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Aromanticism and Religion


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I haven't labled myself as an particular faith (yet), I just believe in God like a deist does. Though I'm getting super into Sikhism and am into tarot & astrology related things. And I love learning about other peoples religions.   

Edited by Lovebird
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On 1/25/2022 at 8:55 PM, Bumble_Bee_ said:

"The concept of Hellenistic religion as the late form of Ancient Greek religion covers any of the various systems of beliefs and practices of the people who lived under the influence of ancient Greek culture during the Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire."

It has nothing to do with my aromanticism tho lol

Well does it? Greek culture is the one major influence on Western culture that was aro-friendly and LGBTQ-friendly (at least compared to the other main influence: the Judeo-Christian tradition): Platonic Love, The Symposium, Alexander the Gay Great, Sappho, Lesbos, etc.

I also like that they had an Aphrodite Pandemos: Aphrodite for all people, who was the goddess of physical desire, not of romantic love.

While this is ace-exclusive, it is still less weird from my perspective than the modern assumption that romanticism is “for all people”.

But… Greeks had slaves. And were misogynistic, even measured by the very low standards of the 1st millennium BC. I mean the typical Athenian “free” woman was basically illiterate and excluded from public life.

Except for Sparta, where women had more freedoms than anywhere in the Greek world. But Spartans ritually slaughtered the Helots every year and seem “a bit” fascist to me.

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I personally have no religious views at all but I find religion facanteing, the art, music and the effort put into the practice is interesting, plus hearing and talking with someone different than me is so cool so I enjoy learning about religion.

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I'm Jewish (that wasn't one of the options for some reason)

I'm not very religious (I don't keep shabbat and my family doesn't go to shul, but I do keep kosher), and it hasn't really affected my aromanticism much, beyond an unspoken expectation that I'll get married and have kids one day

 

Edited by AromanticAardvark
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On 1/11/2019 at 9:47 PM, Yarenios said:

I'm a Conservative (capital C not lowercase ?) Jew and I agree with a lot of what you say. I appreciate the questioning nature of Judaism and I feel like that has allowed me to come to conclusions about my aroaceness and my religious beliefs that I may not have otherwise. I am very culturally Jewish and pretty religiously Jewish (although I see God as more of a concept or idea than most). All my Jewish friends are very allo and rather preppy so spending time with them is always interesting. Anyway it's cool that there are other Jews like you out here since we are what .5% of 2% (at least in the US)? 

lol, ayyyyy im the less then 5%%%%%%%%% yall wanna make like a group or subchat on here, 

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  • 4 months later...

Member of the Church of Jesus Christ here, like @mirithepuppy! I definitely agree with some of the things she said:

On 1/13/2019 at 1:42 AM, mirithepuppy said:

while the people of the church can be judgmental, I have never felt like the teachings of the Church in any way exclude or condemn me for being aromantic. I know that God made me the way I am

but on a more personal level, I'm actually on the flip side:

On 1/13/2019 at 1:42 AM, mirithepuppy said:

He has not told me to date or get married, and I think his plan for me takes into account the fact that I'm aro.

I absolutely agree that the Lord's plan for me takes into account the fact that I'm aroace, but I believe that dating and marriage is in the Lord's plan for me. (I could go on about how I know, but that's kind of off topic and also personal.) There's a lot of things that I'm not sure about (biological kids, romance, etc) but I am absolutely sure that I'll get the opportunity to be joyfully married. I am sure that I'll have the opportunity to have kids, though I don't know about biological vs adopted. Life is going to be an adventure, and I'm excited for it!

One thing that being a member changes for me is that I plan to get married in this life. In my church, we believe that those who don't get an opportunity to marry in this life will be able to in the next life. To someone of the opposite sex, specifically. (Is this something we could argue about? Yes. Yes it is. Will we be arguing about it? No, hopefully not. This is not me attempted to condemn or pressure, this is me expressing a personal belief. No one is required to agree with anything I say, and I have no right to try and make anyone agree.)

Another thing that being a member changes for me is that I plan to get married to a guy. (I mentioned this on aven, too: this isn't me being pressured into anything, and this isn't me trying to pressure anybody else into doing anything. This is a personal decision that I have chosen for myself.)

The fact that 1) I'll only marry a male, devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ and 2) I'm aroace and can't feel all the things a straight person could means that my 'pool' of people I could marry is much smaller, even before considering things like personality, whether we'd be compatible to be together forever, etc. But I know it's worth it! Marrying a member with a rock-solid testimony is what I know will bring me the greatest amount of joy, and marrying someone who loves me for who I am and for who I can become is incredibly important. It just means that finding a partner I can and want to marry is going to be a bit different for me than for straight members of this church. (I say 'straight members' instead of 'other members' bc I know for an absolute fact that there are more lgbt+ members than it seems. at first glance it seems like everybody's cishet, but ohohoho that is not the case! (The fact that there are other lgbt+ members makes me really happy. Anyhow, back on topic-))

I'm not worried about it, though I do get a bit anxious about it every now and then. I know it'll work out not just ok, but magnificently; I'll be so, so happy. And that knowledge, especially in the face of all sorts of confusion and anxieties and stress and fear brings me so much hope and joy. I know I'm going to be better than ok, and that makes everything else ok.

I know this was super long, thanks for hanging in there. If you've got any questions or want sources from official church resources, I can go find them. And if anybody wants to more about how marriage is viewed by the Church of Jesus Christ (it's super cool, actually! It's like friendship! But Ultimate Friendship!), not just how these views affect me, specifically, then ask and I'll do my best to answer and point you towards actual church resources.

Edited by CobaltBlue
fixed typo
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Now this is a long and twisted tale, one I may more fully tell someday. For now let it suffice to say that I was born into a family of Jehovah's Witnesses, which I left as a teenager. Pretty much my whole family left little by little in the few years following my mom being disfellowshipped, so I don't experience the family shunning a lot of other ex-witnesses do in case anyone was wondering. Throughout my adult life I experimented with many spiritual paths, some conventional, most less so. I discovered Paganism and Wicca early on, and Ceremonial Magick shortly after. And then I found Left Hand Path and Satanism, which would captivate me for years to come. And obviously Aleister Crowley and Thelema were well known to me from practically the beginning. Though I would off and on dip my toes into Thelema and take on many of Crowley's ideas into my own personal path, it wasn't until very recently that I decided to fully delve into it as a serious spiritual discipline. In addition, and to counterbalance the "out there" esoteric lore, I also took up study of the psychological theories of Carl Jung to keep my mind grounded in something more empirical.

Now the central teaching of Thelema is that everyone has a True Will (instead of True Love!) that they are meant to discover, enact and fulfil in order to feel like a complete human being. In this process one gains a closeness to the Divine, often described as Love, from the Greek word Agape. Thelema in Greek means Will. Hence the (in)famous dictum 

"Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law! Love is the Law, Love under Will!"

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/1/2022 at 2:15 AM, The Gray Warlock said:

Pretty much my whole family left little by little in the few years following my mom being disfellowshipped, so I don't experience the family shunning a lot of other ex-witnesses do in case anyone was wondering.

Most people don't know the extent of shunning in the JW Org. Like that it is applied even to family members.

I'm always amazed how positive JWs are still regarded. At most people think it's just another high-control group with some cooky and bigoted beliefs.

But in reality JWs are way worse. They rival Scientology. In fact, while Scientology tries to suck you dry financially, they aren't against you getting life-saving treatments.

PS: never was part of that club but had friends in the ORG.

On 7/1/2022 at 2:15 AM, The Gray Warlock said:

I discovered Paganism and Wicca early on, and Ceremonial Magick shortly after. And then I found Left Hand Path and Satanism, which would captivate me for years to come. And obviously Aleister Crowley and Thelema were well known to me from practically the beginning. Though I would off and on dip my toes into Thelema and take on many of Crowley's ideas into my own personal path, it wasn't until very recently that I decided to fully delve into it as a serious spiritual discipline.

This is kind of funny, you made it to a storybook apostate. Once a JW told me about Satanic influences in ... Mulan. The Disney movie. I could not believe it. So I'd like to see their reaction to Aleister Crowley. 😆

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On 7/9/2022 at 12:19 PM, DeltaV said:

Most people don't know the extent of shunning in the JW Org. Like that it is applied even to family members.

I'm always amazed how positive JWs are still regarded. At most people think it's just another high-control group with some cooky and bigoted beliefs.

But in reality JWs are way worse. They rival Scientology. In fact, while Scientology tries to suck you dry financially, they aren't against you getting life-saving treatments.

PS: never was part of that club but had friends in the ORG.

Agreed. Never been in the JW cult, but have known people who were. One lady was suicidal after the shit they put her through, and I had to talk her out of it multiple times.

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On 7/9/2022 at 11:19 AM, DeltaV said:

Most people don't know the extent of shunning in the JW Org. Like that it is applied even to family members.

I'm always amazed how positive JWs are still regarded. At most people think it's just another high-control group with some cooky and bigoted beliefs.

But in reality JWs are way worse. They rival Scientology. In fact, while Scientology tries to suck you dry financially, they aren't against you getting life-saving treatments.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. Sometimes I forget how unique my life experience is and most people aren't going to understand what I'm talking about

On 7/9/2022 at 11:19 AM, DeltaV said:

 

This is kind of funny, you made it to a storybook apostate. Once a JW told me about Satanic influences in ... Mulan. The Disney movie. I could not believe it. So I'd like to see their reaction to Aleister Crowley. 😆

Well, I sure freaked the hell out of my mom I'll tell you that! My oldest brother and I had checked out by that point (we were in our late teens), and my younger siblings were too young to really be indoctrinated, but Mom was still very much in and hoping to be reinstated (which almost never happens). And she was totally scared of demons and all that and was afraid I was going to ruin my life with this stuff. She even thought I sacrificed one of our cats when it disappeared (turned out it was one of our neighbors, also a local policeman, who'd been trapping cats and leaving them in a field #smalltownlife) It was a point of tension between us. Luckily my brother started dating a Wiccan who Mom liked (they're still close to this day) and could help me to smooth things out.

The Satanophobia in the org is insane! Everything, EVERYTHING, is subject to possession and/or influence by Satan and his demons! Watch some "Satanic Panic" videos from the 80s, the Witnesses are a level above that. Comics, movies, kids cartoons, anything featuring "occult" subjects (even unicorns!) is suspect.

Storybook Apostate. I like that!

 

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  • 2 months later...

nonreligious but raised lutheran. i feel some disillusionment with some religious ideals (marriage and the like) as i'm constantly surrounded by what seems like some weird idealized version of them, but otherwise i have no problem with religion as i was raised in an accepting household

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  • 1 month later...
On 7/9/2019 at 2:38 PM, BlueKumul said:

 

How many religions do have a problem with asexuality, though? Christianity certainly doesn't - Jesus was an asexual and chastity is an ideal in most churches. Same for Buddhism. Islam might have a problem, as it want its followers to procreate. Paganism? Given its nature orientation, sex is a huge part of nature, so "traditional" heathens could have a problem. Based on lack of bigots in your community, I reckon you are a Wicca-like Pagan rather than a folkish one.

Yes, it’s been highly encouraged to have children, but it is not fardh (not mandatory or obligatory). Nor is it fardh to marry (it is a very recommenced Sunnah, however). None of the imams of the six books of Hadith ever married, and thus, never had children. 

 

Especially the fact that many asexual and/or aromantic Muslims may not be able to fulfil the rights of their spouse, makes marriage tricky for them.

 

See this: it is makruh (discouraged/reprehensible) for those who are not afraid of falling into sin, but are afraid of not being able to fulfill the rights of the potential spouse; and it is haram (unlawful/prohibited) for a man who cannot provide financially for his spouse, or for a man or woman who cannot fulfill the rights of their potential spouse, unless he/she informs the potential spouse of this and the spouse agrees.

You can check out more here: https://awaybeyondtherainbow.buzzsprout.com/746186/6222148-36-on-marriage-and-celibacy-part-i

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On 7/9/2019 at 11:38 AM, BlueKumul said:

How many religions do have a problem with asexuality, though? Christianity certainly doesn't - Jesus was an asexual and chastity is an ideal in most churches. Same for Buddhism. Islam might have a problem, as it want its followers to procreate. Paganism? Given its nature orientation, sex is a huge part of nature, so "traditional" heathens could have a problem. Based on lack of bigots in your community, I reckon you are a Wicca-like Pagan rather than a folkish one.

Mainstream Christianity assumes that Jesus remained celibate for his whole life.

But that doesn't mean he was ace.

Ofc, this question is rather taboo.

At least in the Bible nothing about Jesus' sexuality is mentioned and he never seems to feel any sexual attraction. Also Satan does not use such stuff (use your imagination, e. g. sexy demons) to tempt him. Rather he tempts Jesus with food.  :cakeslice: Very ace.

Oh, btw, Thomas Aquinas at least stated that it would be sinful for a spouse to consistently refuse to "pay the marriage debt" (aka refuse to have sex). 🤷‍♂️

Still, overall at least Catholic Christianity regards sex as something very carnal and incompatible with highest spiritual purity. That's why priests have to be celibate.

For Pagans it's probably a lot of the symbolism which may make asexuals and non-cis-gendered people feel excluded. I'm not an expert on those religions but in their favor in 90% of cases this seems rather indirect. It's not like they officially denounce asexuality.

Ok, there are still the other 10% of Pagan communities that have turned rather fringe, like have extreme right-wing or suffer from a "TERF infestation".

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  • 2 weeks later...

Am I allowed to continue the discussion or have you got all the answers in a couple of years? Well, I'm going to say it anyway, since that's what's being discussed here.
I am not a believer, but I respect the religions of all nations. When I hear a person say they are an atheist and specifically imply a direction, I am confused by their interest in people's choice of religions. Read at least something from here https://firstchurchlove.com and answer, are you still interested in this question, or not? It's like you're asking what my underwear or income is. Can you imagine these people with different religions, or are you asking these questions for something else?

 

Edited by LaurenBennett
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21 hours ago, LaurenBennett said:

Am I allowed to continue the discussion or have you got all the answers in a couple of years? Well, I'm going to say it anyway, since that's what's being discussed here.

No problem, go ahead... 🙂 :aropride:

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On 11/5/2022 at 8:02 AM, DeltaAro said:

Mainstream Christianity assumes that Jesus remained celibate for his whole life.

But that doesn't mean he was ace.

Ofc, this question is rather taboo.

At least in the Bible nothing about Jesus' sexuality is mentioned and he never seems to feel any sexual attraction. Also Satan does not use such stuff (use your imagination, e. g. sexy demons) to tempt him. Rather he tempts Jesus with food.  :cakeslice: Very ace.

Oh, btw, Thomas Aquinas at least stated that it would be sinful for a spouse to consistently refuse to "pay the marriage debt" (aka refuse to have sex). 🤷‍♂️

Still, overall at least Catholic Christianity regards sex as something very carnal and incompatible with highest spiritual purity. That's why priests have to be celibate.

For Pagans it's probably a lot of the symbolism which may make asexuals and non-cis-gendered people feel excluded. I'm not an expert on those religions but in their favor in 90% of cases this seems rather indirect. It's not like they officially denounce asexuality.

Ok, there are still the other 10% of Pagan communities that have turned rather fringe, like have extreme right-wing or suffer from a "TERF infestation".

Some do take the verse that says Jesus was "tempted in every way as we are" to mean He was bisexual or pansexual. But who really knows. I don't pretend to.

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11 minutes ago, Collie said:

Some do take the verse that says Jesus was "tempted in every way as we are" to mean He was bisexual or pansexual. But who really knows. I don't pretend to.

Seriously, after having read the New Testament multiple times, I've come to the conclusion that Jesus was either aroace or pan.

Really, nothing else makes any sense....

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In the bible I read (King James) he seemed asexual. However, he was not aromantic. While some insist on downplaying the fact that he stood still & accepted a kiss from Judas, you can't really explain away the moment when he berates Simon the Pharisee for not kissing him. Clearly homoromantic.

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I’m a Christian, I don’t really feel right in any specific denomination at this time.Raised Catholic,live with Catholics and I go to a Catholic church(don’t really have a choice though) but that didn’t really play a huge part in my self discovery and acceptance. 

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