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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1744 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 4, 2025

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Are their any non-religious organizations whose members take vows oaths of celibacy, a la the Night's Watch or the Maesters from ASOIAF?

(I'm pretty sure the answer is "no," but I'd like to double-check my bases so I can be more certain in replying as such the next time someone "advises" me to "go join the Night's Watch" or similar.)

(Edited per @FiveHourMarathon's fine pedantry.)

Not that it answers your question, but technically the Night's Watch doesn't take a vow of celibacy. They promise to take no wife and father no children, not to abstain from sex.

Celibacy is no marriage, chastity is no sex. Don't worry even Catholics get it wrong a lot (and rise of the incorrect term Incel has furthered that misunderstanding)

My understanding is that chastity is no sex outside of marriage, but inside marriage is fine. i.e. all Christians (married or not) are called to chastity but they are encouraged to enjoy sex with their spouse.

Then again my understanding might be mistaken. I definitely don't claim to be an authority on that. Fair point about celibacy, I got sloppy and was just using the common sense of the word even though I should know better.

They're not exactly "encouraged to enjoy sex with their spouse", that's new age degeneracy. It's better to abstain and pray according to the church fathers. But because humans are so weak, the married are supposed to occasionally close their eyes and think of canaan so their spouse does not engage in sexual intercourse with lucifer or other people, which would be like, so much more disgusting.

1 Corinthians 7: 1 Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

They're not exactly "encouraged to enjoy sex with their spouse"

Yes we are.

that's new age degeneracy.

No it isn't. Have you read Song of Solomon?

It's better to abstain and pray according to the church fathers. But because humans are so weak, the married are supposed to occasionally close their eyes and think of canaan so their spouse does not engage in sexual intercourse with lucifer or other people, which would be like, so much more disgusting.

That is a blatant misreading of the quoted passage, which specifically states that sex should be a regular part of married life, and that a major goal of this sexual activity is gratification of your partner. The Bible contains numerous depictions of erotic love portrayed as a positive good, and again, there is an entire book of erotic poetry right there in the middle. You are quoting the one passage most conducive to your desired distortion and portraying it as normative, hoping that people won't notice that this passage is an outlier and that even as an outlier it still doesn't say what you want it to say. It's also ignoring the passage's historical context: whatever your thoughts on when and by who it was actually written, the text is explicitly framed as advice for people who are about to undergo an attempted extermination by the Roman state. Having a spouse and children doesn't make it easier to handle imprisonment, torture or execution for your faith.

Nor is it necessary to approach this question from pure theory; it's pretty simple to reduce this to an empirical question and just look at surveys of sexual satisfaction, in which conservative Christians score highly.

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