Saturday, March 15, 2008

Soulgasmic Sex

And then there is this fun little piece from the hand of Fr. Neuhaus in the latest First Things:
“We are all evangelicals now.” That’s the message of Dagmar Herzog, professor of history at City University of New York, whose new book is Sex in Crisis, published by Basic Books, which, as publishing houses go, has a reputation for being serious. Liberals, says Dr. Herzog, have become “confused and defensive” as a consequence of the successful evangelical promotion of great sex—“soulgasmic” sex—between married men and women. Says Herzog: “There has never been so much pressure on what we are ‘supposed’ to feel about our relationships, our sexual choices, and our desire to feel pleasure. We wonder constantly whether our sex lives could be better, or whether we’re doing something wrong, or abnormal or inadequate. This is a radical new development—it just wasn’t this way even fifteen years ago.” Let’s see, that would have been 1993, a time, as Herzog would have it, celebrated as a period of national tranquility, security, and satisfaction in matters sexual. Now, says Dr. Herzog, evangelicals have ushered in a period of sexual chaos by campaigning for abstinence and monogamy, opposing gay rights, and even telling women that “abortions ruin self-esteem.” Dr. Herzog is not going to take it any more. “All of this is morally unconscionable,” she declares, “but it is also an effective and dangerous distraction—the bread and circuses that redirect the national conversation away from major issues like war and the economy.” To move our attention back to the really big issues like war and the economy, Dagmar Herzog has written Sex in Crisis. If I understand her correctly, she is saying that it would be morally unconscionable to read her book. That’s putting it a mite strongly, but I expect she has a point.
I suspect he has a point.

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