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functionally spiritual…thus the essentials of what constitutes the culture of the people were based on religious and in deep spiritual appreciation” (p. 51).

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This novel attitude toward sex opened the door to all kinds of sexual experimentation such as multi-partner sex, same-sex relations, anonymous sex and bestiality, bisexuality, sadomasochism, pedophilia and other previously forbidden sexual experiences became the new frontiers. The more people experimented, the less gender distinctions mattered. (p. 13).

Other acts of sexual perversion include oral and anal sex which also fall into the unnatural order. Vertefeuille concludes that “sexual experiences which prohibit the meeting of persons such as voyeurism or fantasizing and masturbating over pornographic material also constitute a kind of perversion” (p. 35).

Digiacomo (1993) lists other aspects of sexual perversion as follows:

(a) Sexual sadism – the practice of receiving sexual pleasure from inflicting pain on others.

(b) Sexual masochism – the condition in which receiving pain is sexually exciting.

(c) Voyeurism – the practice of obtaining sexual pleasure by watching others undressing or having sex.

(d) Exhibitionism – the act of obtaining sexual pleasure by exposing one’s genitals to others.

(e) Incest – sexual intercourse with blood relations.

(f) Rape – forced sexual intercourse

(g) Sexual harassment – unwanted sexual advances by word or deed. (pp. 442- 444).

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Commenting on the effects of pornography on the spread of sexual aberrations, J. B. Omole (personal communication, February 19, 2014) posits that acts of sexual deviance that are available on the internet and in other print and electronic media are not helping matters in modern day sexual morality. The menace of various aspects of the abuse of human sexuality is eating deep into the moral fabrics of every society. In fact, according to her, the wider and easier access to pornographic materials facilitated by modern information and communication technology largely motivates people to experiment with and indulge in various acts of sexual perversion.

Ruggiero (1992) also points out another aspect of sexual aberration:

The modern practice of wife-swapping or mate-swapping; this is the practice where a ‘liberated’ couple joins a mate-swapping club, attend parties together, and engage in sexual activities with other club members of their choice, and then go home together. (p. 137).

Similar to this according to Ruggiero, is the nude encounter group in which men and women who have sexual problems meet as a group and learn to perform sexually by experimenting with one another, as part of the therapy.

Campbell (1987) points out the working definition of a normative sexuality as “A heterosexual intercourse within a stable adult partnership, which is traditionally sanctioned by the form of marriage” (p. 250). This implies that any act of pre-marital, extra-marital or post-marital sex forms a deviation. Campbell outlines more aspects of perversion as follows:

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(i) Necrophilia – sex with a dead body.

(ii) Fetishism – sexual attraction by one part of the body or by an inanimate object belonging to another person.

(ii) Transvestitism – derivation of erotic excitement from dressing in the clothing of the opposite sex.

(iv) Prostitution – making money from sexual intercourse. (p. 250).

Comer (1995) points out one of the most fascinating disorders related to sexuality as gender identity disorder or trans-sexualism. This is a disorder in which people persistently feel that a vast mistake has been made – they have been assigned to the wrong sex. Such persons are pre-occupied with getting rid of their primary and secondary sex characteristics, and finding their own genitals repugnant, such people seek and acquire the characteristics of the opposite sex. Comer gives more insight:

The first sex-change actually took place in 1931, but the procedure did not gain acceptance among practitioners…until 1952 when an operation converted an ex-soldier named George Jorgensen into a woman renamed Christine Jorgensen… By 1980, sex-reassignment surgery was routine in at least forty medical centers in the Western hemisphere… Approximately, 1,000 sex-change operations are performed each year in the United States.

Studies in some European countries suggest that 1 out of every 100,000 women seek sex-change surgery. (p. 512).

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This type of sex-change surgery is preceded by years of hormone treatment which culminates in the amputation of the penis and the creation of an artificial vagina for men, and the creation of a penis through the process of phalloplasty for women, and face-altering plastic surgery for both.

From the religious and cultural points of view, this is an act of deviation and perversion against both God and nature. Another popular aspect of modern sexual perversion is bisexualism which involves an individual combining both heterosexuality and homosexuality at the same time. Christian tradition was unquestionably opposed to homosexuality from the inception of the Christian religion. Normative sexual activity was construed solely in terms of sexual contact with the opposite sex within the bounds of marriage. Sex used to function at the command of society to ensure procreation and lineage interests, and was controlled by the granting or denial of the license to have sex and reproduce by both religion and the society. Religion and society through their mechanisms determined who had the right to marry, with whom and what kind of sexual activity was allowed.

Sexual aberrations obtain in virtually all societies in the world, but homosexuality is much more pronounced in Western societies than in Africa and the rest of the developing nations. According to S. C. Ezeofor (personal communication, January 10, 2014) the Christian gospel is really making impact on the lives of the people in Nigeria in the area of Christian sexual morality, in keeping the evils of homosexuality at bay. From his viewpoint, the most visible sexual aberrations

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obtainable in the Nigerian society are fornication and adultery. Corroborating this viewpoint, I. U. Ordu (personal communication, January 8, 2014) states that people in his locality including Christians are still involved in fornication and adultery as in most parts of the world, despite the preaching of the church against them. In his own input, P. O. Chinyemugo (personal communication, February 19, 2014) asserts that because members of local church congregations are prone to their cultural beliefs and practices, though people accept that the marriage institution is honorable, still sexual promiscuity such as premarital sex and adultery are prevalent. In the same vein, E. T. C. Ifediora (personal communication, February 19, 2014) laments that despite the advancement of the Gospel in our local areas, the aberrations of co-habitation, polygamy and other aspects of sexual immorality prevail among both the youth and the married people. In essence, there is no society that can be said to be totally free from the practice of one sexual deviance or the other.

Given the peculiar circumstances of the church in Africa and Nigeria in particular regarding sexual morality, most Anglican dioceses in Nigeria frown at pre-wedlock pregnancy even for intending couples. H. A. Oguike (personal communication, February 20, 2014) points out that one of the ways the church tries to discourage this anomaly is to refuse wedding the pregnant lady to her husband until after child birth, when the marriage is then formally blessed in the church without the full trappings of an original church wedding. In supporting this input, A. Afiesimama (personal communication, February 20, 2014) states that part of the major cause of

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the problem of pre-marital pregnancy, fornication and adultery is the churches' weakness in the conduct of a sustainable pre-marriage and post-marriage counseling for intending couples and those already married. On the issue of polygamy as one of the sexual anomalies in Christian ethics in Nigeria and Africa, D. N. Olinya (personal communication, January 9, 2014) states that the high rate of polygamous marriages in the Anglican Church in Nigeria is problematic because not much attention is given to its effect on the people and in the Church. According to him, this problem presents internal challenges that the Church must find solutions to, in the quest for members' total compliance to Christian sexual morality in the Anglican Church.