Sex Therapy Video Series
Sinless Sex Out Now
Sinless Sex
A Challenge to Religions
By Dr. William R. Stayton
Have you ever had a discussion of sex and religion and felt pulled apart internally? Have you ever wondered if you could be sexual and religious at the same time? Have you ever been put in the position where you had to choose between acting out sexually in a safe, fun and experimental way or being religious with your sexual activity limited to marriage and procreation? Have you ever felt spiritual, but not religious? In your religious tradition, if any, did you have positive sexuality education that helped you work through feelings about masturbation, homosexuality, pre-marital heterosexual sex, or safer sex techniques or were you told what you had to feel?
These are not new questions. Most of them have been asked in one way or another from the beginning of modern religions. It is difficult to be in a conversation about sexuality without religion coming up or in a conversation about religion without sexuality coming up as a topic. The two go together, yet I am told over and over again by religionists, sexologists and lay people that the topic of sexuality and religion is irreconcilable. My experience, as both a sexologist and a theologian, is that theologians do not trust sexologists, sexologists are suspicious of theologians, and the lay public is totally confused about both fields. This book attempts to address the importance of reconciling these difficult, but important, areas of human experience.
“Every person involved in organized religion should read this book. Stayton recounts the challenges and barriers that religious institutions have faced in addressing sexuality in a meaningful and helpful way. It's time for religious institutions to recognize that sexuality is a fundamental aspect of being human and is expressed in many diverse ways that need to be celebrated and affirmed.”
Eli Coleman, PhD.
Academic Chair in Sexual Health
Program in Human Sexuality, University of Minnesota Medical School
“I've waited forty years for Bill Stayton to write this amazing book. Based on his decades of work as a minister and sexologist, Bill powerfully brings together religion, spirituality, and sexuality. I have learned so much from Bill about how we are sexually and spiritually are connected - now let him teach you!”
The Rev. Dr. Debra W. Haffner
President Emerita, Religious Institute
”He’s a prophet of pleasure, born on Christmas Day, the best story-telling educator I’ve seen in action, and a gifted healer of those whose sexuality doesn’t fit the confines of Old Time Religion. When Bill Stayton and I met, I was a gay, recovering Catholic who found toxic any references to the Church. There was sexuality and religion, and never the twain shall meet. But, this Baptist pastor’s delight in all expressions of one’s sexual self, even those I had previously judged as unacceptable, made me a believer not in Church doctrine and authority, but rather in the inseparable link between the intimacy of self and the love of God.”
Brian McNaught
Author, Corporate Trainer on LGBTQ Issues
“Sex Camp,” “On Being Gay”, “Are You Guys Brothers?”
“This was a wonderful read. Well written, easy to read, educational, and should be a must read for all people. We must learn more about our sexuality.”
Joycelyn Elders, MS, MD
15th Surgeon General of the United States
Professor of Medicine, University of Arkansas
“Wearing the hats of both a sexologist and Christian pastor, Bill Stayton in his Sinless Sex convinces us that we can’t reduce the breadth of human sexual diversity to the teachings of act-oriented religions. He understands that the spiritual and the erotic are avenues for meaning-making, and he clearly and concisely challenges organized religions to embrace instead the teachings of pleasure and faith’s central premise, love.”
Beverly Dale, DMin
Founder of the Incarnation Institute for Sex & Faith and author of "Advancing Sexual Health for the Christian Client: Data & Dogma"
“I recommend Sinless Sex for the reason the title suggests, that sexuality is not about sin but is as Dr. Stayton so well demonstrates, a natural part of our biological and spiritual world. As he says, “Sexual pleasuring does not hinder spiritual growth; on the contrary, it has great power to expand it.” Based on an uncommon expertise in both theology and sexuality, and an appreciation of science, this book can offer to a wide range of people, a wide range of ways of thinking about sexual morality, to their benefit and ours.”
Betsy Crane, PhD
Retired Professor / Former Director
Center for Human Sexuality Studies, Widener University
“Dr. Stayton’s book is full of his personal and professional wisdom and includes the enthusiasm, passion, and compassion that he is known for around the world from his teaching and lecturing. His stories from his career are relatable and jump right off the page as if to come to life. The book is as much a theology, religious history, and life-skills book as it is a primer on the key elements of sexuality that each of us should have in mind every day. He engages the reader in conversation, offering fresh perspectives, wrestling with debates about sex and religion, and posing challenges for readers to take on across the lifespan. Dr. Stayton invites readers to think of themselves holistically and to take a positive sexuality approach to their own life and in their relationships with others, whether they are lovers, friends, or family.”
Justin Sitron, PhD
Associate Dean, College of Health & Human Services
Director, Interdisciplinary Sexuality Research Collaborative, Widener University
About Dr. William R. Stayton
BILL STAYTON, MDIV, ThD, PhD is a psychologist, sexologist, and theologian. After serving as pastor, hospital chaplain, and seminary faculty member, he was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Widener University, and Morehouse School of Medicine. He received a Gold Medal Award from the World Association for Sexual Health for promoting dialogue with religion and medicine about sexuality. Bill is married and has four children, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
