Celibacy on HBO. This evening

[question everything]

http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/celibacy/index.html?ntrack_para1=feat_sec1_title

s sexual denial healthy? Is there a link between mandated celibacy and sexual abuse? Why is celibacy required for the clergy? Who benefits from it and what is its effect on those who accept it?

[Fenris]

1. Nothing wrong with voluntary celibacy

It's the religious, forced celibacy that generates problems.

[question everything]

4. The irony is that religions need followers to support

the institutions of religions - churches, land, the priests

Thus, if everyone would be celibate - as, it appears, many religions see as the ultimate expression of faith - this would be the end of these reg lions.

And, yes, as reported on that program - celibacy often caused violence and the descriptions were tarrying, indeed.

[DarkPhenyx]

2. I'm celibate by choice.

Just not by my choice

[ForrestGump]

5. Married?

Bless you, my son. Go forth and make ninik no more...

[DarkPhenyx]

8. No, I gave up marraige for lent. n/t

[Wilber_Stool]

3. I'm celibate

I figure, as long as I'm not getting laid, I might as well get some identity from it.

[democracyindanger]

6. An interesting theory about clergy

specifically, Catholic priests, is that celibacy was ordered by Rome mainly to hang on to property. If a priest has no family, then there are no inheritors, and the property reverts to the Church.

[SoCalDem]

7. and it was cheaper to house and feed a single priest than a guy

with 8 or 9 kids.. It's a sweet deal for Rome.. They can pay the local priests peanuts, and there's no wife nagging him to "make more money for the family", and then there are the nuns (or WERE) whjo were basically scullery maids by night, teachers and servants by day..all for basic room and board..

Modernity eventually caught up with the plan, and people are not as willing to sacrifice their "earthly" lives these days...and sadly, the ones who DO, are sometimes creepy guys.