The Sexual Revolution Comes to Your Home

The sexual revolution is actively seeking to recruit, catechize, and destroy our children, but awareness and intentionally teaching God’s truth can combat this destructive enemy. We’ve all witnessed the growing popularity of transgenderism, the acceptance of homosexuality, the declining marriage rates, and the regularity of divorce. Where did these societal norms come from and how did we get to this point? More importantly, how do we navigate this as families, churches, and schools? What messages do we need to be aware of and protect our children from?

To understand our current reality, it’s helpful to recognize how we arrived where we’re at by taking a brief look at two significant figures in the history of the sexual revolution, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957). Don’t think that two dead guys are irrelevant for today. Their ideas have shaped our society and impact your children. Take a moment to learn about Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich so that you can recognize the poisonous messages of the sexual revolution today, protect your children from them, and help children develop a biblical view of marriage, sex, manhood, and womanhood.

Human Sexuality and the Gospel According to Freud

Sigmund Freud was a highly influential psychologist who believed the goal of life is happiness and the way to be happy is through sexual pleasure. He believed that children are sexual beings from birth and need to have sex whenever they want in order to develop properly. Freud proposed a series of five stages in which people mature, all of which, are focused on seeking sexual gratification. He believed that each stage is motivated by an intense sexual desire. If a child does not receive the proper satisfaction in each stage, they will not develop properly into an adult. The result, he believed, is the child will develop feelings of inadequacy, repressed emotions, and suffer poor self-worth.

Freud believed that sexuality shaped identity. For Freud, sex shapes a child’s personality and relationships beginning at birth and continues through adulthood. Each stage of life needs a sexual outlet and becomes an all-consuming reality that is always present. He claimed that everything in life is about sex. Fast forward to today, and society has embraced the idea that our sexuality tells us who we are. Therefore, the rejection of a person’s sexual choices, such as homosexuality or transgenderism, is equivalent to the rejection of the person. Not allowing a child to pursue a personal sexual choice is equivalent to preventing them from being their true self, and in some states like California and Minnesota, is classified as child abuse.

I want you to recognize the massive theological problems of Freud’s ideas and reject them. Freud established a sexual worldview to replace the gospel. It was the lens through which Freud viewed the world. He replaced the Christian view that the problem of the human condition is sin and its solution is salvation in Christ with a therapeutic worldview focused on discontent and sexual desire. Freud believed the problem in childhood is repression of sexual desires and that humans suffer when they are denied sexual pleasure. Freud systematized life around sexual impurity and dishonorable passions; the very things Romans 1:24-28 says are the outcome of rejecting God. Freud’s faulty beliefs about God and humanity led to a distorted and destructive view of marriage and sex where Christianity becomes guilty of an outdated sexual ethic and is the oppressor squelching human freedom and flourishing.

The Secular Sexual Worldview

• Who am I? Sexuality is identity and is equivalent to being one’s true self.
• What is my purpose? Happiness comes through sexual pleasure.
• What is the problem? Sexual oppression due to societal norms that do not allow certain forms of sexual expression or gratification.
• What is the solution? Sexual liberation from societal norms and abolishing sexual limits.

Freud believed that society demonizes certain forms of sexual expression for the sake of public order, not because there is a God-established moral standard. Freud concluded that those whose sexual desires are unacceptable to society will face one of two miserable futures; if they act on their desires, they will be labeled a pervert. If some people are successful and able to repress their sexual impulses, they will inevitably become neurotic and suffer mentally as victims of society’s unkind requirements. According to Freud, the problem is not individual sexual desires, but societal norms. The individual is a victim of society, so by default, societal norms are the problem and need to change. Freud’s solution is to abolish sexual limits and liberate society from sexual norms.

Freud set the stage for the sexual revolution by giving society the “scientific” justification to abolish all sexual limits. Society has increasingly treated traditional sexual standards as culturally derived rather than grounded in God’s divine order. Take a moment to consider the implications of society making sexual pleasure the focal point of life. Think about what happens when a child believes that sexuality shapes identity, that God’s standards of sexual morality is oppressive, and lives according to Freud’s sexual worldview.

Freud’s ideas granted permission for the sexual revolution and have shaped the way multiple generations have lived, from the hippies and free love in the 1960s to the rainbow flags and pride festivals today. The LGBTQ movement adopted many of Freud’s views. They expanded upon his assumption that social stigma and private shame over “inappropriate” sex is a crushing force that harms people. The destigmatizing of sexual minorities and the abolition of any sexual standard is their moral path forward. The LGBTQ movement has taken Freud’s views to their logical conclusion: imagining a sexual utopia of free love.

America’s Sexual Evangelist

Wilhelm Reich, who came out of the German Frankfurt school in the 1920s, took Freudian ideas on sexual desire and combined them with Marxist ideas on revolutionary politics. One of Reich’s best known phrases was, “The act of liberation was to be the orgasm.” For Reich, the sexual revolution was the driving force for a political revolution. Promiscuity is a form of political activism as it combated biblical morality by sleeping around.

Reich was a sexual evangelist and once said, “If you want young people to turn their back on God, get them involved in deviant sexual behavior.” Reich thought the best in man was his sexual cravings. He viewed sin as fear of desire rather than disobedience to God. The healthy person was not the one who could master or deny his impulses, but the one who could fully and freely express them. Reich argued that sexual repression is the problem and a method used by authoritarians to create submission in individuals. He believed that liberation required a sexual revolution to overthrow the oppressive leaders. He was a communist activist utilizing sexual anarchy to destroy the morality of individuals, ruin families, and create chaos in society.

Marxists believe the traditional family is the primary instrument of all oppressive authority. Liberation can only be achieved by overthrowing the family, especially the father. Reich believed that Marxism would fail if it only addressed economic factors and not biblical morality or the family structure that prevented Marxism from gaining acceptance in the United States. Reich sought to destroy the family and stated,

The beginning of a sexual revolution with the current dissolution of the family; the substitution of patriarchal family structure with the socialist collective; the growing involvement of either husband or wife into public functions; the access of sons and daughters to collectives and the subsequent competition of social relationships to family ones; the transferral of children’s responsibility from the parents to society and the collectivisation of children cultivation.

Marxists want to destroy your family and their method to do that is to separate parent from child and transfer influence to other people. Marxists would love for you to believe that it takes a village to raise a family. I’ve seen the village and I don’t want them raising my children. Biblically, it takes a family to raise children. Marxists attack the idea that the husband is the family leader, encourage wives to work outside the home, and promote feminism where women are given complete financial independence and personal autonomy, including choosing one’s own last name. They encourage unrestrained sexual activity and laws protecting homosexuality. They reject abstinence for children and marital faithfulness. Marxists want to replace parental influence and transfer it to society. Think about how these goals have been achieved through the feminist movement, public education, and social media.

A century of attacking marriage and undermining parental responsibility has been effective. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, parents spend two minutes per day reading to children and five minutes per day educating a child who is under eighteen years old. A survey of 3,000 families found they eat an average of four meals together per week. Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, found that families eat twenty percent of meals each week in the car. The Marxist strategy to silence parents and replace their voice with others has been shockingly effective.

Freud and Reich paved the way for sexual promiscuity to be seen as a sacred sacrament. Their ideas have culminated in teaching children that sexual gratification is holy and healthy. Freud’s views encouraged the erosion of biblical morality and the belief that sexual self-control is a great evil. Freud and Reich rejected God, inverted His good-design, attacked marriage and family, redefined sexual morality, built an entire worldview around deviant sexuality, and became evangelists for their new gospel message. The sexual gospel promises joy, freedom, and identity but delivers pain, bondage, confusion, and destruction.

We arrive at our current point in history, which is nothing short of a revolt against God and reality. Rather than have sexual desires transformed by God, we are told to change reality to align with desire. Biblical sexuality is seen as unacceptable and outdated. Individuals who seek to live by biblical sexual standards, believe marriage is between one man and one woman, and desire to have children are the worst of apostates. A man who wears a dress, pretends to be a woman, and goes into a female bathroom is perfectly acceptable. If you publicly state that sex is for marriage or that men and women are biologically different and not inter-changeable, you will be seen as appalling. Society has flipped what is good, right, and true.

Children are being told if their sexual desires are fulfilled, then they’ll be happy. Sex is taught as a normal part of human development and exploration. Children are led to believe that if they are a virgin at their wedding, they have stunted themself developmentally. Rainbow clad foot soldiers try to convince children that they are entirely at the mercy of their sexual desires and that sexual standards must be abolished to pursue personal pleasure. Children are fed the destructive lie that sexual self-control is oppressive and sexual gratification is freedom. Plenty of individuals have acted upon the scientific-sounding permission for sexual promiscuity: do it for your mental health. The number of people suffering moral injury as a result of perversion grows daily and they realize that living without limits and standards isn’t as fun as it looks. The sexual revolution has been disastrous for children, families, marriages, and society.

Sex is an expression of a person’s entire worldview. It reveals what someone believes about God, morality, sin, salvation, humanity, and marriage. When young people understand the why behind sex, that is where reverence is merged with obedience. What is the purpose of sex? Why does God put boundaries around sex? It is within these boundaries that human dignity is affirmed and validated. Once God’s good design for marriage and sex is rejected, all kinds of brokenness, oppression, and degradation occurs to a human being. It’s only within the biblical worldview that a person will find his or her value affirmed and blessings occur.

The sexual revolution is alive and has metastasized into sweat sounding lies wrapped up in deceptive promises delivered in educational classrooms, social media feeds, and pop culture. One of the battlegrounds of our day, that we must win, is to protect the hearts and minds of our children from these destructive lies by teaching them the blessings of God’s truth about marriage and sex from the Bible. We must help children understand that they will be happiest when they live according to God’s good design for marriage, sex, manhood, and womanhood. Don’t believe the lie that a good parent gives their child sexual or gender autonomy. Reject the lie that a good parent affirms their child’s new gender identity or sexual promiscuity. The idea that happiness is the highest goal and childhood autonomy is the greatest right is the poisonous fruit of Freud and Reich. We do not need to be fearful of the sexual revolution, but we do need to be aware, vigilant, and committed to teaching children God’s truth. We can take opportunities to show children how the secular sexual worldview fails and how a biblical view of marriage, children, and sex is good, true, and beautiful. When we do that, we will raise children who have deep and lasting biblical convictions about marriage, sexuality, manhood and womanhood and are not only blessed personally but will be a blessing to society.