Have you ever wondered why society has so strongly rejected
traditional morality? Have you ever
asked why people seem to think so differently than they thought even 20 years
ago. Nancy Pearcey, in her excellent
book Love Thy Body: Answering Hard
Questions about Life and Sexuality, gives us the reasons why society has
changed so radically.
Pearcey takes us back to people like Immanuel Kant, the 18th
century philosopher who first taught that life is defined by a fact/values
split. Facts are public, objective and
valid for all. Values are private,
subjective and relativistic. The problem
is, in our post-modern world, values have come to trump facts in every
area. When this fact/values split is
applied to human life and sexuality, the facts of our biological body are set
aside in favor of values that may or may not line up with our biological
identity. After laying this fact/values
foundation, Pearcey goes on to painfully and exhaustively show how this idea
works itself out in daily life.
For example, take the issue of abortion. In the arena of abortion (and many other
places), the fact/values dichotomy works itself out as a body/personhood
contrast. No one on either side of the
abortion debate today denies that human life is present very early on in fetal
development. The baby inside a mother’s
womb may be life, but post-modern society is quick to deny that it is a
person. Persons have moral worth and
legal standing. Bodies are expendable,
biological organisms that can be sold for parts to the highest bidder. Today being a member of the human race is not
enough to qualify as a person. Rather
one must earn that status, something a child in the womb cannot do. This lack of personhood provides the
justification for abortion.
It does not take much thinking to see how this
body/personhood split might affect the end of life as powerfully as it does the
beginning of life. Assisted suicide and
euthanasia are driven by personhood. In
post-modern thinking, there comes a point when an aging or sick human being is
no longer a person, but merely a body with no right to life. Doctors are now people making moral
decisions, not medical decisions. And
when life is no longer valued, the continuance of life comes down to a matter
of costs and benefits, not any intrinsic value in that life.
The fact/values, body/personhood split also affects how we
see and practice sex. The hook-up
culture that exists in our world is a classic example. Our bodies are merely means of fulfilling
physical needs that are to be divorced from our emotions. Sex education in our schools is concerned
with the health of our bodies, not the health of our hearts or emotions. Sex becomes a religion, a vision of
redemption. It is also a lie, as human
beings are designed to unite not only physically but also emotionally.
Pearcey also addresses Same Sex Attraction and transgender
issues. In these areas, identities are again
driven by values, by our feelings and our desires. Those “values” give us permission to use our
bodies in ways that contradict biology.
The homosexual/transsexual/gender questioning person is convinced that
their most authentic self can be found only when they reject the biological
body given them by God and build their identity somewhere else. Sexuality then becomes a social construct
which is indefinable, able to be manipulated, fluid and severed from biological
facts. This, Pearcey explains, when
taken to a logical conclusion, ultimately undermines the basis for human
rights.
Finally, she addresses how marriage and family are affected
by this change of thinking. The
assumption today is that marriage is no longer a covenant, but a contract
defined by terms we choose. In the
Supreme Court’s Obergfell decision, the court reduced marriage to an emotional
attachment which was identical to all couples, regardless of biology. Redefining marriage leads to a redefinition
of parenting as a contract as well; a contract an increasing number of parents
are opting out of. Here in Montana, 10
years ago there were just over 1000 children in the foster system, today there
are 4000! The end result is that the
state ends up with power over families in ways that were unheard of 50 years
ago.
All this is very depressing and worrying. But Pearcey also has good words to say. In each chapter, she is quick to remind the
church of its response to these things.
Christians ought to be on the forefront of showing compassion to those
who are sexually confused and struggling.
We need to communicate a high view of the body as God created it. Yes it is corrupted by sin, but it also is of
such high value that God will one day redeem it and make it new, fit for
eternity. We need to present a picture
of a good God who is big enough to bring purpose to suffering and who can turn
difficult events to something good. We
need to remind people that sex is not God.
Jesus Christ lived a fulfilled life, a perfect life, being fully human
in every way, without sex. We need to
encourage people that our true identities are found in our creation in the
image of God and that our biological identities have been given to us by God
for good.
Yes, we live in a very confused time. But in the gospel and its hope for now and
the future, God has given us wonderful truths to live out and to share. We need to be diligent and see how these
timeless, transformative truths can bring life and clarity to our confused
world.
