Dawn, I love your continuous emphasis on chastity as not viewing others as commodities to be used for one's own purposes. It's not about denial of pleasure but about spiritualizing all of our relationships. It's a positive model of relating to one another with respect for the dignity of the individual. This was a fabulous talk!
Anne
Anne | Homepage | 11.02.07 - 10:28 pm | #

MORE!
Robert N G | Homepage | 11.02.07 - 10:33 pm | #

Thanks, Anne and Robert! RNG, for more, come see me Nov. 10 in Syracuse (assuming men are allowed, which I'm not sure they are) -- see the Appearances page of http://www.thrillofthechaste.com for details.
Dawn Eden | Homepage | 11.03.07 - 2:29 am | #

I have it on my calendar. Please advise if I need to bring a wig.
Robert N G | Homepage | 11.03.07 - 11:43 am | #

Dawn's chastity is far sexier than all of Planned Parenthood's speakers and their contraception advice -- combined!
Del | 11.03.07 - 1:48 pm | #

Dawn, you come off delightfully in these clips--a felicitious mix of serious and light, personal and theological, and the joy of your message really lights you from within. What a gift to the Newman mission you are already! And thanks for that GKC quote about the kids and the wall--I had read it many years ago and wrongly attributed it to FJ Sheen. Time to go back and reread Orthodoxy!
Brenda from Flatbush | Homepage | 11.04.07 - 5:31 pm | #

What if i can be promiscuous and chaste at the same time. If i let my body do as it desires with a consenting partner but reserve my heart for marriage and the grand architect of the universe it's like the same thing as chastity. I refuse to let a person touch my heart unless i care for them. I just don't like the "my way or the highway" attitude of christianity. If it stays that way it will be a dying religion.
A. petro | 11.04.07 - 11:12 pm | #

If it stays that way it will be a dying religion.

Chesterton also said, "Those who have the faith have the fun." Take his simile about the fence or hedge of the Commandments that Dawn quotes vvery seriously. The West is what is dying, not Christianity in general or the Catholic Church in particular, due to sexual anarchy, degenerate contraception, and abortuary genocide.

Thank God for the courageous who speak Catholic truth in the face of softcore "I did it myyyy way" nihilism.
Athos | Homepage | 11.05.07 - 8:17 am | #

What if i can be promiscuous and chaste at the same time. If i let my body do as it desires with a consenting partner but reserve my heart for marriage and the grand architect of the universe it's like the same thing as chastity. I refuse to let a person touch my heart unless i care for them. I just don't like the "my way or the highway" attitude of christianity. If it stays that way it will be a dying religion.

The error here is that there is a split between the heart and the body. T'ain't so and I think you know this on some level. Of course everyone predicts the death of the Faith, but in fact it is the groups that have adopted the let's-tell-everyone-what-they-want-to-hear attitude that are failing.
Scott W. | Homepage | 11.05.07 - 9:19 am | #

A. Petro said What if i can be promiscuous and chaste at the same time. ... I just don't like the "my way or the highway" attitude of christianity. If it stays that way it will be a dying religion.

A. petro - your comment revolves around the idea of "self". It's all about you. It might surprise you to learn that you're correct regarding Christianity being a dying religion. It is a "dying" religion - it's about dying to self. Christ went to the cross for us - He gave his life for others, that we might be freed of that "self"-destructive focus. Then He rose to new life. When we accept that teaching, his death and resurrection as being true - we accept Christ as our only Savior. Then following his ways, we kill off all aspects of self-destruction. That killing off is the process of becoming chaste.

So being chaste is about eliminating the sin nature - which covers up the light and the glory of God. Just as you can't wallow in filth and truly call yourself clean, you can't be promiscuous and truly call yourself chaste. You won't really know true joy - you'll just be fooling your "self".

You're the decisionmaker.
So what do you want to be?
Chris Arsenault | 11.06.07 - 7:02 am | #

My tardy analogy inspired by last Sunday's gospel:

pro-abortion people : Holy Cross :: Zacheus : Jesus

It doesn't fit the circumstances in a lot of ways, but at the same time, I think we need to find ways to engage the other side. How could the Holy Cross event been better constructed to allow for that engagement with the other side without appearing to be tacitly blessing their work?
Interloper | 11.06.07 - 8:11 am | #

Re: split between heart and body

Peter Beagle's got a song in his book The Last Unicorn which deals with the unrealism of this sort of attitude. It can be sung to the tune of "The Ash Grove", if you like.

When I was a young man
and very well thought of,
I couldn't ask aught that
the ladies denied.
I nibbled their hearts
like a handful of raisins,
And I never spoke love
but I knew that I lied.
But I said to myself,
"Ah, they none of them know
The secret I shelter
and savor and save.
I wait for the one
who will see through my seeming,
And I'll know when I love
by the way I behave."

The years drifted by me
like clouds in the heavens;
The ladies went by me
like snow on the wind.
I charmed and I cheated,
deceived and dissembled,
And I sinned and I sinned
and I sinned and I sinned.
But I said to myself,
"Ah, they none of them see
There's a part of me
pure as the whisk of a wave.
My lady is late,
but she'll find I've been faithful,
And I'll know when I love
by the way I behave."

At last came a lady
both knowing and tender
Saying, "You're not at all
what they take you to be."
I betrayed her before
she had quite finished speaking,
And she swallowed cold poison
and jumped in the sea.
And I say to myself,
(when there's time for a word)
As I gracefully grow
more debauched and depraved,
"Ah, love may be strong,
but a habit is stronger --
And I knew when I loved
by the way I behaved."
Maureen | Homepage | 11.07.07 - 9:21 am | #

However a body is just a body. what is done with it does not matter after death for it is detached from the soul. Sure, one may argue that what is done to the body in life affects the soul. I don't disagree for physical malice to a human can scar a person's psyche. However I don't think that the negative emotional aspects of promiscuity are strong enough to actually damage the soul. For Eden it could be argued that it made her stronger for it was a learning experience. On top of that, I can't see god/Jesus as posing a role as the sex police. I think it is a being that is more concerned about moral values. It could care less how a person has sex.
A. Petro | 12.26.07 - 5:22 am | #