When Virginal Men Made All The Laws

“If Adam and Eve had not sinned, God might have created children for them without the need of intercourse.”

Thus spoke virginal saints in the Catholic church that is plagued with pedophiles who may have never had intercourse with a grown woman.

I read that after the world failed to end in the year 1000, the Pope banned all women from the church due to their unclean menstrual cycles, because this is what was holding up the second coming of Jesus – who said he came for the sinners, not the self-righteous!

When things go wrong for Christians, blame it on sex and women, first! We see the Republican Party of Jesus doing this at C-PAC. Rush Limbaugh said Obama was being racial, encouraging the poor (blacks) to get evil bankers.

Big Brother Pope and Banker is watching you! They can see you got an old rubber in your wallet, and that your girlfriend in on the rag! You call this FREEDOM?

“St. Augustine (354-430 AD) was no better. ‘Pleasure’ during intercourse was equated with concupiscence, i.e. the remnants of sin. Even in marriage, sex is a sin, a ‘venial fault’. The ‘pleasure’ [=concupiscence] of intercourse is, in fact, the means through which original sin is passed on. For the human seed is now corrupted. It is clear that for him a menstruating woman could never have served at the altar as a priest.”

Jon the Nazarite

In 1939 American women were generally reluctant to use commercial tampons, invented in America, which had been on the American market since at least the early 1930s (see some early tampons). The Catholic Church, many doctors and other authority figures opposed their use. Fear of loss of virginity was a big concern as well as the effects of putting something into the vagina, and the very act of of doing so discouraged many potential users.

The relationship between culture and menstruation is expressed in many ways. A variety of menstrual-related traditions exist. One group of authors has even theorized that menstruation may have played a key role in the development of symbolic culture in early human society.[1]

Conservative/Traditionalist members of the Orthodox Church observe the ancient practice of abstaining from Holy Communion during menstruation.[13] This is a fairly common practice throughout Greece and Russia and other historically Orthodox Christian countries. However in most non-Orthodox countries—especially in Europe and North America—a sizable majority of women do not practice this ancient rule, although a minority of women still do. In fact, many Orthodox Christian women are unaware of the ancient practice of abstaining from Holy Communion due to menstruation.

The Catholic Church has been opposed to contraception for as far back as one can historically trace.[3][4] Many early Catholic Church Fathers made statements condemning the use of contraception including John Chrysostom, Jerome, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus of Rome, Augustine of Hippo and various others.[5][6][7] Among the condemnations is one by Jerome which refers to an apparent oral form of contraception: “Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception.”[8] The Catechism of the Catholic Church specifies that all sex acts must be both unitive and procreative.[9] In addition to condemning use of artificial birth control as intrinsically evil,[10] non-procreative sex acts such as mutual masturbation and anal sex are ruled out as ways to avoid pregnancy.[11]

In the Catholic Church during the Renaissance, St Paul’s admonition “mulieres in ecclesiis taceant” (“let the women keep silence in the churches” – I Corinthians 14:34) still prevailed, and so women were banned from singing in church services. Countertenors, though rarely described as such, therefore found a prominent part in liturgical music, whether singing a line alone or with boy trebles or altos; (in Spain there was a long tradition of male falsettists singing soprano lines). However, employment of countertenors never extended to early opera, the rise of which coincided with the arrival of a fashion for castrati, who took, for example, several roles in the first performance of Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1607). Castrati were already prominent by this date in Italian church choirs, replacing both falsettists and trebles; the last soprano falsettist singing in Rome, Juan [Johannes de] San[c]tos (a Spaniard), died in 1652.[4]

The history of the menstrual taboo has been a major reason in the decision to keep women from positions of authority in Christianity (Phipps, 1980; Ruether, 1990). Additionally, there are some Christian denominations, including many authorities of the Orthodox Church, who will not allow women to receive communion during their menstrual period (Barnes, n.d.; Phipps, 1980). Menstruation taboos are also responsible for the belief of many Catholics that a woman should not have intercourse during her monthly period (Phipps, 1980). Catholic canon law refuses to allow women or girls to be in any semi-sacerdotal roles, such as altar server (Ruether, 1990).
Russian Orthodox Christians believe in menstrual taboos as well. Menstruating women must live secluded in a little hut during this time. They do not attend church services, cannot have any contact with men, and may not touch raw or fresh food. Menstruating women are also thought to offend and repel fish and game. The air surrounding menstruating women is believed to be especially polluting to young hunters; if a hunter gets close enough to a women to touch, then all animals will be able to see him and he won’t be able to hunt them. A menstruating woman’s gaze is even thought to affect the weather negatively (Morrow, 2002).
While Western Christian denominations are less extreme, some relic of negative attitudes toward menstruating women remain. The third author of this article describes her experience with menstruation as follows. “I grew up in a U.S. Christian family that was not religious, attending no services until in my adolescence the family discovered Unitarianism. In spite of the lack of religious feeling, my mother called menstruation ‘the curse,’ as did most of my friends and their mothers. There was no sense of menstruation as a natural function, and my mother had to resort to handing me a pamphlet to instruct me about the process. While there were no taboo activities specifically related to being ‘cursed’ or ‘unclean,’ menstruating high school students were often treated as though they were ill; they were not expected to take gym classes, and their absence from school was accepted during ‘those days’.”

The Jewish fear of contamination by menstrual blood
A key Old Testament text on the defilement by monthly periods is Leviticus 15,19-30 which can contains the following prescriptions:
“ When a woman has a discharge of blood, and blood flows from her body, the uncleanness of her monthly periods shall last for seven days.”
“Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.”
“ Any bed she lies on in this state will be unclean; any seat she sits on will be unclean. Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothing and wash himself and will be unclean until evening. If there is anything on the bed or on the chair on which she sat, anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.”
“ If a man sleeps with her, he will be affected by the uncleanness of her monthly periods. He shall be unclean for seven days. Any bed he lies on will be unclean.”
“If a woman has a flow of blood for several days outside her period or if the period is prolonged, during the time the flow lasts she shall be in the same state of uncleanness as during her monthly periods.”
“When she is cured of her flow, she will let seven days pass then she will be clean. On the eighth day she is to take two turtle doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. With one of them the priest is to offer a sacrifice for sin and with the other a holocaust. This is the way in which the priest will perform the rite of atonement over her before Yahweh for the flow rhat caused her uncleanness.”
“The children of Israel are to be warned lest they defile the tabernacle that is set among them.”
These laws were made even more onerous and complicated in the rabbinical traditions that followed. The consequences for women were:
Every month, there were seven or more days during which she was ritually unclean.
She needed purification at childbirth; after the birth of a son a mother was unclean for 40 days, of a daughter for 80 days (Leviticus 12,1-8).
The taboo of menstruation in Graeco-Roman culture
A taboo against women during pregnancy and menstruation was common among many nations in early pre-Christian centuries. Not only were women considered to be “impure” during these periods, but in danger of communicating their impurity to others.
“Contact with the monthly flux of women turns new wine sour, makes crops wither, kills grafts, dries seeds in gardens, causes the fruit of trees to fall off, dims the bright surface of mirrors, dulls the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory, kills bees, rusts iron and bronze, and causes a horrible smell to fill the air. Dogs who taste the blood become mad, and their bite becomes poisonous as in rabies. The Dead Sea, thick with salt, cannot be drawn asunder except by a thread soaked in the poisonous fluid of the menstruous blood. A thread from an infected dress is sufficient. Linen, touched by the woman while boiling and washing it in water, turns black. So magical is the power of women during their monthly periods that they say that hailstorms and whirlwinds are driven away if menstrual fluid is exposed to the flashes of lightning” from Pliny the Elder, Natural History, book 28, ch. 23, 78-80; book 7, ch. 65.
The Latin Fathers and the taboo of menstruation
During the first five centuries of the Christian era, the Greek and Syriac speaking part of the Church protected women against the worst effects of the menstruation taboo. The 3rd century Didascalia explains that women are not unclean during their periods, that do not need ritual ablutions and that their husbands should not abandon them. The Apostolic Constitutions repeated this reassuring message. In 601 AD, Pope Gregory 1 endorsed this approach. Menstruant women should not be kept out of church or away from holy communion. But this truly Christian response was, unfortunately, overwhelmed by an intensified prejudice in later centuries.
It was the Latin Fathers who re-introduced an anti-sex hysteria into Christian morality. It began with Tertullian (155-245 AD) who declared even legal marriages ‘tainted with concupiscence’. St. Jerome (347-419 AD) continued this line of thought, teaching that corruption attaches to all sex and intercourse, even in legitimate marriages. Marriage, with all its ‘dirty’ sex, only came after the fall. Small wonder then that Jerome too held that the ‘menstrual fluids’ make women unclean.
To become human, Jesus put up with the ‘revolting conditions’ in the womb
Through abstaining from sex a woman can become ‘a man’
Holy women who are married are holy because they live like virgins
Virginity is the original and pure human condition; marriage came with sin
jSexual intercourse in marriage is permitted on account of human weakness, or to beget children
If Adam and Eve had not sinned, God might have created children for them without the need of intercourse
Sexual intercourse in marriage not for begetting children is a venial fault
Jesus was not born from sexual intercourse, i.e. from ‘sinful flesh’
Shame about intercourse proves its origin from sin
Concupiscence, even in a good marriage, passes on original sin
Carnal pleasure in marriage is the consequence of original sin
Because of original sin, human seed is corrupted
Self-willed ‘lust’ in the sexual organs is a sign of concupiscence caused by sin
Pleasure (=‘shameful lust’) in marriage is a disease
A good Christian hates in his wife conjugal connection and sexual intercourse
The perfect Christian couple live together as brother and sister
‘Lust’ during intercourse is the carrier of original sin
Church practice
The Jewish fear of contamination by menstrual blood
A key Old Testament text on the defilement by monthly periods is Leviticus 15,19-30 which can contains the following prescriptions:
“ When a woman has a discharge of blood, and blood flows from her body, the uncleanness of her monthly periods shall last for seven days.”
“Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.”
“ Any bed she lies on in this state will be unclean; any seat she sits on will be unclean. Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothing and wash himself and will be unclean until evening. If there is anything on the bed or on the chair on which she sat, anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.”
“ If a man sleeps with her, he will be affected by the uncleanness of her monthly periods. He shall be unclean for seven days. Any bed he lies on will be unclean.”
“If a woman has a flow of blood for several days outside her period or if the period is prolonged, during the time the flow lasts she shall be in the same state of uncleanness as during her monthly periods.”
“When she is cured of her flow, she will let seven days pass then she will be clean. On the eighth day she is to take two turtle doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. With one of them the priest is to offer a sacrifice for sin and with the other a holocaust. This is the way in which the priest will perform the rite of atonement over her before Yahweh for the flow rhat caused her uncleanness.”
“The children of Israel are to be warned lest they defile the tabernacle that is set among them.”
These laws were made even more onerous and complicated in the rabbinical traditions that followed. The consequences for women were:
Every month, there were seven or more days during which she was ritually unclean.
She needed purification at childbirth; after the birth of a son a mother was unclean for 40 days, of a daughter for 80 days (Leviticus 12,1-8).
The taboo of menstruation in Graeco-Roman culture
A taboo against women during pregnancy and menstruation was common among many nations in early pre-Christian centuries. Not only were women considered to be “impure” during these periods, but in danger of communicating their impurity to others.
“Contact with the monthly flux of women turns new wine sour, makes crops wither, kills grafts, dries seeds in gardens, causes the fruit of trees to fall off, dims the bright surface of mirrors, dulls the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory, kills bees, rusts iron and bronze, and causes a horrible smell to fill the air. Dogs who taste the blood become mad, and their bite becomes poisonous as in rabies. The Dead Sea, thick with salt, cannot be drawn asunder except by a thread soaked in the poisonous fluid of the menstruous blood. A thread from an infected dress is sufficient. Linen, touched by the woman while boiling and washing it in water, turns black. So magical is the power of women during their monthly periods that they say that hailstorms and whirlwinds are driven away if menstrual fluid is exposed to the flashes of lightning” from Pliny the Elder, Natural History, book 28, ch. 23, 78-80; book 7, ch. 65.
The Latin Fathers and the taboo of menstruation
During the first five centuries of the Christian era, the Greek and Syriac speaking part of the Church protected women against the worst effects of the menstruation taboo. The 3rd century Didascalia explains that women are not unclean during their periods, that do not need ritual ablutions and that their husbands should not abandon them. The Apostolic Constitutions repeated this reassuring message. In 601 AD, Pope Gregory 1 endorsed this approach. Menstruant women should not be kept out of church or away from holy communion. But this truly Christian response was, unfortunately, overwhelmed by an intensified prejudice in later centuries.
It was the Latin Fathers who re-introduced an anti-sex hysteria into Christian morality. It began with Tertullian (155-245 AD) who declared even legal marriages ‘tainted with concupiscence’. St. Jerome (347-419 AD) continued this line of thought, teaching that corruption attaches to all sex and intercourse, even in legitimate marriages. Marriage, with all its ‘dirty’ sex, only came after the fall. Small wonder then that Jerome too held that the ‘menstrual fluids’ make women unclean.
To become human, Jesus put up with the ‘revolting conditions’ in the womb
Through abstaining from sex a woman can become ‘a man’
Holy women who are married are holy because they live like virgins
Virginity is the original and pure human condition; marriage came with sin
St. Augustine (354-430 AD) was no better. ‘Pleasure’ during intercourse was equated with concupiscence, i.e. the remnants of sin. Even in marriage, sex is a sin, a ‘venial fault’. The ‘pleasure’ [=concupiscence] of intercourse is, in fact, the means through which original sin is passed on. For the human seed is now corrupted. It is clear that for him a menstruating woman could never have served at the altar as a priest.
Sexual intercourse in marriage is permitted on account of human weakness, or to beget children
If Adam and Eve had not sinned, God might have created children for them without the need of intercourse
Sexual intercourse in marriage not for begetting children is a venial fault
Jesus was not born from sexual intercourse, i.e. from ‘sinful flesh’
Shame about intercourse proves its origin from sin
Concupiscence, even in a good marriage, passes on original sin
Carnal pleasure in marriage is the consequence of original sin
Because of original sin, human seed is corrupted
Self-willed ‘lust’ in the sexual organs is a sign of concupiscence caused by sin
Pleasure (=‘shameful lust’) in marriage is a disease
A good Christian hates in his wife conjugal connection and sexual intercourse
The perfect Christian couple live together as brother and sister
‘Lust’ during intercourse is the carrier of original sin

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