american-holocaust

SEX, RACE AND HOLY WAR 155European thought was dominated by Christian ideology. And as the worldof the Christian Fathers became the world of the Church Triumphant,while fluid and contested mythologies hardened into dogmatic. theology,certain fundamental characteristics of Christianity, often derived from theteachings of Paul, came to express themselves in fanatical form. Not theleast of these was the coming to dominance of an Augustinian notion ofsex as sin (and sin as sexual) along with a larger sense, as Elaine Pagelsputs it, that all of humanity was hopelessly "sick, suffering, and helpless."As late antiquity in Europe began falling under the moral control of Christiansthere occurred what historian Jacques le Goff has called Ia deroutedu corporal-"the rout of the body." Not only was human flesh thenceforwardto be regarded as corrupt, but so was the very nature of humankindand, indeed, so was nature itself; so corrupt, in fact, that only a rigidauthoritarianism could be trusted to govern men and women who, sincethe fall of Adam and Eve, had been permanently poisoned with an inabilityto govern themselves in a fashion acceptable to God. 19At its heart, Christianity expressed a horror at the tainting of godlinesswith sexuality. Some early Christian Fathers, such as Origen, had takenliterally the prophet Matthew's charge (19:11-12) that "there be eunuchs,which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven," andcastrated themselves. Such self-mutilating behavior finally was condemnedby the Church in the fourth century as being excessive and unnecessary;thenceforward celibacy would be sufficient. But then this too was carriedto extremes. Saint Paul had written (Cor. 7:1,9) that "it is good for a mannot to touch a woman. . . . But if they cannot contain, let them marry:for it is better to marry than to burn." Even marit~l sex invariably wasinfected with lust, however, so there developed in Christian culture theanachronistic institution of sexless so-called chaste marriage, and it enduredwith some popularity for nearly a thousand years. 20As Peter Brown has pointed out, however, perhaps the most remarkablething about what he calls this gran rifiuto, or "great renunciation,"was the way it quickly became the basis for male leadership in the Church.One key to understanding this phenomenon is located in the contrast betweenJudaism at the time and its radical offshoot of Christianity. For asBrown notes: "In the very centuries when the rabbinate rose to prominencein Judaism by accepting marriage as a near-compulsory criterion ofthe wise, the leaders of the Christian communities moved ip. the diametricallyopposite direction: access to leadership became identified with nearcompulsorycelibacy." The Christian leader, then, stood apart from all othersby making a public statement that in fact focused enormous attention onsexuality. Indeed, "sexuality became a highly charged symbolic marker"exactly because its dramatic removal as a central activity of life allowedthe self-proclaimed saintly individual to present himself as "the ideal ofthe single-hearted person"-the person whose heart belonged only to God. 21