Should We Have A “Healthy Sense Of Shame” When It Comes To Sex And Our Bodies?

Should We Have A “Healthy Sense Of Shame” When It Comes To Sex And Our Bodies? September 19, 2016

Photo by AdinaVoicu, Pixabay.Com, CC
Photo by AdinaVoicu, Pixabay.Com, CC

We’re supposed to have a healthy sense of shame when it comes to SIN, not sex or our bodies. That idea negates the whole premise of Theology of the Body, where St. John Paul II emphasizes the understanding that our bodies and our sexuality are indeed God-given gifts that are good. It’s about raising the gift of sexuality out of the gutter that society has reduced it to, and revealing it’s true meaning; identity, act, and integration. There is nothing there to be ashamed of, as long as you use the gift as it is intended. If you don’t, that is sin, and that is what we’re supposed to be ashamed of.

Please, don’t get me wrong, I believe, as parents, we have a responsibility to teach our children about the consequences of sin, especially mortal sin. But why would we tell our children that sex is bad or wrong? Sex is not only an act, it is who we are as human beings. I am a woman, that is my sex. That guy over there is a man, that is his sex. There’s nothing to feel ashamed about here, it’s how God made us, and I think trying to instill “a healthy sense of shame when it comes to the body and sexuality” defeats the purpose of trying to give them right ideas about love and marriage.

There are plenty of ways you can teach kids about why sex outside of marriage is wrong and sinful without tearing down the gift of human sexuality. When we give our children right ideas about sex, abstinence, and marriage they can go forth in the pagan world armed with the truth, without being ashamed of who God created them to be. And frankly, they’re gonna need that.


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