World Events
Topic: Pope Says Sex Is Like A Drug

#	Author	Message
11	mele Sat 5/10/2008 12:28p	There are people who are addicted to sex but it is also a natural drive. Just like there are people who are addicted to food. Some people take things to far and end up putting their lives in real jeopardy. As to caring what the Pope says...I don't really understand why people get so worked up over him. Seems like idolatry to me but I clearly don't understand Catholicism. Making these statments is part of the Pope gig. Could a Pope say something against traditional teaching and expect to still be the Pope?
12	ecdc Sat 5/10/2008 12:29p	RT, the Pope is doing what many moralists and religious leaders do, and he's comparing sex addiction to drug addiction. These are not the same thing - not by a longshot. A drug addiction is a chemical dependency that the brain has for the drug. A sex addiction is much more like an obsessive/compulsive issue. I've heard that it's much more accurate to compare a sex or pornography compulsion to an eating disorder, like anorexia. Don't get me wrong, people who suffer from these compulsions suffer in very real ways. I had a guy at my work who was bringing in pornography on a flash drive and plugging it into a computer. This is in a call center environment where we can see and monitor *everything* you do. Needless to say, he lost his job quickly. But people pick up on stories like that and use it to bolster the false notion that pornography is addictive. The reality is I work in a building with 1400 other people, probaby 40% of whom are men. No other men are doing this, they're able to regulate and maintain our culture's boundaries for sex. There's a difference between compulsion and addiction.
13	ecdc Sat 5/10/2008 12:38p	Furthermore, look at the context. The Pope is saying this as a criticism of birth control. Birth control! Are we in the 18th century still? Look, if the Pope wants to get up and talk about how pornography is degrading to women, how it gives young men a false sense of what an intimate relationship with a woman should be like, etc., I'm all for it. If he wants to say that sex is more than just recreation, and that it should be an intimate act between two people who love each other, fair enough. But to say that using birth control leads to sex addiction because birth control allows people to have too much sex? Yikes!
14	RoadTrip Sat 5/10/2008 12:52p	<<There's a difference between compulsion and addiction.>> Perhaps so, but the line between them can be hazy and narrow. Ninety percent of people can handle alcohol responsibly; ten percent cannot. Does that make alcoholism a compulsion rather than an addiction? It comes down to definitions, and I don't know how much difference it makes when you get close to that line. I believe the American Psychiatric Association or whatever has accepted "sexual addiction" as a recognized psychiatric illness. As for the connection with birth control, I don't find it relevant either. But as mele said, it is part of the Pope's gig. What is he supposed to say? The whole birth control thing is an area where I become a "cafeteria catholic", and I know the Pope really frowns on us pick and choosers. My only intent was to say that I also believe that sex can be an addiction and that it didn't make sense (in my opinion) to criticize the Pope solely based on that.
15	gadzuux Sat 5/10/2008 12:55p	It's especially egregious given their influence throughout the third world. Often, they are the only healthcare provider in regions wracked by famine and drought and despair, yet they prohibit distribution of any form of birth control - right where it could be most effective. That's a moral outrage, and it's being perpetrated as an 'act of god's mercy'.
16	SingleParkPassholder Sat 5/10/2008 12:56p	"Talk about speaking about things that one doesn't know anything about...this topic has started off in that very same direction. First, if you are not catholic it shouldn't mean a whistlers wink what the Pope does or doesn't say about anything. If you are catholic then you already know what things to follow and what things to just listen too, nod your head and do whatever you want anyway." So by your reasoning, why bother with a pope if he's going to get ignored? Why bothers me about this religion is how our president treated him as some visiting president recently. He's given status he shouldn't get or deserves. Too many people in this country are screwed up because of the out-dated philosophies people like him continue to promulgate. That's why I care what he says and does.
17	SingleParkPassholder Sat 5/10/2008 12:57p	"What is he supposed to say?" Nothing?
18	Goofyernmost Sat 5/10/2008 1:25p	Wouldn't it be nice if all leaders followed that advise. Religious, corporate or political leaders unite and shut up. Do not express your beliefs, we don't want to hear them unless we agree and then OK, keep talking. The world isn't that way. I think it is about time that the catholic church change its views on birth control, but, to be honest, there are very few catholics that follow that line of thinking anyway. So, that item is mute even in third world countries because very few are catholic and their health needs are being tended to, for the most part, by people that see the benefit. As a religious leader he can instill and influence people to do the right thing as far as how they treat their fellow man. He can take a stand against things such as war and be somewhat effective in having some people feel reinforced and justified in opposing certain action. It's not something that creates overnight riots, but, it does work into the general thought pattern of many people. However, just like any other leader he must give support to the general policies and directions of the organization that he/she leads. Whether it be religious (the Pope), corporate (any CEO that has to support the policy of the Board of Directors regardless of personal conviction) or Political, (George W., it must kill him to give up his dictatorship next year) who must follow the laws of the land. (yea, I do see the humor in that) That doesn't make him less effective in other areas (OK, George W. is the exception). So anyway, the Pope is the Pope and the leader of the Catholic Church. If one is not Catholic what he says is only good if you think it is a good thought. Otherwise, it is totally without any binding influence.
19	ecdc Sat 5/10/2008 3:34p	>>Perhaps so, but the line between them can be hazy and narrow. Ninety percent of people can handle alcohol responsibly; ten percent cannot. Does that make alcoholism a compulsion rather than an addiction?<< But again, you're going to the wrong kind of compulsion. Everyone agrees that alcohol should be consumed in moderation. Even if one isn't an alcoholic per se, there are health risks to be had. It impairs judgment when one is drunk, etc. The Pope is comparing apples and oranges here. He's doing what religions have done for millennia - he's taking something we know is bad in excess, and then he's trying to compare something else to it and say "See, that's bad in excess too!" But that doesn't follow. You also can't divorce his comments about birth control with his comments about sex being like a drug. Let's say we take two married couples. Couple A uses birth control and has sex 6 or 7 times a week. Couple B doesn't use birth control and has sex once or twice a month. By the Pope's rationale, Couple A is in danger of getting addicted to sex, while Couple B is not. This is absurd, irrational thinking.
20	ecdc Sat 5/10/2008 3:38p	>>Otherwise, it is totally without any binding influence.<< I disagree. The more popular the leader, the more influential it is on all of us. We all, whether we're religious or irreligious, feel the effects of religious belief. I may personally choose to ignore the Pope and will use birth control. But my community may choose not to stock Plan B, the morning after pill, because store owners, local leaders, and state legislators might listen to the Pope. My choices and my ability to live how I would like are impacted by the Pope's words. Obviously, a store owner can choose to carry whatever he/she likes. I wouldn't force a private owner to carry something they would feel morally wrong about. But the Pope's words do affect those of us who do not buy into them.

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