I remember the sexual revolution. I’m old enough that I lived through times when our culture was changing, and people were becoming liberated. I was raised in a religious family, and I talked to my friends, but I didn’t get to participate. My family and church had one word for me:
NO!
I am grateful now, that I avoided so many dangerous things, but that did not make me a good or moral person. I was just severely restricted.
When I started my adult life, we had a pastor who explained morals to us. He didn’t just say the usual “NO!”, he explained the dangers to us.
I am still grateful.
I am writing about liberation, also known as playing around, promiscuity, or partying and any other words that I missed. My language is not always up-to-date. Basically, it’s describing a pornographic lifestyle.
This is an uncomfortable topic, but we need to face it. Young adults in many parts of the world are going through a social revolution, and the results are not good. Depression in teen girls is at record high levels and growing, and depression can lead to suicide.
Young men are choosing to be single and unattached, while young women still want to be attached:
The sexual revolution has brought us to this for several reasons:
1. Our physical health is at risk.
We all know what STD means. There are stories everywhere about infections and even cancer. When I was a boy, we had a neighbor and friend named Ralph. He was friendly, and a very talented musician.
The family that raised him was German, so music was on the accordion. I still remember him sitting on the piano bench in our living room, playing the “Hoot Owl Polka.” He could also turn around and play the piano, with amazing skill.
What Ralph could not do was see. He was born blind, and he never saw light.
I asked my mother why, and she told me once that his mother had Syphilis. Mom never spoke about it again, but I learned later that some STDs could blind babies when they were born.
It hurts me to write this. A picture is worth a thousand words, and I saw that talented man locked in a blind prison, because of someone’s promiscuity. That is burned into my memory.
2. Our mental health is at risk.
If we are sexually promiscuous and have relationships for the sake of sex, we end up rejecting people, when we are through using them. That produces feelings of guilt, abandonment, and related stress that damage mental health, on both sides. Depression in teen girls is not a big surprise.
My mother told me another story, about her friend at church. A couple was married and planning to retire, so they could live some happy years together, without careers and children.
When retirement time came, her husband found another woman and left his wife. I don’t know the state of their marriage before the split, but modern ideas about freedom and liberation allowed him to leave her to grow old and die alone, while he pursued his happiness.
Just hearing that story depressed me.
3. Our spiritual health is at risk.
We are spiritual beings, and we are told: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).
We are also told “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5: 8).
We are made in the image of God, and we can be adopted as children of God. That’s why we have the expression “born again.” Using and abandoning someone that God loves, for personal and temporary satisfaction, is a spiritual sickness.
Recently, we visited a church, and the pastor talked about his lifestyle, before his spiritual birth. He had used women for his satisfaction, and he told us who he used to be.
He apologized for his spiritual sickness and warned us about going on that path. He told us that he was wrong, even if his partners were willing to participate.
We heard the truth from a brave and honest man.
God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. (James 1: 12 to 15)
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