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Re: The Puritan view of sexuality (no OtR)
Don Smith wrote:
>>This is not to say they were without their faults. .... They have certainly
>>gotten a "bad rap".
>>
>
> My only beef with them is that they imprisoned, tortured and executed Quakers.
>
Yeah and they tried and convicted and executed Anne Hutchinson for being
a witch on the grounds that: A- she was holding a Bible study in her
home, and B- she midwived a birth that ended up being stillborn and then
a few months leter her own child was stillborn.
The Puritans didn't bother much with trying to convert the Native
Americans because they were going to hell regardless, so what did it matter?
When the Puritan took over England (this was when Cromwell was "Lord
Protector", they cancelled Christmas.
While the Puritans may have liked sex between men and women (who were
married), they *didn't* think that said married sex was a good thing in
and of itself. It was only good because in having sex, they werre
fulfilling God's command. Having sex was not much more different than
praying or executing withces, in terms of *why* it was done. I
personally find that kind of creepy.
The very fact that they had to legislate sex- that they had to make it a
*law* for people to have sex with each other and that they gave them the
right to take each other to "court" over it means that there was
something seriously messed up about their culture. Normal, healthy human
beings who are comfortable with thier bodies don't need a law to tell
them to have sex. We tend to make to laws to control, inhibit or
encourage behavior. If I recall, said Puritan law was instituted
prcisely because the natural consequences of the Puritian world view was
leading people to asceticism.
-John
np- My wife, playing guitar
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"The market is the reason our housing is so expensive. It is the reason
our public transportation is lousy. It is the reason our cities sprawl
idiotically all across the map. It is the reason our word processing
programs stink and our prescription drugs cost more than anywhere else.
In order that a fortunate few might enjoy a kind of prosperity unequaled
in human history, the rest of us have had to abandon ourselves to a
lifetime of casual employment, to unquestioning obedience within an
ever-more arbitrary and despotic corporate regime, to medical care
available on a maybe/maybe-not basis, to a housing market interested in
catering only to the fortunate. "
-Thomas Frank
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.johnpauldavis.org
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