The Bible and Sex Education

Untreated cancer almost always means death. Sometimes the diagnosis is made too late to institute effective treatment. It is also possible for inadequate measures to spell doom. Fortunately, with early diagnosis and proper treatment, a high percentage of cures may be expected.

Sex obsession is a moral and spiritual cancer that has fixed itself on America and can destroy us as surely as untreated cancer destroys human life. The diagnosis can be confirmed by all who can see. Our literature, stage, screen, and accepted standards of life reek with a concentration on sex that has reached astonishing proportions.

Sex is a God-given force in which, within the bonds of wedded love, there is both righteousness and joy. Our trouble today is that “sex appeal” is in large measure a determining factor of life. The promotion of, acquiescence in, and submission to this godless concept of life threatens to destroy America.

If this diagnosis is correct—and it seems obvious that it is—then our great concern must be an effective treatment.

The basic cure lies in our acceptance of God’s standards for sexual conduct, and not those of the world. The Seventh Commandment states categorically: “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and this has never been abrogated. In addition, our Lord makes it clear in speaking on the subject that the lustful thought or look are involved in this commandment.

The best course on sex education is to be found within the pages of Scripture. Here we find the subject treated in a completely outspoken, uninhibited manner. That which is good and that which is evil in connection with sex are both made abundantly clear. In the Bible sex is treated in its wholesomeness, and its abuse is handled frankly.

I am convinced that “sex education” for children is psychologically unsound, for it places in the child’s mind an emphasis on sex that is unwholesome, and eventuates in more, not less, sexual experimentation. I am perfectly aware of the long limb I am climbing out on, but I feel certain that the solution to our sex problems is not to be found in the present biological and social approach. Only as God is recognized and honored as both the source and arbiter of moral law will people, young and old, look at sex in the right perspective.

One immediate objection is that only a minority of children come from Christian homes, that only a few hear the Bible read in the family circle or read it for themselves; thus a more universal approach must be had.

Well, across America there is a school lunch program by which children coming from underprivileged homes can have at least one hot meal a day. This is a good program that is meeting a real need.

If children are being fed in school to supplement an inadequate diet at home, why do some people object when it is suggested that children receive some spiritual instruction in school? Nothing more clearly illustrates the folly of unregenerate man. We are concerned about the bodily welfare of our children—and rightly so—but we look on spiritual instruction as “controversial,” outside the pale of public education.

To teach sectarian religion in schools would be contrary to our established principles, but the Ten Commandments are a part of the religious heritage of Jews, Roman Catholics, and Protestants. Why should not the Ten Commandments be read before all students at the opening of school every day? Here we have God’s moral law. It is not Christianity, but it is a part of the Christian faith. Let the words and the teaching of the Ten Commandments sink into the hearts and minds of young people—and for many this would be inevitable—and part of the moral problem of our day will be on its way to a solution.

Let every child hear daily, “Thou shalt not steal,” and the wrongness of dishonesty will become increasingly clear. Let each child hear daily, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and the evil of impure conduct will become real to many.

For that minority who profess no religion and who would loudly protest against the reading of the Ten Commandments as an infringement of their constitutional rights and those of their children, let their children be excused from the room while the Commandments are being read. Further than this, there should be no concession to free-thinkers, atheists, and the like; otherwise, the overwhelming majority of Americans will find themselves checked by and at the mercy of a godless minority.

I am not for one moment suggesting that this is the final solution to the sex delinquency rampant in our country today. But it is one step in the right direction.

Moral and spiritual concepts must be taught to a generation of adult delinquents. Parents have lost their sense of decency and moral responsibility to a degree unknown in the history of America and have transmitted to their children a laxness of attitude toward sex that is reaping a whirlwind of sex obsession.

Believing there is but one ultimate solution, and that it is found in the God-given standards revealed in the Holy Scriptures, I suggest an experiment to parents and for their children. The Book of Proverbs has thirty-one chapters, one for each day of the month. For each of twelve months read one chapter a day (beginning with the chapter corresponding to the date on which the experiment is begun), and I will promise on the basis of personal experience, the professional background of forty years as a practicing physician, and yet more years as a Christian, that every problem of youth will be found and met in that one book.

In Proverbs the evils of inordinate sex are made clear and the joy of married love is set forth. The problems out of which juvenile and adult delinquency are spawned are clearly delineated—so much so that one will either stop reading out of sheer conviction and rejection or cry out, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” and ask his help and guidance.

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