I have been trying to write this article for two days now. I felt upset and angry, but now I just feel disappointed and ashamed.
On Monday night during the CBC Evening News, a clip was shown from the programme Religious Reasoning. The topic being discussed was Is Premarital Sex Right Or Wrong?
Anglican priest Rev. Charles Morris argued that sex before marriage is not a sin because fornication refers only to promiscuity and there is no evidence in the Bible that sex before marriage is a sin.
Rev. Morris used the word fornication partially and not in its entire context.
The Latin word fornix, from which fornication is derived, meant “a vault, an arch.” The term also referred to a vaulted cellar or similar place where prostitutes plied their trade. This word is first recorded in Middle English about 1303 (American Heritage Dictionary).
The King James Bible, published in 1611, was translated from the original Hebrew and Greek languages into English. Words used in the English language are very limited compared with those used in Hebrew and Greek.
For example, the English word love has one meaning, whereas there are four Greek words for the English word love, with four different meanings.
The English word fornication represents three separate words in the Bible, two from the Hebrew and one from the Greek. The first Hebrew word is zanah and is defined as: to be a harlot, commit adultery, have intercourse with false gods, to seduce. The second Hebrew word is taznuth, and simply means a type of idolatry.
The third word porneia is found in the Greek and is mentioned 32 times in the New Testament. It is defined as a broad term for all kinds of sexual immorality, including premarital sex, homosexuality, adultery, incest, bestiality, prostitution, pornography and lust.
The English word fornication is too limited a word to accurately translate the Greek and Hebrew words it represents.
Rev. Morris went on to say that having premarital sex didn’t mean you were being promiscuous as there were people who had premarital sex without being promiscuous.
God instituted marriage for many reasons, three of which are: for pleasure, procreation and for continuing the stability of family.
1 Corinthians 7 says, “Nevertheless, [to avoid] fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” This verse is basically saying that, because people cannot control themselves and so many are having immoral sex outside of marriage (whether promiscuous or not), people should get married. Then they can fulfil their passions in a moral way.
Sex outside of marriage is wrong – enjoying pleasures not intended for you, and also risking the chance of creating a life (child) outside the structure of family which God created.
The Anglican priest presented a new case to “strengthen” his argument. He said, “We don’t go into a store and buy a pair of shoes before we try them on,” equating buying a pair of shoes with choosing a spouse – the village ram concept of “buying a pig in a blanket”.
I have two questions for Rev. Morris: What happens if I try on several pairs of shoes and don’t like them, and realize No.7 shoe is what I want? Is this how I should approach sex and women? That is a form of use, misuse and abuse of a person.
I wonder if you tried out other religions before becoming a priest or if you tried out other “alternative lifestyles”.
I don’t know if Rev. Morris is married or has children but I would be very concerned and disappointed if this is the philosophy he has built his family on. If it is, the foundation is weak.
Rev. Morris, you are confusing our young people and sending the wrong message and if you lead a church, I can only assume you are confusing your flock as well.
The Bible says, “… for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Abstinence before marriage is biblical and is possible. I proudly did it for 27 years and my wife for 28 and we have been married for one year.
Finally, I want to publicly commend Reverend Errington Massiah for defending the position of the church and the Bible and not allowing Pharisaic and Scribal philosophies to destroy what the church in this country has built up.
