The Decline of the Family (8)

When a married man has intimate relations with someone that he is not married to, what is that called? If you said "cheating" then you have been influenced by the world. What does the Bible call this event? It never calls it "cheating" but uses that old fashioned word: "adultery". The acceptance of adultery in our society has come largely because the negativity has been lightened (though still not fully gone). When you change the definition of something you change the attitude toward it.

Zimmerman noted this in his study: a growing desire for and acceptance of adultery as well as a rejection of sexual boundaries in marriage is the next stage in societal degeneration. Once the institution of marriage is disrespected, the most private and intimate aspect of marriage, sexuality, will always become open to attack. Know this: adultery is an attack on sexuality, not a freeing of sexuality (because sexuality is a good thing created by God for the union of husband and wife and their physical and spiritual well being--to eliminate the protection on godly sexuality, is to leave it open to abuse).

Furthermore, when intimate relations happen between two people who are not married to anyone, it is also a sin; and a mortal one at that. It is called "fornication" (and I hope you cannot say you have never heard that word before!). The very fact that there are Catholics who will say "What's the big deal? We're in love" about their immoral sexual relations proves that they are more in accord with the world than with Christ. The acceptance of fornication among Catholics is a clear sign of moral decline which will eventually destroy our society. You cannot stop with fornication (which was accepted largely in modern society about a century ago), because it always degenerates into deeper levels of immorality.

More to follow...