Sex!

Given my contention of a few posts ago, that the names/words in the 'label list' seem to determine the number of visitors to the blog, and readers of individual posts, it will be interesting to note if there is a significant increase on this occasion!

Anyone who has accessed the blog on the strength of the heading to this post, expecting some salacious snippets of sexual shenanigans, is going to be very disappointed!  However, I hope that you will read on, and even check out some of the previous posts!

Sex, as I was growing up, was a taboo topic.  'Nice' people didn't discuss it; children knew nothing about it.  How things have changed!   On this morning's Today programme, on BBC Radio 4, was the disturbing news that, according to a report by the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England (although it is reckoned that the situation is similar throughout the U.K.), children as young as 12 are carrying out sexual violence against each other!

According to the report, gang rape is not uncommon; almost 40% of the young people who responded to the survey said they knew of cases of youngsters exchanging sex for drugs, alcohol or to pay off a debt; and more than 30% gave examples of girls being used as bait to attract and “set up” male members from rival gangs. 

A separate survey, the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, shows that women have caught up with men in the 'sexual revolution' - and have even overtaken them in the case of same-sex relationships - but they are still the ones who pay the biggest price in terms of sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies.   Four times as many women now report same-sex experiences with other women compared to 20 years ago. They are also starting to have sex earlier in the lives and are having more sexual partners over their lifetime than a generation ago.  However, 10% claim to have been forced to have sex against their will - which I would have classed as 'rape'!

Sex was designed by Almighty God.  Within the confines of marriage, as He ordained it (i.e. between one man and one woman) it is a good activity, free from guilt or shame.  It is the means of procreating the human race, and the family is still the bedrock of society - even although, in certain parts of the world, we seem to be determined to undermine it!

It was, it could be argued, the 'sexual revolution' of the '60s that brought sex 'into the open'.  Since then, we have witnessed a persistent pushing out of the boundaries.  Homosexuality, once considered to be a crime, was decriminalised, then accepted, and is now, by some, viewed as being the equivalent of heterosexuality!

The World-Wide-Web (Internet) has been, and is, a vehicle for much that is good.  Just last evening, I was commenting to a friend that I find it invaluable for research for the writing of books; the preparation of sermons (no scratching my head for hours trying to remember an appropriate illustration/quotation!); the expansion of my general knowledge.  However, it is also the disseminator of pornographic images such as are blamed in the report on the sexual activity of children.  It is little wonder that children act as they do when such images of violent sexual activity is available to be viewed in their own bedrooms.  It is there, it is claimed, that even young boys are 'learning' that females are there to be used for the boy's own sexual gratification. Parents, too, have abrogated much of the responsibility for the rearing of their children to 'professionals' - who are not with them in the home.

The basic problem, then, is in the mind.  When I started taking an interest in computing, I was taught the acronym GIGO - Garbage in; Garbage out.  If I feed my computer rubbish, that is all that it will regurgitate.  The same is true of that most specialised, and powerful, 'computer' - the human mind.  If I constantly fill my mind with garbage, then garbage is what will result in my words, and in my behaviour.  That is the great wisdom of the words of Paul: "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Rom 12:2; emphasis added).

Is there an answer?  Of course there is - although, sadly, those who are the 'trend-setters' and the 'elite' of our society are unlikely to espouse it.  Paul, under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, also wrote: "...  whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Phil. 4:8).

If more of us were to respond, positively, to such a challenge, what a difference it would make to our personal lives; to the lives of our families; and to the very society in which we live.