UNTREATED CANCER almost always means death to the affected individual. There are times when the diagnosis is made too late to institute effective treatment, or it is possible that inadequate measures may spell doom. Fortunately, where an early diagnosis is made and proper procedures are carried out, a high percentage of cures may be expected.
Sex obsession is a moral and spiritual cancer which has fixed itself on America and which is designed to destroy us as surely as untreated cancer destroys human life.
The diagnosis is open to all who can see. Our literature, stage, screen, and accepted standards of life literally reek with an obsession about sex that has now reached unbelievable proportions.
Now, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with sex. It is a God-given force in which, within the mutual bonds of wedded love, there is both righteousness and joy.
Our trouble today is that “sex appeal” is in large measure a determining factor in our way of life. It is the promotion of, acquiescence in, and submitting to this godless concept of life that is destroying America.
If this diagnosis be correct—and it is obvious that it is—then our great concern must be the instituting of an effective counterattack.
The basic cure lies in our acceptance of God’s standards for sex conduct, and not those of the world.
The Seventh Commandment states categorically: “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and this has never been abrogated. In addition, our Lord makes it clear in speaking on the subject that the lustful thought or look are involved in this commandment.
For this individual and national problem, the Christian has the answer, and it is not found in the standards of the world but in the Bible itself.
The best course on sex education in the world is to be found within the pages of Scripture. Here we find the subject treated in a completely outspoken and uninhibited manner. That which is good and that which is evil in connection with sex is made abundantly clear.
In the Bible sex is treated in its wholesomeness, while at the same time its abuse is handled without gloves. The writer is convinced that the child who is brought up in a Christian home where the daily reading of the Bible is a normal part of life needs no further “sex education.” He is further convinced that the present demand for “sex education” for children is psychologically unsound, for it places in the child’s mind an emphasis on sex that is unwholesome, and eventuates in more, not less, sex experimentation on the part of those so trained.
I am perfectly aware of the large and long limb I am climbing out on, but I am convinced that the solution to our sex problems is not to be found in the present biological and social approach. Only as God is recognized and honored as both the source and arbiter of moral law, will people, young and old, look at sex in its right perspective.
One immediate reply is that only a minority of children come from Christian homes, that only a few hear the Bible read in the family circle, or read it for themselves; and thus a more universal approach must be had.
This can be easily answered. Across America there is promoted the school lunch program by which children coming from underprivileged homes can have at least one hot meal a day. This is a good program and it is meeting a real need.
If, therefore, children are being fed in school to supplement an inadequate diet at home, why do some people object when it is suggested that children receive some spiritual instruction in school? Nothing more clearly illustrates the folly of unregenerate man. We are concerned about the bodily welfare of our children—and rightly so—but we look on spiritual instruction as “controversial”—outside the pale of public education.
To teach sectarian religion in the schools would be contrary to our established principles, but the Ten Commandments are a part of the religious heritage of Jews, Roman Catholics, and Protestants. Why should not the Ten Commandments be read before all students at the opening of school every day? Here we have God’s moral law. It is not Christianity, but it is a part of the Christian faith. Let the words and the teaching of the Ten Commandments sink into the hearts and minds of young people—and for many this would be inevitable—and part of the moral problem of our day will be on its way to a solution.
Let every child hear daily, “Thou shalt not steal,” and the wrongness of dishonesty will become increasingly clear. Let each child hear daily, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and the evil of impure conduct will become real to many.
For that atheistic and godless minority who profess no religion and who would loudly protest against the reading of the Ten Commandments as an infringement of their constitutional rights and those of their children, let their children be excused from the room while the Commandments are being read. Further than this, there should be no concession to freethinkers, atheists and the like; otherwise, the overwhelming majority of Americans will find themselves checked by and at the mercy of a godless minority.
We are not for one moment suggesting that this is the final solution to the sex delinquency rampant in our country today. But it is one step in the right direction. Moral and spiritual concepts must be taught a generation of adult delinquents. It is parents, not children, who are to blame for the present situation. It is parents who have lost their sense of decency and moral responsibility to a degree unknown in the history of America and who have now transmitted to their children a laxness of attitude to sex which is reaping a whirlwind of sex obsession.
Believing there is but one ultimate solution, and that it is found in the God-given standards revealed in the Holy Scriptures, I would suggest an experiment to parents and for their children: Take the book of Proverbs, and in it you will find 31 chapters, one for each day of the month. For one year read one chapter a day (beginning with the corresponding chapter for the date begun), and I will promise on the basis of personal experience, the professional background of 40 years as a practicing physician, and yet more years as a Christian, that every problem of youth will be found and met in that one book.
In Proverbs one will find the evils of inordinate sex made clear. In this same book one will find the joy of married love set forth. Furthermore, any and all of the problems out of which juvenile and adult delinquency are spawned are clearly delineated—so much so that one will either stop reading out of sheer conviction and rejection, or cry out, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and ask his help and guidance in the way of life.
