Religion and Sexuality

...That these experiments did not last may point to misconceptions in the founders' minds about psychology or theology...

...We cannot pretend that anything less will meet the case now...

...Laurence Foster has chosen three of the most.significant and consistent attempts which were made to live out in daily and earthly life a vision of human and divine relations which could be a reflection of, and a preparation for, the perfect community of heaven or of the resurrection...

...Their solutions were very different, though all based their vision and justification firmly in Scripture...

...The solution at Oneida was "Complex Marriage" in which everyone was regarded as "married" to everyone else, partners changed frequently, special affection was discouraged, and children were raised communally...

...The questions they raised are no less urgent now, their conviction that it doesn't have to be like this must be shared by any who take Christianity as more than a matter of personal spirituality...

...The Mormons chose polygamy, though not immediately, and in each case the attempt to adapt to such new patterns caused much pain and struggle, and was only achieved by a combination of strong and utterly convinced leadership, intensive group criticism, and last but not least the reluctance to return to former situations from which the new life offered freedom...

...If the discontent is private and domestic it can seem even to the discontented themselves to be aberrant and a reason for guilty feelings...

...They were surrounded by ther facts and the results of sexual exploitation and degradation, and were sure that there had to be a better way to live sexually than the traditional monogamy which seemed to have failed so signally to create harmony and cooperation in the society they knew...

...Nor can we let ourselves off the hook by dismissing them as failures...

...The stories are inescapably pertinent and important...

...The author does not labor the parallels...

...But to live one's social and sexual life in a way quite contrary to one's training and other people''s expectations, and to do so within a coherent community life that really works for a generation or more is no small achievement...

...But the purpose of this study is not merely historical, for the author is asking us to perceive in these earlier struggles and achievements the same urge to discover new and better ways which is now so important a movement of our own far more troubled and confused era...

...In this situation many deeply religious and sensitive people were beginning to hope that the confusion which was breaking down older and inadequate patterns might prove to be the opportunity to create a better order, a way of social living truly in accord with the design of the Creator...

...If it is publicly expressed it is regarded and treated as either criminal, subversive, or pathological...

...The founders and prophets of these three groups - Ann Lee, John Humphrey Noyes, and Joseph Smith, and their immediate disciples - did indeed feel that reshaping sexual and familial relationships was fundamental to their work, but that work was the creation of a new humanity, rejecting the corrupt and corrupting ways of a world which they saw all around them, destroying homes, oppressing women, fostering rivalry instead of community...

...But in times of social upheaval old systems show their weaknesses and are called in question, and the questions are no longer the ravings of lunatics or traitors but real questions to which sensible, patriotic, and idealistic people may try to find answers...

...This book, which is fascinating in its own right, should urge us on to do some thinking and acting which might not be unworthy of these earlier pioneers...

...Perhaps we can avoid some of their mistakes, but we can hardly avoid undertaking the tasks they undertook...

...The sexual adaptation was seen to be essential to a new kind of life, however difficult the change might be...

...it was not pursued for its own sake...

...This book looks at some questions raised and answers worked out by men and women who experienced that period of extreme fluidity in American history which preceded the Civil War, when a new nation was trying to find new patterns, when inherited models of moral RELIGION AND SEXUALITY THREE AMERICAN EXPERIMENTS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Laurence Foster Oxford University, $19.95, 363 pp...

...it does not devalue the dedication, sensitivity, urgency, and love with which these people struggled to create a new heaven and a new earth...

...They were fallible, often misled, a little crazy, but they knew the situation required radical solutions and they were not afraid to risk even life for the vision they saw...

...But the breadth of it lies in the fact that the focus on sexuality simply indicates the point which is always most difficult and sensitive in attempts to find new ways of relating socially...

...He simply tells the stories of three mighty struggles to reshape radically the traditional patterns of human social and therefore sexual relationships, and allows us to make our own applications...

...Perhaps this search is the only really important movement of our times, or at least the only hopeful one, so it becomes important for us to reflect on these earlier experiments, and to notice the elements which shaped the thinking behind them, the conditions which favored or hindered their emergence and growth, their strengths and weaknesses, the goals they achieved and the nature of the rocks on which they foundered...

...The Perfectionists disbanded after about thirty years, the Shakers have almost died out, and the Mormons, though still flourishing, are no longer polygamous or much different from other citizens in their social arrangements, and it is easy to dismiss such experiments as the ephemeral aberrations of unbalanced people...

...This is not a study of the relation between religion and sexuality in general...

...it is both narrower and broader than that, and the subtitle indicates the limits of the study by choosing three experiments only - the Shakers, the Oneida Perfectionists, and the Mormons...

...The Shakers called men and women to the freedom of celibacy, seeing sexual feeling as the root sin which caused the fall...

...Books: A NEW HEAVEN & A NEW EARTH WHEN a society is well established, with recognized and respected systems of social relations enforced not only by law but by public expectation and habit, any discontent at the working of the system is fairly well contained...

...Rosemary Haughton and social behavior were being stretched and twisted to fit new circumstances, and often broke under the strain...