Morality: Situation Sex

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Thou shalt not exploit another person sexually. This, in effect, is the imperative that should determine the moral legitimacy of sexual intercourse, in marriage or out, says a report on "Sex and Morality" published last week by a committee of the British Council of Churches.

The committee of 13 clergymen, doctors and educators was headed by Methodist Pastor Kenneth G. Greet, father of three children and author of two books on sex relationships. It rejected the council's original instructions which were to prepare "a statement of the Christian case for abstinence from sexual intercourse before marriage and faithfulness within marriage." The morality of human sexuality, asserted the committee firmly, admits of no precise and easy answers. A principal aim of the study group, said Greet, was precisely to correct the distorted concept that the church is made up of "sexless saints sitting in judgment on passionate sins."

Rehabilitated Words. After making a sweeping summation of theological, psychiatric and medical findings on human sexuality, the committee concluded that coitus is the ultimate "expression of the whole marriage relationship," cementing love, relieving psychological tensions and contributing "to personal fulfillment and integration." But the committee refused to endorse the Biblical ban against fornication, which it found occasionally permissible, as when it is part of a "total encounter" between consenting adults.

Proceeding from these situation-ethics premises, the report endorsed birth control assistance for the unmarried, provided that it does not consist of the mere "impersonal and commercial distribution" of contraceptives. It called for the relaxing of antiabortion laws and found that masturbation may provide a legitimate means of "relief of physical tensions," though it is never more than an "impoverished substitute for the real thing." Finally, the report spoke with charity of attempts to rehabilitate four-and five-letter words, such as those used by D. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley's Lover and by Wayland Young in Eros Denied; it advocated accepting "neutral terms like penis, vagina and ejaculation" in the universal English vernacular.

Praise & Protest. The report, bannered in the press and seized upon by cartoonists, drew ardent praise and scandalized protests. Dr. Leslie Weatherhead, a past president of the Methodist Conference, found it "just right." The Rt. Rev. Ronald Williams, Anglican Bishop of Leicester, demurred: "Sexual intercourse outside marriage is wrong, and young people should be told this." This week the British Council of Churches must consider whether to accept the report as an official pronouncement, and the extremes of disagreement guaranteed a battle.