Dublin Core
Title
The Townswoman June 1963
Description
The monthly news magazine of the National Union of Townswomen's Guilds published a sympathetic review in its June 1963 issue,.
Source
clipping in HSC Quaker Group on Homosexuality records, Friends House, London
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
The Townswoman June, 1963
The National Union of Townswomen's Guilds
Sex Becomes Respectable
From the moment the earth was first inhabited sex has been a fact of life. In the Christian Era it has, however, been an unmentionable one in polite society, except in condemnatory context. Throughout nearly all its history the Church has treated the tale of Adam and Eve as historical fact on which logical arguments can be built; in spite of the fact that it was not Jesus who suggested that an event in the Garden of Eden should be described as the Fall of Man. It was Paul (Romans 5, verses 12-14) who originated the phrase that caused sexuality to become necessarily polluted with sin.
It is therefore both refreshing and significant to find that en erudite cultured and sincere group of both sexes of a Christian Fellowship--the Society of Friends--has published an objective study of sex, hetero and homo. The Group which includes eminent educators, psychologists, psychiatrists, marriage guidance counsellers, a teacher in zoology and a barrister, was prompted by the concern over present day sexual problems and morals; by whether society merits the charge of hypocrisy in subscribing to a moral code it no longer accepts; by whether the insincerity of the moral code may be a cause of the widespread contempt of the younger generation for society's rule and prohibition.
The 75-page document* that has emerged is the result of six years of study, discussion and reflection. When it was published in February sections of the Press seized upon it for what sensational headlines and quotations could be extracted from its frank survey of the subject of sex. The views of this Quaker group are worthy of serious consideration by all adult persons of whatever religious persuasion. This is not to suggest that the views of these Quakers should be so blindly or blithely accepted; only that it is timely for rethinking on the sexual facts of life and a recognition that sex and sin are not necessarily synonymous.
The study makes the point that when one considers the universality of the sexual drive, understanding of its origins and manifestations is surprisingly small. "The repressive and inhibited outlook towards sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual, has invested its normal functions with guilt, mystery and ignorance...and has devalued the sexual currency to the levels of sensation and pornography."
Again, "...sexuality looked at dispassionately, is neither good nor evil--it is a fact of nature...it is a glorious gift of God. Throughout the whole of living nature it makes possible an endless and fascinating variety of creatures, a lavishness, a beauty of form and colour surpassing all that could be imagined as necessary to survival."
Although the Quaker does not say it in so many words, one of the difficulties in discussing sexual matters normally is that while English is one of the richest of languages it is deficient in conversational sex terms. The Greek had five words for different forms of love. English has the one, all-embracing word which, by being so, inevitably has suffered debasement. The choice in sexual terminology is either that old Anglo-Saxon and Elizabethan four-letter words now regarded as vulgar if not positively obscene, or chilling medico-Latin terms.
For example, the Quaker study makes the point that the word "homosexuality" does not denote a course of conduct, but a state of affairs, the state of loving your own, not the opposite sex; it is a state of affairs in nature. Further, homosexuality has been observed in a wide range of animals and, the study says, is probably as common in women as it is in men. There has never been, anywhere, as far as is known, a law against homosexuality as such in any secular legal code. The law is not against one's feelings; but against acts resulting from them in the cases of males only.
Every aspect of sexuality is honestly discussed in this Quaker document--adolescent sexual behaviour, pre-marital sex indulgence, triangular sex relationships (where a married person responds to a sexual attraction outside the marriage). But not in an effort to demolish morality; rather in recognition of the fact that a new morality is needed in order to lessen mental stress and enable people to find a constructive way through even the most difficult and unpredictable situation--a away that is not simply one of withdrawal and abnegation. A distorted Christianity, the Quaker study avers, must bear some of the blame for the sexual disorders of society.
Anne Thomas
*Towards a Quaker View of Sex, edited by Alastair Heron and published by the Friends Home Service Committee, Friends House, Euston Road, London N.W. 1. Price 3s 6d.
The National Union of Townswomen's Guilds
Sex Becomes Respectable
From the moment the earth was first inhabited sex has been a fact of life. In the Christian Era it has, however, been an unmentionable one in polite society, except in condemnatory context. Throughout nearly all its history the Church has treated the tale of Adam and Eve as historical fact on which logical arguments can be built; in spite of the fact that it was not Jesus who suggested that an event in the Garden of Eden should be described as the Fall of Man. It was Paul (Romans 5, verses 12-14) who originated the phrase that caused sexuality to become necessarily polluted with sin.
It is therefore both refreshing and significant to find that en erudite cultured and sincere group of both sexes of a Christian Fellowship--the Society of Friends--has published an objective study of sex, hetero and homo. The Group which includes eminent educators, psychologists, psychiatrists, marriage guidance counsellers, a teacher in zoology and a barrister, was prompted by the concern over present day sexual problems and morals; by whether society merits the charge of hypocrisy in subscribing to a moral code it no longer accepts; by whether the insincerity of the moral code may be a cause of the widespread contempt of the younger generation for society's rule and prohibition.
The 75-page document* that has emerged is the result of six years of study, discussion and reflection. When it was published in February sections of the Press seized upon it for what sensational headlines and quotations could be extracted from its frank survey of the subject of sex. The views of this Quaker group are worthy of serious consideration by all adult persons of whatever religious persuasion. This is not to suggest that the views of these Quakers should be so blindly or blithely accepted; only that it is timely for rethinking on the sexual facts of life and a recognition that sex and sin are not necessarily synonymous.
The study makes the point that when one considers the universality of the sexual drive, understanding of its origins and manifestations is surprisingly small. "The repressive and inhibited outlook towards sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual, has invested its normal functions with guilt, mystery and ignorance...and has devalued the sexual currency to the levels of sensation and pornography."
Again, "...sexuality looked at dispassionately, is neither good nor evil--it is a fact of nature...it is a glorious gift of God. Throughout the whole of living nature it makes possible an endless and fascinating variety of creatures, a lavishness, a beauty of form and colour surpassing all that could be imagined as necessary to survival."
Although the Quaker does not say it in so many words, one of the difficulties in discussing sexual matters normally is that while English is one of the richest of languages it is deficient in conversational sex terms. The Greek had five words for different forms of love. English has the one, all-embracing word which, by being so, inevitably has suffered debasement. The choice in sexual terminology is either that old Anglo-Saxon and Elizabethan four-letter words now regarded as vulgar if not positively obscene, or chilling medico-Latin terms.
For example, the Quaker study makes the point that the word "homosexuality" does not denote a course of conduct, but a state of affairs, the state of loving your own, not the opposite sex; it is a state of affairs in nature. Further, homosexuality has been observed in a wide range of animals and, the study says, is probably as common in women as it is in men. There has never been, anywhere, as far as is known, a law against homosexuality as such in any secular legal code. The law is not against one's feelings; but against acts resulting from them in the cases of males only.
Every aspect of sexuality is honestly discussed in this Quaker document--adolescent sexual behaviour, pre-marital sex indulgence, triangular sex relationships (where a married person responds to a sexual attraction outside the marriage). But not in an effort to demolish morality; rather in recognition of the fact that a new morality is needed in order to lessen mental stress and enable people to find a constructive way through even the most difficult and unpredictable situation--a away that is not simply one of withdrawal and abnegation. A distorted Christianity, the Quaker study avers, must bear some of the blame for the sexual disorders of society.
Anne Thomas
*Towards a Quaker View of Sex, edited by Alastair Heron and published by the Friends Home Service Committee, Friends House, Euston Road, London N.W. 1. Price 3s 6d.