What Does God Really Think About Sex?

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No institution has backed traditional morals more ardently than the Roman Catholic Church, particularly under Pope John Paul II. But within the U.S. branch of the church, there are stirrings nonetheless. The most unorthodox to date was a 1977 study commissioned by the Catholic Theological Society of America. Like this year's Presbyterian panel, the Catholic thinkers who took part declared there could be instances in which homosexual, premarital and unwed sex were moral. The group was even unwilling to outlaw adultery flatly, though it urged "extreme caution" for priests who face the issue. The views flew in the face of Vatican pronouncements made a year earlier, and the doctrine committee of the U.S. bishops later issued an unusual attack on the study. But since the mid-1970s, National Opinion Research Center polls have shown that rank-and-file U.S. Catholics are consistently more liberal than Protestants on the issue of premarital sex. The latest finding: 84% of Catholics do not always find it wrong, vs. 69% of Protestants.

Catholicism, of course, has a unique sex policy for its priests and nuns: celibacy. The debate over that tradition has heated up of late, through the exposure of a variety of sex scandals and admissions that the stricture is widely ignored. A Star Tribune newspaper poll last April, for example, revealed that one-fifth of Minnesota priests admit to violating their vows. But Cincinnati's Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, president of the U.S. hierarchy, still contends, "At a time when the whole of our culture is saying you've got to have sexual fulfillment and sexual activity, I think it's important for the church to give witness that that is not necessary for a productive and full human life."

The notion of the church as a bulwark against America's voracious sexual culture is also taken up by Bishop Frey, leader of the Episcopal traditionalists. In a letter to fellow prelates he argues that "one of the most attractive features of the early Christian communities . . . was their radical sexual ethic and their deep commitment to family values. These things . . . drew many people to them who were disillusioned by the promiscuous excesses of what proved to be a declining culture. Wouldn't it be wonderful for our Church to find such countercultural courage today?"

But as the pressures and practices of modern society continue to evolve, issues of right and wrong in sex, that most intricate aspect of human existence, are likely to become even more perplexing to most Americans. And now churches that once served as sources of clear moral guidance are likewise grappling uncertainly with these issues as they try to decide whether their sexual standards will derive from biblical tradition or the fluid folkways of modernity.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE

CREDIT: TIME Charts

From a telephone poll of 1,000 American adults taken for TIME/CNN on June 4-5 by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman. Sampling error is plus or minus 3%. "Not sures" omitted.

CAPTION: Question asked of people who worship:

Is It always wrong for. . .

. . . an unmarried adult to have sex?

. . . an unmarried teenager to have sex?

. . . a married person to have sex with someone other than his or her spouse?

Should religious groups bar sexually active gays or lesbians from the clergy?