Pastoral Report Archives:

March, 2005

February, 2005

January, 2005

December, 2004

November, 2004

October, 2004

September, 2004

August, 2004

July, 2004

June, 2004






The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy is a theologically based covenant community, dedicated to "recovery of the soul" and promoting competency in the clinical pastoral field.


« 2010 Spring National Clinical Training Seminar Announced | Main | “This has been a pleasant surprise . . . Your Excellency” – Rev. William E. Alberts, Ph.D. »

March 15, 2010

CPSP PEOPLE IN THE NEWS: Raymond Lawrence--"The Brave New World of Sexual Addiction"

In a March 4, 2009 article published in CountrerPunch.COM Raymond Lawrence challenges a popular held view of "sexual addiction".

Lawrence writes:

Applying such a metaphor to sexual pleasure creates a misleading and ominous innuendo. Sex is not an addictive substance. It’s a human interaction on which the survival of the species is dependent. It is also possibly the most pleasurable and sought after activity known to humankind, and arguably an experience no one should be deprived of. Most normal people consider more rather than less sexual pleasure to be a major objective in life.

In the article he argues that Christianity's "posture toward sexual pleasure has been abysmal. In that respect it should be noted that Christianity, of all the major world religions, is the only one to cast sexual pleasure in such a negative light."


To read the complete article, click here.

_____________________
Raymond J. Lawrence is an Episcopal cleric, recently retired Director of Pastoral Care, New York Presbyterian Hospital, and author of numerous opinion pieces in newspapers in the U.S., and author of the recently published, Sexual Liberation: The Scandal of Christendom (Praeger). He can be reached at: raymondlawrence@mac.com

Posted by Perry Miller, Editor at March 15, 2010 8:18 AM

Email this article to a friend

Email this entry to:


Your email address:


Message (optional):

Print this entry