I stumbled across this, very interesting article, over at Alternet and I want to draw some attention to it because of my latest participation over at revelife.
Religions have for ages claimed that a healthy sex life is important in order to feel whole as a human being. The blurry part is if sex can only be done for the sake of carrying our genes over to a new generation or if you can have sex just for fun.
Connected to that is if you can do BDSM while being religiously active. The article is trying to explain with certainty why kinky sex and religion can be combined.
“There are certainly plenty of aspects of sacredness and spirituality that are present in BDSM activities. A fantastic example of that is the aspect of service. In most religions, adherents are taught that to submit to their deity and be of service to them (or to the world in general) is one of the highest forms of faith. So for a submissive or slave to offer themselves to a dominant, and to serve the dominant’s needs and desires, can fulfill the same need to serve that missionaries, ministers, and others who follow a religious calling experience.”
There are, as the article claim a lot of similarities between religion and BDSM or similar kinks, something that I have said before. Does this mean that BDSM is a replacement for religion in our society? Some people are trying to claim that it is. My personal opinion is that it is a complement and that BDSM make no claim to be exclusive in relation to religion.
The author of the article, Sarah Sloane, got the following comment from a friend:
“In spite of practicing a relatively mainstream form of Judaism, kink integrates surprisingly easily into my faith. I think this is because of two key pieces of knowledge: First, I really don’t think God cares if I get my rocks off licking my lover’s boots or begging for her cane. As long as I’m happy and not hurting anyone, I don’t think God cares. And second, the feeling I get from kink is, at its core, the same as I get from prayer.”
I believe that the biggest problem today is actually how some interpretations of religion and religious extremists are trying to stigmatise people that are sexually living outside the norm. What these extremists usually miss in their own argumentation is that it is based on their personal interpretation of texts and religious recommendations. In other words highly subjective recommendations. This leads to a lot of guilt among people that are religious but also have a specific kink that they want to express. The pattern have in, most religions, been “If you enjoy it, then it ain’t good for you” and some religious representatives have taken on, all by themselves, the intricate task of setting people straight – With the bible or other holy scriptures as a protection. When things get heated they always revert to citing the holy texts with the following statement “I only act upon what the texts tell us”. By doing so they are also removing all responsibility for any extreme statements they have made.
Bad argumentation is my only response to this type of discussion.
If you feel good about your kink and it goes along with your religion, and why shouldn’t it – Then go for it. The most important thing is that you feel good about it. Most religions want us to find a balance in life and make us feel good about ourselves, even in our sex life. The problem isn’t your kink – The only problem regarding sex and religion is how some people preach,
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