How the Sexual Revolution Changed the World

There are numerous events or movements that have changed the course of history. In the last two hundred years, the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, abolition of slavery, the Civil Rights movement, World Wars I & II and the Information Revolution come to mind.

Another one that I lived through was the Sexual Revolution of the 1950s to 70s.  I know it’s not on the usual radar screens of earth-shattering events, but I believe it should be.

What really happened during the 20th century Sexual Revolution? What are its lasting effects? How has the Baby-boom-led sexual revolt changed the world as we know it?

Some of the answers may surprise you.

When we think of life changing events or movements we don’t normally think of sex. It’s a pretty basic yet wonderful aspect of human experience, and in my opinion, one of the greatest gifts from God for expressing human love.

That’s why most songs center around sensual love either from a desire or lament standpoint.

Many years ago, I noticed in the Old Testament that though all sins are equal in their motive (selfish and lawless), they are not equal in their ramifications or consequences. In fact, the clear teaching of the Bible and human history is that deviating from God’s wise boundaries of a man and woman experiencing sexual love in marriage is extremely hurtful and destructive.

That’s why the Old Testament elevates sexual sins above some others. Just peruse chapters such as Leviticus 18 or 20 and you will get the picture.  Sexual sin is bad.  It hurts and defiles people.  That’s why God told the nation of Israel to hate it, avoid it, and legislate against it.

God does not want human beings to suffer the dreadful consequences of perverting his beautiful gift of sex.

Enter the 1950s. The world had just experienced two dreadful wars in which a total of 76 million people died (16M in World War I and 60M in World War II). That was about 4% of world population at the time. Millions more were wounded, displaced, some nations reduced to rubble, with psychological damage unfathomable.

Out of that devastation, a time of calm prevailed in the Western nations where GIs came back from the war, got married, had kids and begun to live more “normal” lives. At the time, a strong Judeo-Christian world view coupled with an evangelical awakening led by Billy Graham and others gave credence to biblical norms in sexual activity.

Most men and women married. Fornication and adultery were generally frowned upon. Homosexuality, incest, and pedophilia were seen as taboo.  The Baby Boom generation–now the second largest generation in American history–were about to arrive.

I was one of them, born into a normal, religious home in 1953. Those were the days of “Leave It to Beaver,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” and “Father Knows Best.” That would all change in the late fifties through seventies when I graduated from high school.

The change seemed to start in Hollywood and the music scene. Famous actors and musicians began to sleep around. Stars like Elvis Presley,  the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and others encouraged the young generation to rebel against the old, traditional (and biblical ways). The rebellion appeared to be against God, various authority figures, and sexual norms.

I remember the mini-skirts rising, the pot and sex parties, Woodstock, Playboy, and on and on it went.  A new world was being created where sex was simply my desire for you, baby, to “Light My Fire.” Today, almost anything goes sexually without hardly the blink of an eye.

That movement of “sexual freedom” has changed the world–and not for the good. Here are some of its incredible global consequences.

Atheist Growth

Sexual anarchy seems to go hand-in-hand with those who do not believe in God or a Higher Power to whom we are accountable. Of course there are some exceptions to that rule, but can anyone honestly argue that those who break the biblical boundaries of sex are partly running from God?

The statistics make it clear. Over the past fifty years, atheism has doubled in America from 7 to 14 percent of the population and many people now claim “No religion.” This has given birth to a relentless attack upon biblical faith by the media, government, Hollywood, and militant atheist groups who are trying to secularize every aspect of American culture.

Last week an Army chaplain was reprimanded for giving Christian literature to GIs during a “Suicide Prevention Week.” The American military–once a bastion of biblical faith and defense of liberty–is quickly becoming our biggest social experimentation grounds.

It all has its roots in the Sexual Revolution.

Disease Explosion

One of the medical fruits of the Sexual Revolution has been the growth of new diseases due to illicit sexual activity. At last report, the Revolution has spawned 26 brand new venereal diseases.  

An estimated 1.5 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2013, and an estimated 39 million people with AIDS have died worldwide since the epidemic started.  Sub-Saharan Africa bears the biggest burden of HIV/AIDS, with almost 70% of the global total of new HIV infections for 2013.  

Let that sink in. 76 million people died unnecessarily because of Hitler, Stalin and Mao. But half that many (39 million) have died unnecessarily in our lifetime simply due to one STD we call AIDS.  

History is littered with tribes, nations and civilizations that either declined or died due to sexual perversion. The Incas, Aztecs and Roman world come to mind. The modern Sexual Revolution is taking us down the same path, albeit being retarded by advances in modern medicine. 

History’s Biggest Holocaust

One of the most tragic fruits of the Sexual Revolution was the revival on the ancient sin of abortion–killing an innocent baby in the womb simply because it is unwanted. As people slept around and sex started to multiply beyond marriage, something had to be done with the unwanted fruit of unrestrained passion.

Enter the tragic and legislative stupidity of Roe v. Wade in 1973. It came about for one primary reason: to get rid of the evidence of sexual chaos and evil. Abortion wasn’t new, it was just pagan–an ungodly practice revived in the modern world–to keep the Revolution roaring without “problems.”

The Guttmacher Institute estimates that between 1 and 2 billion human beings have been aborted in 20th and 21st centuries. That makes the Sexual Revolution abortion machine the greatest holocaust of all time.

Take a moment and weep over that statistic. At least a billion innocent children sucked apart or cut to pieces on the altar of selfish indulgence.  Makes Hitler look like a piker. 

Destroying Marriage and Family

Can anyone deny that “sexual liberation” is one of the main causes of the destruction of marriage and family in the past fifty years?

In former times of biblical mores, men and women either got married and kept sex in marriage because it was the right thing to do, or, if they weren’t believers, the man wanted sex and the woman wanted children. Both of those motives produced wholesome family units, with a mom, a dad, and kids.

I saw an article today that appeared a week ago in the Washington Post that shows how the Sexual Revolution has destroyed the America family. It’s called “The Unbelievable Rise of Single Motherhood in America Over the Past Fifty Years” and is based on studies by Princeton’s Sara McLanahan and Harvard’s Christopher Jencks.

It explains, for example, that more than 70 percent of all black children today are born to an unmarried mom, a three-fold increase in that rate since the 1960s. You can read the article here.

Hey, what happened in the 1960s? Oh yeah, there was the Sexual Revolution where men started sleeping around with whoever would have them, then split the scene. What was once sinful is now the new awful norm–kids without parents and diseases galore.

Ask the children if that kind of sex is “liberating” to them. In most cases, it sentences young ones to a life of poverty and lack of good role models.

Rising Narcissism and Anarchy

An awful lot of rioting is happening around America these days due to racial tension and exploitation.  I know this can’t be directly attributed to the Sexual Revolution, but let’s be reminded of this: The essence of the Revolution was rebellion against authority–God, parents, police and others. At the root of the original movement was a spirit of anarchy and chaos which said, “I will do what I want with my body or to others.”

A couple generations later, that same spirit is once again manifest in American streets and neighborhoods.

Mushrooming Financial Debt

What does sexual promiscuity have to do with trillions of dollars of debt?” More than we realize.

I learned this consequence of the Sexual Revolution by looking at various charts. For example, if you read the Washington Post article you’ll notice a number of graphs that the authors use to demonstrate the rise of single motherhood and dissolution of the family. They show the uptick beginning in the fifties through seventies then exploding upward to the present time.

It’s exactly the same graph as the uptick in illicit sexual activity i.e. the Revolution. America’s debt bomb mirrors our sexual confusion. So what’s the connection?

People who cheat in marriage or relationships will do the same thing with money. When you’re living for pleasure or the next conquest, it’s all about the “now” without thought of the future. In the financial realm, the same spirit is in operation–living for today and not saving for the future.

In other words, the same character that rebels against God-ordained sex will do the same thing with finances. Lack of self control in one inevitably produces lack of self control in the other. The graphs are the same.

For hundreds of years, most Americans believed in God’s ideal for marriage and family. During that era, they also generally practiced his principles of financial stewardship. Debt was taboo and limited. So was illicit sex.

When the Sexual Revolution erupted fifty years ago, it produced the debt mentality that now enslaves us in trillions of dollars of borrowed money–both personal and corporate.  Sexual atheists beget financial atheists. Unfortunately, they now occupy the power structures of our once wiser nation–with a day of reckoning coming.

That’s how the Sexual Revolution changed the world.

We need a new Jesus Revolution to reverse it.