In the world of today, young people treat sex as a commodity. Liberal feminist Naomi Wolf put it this way: “We have raised a generation of young women, and men, who don’t understand sexual ethics. They don’t see sex as sacred or even very important anymore. Sex has been commodified and drained of its deeper meaning.”
In his book The End of Sex: Erotic Love after the Sexual Revolution, George Lenard says, “I have finally come to see that every game has a rule, and sex has rules. Unless you play by the rules, you’ll find sex can create a depth of loneliness that nothing else can.” The National Survey of Counseling Directors recently surveyed 6500 sexually active teenage girls. They found that sexually active teenagers are three times more likely to attempt suicide than young women who are not sexually active.
On October 2 of 2017, the New York Times printed an article by Dr. Gail Bolan, Director of the Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control. The data quoted in that article said that there were 110 million sexually transmitted infections in the United States. Bolan called that an epidemic.
What are the effects of treating sex as a commodity? J.D. Unwin, in his book titled Sex and Culture, reported on 86 civilizations. Unwin was not a believer, but his conclusion is, “In human records there is no instance of a society retaining its energy after a completely new generation has inherited a tradition which does not insist on pre-nuptial sexual restraint.”
Christian author Philip Yancey commented on Unwin’s book by saying, “Unwin preached a message that few people want to hear. Without realizing it, though, Unwin may have subtly edged toward a Christian view of sexuality from which modern society has badly strayed. For the Christian, sex is not an end in itself, but rather a gift from God. Like such gifts, it must be stewarded according to God’s rules, not ours.”
These quotations are from Reflections on the Existence of God by Richard E. Simmons III, available on Amazon.
— John N. Clayton © 2020