Category Archives: Sexuality

‘A better story’ – 10

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The sexual revolution has, in effect, declared war on the weak, namely, our children.

As our communities become more fragmented, our education system more unequal, and our families more broken, the gap between the more privileged and the less privileged is becoming ever wider.

Here’s a stark fact: by the time they start pre-school, children from professional families will have heard 19 million more words than children from poor backgrounds.

Although many factors are at play, the stability of home life is a critical one. …

‘A better story’ – 9

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Has the sexual revolution delivered on its promise to deliver more and better sex?

Probably not.

Oxford statistitian David Spiegelhalter reports that, contrary to popular perception, the frequency of ‘having sex’ is actually on the decrease.  No-one knows why this is the case, but it may have something to do with the general business of people’s lives, and with the availability of so many technological diversions – mobile phones, tablets, and computers.

So, if people are not having more sex, are they having better sex? …

‘A better story’ – 8

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A Christian critique of the sexual revolution must begin with honest self-examination.

So, quoting Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:4-5, writes Glynn Harrison.

Over the centuries, the attitudes of the Christian church have been beset by shame and hypocrisy.  These very attitudes have helped trigger create the discontent that has led to the revolution.

Too often, Christians have felt shame before issues of sex and relationships.  It was not so at the beginning.  Shame was no part of God’s original plan (Genesis 2:25), but entered immediately after the first, catastrophic rebellion against God. …

‘A better story’ – 7

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Sociologist Peter Berger has suggested that ‘cognitive minorities’ need to develop strategies if they are to survive.  Christians, once in the majority in the Western world, are now a ‘cognitive minority’.  Not only that, but they are regarded as an immoral cognitive minority.

Psychologist Solomon Asch demonstrated that human beings can be dangerously conformist:-

Asch’s work demonstrates how difficult it is for human beings to stick out from the crowd. We hate being the odd one out.
…

‘A better story’ – 6

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Activist groups (such as Stonewall) have been key to the success of the sexual revolution.  We need to pay attention to the ideas promoted and the techniques used.

First, they have been adept at maintaining the convictions of their own members.  They accumulate material at both an academic and popular level that explains their cause.  They build the confidence of their members through support groups.  They present attractive models of courage and persistence.  They showcase the pride they feel in their cause through festivals and celebrations:-

The flagrant sexual exhibitionism and provocative gesturing that marked (and still marks) some Gay Pride events leads many Christians to miss the point.…

‘A better story’ – 5

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The narrative of the sexual revolution, writes Glyn Harrison, goes something like this:-

For centuries, traditional morality had us – all of us – in its suffocating grip. Year after year the same old rules, chained to the past, heaped shame on ordinary men and women (and boys and girls) whose only crime was being different. Enemies of the human spirit, these bankrupt ideologies befriended bigots and encouraged the spiteful. They nurtured a seedbed of hypocrisy and offered safe havens to perpetrators of abuse.…

‘A better story’ – 4

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Everyone loves a good story.  Not surprising, then, that storytelling has been at the heart of the sexual revolution.  Storytelling seems to fit the shape of the human mind, and to reach places that other forms of communication cannot reach.

The entertainment industry understands this, and has exercised its talents in taking complicated ideas and melding them into powerful, attention-grabbing, and persuasive narratives:-

‘And so with riveting narratives about hypocritical politicians and fossilized bishops, pitted against outsiders and the oppressed, brave men and women finding the courage to be ‘who they really are’, they appealed to the moral instincts of ordinary, decent people.’…

‘A better story’ – 3

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Although the sexual revolution has been driven by powerful ideas, we should not underestimate the power of emotions – of gut feelings – in changing attitudes and behaviours.

Nor should be assume that the sexual revolution has entailed an abandonment of morality.  Rather, it has entailed a change in how we thing and feel about morality.

Jonathan Haidt has pictured the relationship between feeling and thought as that between an elephant and its rider.  If this analogy holds, then we need to appeal to the emotional elephant as well as to the intellectual rider.…

Sexual orientation and gender identity

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This recent post by Ian Paul has prompted me to return to the subject of statistics on sexual identity.

According to the Office for National Statistics:-

  • In 2016, just over 1 million (2.0%) of the UK population aged 16 and over identified themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB).
  • The population aged 16 to 24 were the age group most likely to identify as LGB in 2016 (4.1%).
  • More males (2.3%) than females (1.6%) identified themselves as LGB in 2016.
…

‘A better story’ – 2

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Behind the sexual revolution is an ideology of radical individualism.  This ideology has been driven, in part, by the philosophy of Nietzsche (‘there are no facts, only interpretations’) and Marx (‘our identity is determined by our social context’).  Berger added the idea of ‘plausibility structures’ – by means of which ideas gain leverage who endorses them, and how, rather than by the application of evidence and reason.

But:-

‘We mustn’t abandon reason simply because we have learned how easily she can be fooled…The biblical concept of human beings created in the image of God means that we expect a meaningful correspondence between the reality that God has put us in, and our abilities to make sense of it through the gift of reason.’…