I have written often about the influence of secular humanism on the Church. This is because this atheistic worldview is fundamentally anti-Christian. This animus comes from the fact that secularism is foundationally based on the naturalistic ideas of deep time and macroevolution. This worldly view always has had an especially detrimental effect on believers in the one true God. Biblical Christians are well aware of the fact that the world (Satan) is in a constant war with God and God’s Holy Word. Secularists are continuously promoting the idea that they are advocates of a neutral worldview, but in truth they are really just abominable repeaters of Satan’s mantra, “Did God really say?”
We see this play out daily in America as the secularists define truth as untruth and untruth as truth. While this is nothing new and has been going on to one degree or another even before the founding of the nation, it seems to me its application is accelerating by the day. In this article I will delineate my interpretation of the advancement of secular ideas about human sexuality in America, as well as the Church, just in the period of time consisting of my eight decades on this earth.
In my lifetime there has been a very noticeable “progression” in the areas of sexual morality. While the usual dictionary definition of “progress” is “to move forward” or to “make improvements,” the modern definition for the word in regard to sexuality is to remove any and all restraints to human behavior as quickly as possible. I wonder if you too will question, as I do, where in the list that follows is there any true progress in the so-called progressive movement. That is, where is the progress in today’s progressivism?
TOPIC: SECULAR CULTURAL ADVANCEMENTS IN HUMAN SEXUALITY & ITS ACCEPTANCE BY A MAJORITY IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA 1950 TO 2023:
1950s: America is clearly a Christian nation. Sin is prevalent in American society and in the Church but deviant sexual behavior is frowned upon my most. Laws exist that seek to restrain sodomy, prostitution, pornography, and sex outside of marriage. Few question the benefits of a family consisting of the marriage of one man and one woman with children in a single home. The Bible is considered by almost all Christian denominations to be the inerrant, accurate, and inspired word of God. Fornication is preached against from almost every pulpit.
1960s: Advances in science and disgust with war embolden many young people to reject the Bible as they demand “free sex.” Laws against deviant sexual behavior begin to be ignored, but most people in most churches do not promote this behavior, and it is still understood to be best described as fornication. Very few in or outside of the Church would condone homosexuality. Most Americans would consider themselves as Christians, but I think many are what I would describe as followers of “Churchianity” rather than Christianity. The Bible and prayer are taken out of public schools with only a whimper from the Church.
1970s: The decline in acceptance of the Bible continues. Many in positions of secular influence espouse the opinion that “God is dead.” The Church in America is still quite strong, but literal interpretation is now out of favor by many churches. Words like sodomy and homosexuality are no longer accepted among polite society and are replaced by the descriptor “gay.” The onset of the Aids pandemic results in a pretty much total acceptance of the deviant practice by liberal churches. Divorce becomes easy and often with little stigma for those who “fall out of love.”
1980s: Only evangelical or conservative churches generally accept the Bible as God’s Word. However, the compromise of millions of years and evolution continues to cripple the entire Church since all public schools and universities are now under secular control, and it is not fashionable to cause conflict by sticking to the historical narrative of the Bible. Many Christian universities, seminaries, pastors, and theologians teach theistic evolution and other compromise positions regarding origins. Gays just have a “different way of thinking” or “can’t help themselves,” and there are so few of them it is not worth the conflict to oppose them. If they love each other why not let them have a “civil” marriage. We will save the institution of marriage for those in the Church. Maybe we should consider gay pastors if they promise not to have sex. What people do behind closed doors is their business and has nothing to do with the Church. Prostitution is considered by most Americans to be a victimless crime.
1990s: The recent past history has brought much of society to the position that there is no such thing as absolute truth. “What is good for you is not good for me. Can’t we just get along?” Mainline denominations have no issue with that idea and begin a push for full acceptance of gays in the church and as well as in church leadership. The media, TV, and movies promote homosexuals as normal and necessary components of human society. Sexual activity outside of and prior to marriage is almost totally accepted in the society in America and most churches dare not bring the subject up. Anyone who speaks up about perversity is labeled as a “hater and/or a homophobe.”
2000s: Government, media, and public education cooperate to place limits on the work of Biblical Christians. It becomes a full time job for Christian lawyers to fight the loss of 1st amendment rights for Christians and anti-secularists. Legal laws to restrict perversity are almost totally rescinded. The idea that God is in charge has been replaced in the culture by the idea that each person is in charge of his own life. Gay activists control the narrative in many statehouses. However, human trafficking, mostly for the sex industry, has become a large problem for law enforcement.
2010s: The unthinkable becomes thinkable. Why not allow adults to legally marry children, or animals, or groups, or whatever? Anyone who speaks out against perversity is cancelled. Regular citizens, not just radicals, bring up the concept of transitioning from one sex to another. There is a societal tolerance for most every viewpoint except for Biblical Christianity. Target welcomes men to use women’s restrooms in their stores. Schools start allowing boys to use girls’ dressing rooms. Murdering live babies, old people and the disabled is now acceptable conversation on talk shows. The wide access to the Internet and the proliferation of smartphones assists in a pornography addiction pandemic for boys and girls and for men and women of almost every age and every station of life. Christian couples who marry and have not experienced sex outside of marriage are a distinct minority.
2020s: The topic of the day is sexual transitioning. Although not a smidgeon of science supports the idea, thousands of children are drugged and surgically deprived of their sex organs only to the benefit of a group of mad scientists and physicians. Schools install tampon dispensers in boys’ restrooms. But males are still males and females are still females as determined by their chromosomes and DNA. “God made them male and female” is a phrase verboten in the liberal church, and conservatives are not sure what to say or do. Most pastors are afraid to preach on sexual subjects and so don’t. Men still cannot become pregnant or have babies, but a pregnant man is the latest smart phone icon.
These are just some summaries of what I remember over these many decades. Perhaps I don’t remember everything exactly right, but I hazard to say that I doubt there were any people in 1950 who would have thought this path for sexuality that America has actually taken would ever occur or be described as “progress.” No, it is not progress nor is it societal advancement. Following God’s Word is the only right way to go. Believers need to be bolder in their faith in God and his Word!
The Lord is still in control and we Christians in the 2020s and following decades still have a lot of work to do before the Lord’s return. In fact the task of the Church to promote the Gospel message may be nearly as difficult as the task that was set before the disciples some 2,000 years ago. So, as we read in Jude 3, we need to go now and contend for the faith!
J.D. Mitchell
