Dave (The Ice Axe) points me to this column by Michelle Malkin, one of my regularly-read columnists. I'm going to add some new info to this discussion. This is not just a secular phenomenon, there are religious institutions out there that are also promoting promiscuity. The former President of the Unitarian Universalist Association endorsed the Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing -- a new progressive statement issued by SIECUS. By the way, I noticed while researching this that my company's proxy server classifies SIECUS as an adult entertainment site and blocks it.
Here's a quote from the declaration:
Our culture needs a sexuality ethic focused on personal relationships and social justice rather than particular sexual acts. All persons have the right and the responsibility to lead sexual lives that express love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent, and pleasure. Grounded in respect for the body and for the vulnerability that intimacy brings, this ethic fosters physical, emotional, and spiritual health. It accepts no double standards and applies to all persons, without regard to sex, gender, color, age, bodily condition, marital status, or sexual orientation.
As far as sex goes, this document is pretty much saying that if two people want to do it, then it is perfectly ok, no matter if they're married or not, adult or adolescent (or even a child - it's not limited!), gay or straight. The only thing missing here is doing it with animals, but hey, wait a few years, get some input from Peter Singer, and that could be fixed too.
I'd like to know how mutuality, commitment, and consent can apply to a relationship between an adult and a child. Of course, if you press the question, most individual UUs will say, "that's not what it means!" And of course, most individuals will not interpret it that way. But let's press on. If that's not what they mean, why didn't they say so? For there are activists, such as NAMBLA (whose existence the UUA does not seem to acknowledge), who want to remove the barrier of what they euphemistically call "intergenerational sex", and the endorsers of this document have no point at which to say "No! We draw the line here!" for they have defined a sexual ethic that has no borders.
Posted by joelfuhrmann at November 16, 2002 05:11 PM