Television has hit a new low, "Geraldo" just did the kinkiest talk show ever.

The eight guests being interviewed - (are you ready for this?) - were all committing - (Gasp! Be sure the children are out of the room) - chastity!

Yes, that's right. All these single people had decided not to have sex outside of marriage. One of them was even can I mention this terrible perversion in a family newsletter? - a virgin!

Geraldo will stoop to anything.

Even more fascinating, as the studio audience and experts, asked questions and commented, they all felt that these strange people "feared intimacy." Something must have happened when they were children that caused them to "avoid normal relationships."

Most of these "freaks" had strong religious reasons. They all claimed they had no "fear of intimacy," but they had simply decided chastity was the best policy until they were married.

Geraldo asked one attractive 29-year old woman, "Aren't you afraid that if you meet Mr. Right and you refuse to have sex that he might go away?"

She said, "That's already happened once, but I didn't compromise my principles."

No one in the audience, which seemed to be a cross section of America, suggested that a man who would abandon a young woman because she wouldn't have sex out of marriage might not be anybody's "Mr. Right."

Everyone acted as if this was a perversion, worthy of puzzled or even hostile reactions.

I knew we were a sex-drenched society, moving in the wrong direction towards license and permissiveness over the Seventh Commandment, but until now I didn't accept how totally society had surrendered. Maybe it's the Neanderthal crowd I run with, but I assumed that most "fornicators" (ooh, what an out-of-style word) at least felt guilty that their behavior was not society's norm.

Now us weirdos who believe that sex is a sacred celebration of joy only when it is within divinely established bounds are an endangered species.

No wonder you can't find a sitcom or movie without a routine illicit sexual situation.

When was the last time you ever saw anybody feel guilty about his extra-marital sex life?

Can anyone who shares my old-fashioned hang-ups deny the similarities between 1989 America and the last days of the Roman Empire? Maybe political activism, lobbying, building wealth, etc. is a foolish waste of time, as we will reap the natural consequences of the deterioration of the most basic building block of a stable society - the family.

The family is a divinely established institution that makes two principal contributions to society:

(1) It nurtures the young. Among all the marnmals, we have the longest period of immature dependency. The family was designed to create a protective environment until the young are ready to cope with an increasingly more complex world.

(2) The family is the mechanism by which values, wealth and traditions are passed on from one generation to the next. It is the medium of continuity.

A society that allows the family to die is only a generation away from its own violent death. All of God's laws regulating our sexual behavior were designed to preserve the integrity of the family unit. Anything that debases the exalted status of the family threatens civilization.

I am finally accepting the horrible truth that the majority of Americans perceive marriage and sexual self-control outside of marriage as merely a quaint option among many other equally legitimate choices.

Unfortunately, those who control the mass media, especially TV and movies, give only lip service to the family and have declared war on old-fashioned morals.

What's worse, they have probably won.

(Note: Howard Ruff is not a preacher, but a renown financial advisor, whose writings are read by hundreds of thousands. He is a dedicated family man and a member of the Mormon Church. His morals are straight and his ideals lofty. I appreciate his words on sex outside of marriage and commend them to all. - Billy Moore)

Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 6, p. 173
March 15, 1990