Literary Discussions

This was posted in Facebook by a learned Eastern Orthodox lay theologian:

Theologian: "She looked at me the way teenage girls look at middle-aged men: with a mixture of curiosity and horror.”

William to Diaspora readers: I would appreciate any feedback (especially from young people) as to whether my assumptions about stereotyping of older men is correct.

William: Occasionally on-line as soon as young people realize that I am 62 they revile me with terms like "pedobear" and they fail to realize that it is young people who are predatory, opportunistic, unscrupulous and seducers. If an elderly person makes some reference to sex then they are a "pervert" and yet young people see the same drive in themselves as normal, natural, healthy.

All of us have a sexual dimension which is neither perverted nor filthy but is essential to the continuation of our species. Most of us chose to regulate it just as we regulate our instincts to anger and violence (which are a survival mechanism) and our appetite for food and drink and our desire for sleep. What MAY be dirty or perverted is the manner in which we choose to express or act out our impulses.

A woman comments: But young people have that need to think that their parents only had sex once (or, that is, if they have siblings, X number of times).

Theologian: I notice that your mind went to sex, William. I just noticed how a certain girl looked at me and characterized it as curiosity/horror and thought that I had seen this before. It was an entirely asexual characterization.

William: My comment had nothing to do with your experience but was simply voicing my own frustration at how I am profiled and stereotyped. And perhaps it is YOU who jump to a judgmental conclusion because you lack the humility which your devotions should in theory endow you with; i.e. perhaps it is your pride. I said nothing hurtful about anyone in this thread, even in jest.

And rest assured that those young women most likely assume that you are some kind of pervert... they may not voice that... but I have seen countless examples where that is the underlying prejudice.

You know, in Boston in the 1970s there was one Greek lay theologian who was much published, much admired, married, with three children. I used to listen to him in discussions. He went to Communion and confession every week. He would never have acknowledged that he has sexual thoughts. He took into his home a young woman in distress which everyone saw as an act of charity. He got that young woman pregnant, divorced his wife and married the young girl. 

As the old saying goes, still waters run deep and dirty.