The Divine Purposes of Sexual Intimacy

[Red Ryder]

I just went out to the mailbox and inside was the August edition of the Ensign. The cover had a featured story about teaching sexuality in a gospel way. Needless to say the neatly wrapped plastic bundle containing the Ensign, New Era, & Friend went straight to the recycle can unopened.

However, the glorious nature of Mormon sexuality left me so curious that I just had to look up the online version and scan for those Mormon Cosmopolitan GOMI like secret sex positions. I’ll I could find was missionary.

Since I wasted my time reading this I’ll summarize it so you don’t have to:

Elder Renlund states that marriage is between a man and a women.

He again reiterates marriage is between a man and a women.

He talks about the importance of marriage in the eternal perspective so that we may become LIKE God.

Says Satan tempts and deceives us to think otherwise.

He states that marriage is between a man and a women.

He again reiterates marriage is between a man and a women.

He states he’s a Doctor and his treatments were often the best choice but some people didn’t see it that way and preferred other methods. He likens this to the Law of Chastity today which means marriage is between and man and a women.

States gender is not fluid.

Then he states that NOT ALL of God’d children will be able to have marital intimacy in this life.

Not all Heavenly Father’s children have the opportunity in this life to experience sexual intimacy in married relationships according to God’s law. Some will not have the opportunity In this life.

Then he says life is unfair, but doesn’t compare to the unfairness Jesus went through for all of us to fulfill God’s law which is fair.

Ultimately, nothing compares to the infinite unfairness the Savior endured. Yet, if we are faithful, He will compensate us for any unfairness we experience, and we will achieve a state of never-ending happiness.

He wraps up the article without ever actually talking about sexual intimacy in any meaning full way other than to clearly state marriage is between a man and a women.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/st ... y?lang=eng

[Hagoth]

He wraps up the article without ever actually talking about sexual intimacy in any meaning full way other than to clearly state marriage is between a man and a women.

Maybe that's all he knows about it and someday he'll get the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity about just what it is that goes on between men and women under the sheets, through the openings of their garments, with the lights turned off. And then he'll wash his eyes with lye and run to a superior priesthood holder and repent.

Here's a little story about how uninformed Mormons can be about the ways of the wicked world. In my late 20s I commuted by bus for a while. There was a guy on the bus every day who turned out to be very friendly and we had some nice conversations. He was a very orthodox Mormon who had married young and had six kids by the time he was in his early 30s. One day I was flipping through an art book that I had just picked up at a bookstore. He was interested and slid over to see what I was looking at. The page was open to a nude painting of a young woman. His eyes got huge and he asked, "Is that really what they look like?" The dude had six kids and apparently had never seen his wife or any other woman naked - and was asking me, a virgin, (albeit with an art degree, so I was fairly informed about most of the parts and their locations) what a woman looks like. Long uncomfortable pause, then he thew in, "I did see Splash!" (the Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah mermaid movie).

When I was in art school another married ultra-TBM friend was always curious about my life drawing classes. He would ask the weirdest questions like, "don't certain parts of the body have more contrast than others? How do you keep your eyes from seeing those?" Once he seemed really confused about female anatomy and I had to explain to him that there is a separate orifice for urine, and that it comes from the bladder by way of a urethra, just like in men. News to him.

[Mormorrisey]

I read all the hoopla about this edition from both the faithful/faithless side of reddit, and like you, RR, I was curious as to all this entailed. So I read a few of the articles just to get a flavour of them. My takeaway?

How can Mormons make even sex so boring?

What a nothingburger this was. On the one hand, it absolutely highlights the repressed nature of Mormon sexuality, which is a problem. No question about it, and I'll teach my kids about sex, thank you, not a bunch of old dudes who don't know as much. In fact, now that I think back about it, both the missus and I overwhelmed our soon-to-be married kids with waaaay too much information about the topic just before they were married. We both knew, though, that many Mormons are unaware of how basic sex works, what anatomy looks like, and all the rest though, so I thought too much information is way better than no information at all.

On the other hand, though, do we really want these old dudes getting into sexual topics? The last time they pulled that stunt in the 80s, they were too busy telling us all that tipping the velvet/bowing to the pope was an immoral and impure practice, which caused them nothing but grief. I don't want these repressed, old guys giving Sis M any ideas on what "true intimacy" is, with all their holy ghost threesomes and praying before the act. Our intimate life is the most unsullied by religion part of our lives together, and probably the best part of our life together, and I don't want these guys screwing around with it (pun intended.) So stay out of my bedroom, repressed Mormons!

[Hagoth]

I do however have to agree with the man/woman marriage part, yes I know I'll take a lot of flack for expressing this, based on my own study on societal collapse rather than on a religious perspective.

I guess my pushback on that would be to suggest that your studies may be leaning a bit toward western Judeo-Christian interpretations. If you widen the scope you may realize that homosexual and transgender people have been around all along as natural components of humanity and in many cultures have not merely been tolerated but celebrated as special manifestations of deity. If you don't go out of your way to associate such things with societal collapse you will see that there were much more significant factors to blame. Just my two cents.

For one example read about the Hijras of India and what a ruinous disservice the British empire did to them in trying to enforce western intolerance.

[Red Ryder]

For one example read about the Hijras of India and what a ruinous disservice the British empire did to them in trying to enforce western intolerance.

Well today I learned something. Thanks for the referral. That was interesting to read.

[2bizE]

I just went out to the mailbox and inside was the August edition of the Ensign. The cover had a featured story about teaching sexuality in a gospel way. Needless to say the neatly wrapped plastic bundle containing the Ensign, New Era, & Friend went straight to the recycle can unopened.

However, the glorious nature of Mormon sexuality left me so curious that I just had to look up the online version and scan for those Mormon Cosmopolitan GOMI like secret sex positions. I’ll I could find was missionary.

I remember going to the mailbox hoping to find a Victoria Secret catalog...never the Ensign...

[blazerb]

On the other hand, though, do we really want these old dudes getting into sexual topics? The last time they pulled that stunt in the 80s, they were too busy telling us all that tipping the velvet/bowing to the pope was an immoral and impure practice, which caused them nothing but grief. I don't want these repressed, old guys giving Sis M any ideas on what "true intimacy" is, with all their holy ghost threesomes and praying before the act. Our intimate life is the most unsullied by religion part of our lives together, and probably the best part of our life together, and I don't want these guys screwing around with it (pun intended.) So stay out of my bedroom, repressed Mormons!

I will admit that I kind of want them to get into sexual topics and show their lack of knowledge. I have not read the article, but it sounds like Elder Renlund showed a little ignorance about gender fluidity. If he's a doctor, he knows that he is lying by omission.

On the other hand, I don't want these guys to screw up your marriage, Mormorrisey, or the marriages of others in similar situations. If they could say something so outrageous that your wife could realize they have no knowledge or ability to comment on the subjects they do, it would be one thing. However, they would probably just say enough to mess up people's lives while only pushing out those whose feet were already pointed toward the door.

[2bizE]

I read all the hoopla about this edition from both the faithful/faithless side of reddit, and like you, RR, I was curious as to all this entailed. So I read a few of the articles just to get a flavour of them. My takeaway?

How can Mormons make even sex so boring?

What a nothingburger this was. On the one hand, it absolutely highlights the repressed nature of Mormon sexuality, which is a problem. No question about it, and I'll teach my kids about sex, thank you, not a bunch of old dudes who don't know as much. In fact, now that I think back about it, both the missus and I overwhelmed our soon-to-be married kids with waaaay too much information about the topic just before they were married. We both knew, though, that many Mormons are unaware of how basic sex works, what anatomy looks like, and all the rest though, so I thought too much information is way better than no information at all.

On the other hand, though, do we really want these old dudes getting into sexual topics? The last time they pulled that stunt in the 80s, they were too busy telling us all that tipping the velvet/bowing to the pope was an immoral and impure practice, which caused them nothing but grief. I don't want these repressed, old guys giving Sis M any ideas on what "true intimacy" is, with all their holy ghost threesomes and praying before the act. Our intimate life is the most unsullied by religion part of our lives together, and probably the best part of our life together, and I don't want these guys screwing around with it (pun intended.) So stay out of my bedroom, repressed Mormons!

This. I don’t want old out of date white dudes dictating what happens in my marriage bed.