All this piety, and sex, too.

Sex.

Yeah, it got your attention.  Great.

I have come to an understanding.  People of a certain age, or generation, who were raised in a general demographic, have a blindspot.  They can talk about anything under the sun, with passion and sometimes understanding.  They will be compassionate and reasonable, and polite and show Southern hospitality by offering you a lemonade while you chat.

Talk about pets, politics, education, morality, the government, kindness, cooking, decorating, cars, travel, the military...anything, really, and all is well.

But mention sex, and it gets shut down so fast that your head will spin.

When I say sex, I don't mean engaging in a salacious or inappropriate conversation.  Even talking about the virtue of chastity has this reaction from some people.  I do not understand it.  I do not understand why talking about how harmful pornography is, how masturbation is wrong, and how chastity is more than just what we do with our genitals could evoke such vitriol.

I have been told that "No one here cares about sex, I don't care about what you do, I am old, I don't think about sex anymore, TMI, no one wants to know, etc".  Granted, this was all online conversation.  But I don't think real life would be any better.

Is it that an entire generation of church people suffer from extreme shame?

Do we not see how this is harmful?  Not talking about sex (but surely having plenty of sex!) has ruined male-female relationships since the 60s.  It has decimated the vestiges of compassion and feeling and goodness between men and women.  It has made the back seat the only place sex is dealt with.  Are we really so ashamed that we can't discuss virtue and right vs. wrong?

I get it.  It sucks to suffer from guilt.
Maybe it would suck less to know that you passed on some goodness to younger people before they live in shame, too.

Talk to your kids about sex.
Talk to them about chastity.
Talk to them about pornography and masturbation.
I am guessing it totally sucks to do this, but isn't it better than losing them?

Before this turns into parenting advice from a non-parent, I would like to add that I'm working on this.  No one talked to me about sex much as a kid.  And I developed some really unhealthy ideas about it.  Thank God for the catechism of the Catholic church and the frankness and honesty with which it confronts sex as a good, wholesome, and healthy gift from God which has requirements.  It's so healing.

God knows our culture needs a lot of healing among the people of God over something so good, and something so drastically harmful when it gets out of control.  May it begin with me.