The Global Sexual Revolution

“What does a culture do when it no longer has a way of cleansing guilt because it has made men their own gods? It must silence the conscience, in the vain hope that then inner peace will be found. There are various strategies for this:

- Create ideologies that make sin appear good.

- Drag everyone into the sin.

- Defame, shun, and persecute everyone who gives voice to his conscience.

If we look at the global sexual revolution, we can see that this is exactly what is happening.”

As a Christian, it feels increasingly difficult to go against the grain of modern culture. Every conversation that expresses traditional Christian beliefs and values seems to be more and more awkward and met with more and more resistance and even anger. The fear that one day soon I or someone I know might say something that results in suffering great loss because the popular worldview won’t legally tolerate the opposing ideas Christianity offers about what life is all about, looms large. On the whole, I think the church in the west is a quiet church. Quiet because it’s scared. And when it does speak up, the rhetoric is becoming increasingly secular, and increasinly risk averse.

To suggest that on the whole, the church might be letting itself down, is not meant to sound like a sweeping generalisation. There are plenty of proponents of the faith, and many seeking to speak into the worldview behind the very quickly turning tide of one philosophy of sexual identity to another. Noone that I’ve come across, however, is as clear, as articulate, as well researched, or as sociologically adept at interpreting this global sexual revolution, as Gabriel Kuby. The Global Sexual Revolution is a book that every thoughtful Christian should consider reading, soon!

Right from the start, Kuby’s ideas are against the grain. They feel awkward to read, like the moment a non-Christian asks you “So do you think homosexuality is a sin?” The book almost reads like a conspiracy theory. Catholic lady with archaic, conservative, traditional views attempts to suggest that minority propagandist LGBT lobbying groups have managed to influence the UN towards promotion of a new world order. And that governments are now instrumental in brainwashing the masses for the purposes of population control and the pseudo pleasure of shame free sex of anyone to anyone else and in any way. Sounds nuts, right? But what Kuby does is to carefully and considerately analyse this cultural change. She winsomely articulates the backwards logic of modern man’s attempt at systematically demolishing the image of God he is made in, and re-forming his identity in his own image. The idea, of course, is freedom. But as the subtitle of the book explains, man is actually destroying his freedom in his pursuit of freedom.

Kuby’s success in her arguments is due to her theological robustness and thoroughly biblical understanding of who man  - made in God’s image. She values the biblical ideas of marriage, sexuality, and family as key aspects of what makes man, man. She also thinks through the logical consequences of this global sexual revolution and considers how from a purely sociological point of view, the mainstreaming of sexuality as she calls it, will eventually devastate societies and will ultimately be its own downfall.

On the whole, it’s not a pleasant read. You get the uneasy sense that opposition is only growing and that Christians will bear the brunt of their traditional, biblical worldviews. You also begin to feel sad that the world we live in is so hell bent on harming itself. So delusional about what freedom really is, and too blind to consider the consequences of its own actions. Yet the end chapters do offer hope and encouragement that not every battle is a lost one and that Christians can and should still fight for biblical truth to be held to. And this especially with regards the area of sexuality, despite the fact that what Kuby writes sounds like Romans 1 in action. 

The text quoted at the start of this article serves as a pretty good summary of the ideas and purpose of the book. But it also highlights some important pastoral issues for Christians. Firstly, defamation, being shunned, and being persecuted will come to Christians. The book of Philippians tells us that it has been granted to believers to suffer on behalf of Christ. This will be the way the church in the west suffers, through opposition to unbiblical sexual ethics. The church needs to brace itself for that, so it can stand strong in Christ, and be preserved during this mass opposition to the faith. Secondly, when this faulty sexual ethic does crumble in on itself and devastates society, what remains of the church after persecution needs to rise up. Then, with sympathy, humility and love, and a profoundly deep and biblically robust understanding of who man really is, receive those who decide they want the real answers to their questions about their identity. We need to start thinking now, about how we receive into the church those who want to be saved and put their faith in Christ, who are in homosexual marriages, who are same sex adoptive parents, who are post op transgender men and women. Those whose lifestyles and bodies may in one sense be irreversibly changed to the extent that they seem completely incompatible with Biblical standards and practices, yet whose souls still need saving.