why on Earth would Catholics be having better sex?

I was honestly surprised when I read the US News and World Report article that "Devout Catholics Have Better Sex, Study Says" that came out last week. Who knew that a bunch of devout religious people were the ones who knew how to have the most fun in bed?! I mean, this goes against all "conventional wisdom" of the world's view of married sex, especially Christian sex. The study shows that weekly church-goers have better, more frequent sex than couple who do not attend church weekly.

Devout, married Catholics have the best sex of any demographic group, the Family Research Council said at an event Wednesday, pointing to a collection of studies from the last several decades.

As a Christian, this makes complete sense. When couples are sitting in church pews week after week, they are learning about Jesus and the way He loves us. Jesus' love is total giving of self.  Couples also hear ways they can mirror their love to Christ's love. Only when we understand the author of love, God himself, can we begin to show love to others. 

But why would Catholics be leading this group in the amount and quality of sex? It must be in the way they understand Jesus' love. One way that devout Catholics are different than any other Christians when it comes to marital sex is the absence of contraception. God designed sex to be the total and complete physical and spiritual given of one another. If you hold back your fertility from your spouse (contracept), you are holding back a part of your self and therefore changing what God designed sex to be.

Believe me, I know this doesn't make sense at first. How could holding back your fertility - something you can see or touch - hinder sex with your spouse? Even if you put all of the side effects of hormonal birth control (nausea, weight gain, abdominal pain, chest paid, headaches, eye problems, blood clots, cancer, and chemical abortion just to name a few) aside for argument's sake, contraception goes against God's design of the marital act. You are mutilating your body in some form in order to experience the pleasure of sex without the God-designed life creating potential that is intrinsic to sex.

Come on! Is contraception really that big of a deal? The Catholic Church teaches as an infallible doctrine (my friend Leila at Little Catholic Bubble explains infallible doctrine concisely here) that contraception is intrinsically evil. That is, in its very design, in its very makeup, it is evil. I don't know about you, but when someone calls something evil, they aren't playing with words. (And since this is infallible doctrine, no one - not even the Pope - can change it.) 

My point is that contraception is no trite matter. It is sin, and sin separates us from God. So if we are separating ourselves from God, how could we experience the full potential of the God-designed marital act? The marital act is not only physical, but it is also spiritual. Not contracepting allows couples to open themselves to the full physical and full spiritual benefits of the God-designed martial act. And when we open ourselves up to the fullness of God in any in life - especially in marriage and sex - we experience tremendous freedom and joy and peace.

Peace to all!

kristy