For years, popular culture has mocked the church for misogyny.
Or worse still, for being puritanical. In March it was a news story around the world that American Vice-President Mike Pence would not dine alone with a woman other than his wife. For many Christians, this has been an ordinary, common sense boundary. But apparently, this behaviour is antiquated or legalistic.
Westminster and Hollywood
However, that was March, it is now December and the media has moved on. After years of celebrating sexual promiscuity and feeding an appetite for more and more diverse forms of sexual expression, the spotlight is now upon those who have been anything less than pure in their relationships. Often without any trial, Hollywood figures and government officials (Westminster sexual harassment) have stepped down or stepped aside without protest.
How should we engage with these issues as Christians? On the one hand, we may feel that we have been neutralised by scandals in the church. The list of bishops and youth workers who have also faced allegations rightly makes us think twice about throwing stones. The issue is not about politicians or Hollywood actors, but about human nature in a fallen world.
However, there is a bigger picture about the kind of society we are creating.
Fruits of liberalisation
Remember the direction in which we are travelling: the liberalisation of abortion laws, legalisation of homosexual marriage and the lowering of the age of homosexual sexual consent from 21 to 16 all contribute to the new landscape. The UK blasphemy law was abolished in 2008 and no statistics are required to see that the content of broadcasting has rapidly changed in recent decades. Various surveys point to the number of sex scenes on television having doubled in recent years. Who wants this increased sexualisation in the media? A 2015 Ofcom survey revealed that a third of viewers don’t want it.
In 2010 the Department of Health were so concerned about the kind of sexual content dominating TV that they issued a report. Its conclusion? That scriptwriters should include more reference to condoms, safe sex and unwanted diseases. With government advice like that we know the fire is out of control.
Something is going wrong
We are not throwing stones at anyone. We are not claiming that pastors and Sunday school teachers have been able to avoid sexual temptation and moral disaster. But we are able to say that something is going wrong with the society to which we belong. Society is supposed to help us be the best we can, not encourage us to be the worst. The root of the problem does not lie with the scandals that dominate tabloid headlines. It is found much deeper in the kind of culture we are creating.
A letter from David Robertson published in The Courier in November raises this significant point: ‘When our society desacralised sex – removed it from any connection with marriage, family and children – and thought that we could have what we want, when we want, without consequences, what did we expect would happen? Did no one foresee the increase in sexually transmitted diseases, the broken homes and the sexual abuse of power?’
Love distorted
It is hard to imagine that anyone is really surprised by lurid tales of sexual conquest. We been immunised to scandal by the continual barrage of sexualised content in our media. In 2015 cinemas decided to show Fifty Shades of Grey as a film suitable for Valentine’s Day. It was a decision that demonstrated Robertson’s point. Love and sex have become so distorted that we hardly know what Valentine’s Day was supposed to be celebrating.
The media has distorted our vocabulary so that not only have words like male and female become confused, but it has become harder to distinguish between love and lust, sex and violence, slavery to addiction and freedom of expression.
Society without vision
At the turn of the millennium The Times ran this as their 1 January 2000 editorial: ‘On the threshold of a century of opportunity, ours is a society with no more vision of where it is going than those stumbling home early on New Year’s Day. The Millennium Dome is a fitting national symbol, a wonderful structure that stands for nothing, a stunning shell with a hole where the heart should be.’
At this moment, we have a great opportunity as the church to give a different vision of society. Not only in debate, sermons and apologetics, but even more so in our communities and relationships, Christians can demonstrate lives that do reflect the goodness of God’s moral order. Our Christian communities should be places where women are respected, sex is valued and trust is reliable. If there is a dark side to culture, then perhaps the church will shine all the brighter.
