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Human Persons, Secularism and Sexual Perversion

The Bible on Sex

The Bible teaches us that sexual activity is a gift from God, and while it is a good thing when properly used, it is not the greatest good. For example, a good sex life is important for a solid marriage, but there are more important things than sex in a healthy marriage (e.g., mutual respect, a common sense of mission and so forth). Sexual activity is to be practiced for the purposes of mutual pleasure-giving, mutual expressions of love and connection and procreation, all within the bounds of heterosexual marriage.

But when God and His purposes for life are set aside, and a physicalistic culture that overemphasizes the body takes over, sex easily becomes the highest good. And sexual preoccupation leads to sexual perversion and addiction.

This is exactly what has happened in our increasingly secularized culture. I want to explain this progression and highlight some real-life examples. This, I believe, will show us what happens when we abandon biblical absolutism in favor of secular relativism. This is only one symptom of a culture in which sex has gone mad, but it is an interesting study that illustrates broader trends that ensue once God is abandoned.

Media Evasion

Have you ever watched the so-called experts in the news almost universally give the wrong analysis of an issue? Have you known in your heart what the real issue is and been flabbergasted at how so many prominent media leaders can't seem to get it? I don't know about you, but when this happens to me, I have trouble staying in my easy chair. Now, I know that a lot of my opinions are wrong or ill-informed, and I often learn from reading and watching media analyses. But sometimes, it seems as though those in the media don't want to see what the real issue is.

Well, I'm getting tired of all the evasion, hand-wringing and denial about sexual issues in our culture. From celebrity teen pregnancies to Paris Hilton sex videos, the media cover the stories without addressing the real issue. One of the greatest examples I've seen of this during the past few years is the outbreak of female teachers having sex with their junior and senior high school students. And yes, I do believe this qualifies as an outbreak.¹

It's not just that it's reported more today, though that may be true. No, it's worse. In my opinion, the media don't want to get at the root of the problem because that would make them too uncomfortable. It would call into question their own beliefs and actions, which tend to be promiscuous. And it would threaten the entertainment and advertising industries that provide their salaries, since those industries use sex to make money.

The rest of this article will show what led to something as overtly immoral as female teachers having sex with their students. I'll also show why this issue is covered by the media, but not criticized and condemned as it should be.

Here's What's Going On:

1. From 1900-1950, Americans erroneously came to believe that the hard sciences were the only source of knowledge about reality. Anything that could not be tested by empirical science could not be known. The result: Political, moral and religious claims were removed from the realm of knowledge and truth and placed in the privatized realm of personal feeling. Knowledge of moral truth about sexual behavior went the way of the dodo. And once knowledge of truth is gone, the rational basis for judging some things to be right and others to be wrong goes with it.
2. In life, generally, and in the area of sexual behavior in particular, the vacuum created by the displacement of knowledge of truth was filled by "desire satisfaction." Rather than making the goal of life the search for (an apparently unknowable) truth, people began to seek the satisfaction of desire as the reason for life. The result: Anything goes as long as it doesn't harm someone else, and no one should judge or limit other people's quest for instant gratification in the satisfaction of sexual desire.
3. Sex becomes decoupled from love and marriage and is solely a means to pleasure. The result: People become addicted to sexual satisfaction, they live pre-occupied with sex, and one's sexual partner becomes a mere object, a means to satisfying one's desire. Any means to an end is disposable if a better means is discovered, so divorce, multiple partners and surrogate partners (e.g., pornography) become a substitute for real male-female relationships. Sex is no longer one means of mutual pleasure and love within the safety net of marriage.
4. Given that sex becomes a preoccupation and an addiction, movies, magazines, music and even advertisements are created to offer American addicts a regular fix. Even news programs that cover female teachers having sex with students do not seem to to report the whole story. Instead, they must offer sexual goodies that titillate viewers and assure them of ratings. The result: People's actual sexual lives in marriage are comparatively boring and relatively meaningless, and they must find a regular fix, a constant sexual dose that keeps them from feeling their own sexual emptiness and the general addiction of their lives.
5. Detached from love and marriage, and in light of the general sexual addiction of the average American (as seen by highly sexualized offerings from the media), sex becomes a form of power — power over others, power to achieve social prestige and recognition, power to get what one wants.
6. In spite of the good that a chastened form of feminism accomplished, without the guidance of traditional objective morality, it gave women the wrong message; it taught women points one through five above. Accordingly, women increasingly fall victim to our ordinary socialization process. Ergo, my previous example: More female teachers are having sex with their students.

Why These Points Have Been Overlooked

This isn't rocket science, and these points are obvious and available to anyone willing to do some historical research. So why are the talking heads so befuddled about female teacher-student sex? Here's a hint: The problem may be that the very industry (and the culture it has helped to create) is confused. If the problem is clearly identified, it would be too uncomfortable, too hard to handle for those who are best served by keeping the issue obfuscated.

Do you agree with my analysis, or do you think you have a better conclusion? How do you think we got to this state, how do you think you and I contribute to the problem? Feel free to share it in the Coffee Shop forum.

C O F F E E  S H O P

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What do you think of Dr. Moreland's six points?

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As we pray for God's mercy, let's recall that, while not the greatest good, sex is too powerful and important to be viewed and practiced within a secular framework. We were made by a Designer to be sexual beings, and He knows how we are to best function in that area. He's left us His instruction manual. Now we just need to follow it.