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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.
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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