by Url Scaramanga
I would like to thank Mr. Victor T. Cheney for recently sending me a copy of the second edition of his self-published pamphlet titled “Celibacy Guaranteed: For a Safe and Happy Future.” Mr. Cheney has asked us to share parts of his pamphlet with you.
From page 3:
There is only one way to be sure of permanently eliminating the sex drive and guaranteeing the purity of our priesthood, and that is to remove the source of the hormone which causes it and the aggressive instinct which is its cohort?. Removal of the testes for the purification of the priesthood is not some new idea or experimental notion; it has been used for millennia. The history of this means of assuring purity is still traceable in spite of the suppression of information on the practice since the First Nicaean Council in 325 A.D.
A cornerstone of Mr. Cheney’s argument is Mark 9:42-46:
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
The pamphlet goes on to trace the history of castration both in Scripture and church history, as well as medical advances ensuring the safe and risk-free removal of the offending organs.
Part II, “The Benefits of Castration,” outlines how the prescribed solution would alleviate sexual temptation, crime, disease, pain, anguish, psychoses, degradation, suffering, premature mortality, acne, and baldness. “Castration offers a blessed relief from all of these problems that bedevil us.” Full of statistics and citations, “Celibacy Guaranteed” is an insightful, detailed, and frighteningly logical read.
Apart from wrestling with the best way to handle the growing epidemic of sexual immorality within the church, Mr. Cheney’s pamphlet should make us stop and think once again about the ramifications of our hermeneutical approach to Scripture. I recommend taking Scot McKnight’s very popular Hermeneutics Quiz to determine your own views and possible inconsistencies.
[For the record, Url does not advocate castration as a legitimate method of sin management.]
