“If only we had a non-religious source to support the idea of monogamy.”
When I was young and the only Christian surrounded by atheists, I used to wish I had something solid I could share with people about why chastity and fidelity were good for society that was not based on the Bible.
Bible sources are great for Christians, but if the person has already disavowed the Bible, it is no longer a viable source. What I needed was a solid, scientific study.
But there was nothing.
Only, there was.
Over at Quest: Thoughts about God, Truth, and Beauty, an author named Kirk Durston has a fascinating article about J. D. Unwin and his book Sex and Culture. Written in 1934, this book presents the findings of Unwin’s study of 86 different cultures. He breaks the culture down by levels of society and by degrees of sexual freedom.
The results?
The highest level of society has only ever been maintained by cultures with premarital chastity and monogamy without easy divorce.
Societies with sexual freedom collapse within three generations.
This book was published in 1934. Its findings predict everything that has happened since the 1960s. It has all the evidence needed to refute the idea that free love will not damage the culture.
And no one I knew or ever spoke to was aware of this study.
It is enough to make you believe in the “100 years of control by the Devil” that the previous Pope Leo overheard. Because, surely, if the world were not ceded—Job-like—to the Prince of Darkness for a period of time, every Christian, every Pastor, every church chastity program would have been reading and sharing this study.
Instead, crickets.
I strongly recommend Kirk Durston’s article on this subject. You can find it here.
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin
"Supernatural meets Narnia at Hogwarts."
Rachel Griffin has one goal. She wants to know everything.
When someone tries to kill a fellow student, Rachel investigates. She soon discovers that, in the same way her World of the Wise hides from mundane folk, there is another more secret world hiding from the Wise.
Meanwhile, she’s busy learning magic, making friends and, most importantly, finding romance!
Rushing forward where others fear to tread, Rachel bravely faces wraiths, embarrassing magical pranks, mysterious older boys, a Raven that brings the doom of worlds, and at least one fire-breathing teacher.
The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin is a tale of wonder and danger, romance and heartbreak, and, most of all, of magic and of a girl who refuses to be daunted.
Curiosity may kill a cat, but nothing stops Rachel Griffin!
"Lamplighter introduces many imaginative elements in her world that will delight..." VOYA
Discretion advised for younger readers.
I don’t think most people realize how devastating the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s was. That revolution had many strands, but the Hedonist Revolution was the most successful.
I watch a fair amount of old film and television (because the new stuff is awful), and the cultural shift between stuff produced before the mid-1960s and the stuff produced afterwards is startling. After 1968 (which was when the Hays Code ended), we got hit with a tidal wave of media celebrating hedonism and condemning traditional social mores.
Thank you.