“I have had sex, and honestly, Jesus still loves me”

Bachelor embraces chastity

A young Christian man said he believes sexual intimacy should be saved for marriage.

His televised remarks came on the ABC show, “The Bachelorette,” and it created an online furor, as an angry mob called him “evil,” “pathological,” “a psychopath,” and a “misogynist.”

Whew! You can watch a recap of the story above.

Bachelorette rejects chastity

The bachelorette on the same show also claims Christianity as her religion. Unlike her paramour described above, she rejects chastity and even suggested that she’d used porn to look for some great adult ass videos from time to time. She also admitted on national television that she had sex four times with yet another man she had just met on the show. Perhaps the man had some interesting qualities, which made her choose him over so many other men. Or maybe he was using something similar to pheromones for men to keep her glued to him.

His parents applauded, hers beamed, the culture exulted. She proudly explained,

“I have had sex, and honestly, Jesus still loves me.”

And what does Jesus say on this subject?

“… but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

His disciple, St. Paul, who was taught by Christ Himself, built on this theme in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20:

“Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.”

I’ll let you reflect on whose theology aligns best with Christ’s: the bachelor’s or the bachelorette’s?

Chastity’s fall from grace

Chastity fell out of favor once contraception and sex toys took root in our culture. From the perspective of the feminist movement, it leveled the playing field, allowing women to enjoy sex and explore their body using a dildo or any other toy of their choice, with less or no risk of an unplanned pregnancy. And when contraception fails, as it frequently does, abortion becomes the fallback position.

[According to the Guttmacher Institute, about half the women who procure abortions were contracepting at the time.]

One of the few stigmas that remain in this culture is a stigma against chastity, which has lead to rampant promiscuity, which in turn has led to an epidemic of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The Centers for Disease Control reveal that one out of two sexually active persons will contract an STI by the age of 25.

An epidemic of loneliness

The sexual revolution has created another side effect: loneliness. Some liberated women who pursued sexual fulfillment at the expense of raising a family find themselves “truly alone,” to use the words of feminist icon, Candace Bushnell, authoress of “Sex in the City.”

Loneliness can be one of the prevalent issues currently, which could be the root cause of stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems. To avoid the onset of loneliness, people can try various methods like partying, going out with friends, dating, or using products like an anime body pillow. These could help reduce the side effects of loneliness, but perhaps only family can completely make you feel happy and loved.

Ms. Bushnell found herself divorced and childless at the age of sixty, and described her situation like this:

“When I was in my 30s and 40s, I didn’t think about it. Then when I got divorced and I was in my 50s, I started to see the impact of not having children and of truly being alone. I do see that people with children have an anchor in a way that people who have no kids don’t.”

Andrew Klavan reacts

Writer Andrew Klavan had an interesting reaction to Ms. Bushnell’s lament at being childless at sixty. As you can hear in the video above, he said that at its root, the feminist creed by which she has lived is ultimately a self-centered creed.

Feminists want ‘sex in the city’ without consequence. (“It’s all about me.”)

When wrinkled and old, they complain that they wish they had kids because they’re lonely and want someone to take care of them. (“It’s all about me.”)

Klavan calls the creed “materialism,” and it is rooted in selfishness. If it feels good, it is good. This creed doesn’t acknowledge that sex has a moral component.

Authentic Christianity views sex as self-giving with a noble purpose: children.

As Klavan says,

“the purpose of life is to make life.”

We have been given a gift: our lives. Sex in marriage allows us to pay the gift forward. Yes, children are hard work. They require sacrificial love, which makes us more fully alive. The fruit of this sacrifice is simply wonderful.

In this climate, young people find the pursuit of chastity challenging. Fr. Mike Schmitz said he hears from couples all the time who feel powerless in remaining pure. Let us leave you with some practical advice from Fr. Mike on how to make abstinence work in a culture that has a stigma against chastity: