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Christianity and sex make strange bedfellows as the following vignettes will show. These religious potboilers make great beach reading and confirm your worst fears about men of the cloth.
Take My Wife, Please . . .
 We'll start in the early 1830s with the story of the prophet Matthias. Robert Matthews, the son of Scottish immigrants was born on the family farm in Cambridge, New York. Raised in an offshoot of the Scots Presbyterian religion Matthews grew up in a rigorously conservative environment. Orphaned at the age of seven or eight he was raised by different families in his church. When he became an adult one family helped him set up a small mercantile, which allowed him to marry and start a family. Financial upsets later caused him to lose the store and he moved his young family to New York. There he entered the brutal world of wage labor which he viewed with contempt.
Matthew's sense of indignity, coupled with mystical religious teachings, caused him to believe that there was a higher purpose for his life. Reading much like a Kafka novel "The Kingdom of Matthias" (1) traces the descent that convinced "the prophet Matthias" that he actually was God incarnate. A brief interlude with prophet Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons), shows how closely the beliefs of these two prophets paralleled each other although Smith ultimately rejected Matthias.
Preying on wealthy families in Manhattan and the New York countryside Matthias was able to build a small, but devoted congregation, dependent on him for every thought and movement. Over time he began to dissolve marriages and remarry people according to his whims. Commandeering another man's wife and marrying his own already married daughter to the cuckold was only one of Matthias' more outrageous feats.
The suspicious death of one of his wealthier adherents brought a murder charge which led to the unraveling of his "ministry." As a fan of biographies the surprise ending shocked and delighted me, adding to the complexity of a much-admired historical figure. But I won't spoil it for you.
Religion, Murder, Bombing, Arson and Nudism in the 1950s
Many thanks to Urania235 of Detroit for sending us information on the strange Canadian sect of Russian immigrants known as the Duokhobors. "Doukho-bortsi" translates as "spirit wrestlers" and the early Duokhobors were persecuted as heretics in Russia. The sect was aided on their journey from Russia to Canada by Leo Tolstoy and Quaker sympathizers at the turn of the century.
The book, "Terror in the Name of God," (2) by Simma Holt was unfortunately available only as a reference copy at our local library. Oddly enough the librarian was Canadian and remembered growing up as a child in the 50s watching the Duokhobors march naked through her city. The book is full of photographs of the followers stripping off their clothes, setting fire to buildings and the destruction of public properties that they bombed. Ms. Holt describes the group as a "huge crime syndicate of at least twenty-five hundred people."
The Duokhobors were led by a series of polygamous, charismatic men who claimed to be Christ incarnate and required their followers to relinquish all their worldly goods to the group. They said that God told them to burn and strip. The Duokhobor are still active today and have an interesting web site. The site is sparse and the only reference to past noteriety is contained in their disclaimer, "The stresses of this transitionary period have resulted in a variety of changes. In the case of a small number of people this has resulted in a bizarre and tragic behavior completely incompatible with the Duokhobor ideals of non-violence and pacifism."
Christian Modern Primitives
Lest you think that religion in the USA is any less bizarre let me briefly touch on the subject of female genital mutilation. The practice is mistakenly thought of as a bizarre custom practiced by religious fanatics in foreign countries in a time long ago. But this brutal operation is practiced on a daily basis in the Middle East, Africa and the United States by Muslims, Coptic Christians, Protestants, Catholics and others.
One maverick surgeon from Ohio, Dr. James E. Burt, as recently as 1979 performed what he called the "Love Surgery" on his female patients. Convinced that surgically removing the tip of the clitoris would enhance sexual pleasure he practiced for ten years before this unnecessary, and harmful, procedure became common knowledge and he gave up his license. (3)
Thank Heaven for Little Boys
Fast forward to the "me decade," the 1980s. The most amazing thing about the sex scandal involving evangelist Mario Ivan "Tony" Leyva and the 100+ boys he molested and pimped to other ministers and government agents is that it is not common knowledge. Leyva was sentenced to 20 years in prison and is just now coming up for parole. Two other ministers associated with the case were released in the last few years.
The author of "Brother Tony's Boys," (4) Mike Echols, a dedicated crusader against NAMBLA (the North American Man/Boy Love Association) and an expert on pedophilia, writes in a surprisingly graphic style. His recounting of various sexual abuses are unnecessarily detailed and repetitive, a style better suited to the appetites of the antagonists of his story than to the tastes of the general public.
But the book shows vividly the tragic consequences of mindlessly believing and trusting ANY man of God. The Christian ministry is a magnet for perverts and con artists and men such as Tony Leyva continue to prey on the poor and lonely bilking them of every shred of human dignity as well as money and wealth.
Papa Don't Preach
Ending on a lighter note please check out the Condomania web site which sells the Immaculate Conception Condom. Their motto is, "If you conceive, it will be a miracle." Don't laugh! The Vatican, guardian of the world's bedrooms, holds investments in a pharmaceutical company that markets birth control pills! (5) They get you coming and going.
Have a hot and sexy summer.
NOTES
(1) Paul E. Johnson & Sean Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias (Oxford University Press, 1994). [back]
(2) Simma Holt, Terror in the Name of God (Crown, 1965).[back]
(3) Marianne Sarkis, Female Genital Mutilation (Internet, 1995). [back]
(4) Mike Echols, Brother Tony's Boys (Prometheus Books, 1996). Brother Tony's Boy web site, WARNING: The 187K home page tends to crash browsers. [back]
(5) Austin Miles, Church & State: A Secret Marriage (Internet). "The Vatican invests in Instituto Farmacologico Sereno, the pharmaceutical firm that manufactures the oral contraceptive called Luteolas, a huge money maker. This is documented in the book titled, "In God's Name," (Bantam, 1984) pages 26, written by former Vatican insider David Yallop. The findings of this book were widely quoted in The New York Post after its release."
Austin Miles wrote "Don't Call Me Brother, A Ringmaster's Escape from the Pentecostal Church," (Prometheus Books, 1989) an autobiography detailing scandals and scams in the Assemblies of God church and his arduous journey out of that religion. [back]
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