No More Mr. Nice Guy!

Fear of Fucking

Oh my gawd on a hot dog bun with sauerkraut on top... what is this, the goddam twenty-first century BC?

Even couples who are not talking or touching can be reprimanded. Sabrina Poirier, a student at Pensacola [Christian College] who withdrew in 1997, was disciplined for what is known on the campus as "optical intercourse" - staring too intently into the eyes of a member of the opposite sex. This is also referred to as "making eye babies."

- Quoted by PZ; the full article requires a login (Update: or you can click here)

The lunatic religious far-right love to trumpet their moral superiority and their embrace of the culture of life, yada yada yada. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the obvious: these people are simply afraid of sex. In their tiny minds, it has a dark, magical power over them, and they must constantly pray to some hippy-on-a-stick for the countervailing magical power to help them keep their legs crossed. One tiny slip-up, one instant of relaxation, and they are condemned to spend the rest of their lives helplessly driven by insane perverted passions, spewing out eye babies by the hundred (and no doubt eating them), puppets in a deranged orgy of hideous carnality. Then of course they die and are cast into the lake of fire to scream forever in infinite agony.

Like the Victorians draping little skirts over piano legs (and even shrinking in horror from the word "leg" itself), the Jeezus junkies constantly show themselves to be obsessed with sex in the most prurient, immature and unhealthy way imaginable. They truly live in a demon-haunted world. Sex, far from being a natural activity, becomes a primeval, pagan force of nature, or of Satan - to many fundies, the two are the same thing, hence their hatred of environmentalism. Sex is synonymous with sin, but since the Lord works in mysterious ways and didn't choose to have everyone be born of a virgin, sex can't be abolished completely. Instead it must be brought under control and hedged about with all sorts of superstitious strictures and taboos.

Think about any religious-right policy position that has some connection with sex. Is it based on a principle of compassion and respect for human life? No, it's invariably a product of a visceral fear and loathing of sex, and a zeal to punish people (especially women) for indulging in it. The same holier-than-thou legislators who are making it more difficult and demeaning to obtain an abortion are the ones gleefully slashing programs that help women to raise their children. "Pro-life states are less likely than pro-choice states to provide adequate care to poor and needy children. Their concern for the weak and vulnerable appears to stop at birth."

Think, too, of the berserk, frenzied, mouth-foaming hatred with which the lunatic right are overwhelmed at the mere mention of the word "Clinton". A man of such charisma that he can charm the pants off any woman - he must be in league with Satan! And a smart, independent woman who refuses to fit the mousy little Laura Bush mold - a witch! Burn her!

It's the same with gay marriage, abstinence-only "education", or any other wedge issue du jour - keep the useful idiots ignorant of basic facts about their own bodies, keep them ashamed and embarrassed about a basic part of their psyches, and rile them up with blind, unreasoning hatred of anyone who is different in any way in the sex department. No dictator could ask for a more perfect tool for controlling the masses.

I'm not a professional psychologist, but it seems pretty obvious to me that a satisfying sex life is essential for mental health. Sex drives are very powerful, and if you try to cut them off, they will spill over into some other area and express themselves in unhealthy and destructive ways. The lunatic religious right are walking, mouth-breathing examples of the damage done by blue-balled piety as they shriek and wail in an orgasm of vengeful righteousness, calling down hellfire and brimstone on everyone else who just wants to mind his or her own business and get laid occasionally.

It's almost possible to feel pity for these benighted, fearful catechumens, trapped in a narrow, rigid world of commandments and anathemas, bounded on all sides by demons and constantly watched by a cosmic Peeping Tom. (As Andrew Lias said, "Christian Fundamentalism [is] the doctrine that there is an absolutely powerful, infinitely knowledgeable, universe spanning entity that is deeply and personally concerned about my sex life.") But don't forget, these people have a monopoly on political, legal and media power in the US. We're trapped in their world too.

I wonder when Alito and Roberts will decide to burn women at the stake for aborting unborn eye babies...