And it was hardly admirable or mature for him to blame his parents. God created a good world. I seriously doubt that responsible sexual activity carries the least taint of sin. Mankind has always tended to, excuse the phrase, screw things up royally.

It's sort of like wine, which is very delicious and healthful in right proportions to life but can easily be misused. I get a big kick out of fundies railing against any use of wine, when Jesus certainly indulged and there had to be great significance attached to the first recorded miracle. Recently I read The Wesley Book of Days, wherein a physician attributed a person's early demise to the fact that for the last 7 years of his life, he'd taken to drinking water.

I don't know what that church says about it now - many denominations veered away from their founder's original decrees - but when I have a glass of wine, I like to toast Jesus. But then I'm one those oddballs who still love the tradition of setting an empty place at the dinner table for the 'unseen guest'. I'm also fiercely attached to the notion of opening a window in the room when a person dies, too, to let the soul fly happily away even if it is symbolic. Mostly. Maybe it has something to do with the Irish in me.