Anorexia Nirvana
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God knows us infinitely better than we know ourselves. God has said that celibacy is “not good.” It is not good for the man and not good for the church. A celibate clergy will distort the gospel in subtle ways without meaning to do so, because they are living in an unsatisfactory situation.If we look at Buddhism and other pantheistic religions, we see that they celebrate sterility, fasting, celibacy, virginity and other anorexic, world-rejecting practices. The same was true of the religions of the Mediterranean at the time Christianity was born. It is not surprising that such world-rejecting counterfeit spiritualities infected the Church. The Reformation wisely and rightly returned to the world-affirming, earthy, joyous, musical-instrument-worship, wine-drinking, cigar-smoking pro-marital worldview of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Reformation was profoundly correct; Rome and Orthodoxy are profoundly wrong.
(I mentioned fasting. In the Bible, the goal of fasting is to break the fast when the Bridegroom arrives, just as the purpose of virginity is to get rid of it with the bridegroom. In anorexic religion, fasting and virginity are prized statically for their own sakes.)
James B. Jordan, The Liturgy Trap: The Bible Versus Mere Tradition in Worship.
February 20th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Excellent post. I personally have wondered if celibate clergy somehow brought about Roman Catholicism. The Orthodox are even worse abotu asceticism, and their doctrine of the atonement is even worse as well.
And interesting idea about fasting. You might consider doing a post on that.
February 20th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Drew
This one might be relevant, although from a different angle:
http://www.bullartistry.com.au/wp/2009/09/21/fasting-as-sacrament/