There is not an hour or a day that goes by that we, as citizens, consumers, businessmen and women, are not being bombarded by some form of sexual advertising, news articles, newspaper coverage, TV, etc. Much of it has to do with the old Madison Avenue saying that “Sex Sells” but it seems that it is becoming an obsession.
Jessica Simpson just announced to her fiancé that she is pregnant. Wow! I just hope that he understands that he is the father. Not so with Justin Bieber. Justin is scheduled to take a paternity test as part of his reaction to the allegations thrown out by a lady against him. Lindsay Lohan has agreed to take her clothes off for Playboy for an estimated $900,000. Isn’t this sad when you stop and think how much money that is. It would take a person making $10.00 an hour and working 2080 hours per year about 43 years to make what Ms. Lohan will make in less than an hour. But the deeper question is who really cares? Are there that many people out there that can’t wait to find out the next accuser of sexual harassment by Herman Cain? How about Tiger Woods? We slugged through those weeks where woman after woman came forward with stories of their sexual encounters with Tiger. I want to go take a shower to cleanse myself after watching an episode of “Maury” where every conceivable form of sexual deviancy has taken place by the guests on his show. How can these people that appear on these shows slip to the levels that place a woman in a position of wanting a DNA test to see which one of her many sexual partners is the father of her child?
Compounding the “Hollywood” news about sex is the sad state of affairs in this country where teachers, coaches, clergy, and advisors seem to keep up a steady stream of sexual exploitation and abuse of minors. Penn State, a highly respected university, is today overwhelmed with news of a sexual scandal involving delayed reporting and not taking appropriate action to protect students from what would appear to be predatory coaches. Even our Congress is not immune from the scandals that have plagued this nation. There have been seven “scandals” since 2010 in Congress and a total of 44 scandals since the days of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
I think that it comes down to a number of things. Is our news media too quick to rush to the coverage of this type of news? I used to think so. However, if you throw a juicy sex scandal on TV today, within hours of the breaking news, every channel on TV will have its version of the events on non-stop coverage. Have our morals as a country slipped? Again, I say yes. It may be difficult for the clergy to address an issue that they themselves may have been a contributor. Could much of the sex and violence on TV today contribute to the cause for our problems? Again I say yes. R-rated movies on TV are about as common today as Bugs Bunny cartoons were many years ago. Has the breakdown of the family been a factor? Yes, again. Within some social economic groups, two parent families are extremely rare. Add to all these factors a significant decline in church attendance and we have a whole segment of our society that appears to have no moral direction.
There is no easy answer. How to we motivate a whole segment of our society to return to church? How do we create an environment where marriage is sacred and children are a result of the love within the marriage? How do we reduce the rampant divorce rate or even worse, the existing apathy toward entering marriage at all? Or address the “sexual revolution” where if “it feels good, do it.” Pray.
