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‘Sexual perversion is good for you’, claims BBC

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BBC

Warning: this article contains a candid evaluation of sexual perversion and its roots.

It seems that the BBC is no longer turning a blind eye to immorality—they are now actively encouraging it. In the May edition of the BBC’s Focus magazine, Luis Villazon tells us that “It’s good to be bad”.1 Supposedly, men who are disagreeable and aggressive earn significantly more money; rudeness enhances negotiating skills; and anger increases longevity. According to Rutgers University social psychologist Dr Corinne Moss-Racusin, “Men are rewarded for their ‘bad’ behaviour because this falls in line with strict expectations for masculinity”. Not only will cheating help you get ahead in life, Villazon says, but lying actually improves language skills. Moreover, he claims, children who start lying at an early age develop better problem solving skills and are more likely to grow up to be higher-achieving adults due to having better brains.

That the BBC can publish such statements beggars belief—but there’s worse to come. Thinking about casual sex, it’s alleged, improves analytical skills, and sadomasochism strengthens relationships. Indeed, we’re told, “Lust focuses your attention on the here and now, improving your ability to concentrate on details” and “The act of spanking [each other, not their children] brings couples together”. And, to cap it all, they contend that these new discoveries are supported by science.

Of course, it’s ridiculous to suggest that science has shown such things to be true. To test the hypothesis that children who lie from an early age develop better brains, for example, would be virtually impossible, as there are so many factors that are known to affect child development. Needless to say, such an experiment would also be highly immoral as it would be necessary to encourage some children to lie—or at least not to discourage them. Scientists often have great difficulty assessing the effects of relatively simple medical treatments,2 so dogmatic statements such as these are little more than subjective opinions. And even if it were true that men who are disagreeable or aggressive are more likely to obtain better paid jobs, this has much more to say about how values in society have changed than about long-term effectiveness in a job. (In my experience people who behave like this rarely stay in a job long enough for their performance to be evaluated anyway.)

Perhaps the saddest and most distressing of Villazon’s claims, however, is that fantasising about casual sex and engaging in sadomasochism is good for us. Nothing could be further from the truth. The rejection of Christian sexual ethics in recent years has led to an explosion in promiscuity, and the so-called ‘liberated society’ is now plumbing the depths of the slavery and loneliness of sexual obsession and sexual addiction.

The nature of Man

In our increasingly secular environment we are inevitably influenced by the world’s view of sex, its nature and its purpose. To many it is simply a natural, animal instinct, bred into our nature through the evolutionary process to ensure the propagation of the species. As such, it is primarily a biochemical reaction. Moreover, according to this view, we are as we are because that’s how we evolved—and whatever feelings or desires we have must therefore be natural. The truth, however, is that while sex for animals may essentially boil down to biochemistry, this is not so of human beings, made in the image of God. For people, sex is a spiritual act, every bit as much as it is a physical one. In our materialistic society, and in the modern church, which, in many respects, has lost its awareness of the spiritual nature of man, this truth is not given the attention it deserves.

Human beings are much more than just biochemical machines, and much more than just animals. In Genesis 2:7, we read that

The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Having made the animals, God made man, lifeless at first, so that a different kind of life might be imparted to him. God, who is spirit, wanted to create a more special, spiritual creature, one whose nature was such that he could truly worship Him (John 4:24). Only as spiritual beings could Adam and Eve search the deep things of God and know Him, and enter the depths of His beauty and revel in the incomparable excitement and awe of the Most Holy. Only as spiritual creatures could they be made in God’s image and have a nature that can be filled with God. But a person with such a nature had not only the capacity to be filled with God, but also to be filled with evil. People can commune intimately with God and grow to be more and more like Him; but they can also embrace evil and be corrupted.

This view of mankind, however, is being rapidly squeezed out of the secular mind. Having been indoctrinated into the belief that evolution accounts for our existence, modern ‘scientists’ see people as nothing more than biochemistry. In their thinking, man doesn’t have a soul that can be corrupted. Moreover, there can only be a right understanding of human sexuality as God takes the central place in our thinking and in our behaviour. We must therefore remind ourselves of the greatest commandment:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”—Mark 12:30 and Deuteronomy 6:5

According to the Bible, when a man and woman have sex, they become “one flesh” (Genesis 2:21–24); in a sense their two spirits then occupy one body, facilitating a deep and intimate spiritual communion. Sex and sexuality were intended not only as a way for people to “multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28) but also to provide the means by which a man and a woman can celebrate and enjoy the worth and spiritual beauty of God, as beheld in His image in their spouse.3 Such godly sex is based on commitment and trust; a giving of oneself wholly in body, soul and spirit. As the old marriage liturgy put it, “With my body, I thee worship [i.e. honour]”.4 Godly sex is about love—a giving of oneself to another. Ungodly sex is about lust—a taking for oneself from another. Sex outside marriage takes place in the absence of commitment and will therefore always, to a greater or lesser extent, involve lust.

That sex is essentially an expression of worship is the reason why the very illicitness of adultery or ‘kinky sex’ offers an added dimension of ‘excitement’. This is because the person’s spirit rejoices and finds additional pleasure in the knowledge that a wrongful act is taking place.

The dark gods

Many people see the dangerous spiritual liaisons with evil as occurring when explicit association is made with occult activity, for example, through witchcraft, or mediums. The field, however, is far wider and includes every sin, as sin arises out of a love and reverence for evil. Our sexuality provides a means by which we can express ourselves spiritually and engage our own spirits with the spirits of others and with evil. This has also been recognised throughout history in pagan circles. Worship of the Baals in the Old Testament involved copulating with the temple prostitutes, and worship of the phallic symbol has been a feature of many cultures. In the West, we are taught that these were the activities of backward people who had vivid imaginations. The more spiritually enlightened view is that these practices were observed by shrewd, intelligent people, who had discovered in them a very real, supernatural and evil power. The apostle Paul, and New Testament writers, generally were well aware of this in their own day; witness the numerous occasions that they warned the early Church about sexual sin.5

That the apostle Paul understood these pagan gods to be associated with evil spirits is clear from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 (particularly v 20). Satanists, too, are well aware of these truths and incorporate the most defiling of sexual practices into their rituals in order to increase their power and capacity to do evil. Less explicitly, but still most dangerously, a man may attempt to fulfill his deep spiritual longings by fantasising over a woman he sees in a pornographic magazine. This is also to use our sexuality to enter into the worship of ourselves and of evil, instead of the worship of God. It results in us joining with ‘the dark gods’, and communing with them intimately, instead of with the true God.

That sexual relations between people are primarily intimacy between their spirits is the reason why sexual abuse does so much damage. Sexual abuse is about the love of power, and the violation of the victim is not only of their body, but of their spirit, the heart of their being. Moreover, the capacity to violate may be augmented by tapping into demonic power, whether the perpetrator is aware of it or not. Evil spirits delight in sexual abuse because the destruction of the victim’s spirit is offered up as a sacrifice in their honour.

With good reason the Scripture warns us, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Jesus made clear that simply to look at a woman lustfully is to commit adultery in one’s heart (Matthew 5:27–28). When we participate in sex, whether in body or mind, we engage the heart in worship; and we must be very, very careful about what we venerate. This is because our nature will be moulded by that which we love and honour.

Sexual sin: natural or unnatural?

I remember speaking with a colleague at work about my view of the way the world would have been had Adam not sinned—that there would have been no wars, no family conflicts, no crime, etc. He answered, “According to you, then, the desire to do wrong, which is so prevalent in our society is, in fact, unnatural.” I thought that he put it rather well.

Traditionally, the term ‘sexual deviance’ has referred to sexual activity outside of normal heterosexual relations, such as homosexuality, sadomasochism or bestiality. The truth, however, is closer to my colleague’s observation. It is only because we are sinful that we have any interest in sex outside of that with a marriage partner. The desire for pre-marital sex, or adultery, or heterosexual pornography is, in this sense, also deviant and unnatural. It is a moral problem and anything but a natural, animal instinct as Christ made clear in the Sermon on the Mount:

For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.”—Mark 7:21–22 (my italics)

A clear indication that extra-marital sex is unnatural is that it is addictive and enslaving. Godly sex within marriage is not.

Why is sadomasochism wrong?

In any sexual activity we must ask the question, who or what principle is being honoured in this? Sadomasochism is a prime example of sexual idolatry and self-worship. In the role of sadist, a person regards himselves as worthy to take from another by causing them pain. The other is ‘sacrificed’ in their honour. In the role of masochist, a person exults in the fantasy that they have a special value over and above others, such that another desires to rob them of it.

All forms of sexual promiscuity are the use of the power afforded by our sexual faculties to nurture and take the love of sin into the deepest recesses of the soul. In doing this, our capacity to value others rightly is progressively corrupted so that more and more we value selfishly, looking only for that which we can take from another. Such lusts lead to isolation and loneliness and, when endemic, to very violent societies.6

How far we have fallen

Villazon’s article is one of the most shocking I have read and is a lamentable departure from the BBC’s original commitment to godly broadcasting. In the entrance to Broadcasting House at Langham Place, there is a Latin inscription, which is translated,

TO ALMIGHTY GOD: This shrine of the arts, music and literature is dedicated by the first Governors in the year of our Lord 1931 . . . It is their prayer that good seed sown will produce a good harvest, that everything offensive to decency and hostile to peace will be expelled, and that the nation will incline its ear to those things which are lovely, pure and of good report and thus pursue the path of wisdom and virtue.

How far we have fallen. And there’s only one way back. Only by returning to Christianity, founded on the whole truth of the Bible, can we escape the inexorable moral degeneration of society (Matthew 12:43–45). This is one major reason I am part of the CMI ministry. I see how secularisation, fuelled by the vacuous claim that science has undermined the truth and authority of the Bible, is destroying the Western world. As many articles on our website make clear, true science reveals the bankruptcy of Darwin’s theory rather than supports it; and increasingly scientific observations are seen to fit the biblical account of creation and Earth history very well.7 People desperately need to hear this.

Published: 27 September 2012

References and notes

  1. Villazon, L., Good to bad, Focus, BBC, May 2012, pp. 38-44. Return to text.
  2. Ioannidis, J.P.A., Contradicted and initially stronger effects in highly cited clinical research, JAMA 294(2):218–228, 2005; jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/294/2/218.pdf. Return to text.
  3. It has been suggested that this may be why humans copulate face to face, in contrast to the majority of animals. Return to text.
  4. The solemnization of matrimony, Book of Common Prayer, 1662. Return to text.
  5. E.g. Matthew 15:19; Acts 15:20, 29, 21:25; Romans 1:24, 26–27, 29; 1 Corinthians 5:1, 9; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 2:3, 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:5. Return to text.
  6. White, J., Eros Redeemed: The impact of modern sexuality, InterVarsity Press, 1993, ch. 5. Return to text.
  7. See, for example, https://creation.com/a-shrinking-date-for-eve and https://creation.com/noah-and-genetics. Return to text.