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Religion has played a significant role regarding morality, and this is true for human sexual morality also.
There is one sermon in the Christian Bible which condemns visual and physical adultery. It is one of the Ten Commandments.
"... Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." (Matthew, 5:27-29)[1]
Christian religion believes sexual intercourse before marriage and homosexuality are immoral and sinful. Chastity is virtuous and moral. But if one can not commit to a life of chastity (no sexual relations or behaviour) it is better to be married. As wrote the Apostle Saint Paul;
"Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and every woman have her own husband."(Corinthians I, 7:2) "I say this by way of concession, not of command. For I wish that all men were as I myself am. .. Therefore, I say to the unmarried and the widows that it is good for them to remain singles as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." (Corinthians I, 7:6-9) [1]
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-10) [2]
(A 'fornicator' is someone who has sexual relations without being married. An 'adulterer' is a married person who becomes sexually involved with someone other than wife / husband. The 'effeminate, and abusers of themselves with mankind' is generally understood today as referring to homosexuals.)
"Three centuries after St. Paul, came a theologian known as St. Augustine. In his The City of God, St. Augustine says, "Man's transgression [i.e. Adam and Eve's sin] did not annul the blessing of fertility bestowed upon him before he sinned, but infected it with the disease of lust." (The City of God, p. 21) In short, he preached that: (a) sex was something shameful because of the original sin of Adam and Eve; (b) chastity and celibacy was of a higher morality than marriage; (c) celibacy was a prerequisite for priests and nuns." [1]
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Editors: Karene Jade Howie
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