The Roman Catholic view of Marriage is flawed, incomplete and destructive.
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The Roman Catholic view of Marriage is flawed, incomplete and destructive. |
Introduction:
A. The Pope only defines two purposes of marriage, leaving out the third in the list below:
B. The Bible has three purposes of Marriage:
I. "Sex on demand":
The Bible teaches sex on demand by either spouse: "Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch (have sex with) a woman. But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ... "But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. " 1 Corinthians 7:1-5,9
What could be more clear? But the Roman Catholic view of marriage cannot allow for this great advice. In short, it is a sin for one either partner to withhold sex when requested. This underscores the fact that the Roman Catholic church is wrong when they refuse to include "satisfaction of sexual appetite" as the third purpose of marriage.
II. Guilt:
Rather than sex being a wonderful communion between husband and wife to fulfill the sexual desire, The Roman Catholic view, if anyone actually listened to it, would make married partners feel guilty and dirty for having sex, for the sole purpose of a "good romp in the hay".
III. Birth Control:
Roman Catholic church has a prohibition against birth control. Such is as anti-Biblical as it is hypocritical. This prohibition is again based upon an incomplete definition of the purpose of marriage. Hypocritically, the Roman Catholic church actually teaches birth control is OK, as long as it involves nothing artificial like condoms, pills etc. The average Roman Catholic married woman is instructed to use the rhythm method where she takes her body temperature to determine the day she ovulates. Then she avoids sex for two days before and after her ovulation day. But this is not only hypocritical double talk, since birth control is the act of having sex without the desire for children, it contradicts the entire foundation upon which the Roman Catholic church forbade birth control in the first place: There are only two purposes of marriage. Since the Pope teaches the only time you can have sex is to make children, then the only time a Catholic woman could have sex, is during her "three fertile days" of the month. The Roman Catholic position on birth control is shown to be silly and outrageous because Catholic "pew dwellers" generally ignore such man made rules from leaders, who themselves are not married. But if a Catholic did follow the teaching of the Pope, then she would use the thermometer to determine when she ovulates and have sex only during that fertile 4 day window.
IV. Prohibition against church leaders marrying is a satanic doctrine:
By ignoring what scripture says about one of the purposes of marriage being to alleviate sexual lust, the Pope has done damage to the institution of marriage. Remember, it wasn't until about 1070 AD that Catholic priests were first officially forbidden to be married. That's 1000 years too late to be part of Bible Christianity.
In fact the Holy Spirit prophesied this apostasy: "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. " 1 Timothy 4:1-3
In fact the Bible specifically commands that Bishops/Elders be married:
"It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?), and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. " 1 Timothy 3:1-7
V. Sexual abuse scandals
Most of the sexual abuse problems within the Catholic church could have been prevented if they had not adopted the false doctrine that church leaders cannot be married. Orthodox leaders have always been allowed to be married and the statistical facts speak for themselves: Sex abuse scandals are dramatically reduced when church leaders are permitted to marry.
Steve Rudd
