Explain the view that there are no rights or wrongs in sexual ethics.

The view that there are no right or wrongs in sexual ethics is strongly based on an assumption that there are no moral absolutes either. A moral absolute is a rule which applies universally, with no legitimate exceptions, and many people would agree with the notion that such stringent rules are inapplicable to such a topic. Most rules regarding sexuality are derived from religious texts, mostly ancient: and it may be argued that they are not always relevant to today’s society. For example; the prohibition on divorce was brought about in past years to aid the building of a stable family structure in close communities and villages. This however, is not an issue in today’s society, and divorce often leads to happier homes and family units, with many children living part time with one or another parent.

        Perhaps another more relevant example is the question of homosexuality, which is a continually raging question of right and wrong; especially within the Christian church. There has been controversy and debate regarding homosexual ministers in the Anglican and Catholic Church for years. But for many of those years, homosexuality was a criminal wrong doing, for which gays could be imprisoned or fined and many gay men would marry heterosexually to deny to the law, the church or even family and friends or themselves. This was up until the homosexual reform act in 1967, after which society’s view of gay couples became a less disdainful one and in 2004 the civil partnership act made gay marriages as legally valid as heterosexual ones. The Christian church however, may argue that God’s law does not change, and moral law does not change with civil law. The teachings about homosexuality are made quite clear by Leviticus 18:22 ‘do not lie with a man as you would lie with a woman, God hates that.’ Taken out of context, however, this verse becomes a pretext and the teachings about homosexuality are far outweighed by other texts. E.g. Apostle Paul gives the Ten Commandments; ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself.’ And so, for Christians and various other religions, the matter of right and wrong in sexual ethics is an important one. But for those who do not base their lives around the teachings of religion, it is perhaps more sensible to apply ones own intuition to a situation. To apply moral absolutes to sexual ethics seems to be somewhat unwise, and brought into today’s society, some of the rules can cause more harm than good. For example, from the Westborough Baptist church, a group called ‘ihatefags.com’ has formed. Their action against gays is contradictory as they go to an extreme to defend a particular text with no regard for others against their cruelty and abuse.

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To what extent is it reasonable to argue that sexual ethics must be linked to religious belief?

Religious ethics is often based on a strong foundation of moral absolutes and most religious believe do not tend to feel comfortable is behaving in a manner that goes against their faith. I will refer again to the example of homosexuality and begin by entertaining the idea of an eve-angelical Christian’s opposition to such sexuality. There is no absurdity in someone of this faith to do so, and the opposition is closely connected to the teachings of their faith; ‘Do not ...

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