Thursday, January 20, 2005

Good or Bad sex advice....


The husband should not deprive his wife of sexual intimacy, which is her right as a married woman, not should the wife deprive her husband. -1 Corinthians 7:3

In contrast with the above verse, here is a look at past church teaching...

In the second century, Clement of Alexandria allowed unenjoyed and procreative sex only during 12 hours out of the 24 (at night) but by the middle ages, preposterous as it now seems, the church forbade it forty days before the important festival of Christmas, forty days before and 8 days after the more important festival of Easter, 8 days after Pentecost, the eves of feast days, on Sundays in honor of the resurrection, on Wednesdays to call to mind the beginning of Lent, Fridays in memory of the crucifixion, during pregnancy and 30 days after birth (40 if the child was a female), during menstruation, and 5 days before communion.

This adds up to 252 excluded days. Not counting feast days, if there were 30 of those (a guess which may in fact, be on the conservative side) there would then have been 83 remaining days in the year when (provided of course, that the woman did not happen to be menstruating or pregnant or in the postnatal period and provided that they intended procreation) couples could with the permission of the church have indulged in (but not enjoyed) sexual intercourse. Posted by Hello

1 comment:

FCB said...

It's a wonder Christianity survived that era, the birth rate had to be nearly non-existant.