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“The Sexual Revolution Makes Bad Men”
Categories: Meditations
Like many Christians, I’ve watched the flowering of the #MeToo movement with some bemusement. On the one hand, I wholeheartedly agree that no man should ever use his power to take sexual advantage of a woman. On the other, I cannot help but feel that those who have spent decades undermining the sexual ethics of the Bible are reaping what they have sown.
Let me explain. As with (almost?) all men, I have a fleshly side when it comes to sexual sin. The temptation to seek pleasure, whatever the cost to me or to others, is a strong one. However, it is more important to me to please Jesus, and I know that Jesus expects me to deny myself, take up my cross, and follow Him.
As a result, I strive daily to put the flesh to death. What’s more, I’ve learned from experience that even though self-denial can be unpleasant in the short term, in the long term, it leads to a richer, more fulfilled life.
However, according to the Sexual Revolution, sexual autonomy and fulfillment is the highest good. “Whatever turns you on,” is a value so fundamental to our society that it is rarely even stated anymore. Men who practice self-denial for religious reasons are fools in the world’s eyes.
Sadly, once the door to pleasure-seeking has been opened, it is open. The dark side of male sexuality that men of God imprison is allowed to run amok, and the consequences are predictably disastrous. There are probably millions of men in this country who are more concerned with sexual fulfillment than with anything else. Whatever they can get away with, that’s what they’ll do.
Even men who are less crass than that are still extremely vulnerable when it comes to self-deception. The modern hookup scene is a murky, ambiguous place. When a man is animated by his strong desire, and when he has been told that satisfying that desire is the most important thing in life, it is very easy for him to resolve every ambiguity in a way that allows him to do what he wants to do. It’s very easy for him to close his eyes to the harm he is doing women, to turn his mind away from considering such things. Such a man can do great evil while still convincing himself that he’s a “good person”.
Today, these harms are more obvious to secular America than they ever have been before. They’re responsible for the rise of consent culture: “Is it OK if I do this to you?” “OK, how about this?” Such rules of engagement, no matter how faithfully practiced (and I have my doubts about that), can never create more than a shadow of the trust and understanding that exist in a godly marriage.
A true solution to the problem must be much more fundamental than that. Marriage is an institution older than the Bible, and it flourishes around the world. It has survived because it works. It restrains the darker impulses of men (because every husband with a shred of understanding soon learns the truth of “He who loves his wife, loves himself.”), and it offers women security and protection in their intimate relationships. It is admirably adapted to the flawed, fallen human condition, and no better solution to the problems of unchecked sexuality exists.
Tragically, this truth has so far escaped the fools who have spent decades undermining the institution of marriage in America, who are so fixated on sexual freedom that they countenance even the slaughter of unborn children. However, actions have consequences, even for those who refuse to see them. The unbridled pursuit of sexual license has done immense harm to men and women alike. We can only hope and pray that its advocates will see the error of their ways before the damage to our national fabric becomes irreversible.
