3.2 Sexual Ethics (PROTESTANT, LIBERAL & FEMINIST) Flashcards
Protestantism
View the Bible as a source of infallible truth.
View that morality comes from the individual conscience rather than Church teachings.
SEX is an act which can preserve the institution of marriage and is not solely a means to the end of procreation.
CONTRACEPTION may be necessary to protect the institution of marriage for couples who feel that they cannot support children.
Liberal Protestantism
Umbrella term of a variety of denominations that share a common belief in God as a universal father and the soul as having inherent value rather than being a source of sin.
It does not follow natural law and argues that we would not interpret the Bible literally but approach it metaphorically as a body of stories from which we can extract ethical and religious truths.
Takes the ‘sex within a loving relationship’ view.
The situation ethics that Joseph Fletcher advocates for is a form of Liberal Protestantism.
Liberal Protestants take the following positions:
- The quality of a relationship is what determines its moral value. Lifelong homosexual relationships are acceptable. Draw on the teaching we are all made ‘in the image and likeness of God’.
- Divorce is morally acceptable in the cases of irreversible marriage breakdown or adultery. What matters first is agape.
- In pre-marital sex the key is love, justice and consent.
- Any contraception should be allowed as long as it is used to limit the size of a family and not stop having children all together.
- IVF is morally acceptable because techniques can bring happiness to people who otherwise would not be able to have children.
Evangelical Protestantism
Not a formal movement, represents conservative elements from within numerous mainstream Protestant denominations as well as independent Baptist churches and Bible churches.
Believe that:
- Mission work is an important responsibility for believers.
- Salvation comes about as the result of God’s grace through Christ rather than through human action.
Overall stands somewhere between Catholicism and Liberal Protestantism on its views. Less dogmatic than Catholicism.
Evangelical Protestanism on Marriage and extra-marital sex
- Argues marriage is a sacred union because the partners become one flesh through marriage.
- Acceptance that sex is for enjoyment but because the ultimate purpose of sex is procreation, sex should only take place within a heterosexual relationship.
- Children are best raised in a stable family environment and only marriage can provide this stability.
- Evangelical organisation TRUE LOVE WAITS actively campaigns for celibacy amoung teenagers, encouraging them to wait until marriage.
Evangelical Protestantism on homosexuality
- Believe homosexuality is a sin.
- The Bible specifically condemns homosexual acts. However, homosexuals should be welcomes into the Church just as any other person would be and there should be no tolerance of homophobia.
- Advocate conversion therapy. People with homosexual feelings can undergo psycological treatment to change their sexual orientation. This has been criticised as a form of pseudoscience.
Evangelical Protestantism on Fertility
- Some consensus that IVF and artificial insemination are acceptable.
- It is right for scientists to try to learn more about the causes of and cures for infertility.
- All Churches agree surrogacy is wrong because it involves a third party in a much more significant way than donated eggs and can potentially strike at the heart of the family.
Libertarian approaches
- We now live in a libertarian and tolerant society. Contemporary, secular attitudes to sex emphasise a contractarian ethic whereby sex is morally permissible if there is mutual agreement between parties.
- Human freedom and autonomy are the most important principles and values.
- View derives from John Stewart Mill’s harm principle.
- While Mill argues that we should privilege higher pleasures over lower pleasures, freedom of choice is paramount.
- Humans can only flourish if they have the freedom to pursue their own good in their own way without interference from society or oppressive religious institutions.
- Provided that no harm is done to either party, or any third party, there is no restriction on the kind of sexual activity engaged in.
- Approach celebrates the sexual liberation of the 1960s.
Secular thinking
Argue that a libertarian approach to sex and sexuality can damage society. The Wolfenden report recommended the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales. This caused a major debate between Hart, a professor of jurisprudence and Lord Devlin, a senior judge.
DEVLIN opposed the principles and said that there should be an area of private morality which was none of the law’s buisness.
HART defended the report using Mill’s arguments: that the law’s function is to preserve public order and decency and to protect against the exploitation and corruption of others, but not to intervene on the private lives of citizens.
Feminist Perspectives
- Some feminists criticise both traditional Christian and liberal approaches to sexuality.
- Christian approaches rest on a defined cultural role for women, that of mother and wife which feminists consider a submissive role that disempowers women, restricts their status in society and socialises them to meet the desires of men.
- Sexual behaviour assumes male dominance and female submission - most sexual crimes are committed against women.
- Argues liberal approaches assume a level playing field between the sexes. Women may not be as free as men to enter into sexual relationships owing to their oppression by men.
Old Testament Quote - Leviticus
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination’
