Church Teaching on Sex and Marriage

1. Church Teaching on Sex and Marriage

2. The Church views Sex in Marriage as Serving the following goals • Physical-sexual activity is intimately linked to bearing and raising children • Physical union represents full and complete sharing of life in love between two people.

3. Sexuality in Marriage • Sexual activity has an impact on the larger community. As we care for the life we create, we also become more sensitive to other’s need’s. • Sex and marriage cannot be divorced from these community goals.

4. Sexuality in Marriage • Marriage is a sacrament. • In marriage we experience God and serves as a sign of his presence to each other. • They become co-creators with him and share in his sacrificial love for others, including in their “sex life.”

5. Outside of Marriage • Recreational Sex: • Emotional-Relationship Sex • Almost-Committed Sex

6. Recreational Sex • Is a view of sexual activity, as the pursuit of pleasure with no constraints other than mutual consent. • If it feels good do it

7. Recreational Sex • Playboy/playgirl philosophy. • The belief that sex should be engaged in strictly for pleasure, with few if any restrictions.

8. Emotional-Relationship Sex • Sex becomes acceptable when the two people involved feel love for each other.

9. Almost-Committed Sex • Intimate sexual activity is acceptable when the two people have expressed a degree of commitment to each other, such as during engagement. • “Living-together” or being “engaged” is not the same as being married.

10. Church teaching sees full physical sexual expression as communicating more than just: • Pleasure • Just a serious relationship • More than “almost” a total commitment between two people