The Associated Press is reporting on a story about a Catholic priest in New Franken, Wisconsin, who gave his church organist of thirty-five years a surprising ultimatum; quit her sex toy home party job or quit the church.
Apparently after meeting with Linette Servais, who is 50 and apparently does most of her work for no pay, to express his dissatisfaction with her other work (you know the work that pays), Rev. Dean Dombroski sent a letter to his congregation explaining that "Linette is a consultant for a firm which sells products of a sexual nature that are not consistent with Church teachings" and that she would have to make a decision. Linette, who says she started selling sex toys after treatment for a tumor left her experiencing sexual dysfunction, says the decision was easy; she’s still selling sex toys.
Linette is not the only woman of faith who has made sex toy sales her ministry. And while part of me is wondering where in the Church teachings it says Thou Shall Not Sell Sex Toys, knowing the kind of poor quality merchandise her company carries, I have to wonder, as the kids say, WWJD.
Read more - Philly.com: Priest Cans Organist for Sex Toy Sales
There is a terrible strain of religious thought that’s quite visible among many Catholic clergy and some Evangelical leadership. Its primary idea is that married or unmarried, people (especially women) should not enjoy sex. And if, God forbid, they do, they should feel guilty about it.
I don’t know about Wisconsin specifically, but in many states (including Texas), selling dildoes is still a criminal offense (although mere possession typically isn’t). And there are recent court decisions (including, most recently, from the federal U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit based in Atlanta) confirming that those statutes are constitutional. Two fairly recent Texas state-court appellate decisions confirming the constitutionality of the statute here have included judges who’ve done so only reluctantly and with the comment, “Here we go raising the price of dildos again!”
Sexuality issues aside, then, probably most churches don’t want their more prominent leaders to go about opening committing felonies.
We are the owners of a Christian Intimacy site called “Covenant Spice”. Our aim is to strengthen marriages and increase playfulness and intimacy in couple’s sex lives. We believe God created marriage to be a lifelong passionate romance. Overall we have had a tremendous positive response to our business and only a few negative reactions. We figure God came up with the idea of sex, so His kid’s ought to be having the best love lives out there!
That is a bit rich coming from the Church- me thinks that some personal use could be helpful.
To be fired for selling sex toys or quit her job as the church organist…that’s ludicrous. I’m glad she chose the latter.
I believe the catholic church considers sex for procreation purposes only.
Sexuality is healthy and should be practiced rather than denied. Religion in generally, goes overboard when denying sexuality to women in particular.