February 2012

Most single Christians are having sex

(También en Español)

News of note: A recent study reveals most single Christians are having sex. We undress why.

Dr. Jenell Williams Paris, an anthropologist and the author of The End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex Is Too Important to Define Who We Are, says the high rates of premarital sex are a call to the Church to live in reality.

“We need to talk to people as they really live in the world they really live in,” Paris says. “If rates of premarital sex are really that high, but we continue to talk as if the vast majority of people are virgins when they get married, weʼre out of touch. We need to address reality.”

And the reality is the numbers arenʼt going down. Of those 80 percent of Christians in the 18-29 age range who have had sex before marriage, 64 percent have done so within the last year and 42 percent are in a current sexual relationship.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, nearly half of all pregnancies in America are unintended. And of those, 40 percent end in abortion. More than 1 million abortions occur in the United States each year. But perhaps the most disturbing statistic for the Church: 65 percent of the women obtaining abortions identify themselves as either Protestant or Catholic (37 percent Protestant and 28 percent Catholic). Thatʼs 650,000 abortions obtained by Christians every year.

Why do people still go on about abstinence when so few people intend on practicing it? I agree that the high rates of premarital sex is a call for “the church” to live in reality. It is also a call for these projected virtues to be questioned. Remaining chaste until marriage represses one’s sexuality and significantly limits experience. I’m suggesting that everyone starts being honest with themselves, because our actions are speaking louder than words. Let us know what you think.

0.6 Did I Get It Right?

For more on A Course in Immortality…

Click here for 0.5 Immortal? What’s Next?
También en español
The erotic is the universal foundation of personal growth in Love.

Just as your embrace of salvation from uncertainty is sustained by your worship of erotic joy, the certainty of your choices is validated by this same sublime source.

Before understanding erotic joy, you were accustomed to checking to see if the result of some effort turned out as intended so you could be assured you achieved your intent.

In the past, you might have compared what happened to what you hoped would happen to modify your effort to achieve a future outcome more to your liking.

But if you start out hoping for a result that is not possible or appropriate to your needs, or is over-planned with irrelevant detail, you will always be disappointed.

But what are appropriate results that are possible to achieve through the worshipful embrace of erotic joy?

Such results are necessarily limited to transformations of your own inner viewpoint or attitude, since your inner experience holds no power over the external world.

If you expect anything other than greater understanding, greater insight, and greater ability to apply living Truth in the satisfaction of Love, you will be disappointed.

You must learn to expect and recognize that each worshipful experience of erotic joy brings you one small step further on the path of personal fulfillment.

The entire process of choice becomes progressively more automatic as you draw increased inspiration from erotic joy.

So you come to grow in the ability to automatically make choices consistent with the desires of Love, expressed by doing Good and making Beauty, as directed by Truth.

You experience, first, your salvation from uncertainty; then, recognition of your own immortality; and, finally, satisfaction of victory in your quest.

Persistence in worship of erotic joy is the key that brings you to the true climax of human life—victory.

Victory? Over what?

Victory is closure provided by your finally experiencing and understanding how the process of personal vitological (spiritual) growth actually works.

Such victory gives you control over your actions and directs them to serve the purposes of cosmic love, for you have made erotic joy, the most basic expression of cosmic love, the driving power of your being.

When you have thus committed your feeling biohost to the exclusive expression of Love through Truth in action, when your feeling body has placed its will to action under the exclusive and complete direction of this super-consciousness, you can rest secure in the knowledge that you will forever act and live in harmony with the universe.

Worship of erotic joy provides the intuitive guidance that enables personality integration across physical, mental, and vitological levels.

And this enables you to function as an expression of the will of the Supreme Being—a synthesis comprising the developing total of the living experience of all beings throughout all space and time.

The erotic is the universal foundation of personal growth in Love.

Join me today and forever in the worship of the power of erotic joy.

Click here for 0.7 What Will My Life Be Like?

 

New Hampshire Lawmaker Urges Married Couples To Practice Abstinence

(También en Español)

News of Note: New Hampshire Lawmaker Urges Married Couples To Practice Abstinence

A New Hampshire lawmaker with a history of surprising statements suggested on Thursday that married couples who want to use contraception should practice abstinence instead of using birth control pills

State Rep. Lynne Blankenbeker (R-Concord) made the claim — noting that abstinence is available “over the counter” along with condoms — during a legislative committee hearing on a resolution urging the Obama administration to drop the birth control requirement for religious organizations. Blankenbeker was trying to explain her position on why the administration’s requirement to provide insurance coverage for birth control should be overturned.

“People with or without insurance have two affordable choices, one being abstinence and the other being condoms, both of which you can get over the counter,” she said.

The conservative battle against human sexuality seems to be endless. Telling married couples that sexual abstinence is another form of birth control, completely disregards all appreciation couples may have for sex. The religious belief that sex should exist only for procreation is both unhealthy and offensive. These backward ideologies only worsen the depth of sexual repression that our culture already suffers from.

Ever have sex without the intent of making babies? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

The Sexual Freedom Project: Lack of Support

(También en Español)


Do you agree that many obstacles to sexual freedom are due to lack of support from religion, government, corporations, etc., particularly affecting youth? Is the LGBT community itself doing enough to transcend these obstacles?

Make a video, write a poem, song, or an essay — or even create an original work of art — and express your thoughts. If we feature your contribution on the site, we will send you a free VenusPlusX t-shirt to thank you.

Video by Tiye Massey.

Occupy Joins the Fight Against Private Prisons

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News of Note: Occupy Joins the Fight Against Private Prisons

“Yango, a middle-aged African-American DC native active in both Occupy DC and the prison divestment movement, spent over a decade in Rivers Correctional Facility, a private prison located in Winton, North Carolina, 251 miles outside DC….

“Yango described his time there as “a horror story” marked by inedible sludge and negligent medical treatment, although he emphasized that the worst aspect was, “There are no programs for men who are housed there which means that when a guy comes out of Rivers, he is not prepared to come back to his community to make a positive contribution…

“According to the DC Department of Corrections, African-Americans make up 92 percent of the city’s prison population compared to just 55 percent of the overall DC population. With this in mind, it comes as a shock to many that GEO knowingly built the prison on the former site of one of North Carolina’s largest slave plantations. The symbolism of making a profit from jailing black nonviolent offenders atop the remnants of a plantation their ancestors were forced to labor on was not lost on the crowd.”

I’m so glad to see the Occupy movement still making headlines. Raising awareness about private prisons and the connections they have with big banks is an incredibly noble and valuable feat. These prisons are for-profit businesses that bribe their way into filling every single bed with anyone they can, farming human lives for tax dollars. Do I need to remind you that America has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world? We should be outraged. This life destroying charade must come to an end.

 *Creative Commons image by Casey Serin

0.5 Immortal? What’s Next?

For more on A Course in Immortality…

Click here for 0.4 Claim Immortality
También en español
We tend to think of the erotic as an experience that is only important to us as living, biological beings, but nothing is further from the truth.

At all levels of universe experience, the erotic is the permanent and persistent foundation of personal growth in Love.

The erotic is the universal foundation of personal growth in Love.

When one comes to accepting one’s personal immortality, the individual faces the choice of eternity.

Right now on a conscious level, you can consider, understand, and sometimes grasp something of the nature of life for the awakened survivors of body death. You are capable also of envisioning the grandeur of the universe and the unstinting goodness of the cosmic government. The question is, once you begin to appreciate the experience of infinity, will you choose to do this forever?

The gift of eternal life carries with it an obligation to eternal service.

Survival, as always, depends on the consciousness and persistence of salvation (relief of uncertainty).

Is this is a matter that will only concern me after my body has died and my soul is resurrected to consciousness?

No.

Once a personal sense of super-conscious immortality has developed, there is no reason not to take advantage of time remaining in the flesh to demonstrate and practice one’s understanding.

Perhaps one will be able to help others find their way to the light of inner Truth.

Perhaps one will become part of a joint cosmic/human endeavor.

Perhaps one will be inspired to new levels of creativity.

Perhaps one will be finally happy in the certainty of right action.

Were we all to live a thousand years we would only choose to live as long as we could make a contribution in line with our experience.

But even with bodies that might last so long, we might fear to exhaust the potentials for meaningful growth and experience on this planet.

Regardless of our choice, we will always have the personal experience of the erotic engagement of Love and Truth to nurture our spiritual growth.

Yet there is a much more immediate issue to be addressed.

Upon understanding that you are immortal and thus conclude that everybody else is too, whether they know it or not, how should /would you change your own behavior?

I cannot predict what changes this would induce in your life. The interacting factors are far too numerous.

In addition, since I would follow the personal guidance of Truth in real time, I cannot anticipate the actual action with any accuracy, for Truth bends logic and causation to the service of destiny.

But therein lies the obvious next question, “What’s next?”

Before we understood our own immortality, we sought salvation through living Truth.

Now we understand that living Truth IS the path of salvation, the road to immortality.

So the choice of immortality basically comes down to committing your personality to live the Truth FOREVER, based on a necessarily FINITE experience.

This is surely a leap of faith, to commit to exist forever.

Beyond this one can never choose to cease to exist and will be permanently and irrevocably immortal.

Yet we also know that this immortal existence will be one of great joy, grounded in the persistent experience of erotic worship.

From one level to the next, the path remains the same in principle—live the Truth and the rest will take care of itself.

Worship Love in all its manifestations and you will always find Truth.

But you must always be open minded to the exceptional, because Truth conforms neither to your prejudices nor your linear logic.

The driving biological force behind our consistent choice of living Truth is the sense of the erotic—of Love expressed in literal action.

As we embark on our eternal adventure, understanding our potential immortality, we understand that, as always, our every step may be grounded in erotic worship.

As we advance, we find new literal expressions of love, in which we worship the inner power of spiritual joy.

The erotic is the universal foundation of personal growth in Love.

Join me today and forever in the worship of the power of erotic joy.

Click here for  0.6 Did I Get It Right?

 

“Whistleblower Improvement Act of 2011” does the exact opposite

(También en Español)

H.R. 2483: “Whistleblower Improvement Act of 2011introduced in July amends the  Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Commodity Exchange Act to require a whistleblower employee to first report information relating to misconduct to his or her employer. It prohibits any award unless this is first step is taken unless the company lacks whistleblower protections or a anonymous reporting system, and permits the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to make awards discretionary rather than mandatory. Further, it requires the SEC to notify the pertinent entity before beginning any enforcement when possible, and allows for an impact study on how a whistleblower incentives program has affected shareholder value. More here.

Basically, if you notice illegal activity happening within your company, you have to warn the company before the SEC, jeopardizing your job as well as any incentive to report misconduct. The bill should be called the “Whistleblower Abolishment Act.” I can’t imagine how anyone could read this bill and not pick up on its evil intentions. The face you see above is Rep. Michael Grimm [R-NY13], the man sponsoring H.R. 2483. The more attention people pay to bills like this, the less likely they will sneak past us and become law. Please spread the word and share your thoughts.

Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich All Promise To Ban Porn

(También en Español)

News of Note: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich All Promise To Ban Porn

The top three Republican presidential candidates pledged a war on porn today which means that they have promised more action to ban porn than to create jobs.

The conservative group Morality In Media is head over heels today after all three top Republican candidates promised to go war against the distribution of porn. In a written statement, Rick Santorum said, “Federal obscenity laws should be vigorously enforced. If elected President, I will appoint an Attorney General who will do so.”

Not to be outdone, Mitt Romney gave a statement to the group that said, “(I)t is imperative that we cultivate the promotion of fundamental family values. This can be accomplished with increased parental involvement and enhanced supervision of our children. It includes strict enforcement of our nation’s obscenity laws, as well as the promotion of parental software controls that guard our children from Internet pornography.”

Then we have Newt Gingrich, who wasn’t satisfied with a written statement. In a face to face meeting, Gingrich told Morality In Media that, “Yes, I will appoint an Attorney General who will enforce these laws.” The existing laws that each of these candidates were referring to are federal laws that they and Morality In Media feel make the distribution of pornography illegal.

Pornography prohibition? There is absolutely no way that will work. Porn is a multi-billion dollar industry that covers the whole globe. This very moment, tens of thousands of people are looking at porn online. It’s far from uncommon for the conservative and the repressed to get involved with the very sexual acts they claim to oppose. How can anyone even listen to these hypocrites?

Sometimes I wonder if these candidates (and people like them) are systematically turning our basic human instincts against us. Maybe they’re just hateful monsters who actually believe the dribble they spew, but I like to imagine US presidential candidates would have a higher level of intelligence than these bigots.

February 2012 Newsletter

(También en Español)

Hundreds rallied around our message, “Sexual Freedom – You Are Born With It” at the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force’s Creating Change conference a couple of weeks ago in Baltimore, which brought together 3000 equality rights activists and allies. Many made videos about what sexual freedom means to them and you will be seeing them here in the coming months.

Most of the VenusPlusX crew were out in force and brought an exciting presence to the Creating Change Exhibition Hall. And, we supported the Bi/Alt/Kink Hospitality Suite, and the Trans Hospitality Suite, where we convened a special afternoon reception for Trans Latino and Latina attendees.

Hot on our priority list, and something we have been especially pleased to inaugurate recently, is VenusPlusX’s roll out of Spanish language resources, including videos, news, and insights into Transhuman Erotic Freedom, such as “A Course in Immortality” (“Un Curso de Inmortalidad”) presenting a rational, myth-free, and practical guide to living a sane and happy life.

Plans for the coming months include upstepping our work with a coalition of organizations fighting police bias and the resultant violence against the trans community, and expanding our online conversation on Transleadership & Transunity to include many more voices.

In January, VenusPlusX joined the U.S. Human Rights Network’s Sexual Rights and Gender Justice Working Group, and attended our first working meeting at Creating Change. Also last month, founder Alison Gardner was installed as secretary of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance. Continuing as members of the Gender Rights Maryland Advisory Board, we are looking forward to continuing to work as long as it takes to finally realize trans-inclusive legislation in that state.

For those of you who want to go deep, you can find a long interview of Dan and Alison done in TeleXLR8 virtual space by Guilio Prisco, talking about the “new age of sexual freedom” and its direct connection to advocacy for equality rights. The Institute of Ethics & Emerging Technologies (IETT) posted the video and a summary (here).

Lady Gaga launched her youth empowerment foundation, Born This Way Foundation, on November 2, and we were happy to see it start on the same day to follow VenusPlusX, a sign we are permeating the twitterverse, and spikes in our viewership have been encouraging. So, if you haven’t already, will you start following @VenusPlusX on Twitter, and “Like” us on Facebook, or subscribe to our RSS feed, when you can? You can find us on Tumblr now, too.

Russian cities introduce baby ‘drop boxes’ to stop unwanted children being left in bins

(También en Español)

News of Note: Russian cities introduce baby ‘drop boxes’ to stop unwanted children being left in bins

Anonymous baby drop boxes have been introduced for the first time in Russia.

The Krasnodar Territory in south Russia bought five of the so-called baby drop boxes in the beginning of November so mothers could drop off unwanted children anonymously.

The first three were installed in Sochi, Novorossiysk, and Armavir, and by the end of the month one child had already been left.

The move was aimed at providing sanitary conditions for unwanted children, instead of ‘having them left in garbage containers, health officials told Ria Novosti.

Elena Redko, the head of the Krasnodar Health Department, told the news service the first child to be left, a baby girl, was healthy and would be passed to childcare officials.

It is unfortunate that any society would need these baby “drop boxes,” but it seems like a necessary evil. In a perfect world full of accessible birth control and sexual education, hopefully we wouldn’t need these at all. These drop boxes are not some new Russian concept, similar programs exist all over the world. (In the U.S., all the states have Safe Haven Laws allowing newborns to be left anonymously in hospitals and fire stations.)

I didn’t realize how easy (in the legal sense) it was for a mother to anonymously get rid of a child. How do you feel about the existence of these baby drop boxes? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.