murder” and

Another argument against homosexuals is that it is harmful to society through the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), by denying population growth and how it harms our youth. The first issue is addressed by simple process of elimination if homosexual males are at the highest risk of getting an STD and lesbian women at the lowest risk. Than Corvino is able to challenge the argument by concluding that if you are only choosing a partner based on risk of disease than women should only be with other women as the risk is the lowest. However most people do not chose a partner based on these principles. As for the issue of not having sex for only procreation purposes is absurd. Even the Catholic church prohibits sex during pregnancy and for pleasure

of the church taught that sexual relations should be avoided if possible and indulged in

Within the United States, there are multiple groups and subcultures that vary in terms of their sexuality. Aspects such as religion, education, acculturation, life experiences and socioeconomic status, can influence people and their sexuality. The religion Roman Catholicism for example, has influenced many people throughout the years. Traditionally, Roman Catholics believed that sexual intercourse before marriage was sinful and wrong, along with condemning any sort of sexual activity that does not potentially result in reproduction. However, nowadays many Catholic women use some sort of contraception, such as condoms or birth control, even though traditionally it goes against their religion. Education is another factor that has led to many

This is where the tension lies. The underlying question is who decides what is right and wrong? Do humans or does God? As a Christian I believe God decides and has revealed his design for humans from beginning to end in the Bible. Of course there were things God said to people in the Bible days that were specifically relating to their context. God also revealed many universal principals for all humans to follow and obey. A part of this study is to look at what God has said about sex, sexuality and relationships that was universal not contextual.

We grow up in today 's world thinking that should always question the authority because nothing can be "too good to be true”. And that we should have to the ability to reconsider whether or not something is rational or irrational because if not it can end badly. When I was little I attend catholic school for most of my childhood education and there we were taught what they say is moral and immoral. Well when I graduated learned that because a person was gay didn 't mean that they were bad or evil but that they are just like you and I. So with this in mind to make me reevaluate what I found moral or immoral so my obedience to question if I taught it was wrong. And how they are certain norms

The Catholic Church teaches that premarital sex is wrong, yet it is still widely practiced around the world. The reason marriage was created was to join two people of the opposite sex together in a holy sacrament that would make the couple one. God's reason for marriage is quoted in the bible when he said, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." The Sacrament of marriage is one of the most sacred Sacraments in the Catholic Religion. By performing premarital sex, the couple is breaking a covenant with God and is performing a sin.

Virginity is a social construct that has various definitions and values from different people in the United States. I am conducting my research based on the question of whether the concept of losing one’s virginity is valued differently among males and females in the United States, regardless of their sexual orientation.