In a message dated 95-12-09 13:31:19 EST, Jon writes:

>to become more BF Friendly, that the houses of worship need to embrace
>the concept that BF is natural, discreet, asexual nourishing act of pure
love
>that should be strongly encouraged by the religous authorites>>

I'm going to get into trouble here........I *think* that virutally every
religion/denomination claims that sex is a good, God-given gift.  However,
many times we communicate attitudes that somehow imply that sex is bad.

I'm feeling uncomfortable with the notion that BF is an "asexual" act.  Are
prenancy/birth also asexual experiences?  It seems that one of the reasons we
talk out of both sides of our mouths about sex, is that we limit it to The
Act, which we further associate with Playboy or some other form of what
religious teaching would call immorality.

So while I agree that religious authorities should embrace this as natural
and loving, it would be within the context of teaching about our sexuality in
its totality as natural, loving and much more inclusive than the experience
of intercourse (which, when you get down to it is precisely the reason that
the church has a moral code relative to sexual behavior).  Once those
concepts are better understood, it's easy to begin discussion on those
private aspects of sexuality, vs more public expressions, such as pregnancy &
breastfeeding.

Part of my job includes speaking to a couple thousand teens each year on
these topics. Must be why I had to climb this soapbox.....

Having trouble articulating strong feelings.....Nancy