Why are priests not allowed to have sex?
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The priesthood used to be mostly scholars and monks, (and occasionally criminals or social outcasts,) who initially withdrew from society because they didn’t quite fit in. Maybe they were too strongly pious or intellectual to get along with the average group, or maybe because of alternative sexuality or antisocial tendencies.
People who didn’t “fit in” but weren’t necessarily considered irredeemable were encouraged to persue religion as a lifestyle, the assumption being that since “god has a plan for everyone,” then contemplation and study of God’s will might “straighten them out” or become their true calling.
There was a time when monks and priests were known for drunkeness and debauchery, but of course this image hurt their credibility and status in the community, so in the interest of public image and diplomacy it was decided that priests would denounce Earthly pleasures entirely to focus on more spiritual matters.
(This of course led to rampant cases of inter-clerical homosexuality and grooming parishioners for rape or pederasty behind closed doors which continues to plague the church to this day.)
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