Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Marriage and Culture

Years ago, J. D. Unwin wrote a book entitled Sex and Culture, in which he studied 86 different societies. His findings startled scholars. All 86 cultures demonstrated a direct tie between absolute monogamy and the "expansive energy" of civilization. In other words, sexual fidelity was the single most important predictor of a society's progress.

Unwin had no religious convictions and applied no moral judgments to his study. Here are his concluding words:

"I offer no opinion about rightness or wrongness. In human records there is no instance of a society retaining its energy after a complete new generation has inherited a tradition which does not insist on prenuptial and post-nuptial continence."

Will America be the exception? Or will we be wise enough to see where we are headed, and repent? Time will tell. But we Christians must be salt and light in living out a model designed by God. When we look and act and break covenant as regularly as the pagan, what hope does the world have?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Is it just me or does it not show the validity of the authenticity of the Bible as God's written word when nonbelievers independently find that there is blessing and goodness in God's prescribed order?

What more testifies to the truth of God than when an individual with no religious convictions makes observations such as these?

Even in the cases of pagan cultures who do not recognize the true and living God for who he is, by maintaining a God-given standard such as faithfulness and exclusivity in marriage, cultures are for the better.

When will we Americans wake up to the realities that confront us? The answer is that we probably won't until it's too late and the downward spiral of our national behavior runs its course and leads us into acute national crisis. Maybe our remnants of Christian heritage will lead us to repentance then and God will have mercy on us and raise us up.

Yes-- salt and light.