Sexual impurity and the corruption of our nation’s soul
CALIFORNIA, August 9, 2013 — Anyone who lived through the ‘60s knew our country would never be the same. Not only did the sexual revolution shake our national innocence, but that era produced many congressmen, governors and state legislators who are adulterous, sexually corrupt, or just plain deviant. Although former Congressman Anthony Weiner and San Diego Mayor Bob Filner are the latest examples, who can forget Bill Clinton, who disgraced the highest office in the land?
Unfortunately, morally challenged leaders aren’t the worst product of that revolution. When our culture rejected sexual restraint, it laid the foundation for two sources of national shame: abortion, and the normalizing of deviant sexual behavior.
What’s the common root to this slide into moral relativism? The loss of an age-old virtue known as sexual purity.
For generations our nation upheld a thin veneer of sexual propriety in the public realm. Though artificial in many respects, it reflected a legacy of Christian modesty inherited from our nation’s beginnings. But that restraint was virtually abandoned over the last generation.
Consider what’s now commonplace: gratuitous sex in movies; infantile potty and sexual “humor” in most TV SITCOMs; advertisements delivering soft porn; songs and video games glorifying self-gratification, sexual indulgence and voyeurism; the evening news searching for stories having sexual details; young women’s clothing catering to exhibitionism; and the Internet providing unspeakably vile content to anyone who wants it.
Should any of this be a surprise?
Sexual impurity and societal decay have been commonplace (though generally condemned) ever since the fall of mankind. Whether it is polygamy (Genesis 4:19), adultery (2 Samuel 11), rape (Genesis 34:1-7) or outright perversion (Genesis 18:1-19:29), nothing is really new under the sun. But as prior nations have learned, there’s an unavoidable cost when society openly glorifies sexual exploitation. An increasingly rotting legacy is passed to the next generation as they’re sexualized at ever younger ages and never taught the virtue of sexual self-control, or, as Hebrews 13:4 so aptly puts it, how to keep the marriage bed pure.
Obviously, there are consequences to casual sex: STDs; broken marriages; physical and emotional abuse; sexual harassment; public leaders living double lives; and yes, even personal regret and shame (Romans 2:13-15).
But it gets worse. Lack of sexual responsibility feeds an irrational attitude toward a consequence of sex: pregnancy. Clearly, God intended children to be a blessing (Psalm 127:3-5) and instituted marriage as the best way to bring them into the world. But when sexual conquest becomes culture’s highest aspiration, abortion becomes the quick fix to an unwanted nuisance. This nuisance, however, is a life created in the image of God just like his parents (Genesis 1:27).
Unfortunately, government is not a bystander in this destruction of life; it’s an accomplice. First, it makes abortion a legal right to be protected at all costs. Second, it treats students in public school as little more than animals with no control over their sexual appetites, providing explicit sex education, and then offering free condoms and trips to abortion clinics. It’s no wonder teenagers choose to follow their baser instincts.
If the death of innocent, unborn children provides little restraint to sexual promiscuity, it follows that deviant sexual appetites won’t have any restraints either.
Once sex is governed by a consumer mentality, any aberration can and will be quickly normalized. It’s not surprising that the sexual revolution opened the way for homosexuals to aggressively engage the public mind, the entertainment media, and the legal realm. Although homosexuality violates the obvious compatibility of the male-female biological design created by God (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6) and has devastating health and emotional consequences, homosexuals have successfully convinced much of our nation that it’s normal, healthy, and above criticism.
When healthy sexual norms are discarded and homosexuality is mainstreamed, any manner of sexual perversion and deviancy will seek legitimacy. Look around. Gender selection and confusion, bisexuality, transexuality, and even man-boy love relationships are all being promoted as normal and healthy.
As a result, our nation is reaping what it has been sowing: heartache, pain, disease, confusion and self-destructive behaviors that no amount of government spending will ever be able to correct (Galatians 6:7-8).
In contrast, sexual purity and self-control, abstinence before marriage, and fidelity within traditional marriage are openly ridiculed as naive and treated as religious fanaticism. Scripture is right in characterizing this worldly attitude as foolishness (1 Corinthians 2:14; 3:18-20). In fact, common sense, reason and research have always shown that societal stability is best served when sexual desires are kept within clear, respectful bounds and cherished within marriage.
If our sexualized society continues to pursue this immoral path, our country is doomed. If God’s standards continue to be ignored and denigrated, inevitably our nation’s vitality will be dissipated and its moral conscience hardened against anything God has intended for our good.
Can this slippery slope be stopped? Only if the next generation can objectively see the rotting fruit that comes from embracing sexual impurity and decides to return to behaviors that God has declared as good and beneficial.
Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankKacer or #BiblicalPolitics
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