You all enjoy ardent and passionate love in art and
literature. Why not give it a place in real life? Why some people look
askance at passion is because they are confusing it with sensuality. Sex
love without passion is a poor, lifeless thing. Sensuality, on the other
hand, is on a level with gluttony--a physical excess--detached from
sentiment, chivalry, or tenderness. It is just as important to give sex
love its place as to avoid its over-emphasis. Its real and effective
restraints are those imposed by a loving and sympathetic companionship,
by the privileges of parenthood, the exacting claims of career and
that civic sense which prompts men to do social service. Now that the
revision of the Prayer Book is receiving consideration, I should like to
suggest with great respect an addition made to the objects of marriage
in the Marriage Service, in these terms, 'The complete realization of
the love of this man and this woman, the one for the other.'"
Turning to the specific problem of Birth Control, Lord Dawson declared,
"that Birth Control is here to stay. It is an established fact, and for
good or evil has to be accepted. Although the extent of its application
can be and is being modified, no denunciations will abolish it. Despite
the influence and condemnations of the Church, it has been practised
in France for well over half a century, and in Belgium and other Roman
Catholic countries is extending. And if the Roman Catholic Church, with
its compact organization, its power of authority, and its disciplines,
cannot check this procedure, it is not likely that Protestant Churches
will be able to do so, for Protestant religions depend for their
strength on the conviction and esteem they establish in the heads and
hearts of their people.
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