From: Chuck.Lavazzi@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Chuck Lavazzi)
Subject: Re: Abstinence is the only answer
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 04:15:34 GMT

In article <4722@news.duke.edu> eyc@acpub.duke.edu (EMIL CHUCK) writes:
>mpolen@gelato.mips.com (Michael Polen) writes:
>!Martin Guerrero-LabA) writes:
>!|> The initial question involved putting PEOPLE (read: Men and Women) in
>!|> situations where abortion does not become an alternative.  Since conceiving
>!|> a child is a joint act between a man and a woman, then men are capable of
>!|> NOT getting a woman pregnant.  No pregancies, no abortion.
>!|> 
>!|> So men, indeed, can help put women in positions where abortion does not
>!|> become an alternative.
>!
>!So we are left with the following alternatives:
>!
>!1	The only purpose of sex is reproduction.
>Well, if nature (since I guess I can't say God or Allah or
>whatever) had a purpose in sex, that's generally what it is.
	No doubt that's why mammals have sex drives. I don't see how that
mandates humans not to engage in sex for pleasure.  The purpose of eating is
to provide fuel for our bodies.  Does it therefore logically follow that
eating for pleasure is immoral?  Are we to assume that all biological drives
ought to operate only a a purely animalistic level, with no intercesion by
our higher mental processes?  I think not.
>
>!2.	Sex is a pleasure "reserved" for married couples. 
>As our religious and social standards have it, only in marriage is there
>the committment to deal with rearing children. As unmarried teenagers
>may not be able to handle rearing children, sex should be reserved for
>marriage.
	See above.  Sexual pleasure does not need to be "legitimized" by an
intention to procreate any more than eating needs to be justified by acute
hunger.  And those are not "our" social and religious standards, necessarily.
Don't presume to speak for me.

>
>!3.	Sex is a sin, for which the penalty is pregnancy.  Sure puts an
>!	interesting slant on the wonderfulness of parenting and the meaning
>!	of "family values."
>Well, premarital sex is a sin (at least in my Southern Baptist church).
>Adultery certainly is.
>Sex itself is a gift that is shared between two people that love each
>other, according to my pastor.
	Once again, your religion is not the law of the land, and in a non-
theocratic state it *shouldn't* be.  Your pastor can recommend anything he
wants to his flock.  He (and you) have no right to force the rest of us to
behave in accordance with your notions of sexual morality.
>	This does seem very interesting that the statement asserts that
>pregnancy is a punishment, or a disease. That explains a few things:
>abortion is the only "remedy" that can cure the "afflicted."
	Go back and read it again.  Rocker is saying that this is the attitude
implied by *your* posting, not her belief.  Either you didn't read carefully
or you're deliberately distorting what she wrote.

>-- 
>Emil Thomas Chuck		DUKE BLUE DEVILS: 1992 ACC CHAMPIONS!

Chuck
No .sig, no frills, no foolin'


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