PROMISCUITY : A REJECTION OF TRUTH AND MORALITY ?

by Fr. Jim Whalen 2002, Issue 2

Far too many of our youth and young adults have lost their basic moral foundations, due to the everyday erosion of their belief in truth and morality. The Judeo-Christian tradition, which explained and gave purpose to life, humanity, and the world, has been bombarded by a culture that perceives truth as a matter of subjective taste or convenience, and morality as a matter of individual preference (e.g.: pre-marital sex, cohabitation, same-sex unions). Youth and young adults are inundated by mass media propaganda that seeks to manipulate and control them by glamorizing immorality, promoting pornography, and maliciously mocking biblical and church values (e.g.: contraception, sexual abuse, perversion). The Playboy philosophy and false creeds of ‘if it feels good to you, do it’ and ‘go along to get along’ have deceived a whole generation into living a relativism of self-gratification and self-indulgence that places pleasure before a person, appetite before love, selfishness before generosity and man before God. Too many of our school systems claim to offer value-free or morally-neutral education, leaving options to individual consciences that have not been informed or formed with the basic truths of real life and real love. Today, secular education systems reject or deny the existence of ultimate standards of truth, or the possibility of knowing anything objectively.

All too frequently, sexual instruction is inadequate, limited by the serious omission of the teaching magisterium of the Catholic Church in terms of chastity, abstinence, and natural family planning. Catholic ambivalence toward Humanae Vitae and dogmatic foot-dragging by those in leadership have exacerbated the crisis of faith in our society and have led to serious doubts about belief in God’s goodness and mercy as well as the sanctity and dignity of human life. Dissenting professors in Catholic institutes of higher learning have misled and misinformed teachers-in-training, by presenting them with personal opinions or private interpretations rather than actual Church teachings, either by watering down the facts or by simply twisting or compromising the truth to suit secular or relativistic agendas. Pope John Paul II has been succinct and explicit in his direction that contraception is never justifiable: “No personal or social circumstances have ever, or can ever, justify such a (contraceptive) act” (Nov. 12, 1988). He has made it clear that the Church’s teaching on contraception does not belong to matters open to free discussion. The hardcore malcontents, nonetheless, reject or even prefer to remain ignorant rather than accept the truth, for it would mean changing their lifestyles. Compromise is not the answer. Adherence to the Gospel of Life is.

All too often, selective group instruction uses age-inappropriate programs that do not take into account latency growth stages, varying degrees of psychological maturity, presenting too much information too soon, or force-feeding of politically correct but inaccurate content (e.g.: anti-family bias, moral and medical aspects regarding homosexuality). This has often been the reason that some parents have removed their children from government-subsidized schools and opted for Catholic private education systems that adhere to the Church magisterium, or homeschooling, where they are once again taking the responsibility of being the primary teachers of their children in the ways of faith and morals. The tragedy is that, increasingly, parents are, for the most part, no longer in charge of their children. They have abdicated this primary responsibility and assume that the Church, the school or others are doing the job. Concerned teachers are struggling to do their best but are hindered by hidden agendas and politically correct guidelines. Marginalized parents must become once again involved in the spiritual education of their children and youth and challenge the status quo where necessary, insisting on a Christ-centered system that identifies sin for what it is and promotes charity, courage, chastity, and abstinence. An inadequate system weakens the faith, leads to the deformation of consciences, and becomes meaningless if it does not present the truth or if it does not follow the teachings of the Church on family life education. Formation and education in a Catholic school must be based on the principles of Catholic doctrine.

Young adults must be informed that natural family planning is not contraception. It is a method of fertility awareness and appreciation. It is a discipline, which is proper to the purity of married couples that confers a higher human value on marriage. Parents must exert a more efficacious influence in training their offspring (Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI; #21; Familiaris Consortio, Pope John Paul II, #33). Pope John Paul II has made it clear that all parishes should have natural family planning teaching teams. He has put the spotlight on the Blessed Sacrament stating that “the solution to all of the confusion and promiscuity in the world is intimacy with Jesus in Eucharistic adoration”.

Negotiability of everything in life seems to be the pattern for this generation. Personal experience is the measure used for defining the certainty of anything by most of our deceived youth, for they believe that truth is relative. Personal choice and tolerance have been emphasized by our ‘culture of death society when it comes to respect for the sanctity and dignity of life. Ambivalence and confusion reign, with biblical values being interpreted subjectively. What is wrong for one person is not perceived as being wrong for another. People decide for themselves what is wrong or right for them. The transcendent has been removed from the core or heart of western culture. Francis Schaeffer gets to the root of the problem when he explains how the finite is defined by the infinite, and how God defines truth as objective and absolute: “If there is no absolute moral standard, then one cannot say, in a final sense, that anything is right or wrong. By absolute we mean that which always applies, that which provides a final or ultimate standard” (How Should We Then Live, Fleming H. Revell Co., 1976, p. 145). There must be an absolute if there are to be morals or real values. We are left, merely, with conflicting opinions, if there is no final arbiter between individuals and groups whose moral judgments conflict.

Advertising on radio, TV, and the Internet, which advocate ‘safe sex’ (which is not safe) promulgates promiscuous sexual activity (e.g.: use of condoms). We live in a world in which over 60 million people use birth control pills, a world in which there are 55 million surgical abortions as well as 250 million chemical abortions in the course of one year. In North America, over 50% of marriages end in divorce and 80-90% of Catholics practice contraception. There has been an increase of 310% in the birth rate among unmarried women from 1950 to 1990. There have been over two million abortions in Canada since 1969, with 55 Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada Centres having opened in that time. World Health Organization statistics report that an epidemic of sexually-transmitted diseases has grown into a plague - 22 million people have already died of HIV/AIDS. In 1998 there were 62 million cases of Gonorrhea in the world, 89 million cases of Chlamydia, and 170 million cases of Trichomoniasis. In Canada, there were 45,534 people who were infected with HIV in 1999. There were 4,200 new infections in Canada in the same year. The cost in taxes to Canadian provincial health budgets was $4 billion a year for AIDS carriers (Health Canada - http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb/lcdc/bah/epi/ahcan_e; The Safer Sex Illusion, by Dr. John Shea, Life Ethics Center, Toronto, p. 4, p. 10, Maclean’s Magazine, July 9, 2001).

Our young people have largely lost their moral underpinnings and have difficulty distinguishing right from wrong and good from evil. They are caught up in moral and spiritual bankruptcy, which ends up forming one-dimensional people. Leadership is seriously lacking in vision to the point where it is not about doing the right thing, but mainly about power. This deliberate devaluation is characterized by checking or casting out conscience and morality at the door with integrity, freedom, hard work, and life values being degraded to have little or no meaning.

Today’s generation is being raised in many cases without the influence of a close extended family unit and has, for the most part, not known want or deprivation. We are experiencing a shift away from dependence on God and from biblical values and standards. There is a need to place a high priority on establishing strong family and community networks, on the relationships between actions and consequences, and on commitment and personal responsibility. Parents must express their love for children and youth by spending more time with them, by showing them how to work well and how to value and respect life rather than by emphasizing things as the be-all or end-all of living.

Humanae Vitae, with its crucial teaching that the conjugal love act must be reserved for marriage and be always open to new life, has been relegated to obsolete bookshelves or totally disregarded along with its warnings about the consequences for those who choose not to follow God’s plans, and opt for a contraceptive mentality, the result of which is increased immorality, promiscuity, family breakdowns, and divorce. Youth and young adults perceive sex as a recreational rather than a procreational love relationship.

Dr. Janet Smith outlines two cornerstones for sexual responsibility: “Sexual intercourse is meant to be the expression of a deep love for another individual of the opposite sex. If you are not ready for babies, you are not ready for sexual intercourse and you are not ready for babies until you are married” (Contraception: Why not?). Recent research indicates that youth “who lack a truth are four times more likely to approve pre-marital sexual intercourse as a ‘moral choice’ (Right from Wrong, Josh McDowell, & Bob Hostler, Word Publishing, 1994, p. 276).

Truth must be affirmed for all people, for all time, and for all places. A strong conviction of the existence of objective truth is essential if our youth are to know which choice is right. This will enable them to make moral choices in an immoral world and to decide not to accept counterfeit as a means to fulfill their desires. ¤