Sexual ethics Flashcards

Question

What does the Bible reflect according to liberal Christians?

Answer 1

The cultural and historical context of its human authors ## Footnote This necessitates continual re-interpretation for relevance.

Answer 2

They can be ignored ## Footnote This is based on the belief that such reflections are not applicable today.

Answer 3

They tend to be accepting of homosexuality and gay marriage ## Footnote They place less emphasis on sex being confined within marriage.

Answer 4

A crisis of authority ## Footnote Liberal views of inspiration challenge the authority of the Bible by suggesting it comes from human minds.

Answer 5

Difficulty in granting authority to the Bible ## Footnote If inspiration derives from human minds, it raises questions about the Bible's authority.

Answer 6

It opens up the Bible to personal interpretation ## Footnote Each person may have their own interpretation, leading to varied understandings.

Answer 7

Disunified chaos in belief systems ## Footnote This results in individuals believing in their own version of God.

Answer 8

It allows too much freedom in belief ## Footnote Traditional Christianity seeks a more unified and consistent theology.

Answer 9

A religion's inability to persist ## Footnote Consistency is essential for the longevity of religious beliefs.

Answer 10

Freud as very influential on secular liberal views on sex. He believed that traditional Christian attitudes towards sex resulted in a feeling of shame about sexual desire which led to unhealthy repression and mental illness. The liberal secular attitude towards sex also claims that sex is a natural biological desire which shouldn’t be a source of shame but of well-being. This is different from Augustine who suggests that there is something shameful about lust

Answer 11

C21 youth culture is sexualised to a degree many Christians find concerning. Hook-up culture influences young people to regard sex as an opportunity for higher social status which unfortunately harms people psychologically. Bishop Barron says that the secular culture’s attitude towards sex encourages a self-interested ego disconnected from external objective good which thereby turns inward and cares only about itself in a self-absorbed and finally destructive way.

Answer 12

Fry argues that the paedophile priest scandal can be explained by the Church’s repressive attitude towards sex, the unhealthy sexual repressiveness of Church teachings causes its priests to become sexually perverted. He also claims that secular attitudes towards sex are not perfect but are still healthier than religious attitudes

Answer 13

Situation ethics holds that an action is good if it leads to the most loving outcome possible. This will depend on the situation. So, if acts involving homosexuality or pre/extra marital sex involve consent and those involved are happy, it seems that the outcome is loving and therefore those acts would be morally good. However, if manipulation was involved in persuading people into such acts, then the outcome would not be loving, and it would be wrong.

Answer 14

often thought absolutely wrong. He explains the case of a mother trapped in a prison work camp during a war. The only conditions of release are either disease or pregnancy, so she asked a guard to impregnate her, thus committing adultery. She was released, her family ‘thoroughly approved’ of her action and loved the resulting child as their own. The implication is that wrongness is not absolute, it depends on the situation.

Answer 15

Fletcher was critical of legalism – the view that ethics must be based on rules which do not take the situation into account. It is up to the individual person to decide in a moral situation what would have the loving outcome. This suggests that sexual behaviour should not be subject to public norms and legislation – it should only be subject to the principle of Agape.

Answer 16

love is the basis for ethical judgement. However, it is subjective, meaning a matter of opinion. Someone might find it loving to try and prevent their homosexual child from expressing or acting on their homosexuality, or even to disown them. They might also think it loving to disown their child if they engaged in pre-marital sex. Someone might find it loving to manipulate/pressure someone into or out of pre/extra marital sex.

Answer 17

The Bible is clearly against homosexuality and pre/extra-marital sex, so Fletcher’s theory is not being true to Christian ethics. but in defence of Fletcher he doesn’t think the Bible is the perfect word of God that we can follow literally for him the most we can get from it is general themes like agape

Answer 18

Barclay believes situation ethics grants people a dangerous amount of freedom and would be perfect if all men were angels in response Fletcher & Robinson argue that mankind has ‘come of age’, meaning become more civilised and educated.

Answer 19

Natural law theory is based on the idea that God created all things, including us, with the potential to flourish if we live according to the natural law. The telos of human life is achieving ultimate happiness through glorifying God by following the natural moral law. Going against God’s natural law is not just wrong because it is a sin, it is also bad for our own happiness and well-being. This type of argument has led to critiques of sex outside marriage as detrimental to happiness.

Answer 20

Aquinas regarded homosexuality as unnatural because it required a divergence from what he thought was the natural mode of sex. This means the homosexual orientation, though feeling natural to homosexuals, cannot be so. Aquinas thought that not all inclinations were natural in the sense that they were part of God’s natural law.

Answer 21

Aquinas thinks we have a natural desire to reproduce, educate, protect and preserve human life and live in an orderly society. All of these primary precepts are threatened by sexual immorality. The only way for children to be provided for such that they can receive education is if they are born to married parents. So, Aquinas thinks that to follow the primary precepts requires confining all sexual behaviour to marriage – so pre/extra marital sex is wrong.

Answer 22

Natural law ethics is available to everyone because all humans are born with the ability to know and apply the primary precepts. It is possible to follow the natural law even if you are not Christian or have no access to the divine law (Bible).

Answer 23

Aquinas’ Natural law ethics is increasingly seen as outdated. In ancient and medieval history, society was more chaotic. It made sense to create strict absolutist ethical principles, to prevent society from falling apart. This would explain the primary precepts. They served a useful function in medieval society.

Answer 24

Aquinas was clear that human law should be based on the natural and divine law, which include prohibitions on sex outside marriage, and that marriage is between a man and a woman. This is an argument for religious authoritarianism since it involves the claim that what people do in their private lives must conform to the natural and divine law.

Answer 25

Act Utilitarianism would judge an action based on whether it produced the most amount of pleasure compared to other actions. If a sexual act, whether it is homosexual or pre/extra marital sex, maximised pleasure compared to the other option of not doing or allowing them, then it would be good to do/allow them.

Answer 26

Mill advocates the harm principle: that people should be free to do as they like as long as they do not harm others. This includes consensual sexual behaviours which are private … individuals should pursue what seems good to them, their only universal bond being the wrongness or illegality of harming others.

Answer 27

Homosexuality doesn’t seem universalisible, since if everyone were homosexual then the species could not continue and then no one would exist to follow the duty to be homosexual. However, if the maxim is simply ‘follow your own orientation’, then that does seem universalisible.

Answer 28

Pre/extra-marital sex seems universalisible because no contradiction arises in the conception of everyone engaging in pre/extra-marital sex. However, Kant thinks that marriage is a contractual agreement involving the granting of “lifelong possession of each other’s sexual attributes,”. The idea seems to be that if each person agrees to being used by the other, then both are respecting each other’s end and thus only treating them as a means, not a mere means.

Answer 29

He thinks that sex which is not within a marriage for the purpose of procreation pretty much involves each person using the other as a mere means to their own gratification. This is a kind of objectification – treating someone as an object, which involves treating them as a mere means.