Friday, October 19, 2018

Where Do We Go From Here? The Sexual Revolution has long been over and both sides lost. One side, the revolutionaries, argued that sexual freedom was natural, that the restraints of past years were “Puritanical,” “Victorian,” and out of touch with modernity. To the revolutionaries, “sexual purity” was laughable. Birth control, they asserted, had rendered restraint unnecessary. Sex education would give teens all they needed to deal with their new freedom and its risks of venereal diseases and pregnancy. The revolutionaries apparently never taught high school or college. Perhaps they failed to understand that adolescence is a time in our lives when all the education in the world cannot overcome youthful passions in the absence of a moral upbringing. The revolutionaries made light of the other side, the traditionalists. Traditionalists argued that sex was sacred, not just another form of pleasure. The revolutionaries scoffed at the new expression of the seventies, “traditional values.” They argued that wherever sex education failed, it was because there wasn’t enough of it, or it wasn’t being introduced early enough. The line for this great divide was first drawn in 1948 when the famous “sexologist” Alfred Kinsey published “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” and in 1953, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.” Kinsey’s “findings” about sexuality, woefully unscientific and based on interviews, were refuted by many psychologists; however, Kinsey and other likeminded “sexologists” continued to assert that happiness and fulfillment come from expressing one’s sexual urges regardless of cultural norms or religious beliefs. After Kinsey, Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire emerged, presenting casual sex as a lifestyle. Today, with internet and cable porn and sex-saturated commercialism, the departure of America from a broad Christian consensus on sexual morality is virtually complete. And just how did both sides lose? Traditionalists, who understood that whoever wins the culture wars wins our children, lost partly because of the stance of public education. The children of traditionalists had to endure sex ed in middle and high school unless their parents kept their children out of it. My wife and I chose the latter, which means our children escaped the central message of secular sex ed: “Be careful, do certain things and you won’t get pregnant.” The children of traditionalists, if they were subjected to sex ed, were taught that sexuality is mere biology. It’s the facts of life. What do values have to do with it? Ah, values. How they seem to get in the way of secular culture. Traditionalists, fighting Hollywood and the shifting public sentiment, lost because they still believed that nothing is more values-laden than sexuality, that sexuality is physiology plus emotions, affection, love, and even trust. Sex ed, wittingly or not, attaches sexuality to the Darwinian worldview that men and women evolved from animals, and animals are, well, animalistic, particularly when it comes to their appetites and sexual urges. But the revolutionaries lost also. Whether secular educators, pornographers, movie makers, Planned Parenthood defenders, abortion sympathizers, or politicians who cater to all of the above, they all are now caught in a web of hypocrisy. Freedom from our Puritanical past was supposed to make us better, certainly happier. But then along came Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul who proved that we need the old rules again. Supposedly, the old rules for sexual relations were outdated and oppressive; yet, who can argue that men have behaved better under “sexual liberation” than they did under the former Christian cultural consensus? The revolutionaries also lost in that they too must live under the consequences of their own arguments. For instance, the Center for Disease Control reports that 4 out of 10 children in the U.S. are born to unmarried women, and that the spread of STDs is at an all-time high. Apparently, all the condom talk has failed. Georgian Phil Kent in his excellent book, “The Dark Side of Liberalism,” writes, “The Dark Side constantly attacks what is right and true.” Kent’s timely book echoes John Richard Neuhaus’ claim that the public square has become the “naked square,” shorn of and now disallowing any mention of transcendent values. So here we are. The revolutionaries searched for the soul’s basement and found it. But Kent’s last chapter is titled “Where do we go from here?” and his answer is apt: “Fight for future goals with an optimistic eye and a fearless heart.” I believe Kent’s optimistic advice is compelling because I’ve seen the sad eyes of too many youths who have tried the way of the revolutionaries, “the dark side,” and are ready for something far more soul-satisfying. Yes, there is hope. A counter-revolution is still possible, and it will necessarily be led by parents who refuse to let a sex-sated culture snatch their children. Roger Hines 10/10/18


                              Where Do We Go From Here?

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 10/14/18

The Sexual Revolution has long been over and both sides lost.  One side, the revolutionaries, argued that sexual freedom was natural, that the restraints of past years were “Puritanical,” “Victorian,” and out of touch with modernity. 
To the revolutionaries, “sexual purity” was laughable.  Birth control, they asserted, had rendered restraint unnecessary.  Sex education would give teens all they needed to deal with their new freedom and its risks of venereal diseases and pregnancy.
The revolutionaries apparently never taught high school or college.  Perhaps they failed to understand that adolescence is a time in our lives when all the education in the world cannot overcome youthful passions in the absence of a moral upbringing.   
The revolutionaries made light of the other side, the traditionalists.  Traditionalists argued that sex was sacred, not just another form of pleasure.  The revolutionaries scoffed at the new expression of the seventies, “traditional values.”  They argued that wherever sex education  failed, it was because there wasn’t enough of it, or it wasn’t being introduced early enough.
The line for this great divide was first drawn in 1948 when the famous “sexologist” Alfred Kinsey published “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” and in 1953, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.”   Kinsey’s “findings” about sexuality, woefully unscientific and based on interviews, were refuted by many psychologists; however, Kinsey and other likeminded “sexologists” continued to assert that happiness and fulfillment come from expressing one’s sexual urges regardless of cultural norms or religious beliefs.  After Kinsey, Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire emerged, presenting casual sex as a lifestyle.  Today, with internet and cable porn and sex-saturated commercialism, the departure of America from a broad Christian consensus on sexual morality is virtually complete.
And just how did both sides lose?  Traditionalists, who understood that whoever wins the culture wars wins our children, lost partly because of the stance of public education.  The children of traditionalists had to endure sex ed in middle and high school unless their parents kept their children out of it.  My wife and I chose the latter, which means our children escaped the central message of secular sex ed: “Be careful, do certain things and you won’t get pregnant.”
The children of traditionalists, if they were subjected to sex ed, were taught that sexuality is mere biology.  It’s the facts of life.  What do values have to do with it?
Ah, values.  How they seem to get in the way of secular culture.  Traditionalists, fighting Hollywood and the shifting public sentiment, lost because they still believed that nothing is more values-laden than sexuality, that sexuality is physiology plus emotions, affection, love, and even trust.  Sex ed, wittingly or not, attaches sexuality to the Darwinian worldview that men and women evolved from animals, and animals are, well, animalistic, particularly when it comes to their appetites and sexual urges.
But the revolutionaries lost also.  Whether secular educators, pornographers, movie makers, Planned Parenthood defenders, abortion sympathizers, or politicians who cater to all of the above, they all are now caught in a web of hypocrisy.  Freedom from our Puritanical past was supposed to make us better, certainly happier.
But then along came Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul who proved that we need the old rules again.  Supposedly, the old rules for sexual relations were outdated and oppressive; yet, who can argue that men have behaved better under “sexual liberation” than they did under the former Christian cultural consensus?
The revolutionaries also lost in that they too must live under the consequences of their own arguments.  For instance, the Center for Disease Control reports that 4 out of 10 children in the U.S. are born to unmarried women, and that the spread of STDs is at an all-time high.  Apparently, all the condom talk has failed.
Georgian Phil Kent in his excellent book, “The Dark Side of Liberalism,” writes, “The Dark Side constantly attacks what is right and true.”  Kent’s timely book echoes John Richard Neuhaus’ claim that the public square has become the “naked square,” shorn of and now disallowing any mention of transcendent values.
So here we are.  The revolutionaries searched for the soul’s basement and found it.  But Kent’s last chapter is titled “Where do we go from here?” and his answer is apt: “Fight for future goals with an optimistic eye and a fearless heart.”
 I believe Kent’s optimistic advice is compelling because I’ve seen the sad eyes of too many youths who have tried the way of the revolutionaries, “the dark side,” and are ready for something far more soul-satisfying. 
Yes, there is hope.  A counter-revolution is still possible, and it will necessarily be led by parents who refuse to let a sex-sated culture snatch their children.

Roger Hines
10/10/18



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