What you see at present in Western culture is fearful. Ordinary folks feel compelled to install outside security lights and indoor security systems. A culture once marked by respect for life and purity has become degraded. The daily news provides every thinking person with ample evidence that the family, the Church, and traditional morality are taking a beating. In short, the culture is in crisis.
At the heart of the downward spiral of morality has been the acceptance of a sexual revolution “based on the logic of birth control instead of the logic of human nature,” as secular humanist Walter Lippmann described it in 1929. The sexual theorists of the early 20th century equated human happiness with unlimited sexual pleasure, and they set about to capture the American heart and soul with their ideas. Their hook was unlimited sex. Their line was that unlimited sex and very few children would make happy families. Their sinker was contraception, called by Lippmann “the most revolutionary practice in the history of sexual morals.” They promoted the immorality of serial bigamy as “progressive,” but they were clueless about what happens when sex is idolized and married couples are encouraged to take apart the marriages that God has put together.
Gradually, the American public bought it—hook, line and sinker, and today American culture shows the effects. The organized promotion of contraception has not brought marital happiness but has been accompanied by a 500% increase in the divorce rate. Out-of-wedlock pregnancies have not only greatly increased but have become socially acceptable. The jails are full of men who were deprived of their God-given right to have their natural father in the home. Secular leaders offer no hope, only more police, bigger jails, and higher taxes to pay for them.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Next week: For a Better Future
John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality (Ignatius)