A Changing Question

Where once the greatest question before a young man or young woman was "Who would be the best life partner?" the question today might well be "Who would be the best sex partner?"  We have seen things that were once not discussed in polite conversation become the whole premise of movies and TV shows.  We have seen the strange and the weird paraded as just another normal on the likes of Jerry Springer and others.  We have seen the internet turned into a pornography machine only now eclipsed by the social networking sites (which have a component of public display, video, and erotic connection as well).  We have seen the cell phone turned into a sexual toy (with both sexting and photo/video components).  We have seen the age of first sexual experience decline among youth with, what some polls say, is a sixth month difference between practicing Christians and non-Christians. We have seen STDs become commonplace and even the dread of aids has done little to discourage frequent and rampant promiscuity.  We have watched the talk shows that say sex is the most important indicator or factor in the happiness of a couple (but may not have much effect upon fidelity or longevity of a marriage).  We have seen it all and still more is unfolding that will shock us at first and then, at some point, become mainstream enough so that it is accepted.

But it seems the aging sex goddess Raquel Welch has raised the red flag to say all that we have seen is not good and in fact it is preventing what we desire most underneath and what is in the best interest of society as a whole -- a stable, loving, caring marriage in which children are conceived and nurtured in this love.  She blames at least some of it on the promise (a false one) of safe sex divorced from responsibility, commitment, and love.  She complains that "nobody can keep it in their pants," and why not?  With sexual pleasure the highest of goals, with more and more folks of all ages hooking up and cohabiting, with fewer and fewer children born, with the news filled with the sexual escapades of societies political and sports heroes, with cheap and reliable means of preventing pregnancy and disease... and with fewer and fewer people offering any compelling reason why not to give in to desire... we are left with dealing with the effects of our self-indulgence.

In the face of this, there are churches that haul out the chancel furniture (so to speak) in order to put a bed on display and then have a series of sermons on "how to" make sex better (I wonder what texts in Scripture are butchered in pursuit of proofs for these theses).  In the face of this, there are churches fearing that if they get too far behind the learning curve of society they will be irrelevant and so they work to incorporate the changing views of culture into the fabric of the faith as quickly as possible (witness the haste in adapting to gay and lesbian marriage and homosexual clergy with their accompanying rites and blessings).

Nevertheless, I am encouraged when people who were poster children for the early days of the sexual revolution sit up and take notice of where this road has led us.  Giving into desire was the first path of sin and still is the path to our destruction.  Not every desire is good, not all that is possible is beneficial, and the path of Christian life is one of self-control and not self-realization or freedom.  We have used what technology has provided us and turned this into the toxic drug the dark alley that feeds our insatiable desire yet never delivers to us what we want and need most -- love, acceptance, companionship, caring, friendship, honesty, fidelity, and family.  For these, the Creator's wisdom is still the right answer.  And the Church dare not abandon this truth for the sake of the changing whims of self-indulgence that parade as freedom when they are but license to self-destruction...