A Morally Confused People
In case you missed it, we are now living in a post-Christian era. Sure, much of the vestiges of our nation’s past embracement of Christianity’s virtues are still here, for now, but the drumbeat of the 60’s sexual revolution is marching on. However, as of late, our culture is feeling the awkwardness felt after no longer being able to fit into your jeans after a gorging yourself for two weeks at sea on a cruise liner. No matter what extravagant contortion we try, the pants won’t fit anymore. And what isn’t fitting anymore? The ideas of the sexual revolution and those of human dignity.
The sexual revolution has, in one breath, told us that feelings are the determiner of sexual truth, and to stifle them is wrong, heresy even if such a thing existed, while in the next breath told us that men really ought not to treat women as sexual objects to be ogled at. The potent stench of this level of cognitive dissonance is getting harder to mask. While the “MeToo movement” would make us believe we are finally turning the corner when it comes to the sexualization and objectification of women, the porn industry is booming. In 2016, one porn site (which will go unnamed) saw sixty-four million unique daily visitors. Just to provide a reference point, 103 million people watched the Super Bowl last year. As the Miss America Pageant debates whether contestants should wear skimpy swimsuits, Playboy reopens its club in Manhattan. What is exactly is going on? Bewildering moral confusion.
The Christian worldview exposes the absurdity of claiming that our society is becoming more morally aware of the wrongness of sexualizing women, while at the same time embracing entire industries built on sexualization that dominate our culture. That is trying to have our cake and eat it too, which simply cannot be done. You can either have your cake or eat it, but not both.
Christianity cuts through this confusion. We recognize that every human being is made in the image of God and therefore must be treated with dignity and respect, always. Objectifying women is itself sinful and destructive, but pornography and sexual abuse take that sin even further, defacing God’s image in devastating ways. They also twist God’s gift of sexuality into something grotesque, turning what was meant for joy into a hellish nightmare.
What’s the solution? It is the same unpopular message Christians have been proclaiming from the beginning: repentance, forgiveness, grace, and restoration, which come by grace through faith in Christ alone. The gospel is the antidote for our nation’s moral confusion. To embrace it brings sanity, life, peace, and joy. To reject it brings confusion, disaster, chaos, suffering, and disorder. For there is only one name under heaven by which we can be saved.
