Faith-Friendly Sex Stores Aim to Help Keep Marriages Intact
Religious entrepreneurs are promoting faith-friendly sex shops in their self-proclaimed mission to keep marriages passionate and intact.
As The Daily Beast reports, "religious" sex toy shops are an attempt for pious couples to maintain their spark in the bedroom without compromising their morals or feeling "sinful."
Online Christian sex toy store Book 22 offers a wide variety of products and intimacy kits for married couples.
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Joy Wilson, a customer of Book 22, told National Public Radio (NPR) in 2008 that she and her husband enjoy the "sin free" sex toy business. "We pray about things before we add them to our site," Wilson told NPR.
"We live our lives very openly in front of Jesus, so we just kind of pray for direction about which way he would have us go, and I have to be honest with you -- he's really surprised us. ... Almost our whole entire 'special order' page has come about from that," Wilson added.
Orthodox Jewish-run website Kosher Sex Toys seeks to "provide products to help happily-married couples enhance their intimate moments without involving crude or indecent pictures or text," according to the store's website.
El-Asira does the same for married couples of the Muslim faith. According to the company’s website, El-Asira seeks to dispel the stigma that accompanies Muslim sexuality, transforming it into a positive part of a couple's life together.
Some Christians might shy away from claims of "sin free" sex toys, but there are believers who say such products are permissible.
As Pastor Mark Driscoll and his wife, Grace, write on the Mars Hill Church blog, sex toys are appropriate for married couples as long as they are "used together for building oneness and not alone or in lieu of natural and regular sexual intimacy," and as long as they do not replace the need for one’s spouse.
The Driscolls recently penned a book titled Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together that addresses questions and concerns regarding sexual intimacy for married couples, among other issues.
