the singularity of being and nothingness
Mohler v. Boteach on Human Sexuality
Last night on CNN I watched a special with Roland S. Martin entitled "God, Sex and Greed" which featured, among others,"America's Rabbi," Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (he has his own bobble-head, which is pretty cool) and Dr. Albert Mohler (he really needs a bobblehead). Both these men were asked about what some feel to be the over-sexed nature of American culture, what their opions of it were, and what they thought could be done. Honestly, I thought both their answers were very interesting.
Rabbi Boteach began by suggesting that rather than being "over-sexed," American culture is actually suffering from a lack of genuine, intimate sexuality that is the ideal of human relatedness. The sex crisis in America, according to Boteach, is not sexual, but pornographic. To Boteach, the perversion in American sexuality stems from the fact that like all other areas of American society, sexuality and human relationships in general have become one more commodity to be bought and sold between individuals. In such a scenario, human persons become objectified and commoditized and sexuality loses any meaning as it lacks the vulnerability and celebration that marks the nature of healthy, non-objectified human relationships.
Mohler, on the other hand, objectified the problem of sexuality in America, not by thinking of it as a commodity to be bartered between persons, but rather by casting it as an abstracted object of moral law. To Mohler, the problem of the perversity of American sexuality stems from violation of penal statutes of divine moral law. Persons feel guilt about these violations because, in his words, their consciences reflect–albeit obscurely–the moral law inherent to human existence. Simillary, the destruction of human relationship as the result of unlawful sexual activity derives from judicial consquences of said violations, the fitting and necessary result of an existing which is askance in relation to divine moral law.
On the whole, I am not a big fan of Rabbi Boteach. However, in the context of this conversation, I think he is dead on. His line of thinking basically begins from the consideration of the human person as the imago dei, the image of God. Upon this foundation, Boteach argues–I think rightly–that distoritions and perversions in sexual relationships accrue to disorientation and destruction to the person not primarily because of penal retribution doled out by an offended deity, but more appropriately because such actions and ways of relating undermine the fundamental nature of the human person created in the image of God. That is, when human persons treat one another–in their sexuality or otherwise–as objectified commodities, disaster can be the only result because the primal way of relating to one another has been destroyed. When one person no longer relates to another as created in the image of God, but rather appropriates their existence on the base level of commodification, oppression, violence and annihilation of personhood can be the only outcome.
This is why I think Mohler's suggestion is untenable, for while it does, perhaps, attempt to maintain the viability of the personhood of the individuals involved, on a collective level it fundamentally invalidates the imago dei of both by positing that the primary way of relating between God and humanity operates on the level of moral law, rather than the intereleatedness of person-al communion. By tracing the perversion and corruption of sexuality (as exhibited in American culture) to mere violations of abstracted standards of ethical life, Mohler's system of moralizing does not present a solution to the violence and oppression engendered by perversions of sexual relationships. Quite to the contrary, it creates yet another system of oppression, violence and dehumanization, one which is not rooted in the over-power of one person over another, but rather (and more terrifyingly) in a fundamental objectifying of human persons as objects of law and not persons which image the nature and personhood of God.
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about -1917 years ago
Leviticus 18 (forbidden sexual practices)
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 Say this to your people, the Israelites: I, the Lord, am your God. 3 So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life. 4 You must obey all my regulations and be careful to keep my laws, for I, the Lord, am your God. 5 If you obey my laws and regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.
6 You must never have sexual intercourse with a close relative, for I am the Lord. 7 Do not violate your father by having sexual intercourse with your mother. She is your mother; you must never have intercourse with her. 8 Do not have sexual intercourse with any of your fathers wives, for this would violate your father.
9 Do not have sexual intercourse with your sister or half sister, whether she is your fathers daughter or your mothers daughter, whether she was brought up in the same family or somewhere else.
10 Do not have sexual intercourse with your granddaughter, whether your sons daughter or your daughters daughter; that would violate you. 11 Do not have sexual intercourse with the daughter of any of your fathers wives; she is your half sister. 12 Do not have intercourse with your aunt, your fathers sister, because she is your fathers close relative. 13 Do not have sexual intercourse with your aunt, your mothers sister, because she is your mothers close relative. 14 And do not violate your uncle, your fathers brother, by having sexual intercourse with his wife; she also is your aunt. 15 Do not have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law; she is your sons wife. 16 Do not have intercourse with your brothers wife; this would violate your brother.
17 Do not have sexual intercourse with both a woman and her daughter or marry both a woman and her granddaughter, whether her sons daughter or her daughters daughter. They are close relatives, and to do this would be a horrible wickedness.
18 Do not marry a woman and her sister because they will be rivals. But if your wife dies, then it is all right to marry her sister.
19 Do not violate a woman by having sexual intercourse with her during her period of menstrual impurity.
20 Do not defile yourself by having sexual intercourse with your neighbors wife.
21 Do not give any of your children as a sacrifice to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
22 Do not practice homosexuality; it is a detestable sin.
23 A man must never defile himself by having sexual intercourse with an animal, and a woman must never present herself to a male animal in order to have intercourse with it; this is a terrible perversion.
24 Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the people I am expelling from the Promised Land have defiled themselves. 25 As a result, the entire land has become defiled. That is why I am punishing the people who live there, and the land will soon vomit them out. 26 You must strictly obey all of my laws and regulations, and you must not do any of these detestable things. This applies both to you who are Israelites by birth and to the foreigners living among you.
27 All these detestable activities are practiced by the people of the land where I am taking you, and the land has become defiled. 28 Do not give the land a reason to vomit you out for defiling it, as it will vomit out the people who live there now. 29 Whoever does any of these detestable things will be cut off from the community of Israel. 30 So be careful to obey my laws, and do not practice any of these detestable activities. Do not defile yourselves by doing any of them, for I, the Lord, am your God.