How does the unthinkable become thinkable? Through slow, persistent,
and quiet change. At a time when abortion, infanticide, and
euthanasia are becoming widely accepted, you might wonder: What’s
left that could possibly be called "unthinkable"? The answer:
pedophilia, the sexual exploitation of children.
Most Americans view pedophilia as an abomination. But gay activists
are now openly advocating it, calling it "inter-generational
intimacy." As Mary Eberstadt writes in a provocative article
in the Weekly Standard, the "social consensus against
the sexual exploitation of children . . . is apparently eroding."
The process of erosion began at least fifteen years ago, when
academics began questioning the almost universal condemnation
of pedophilia. Soon, filmmakers and advertisers joined in, giving
us movies like Lolita, depicting a
sexual liaison between a twelve-year-old girl and a forty-year-old
man. More recently, advertisers like Calvin Klein have pushed
the envelope, using child-like models in sexually explicit poses
in billboards and advertising.
Most Americans didn’t fully wake up to the danger until
1998. That’s when the journal of the American Psychological Association
published the results of a study that argued that sex between
adults and children is not always harmful, and that so-called
"willing encounters" should be relabeled as "adult-child sex."
The public was outraged. But, shockingly, mainline newspapers
allowed homosexual activists to use their pages to attack, not
the study, but people like Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who criticized
it.
As one example, in National Journal, Jonathan
Rauch wrote approvingly of the study and called the vote by
Congress condemning it "faintly sinister." Mainline publishers
also helped lower the deviancy bar, publishing trashy novels
with sympathetic portrayals of men having sex with boys as young
as seven—books, by the way, that are available at your
neighborhood bookstores.
Well, the effort to make the unacceptable acceptable was predicted
some twenty years ago.
In their 1979 book, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?,
Dr. C. Everett Koop and Dr. Francis Schaeffer predicted that
things considered unthinkable in the seventies would be quite
thinkable in the nineties––including things like
adult-child sex.
This would happen, they predicted, because "the consensus of
our society no longer rests on a Judeo-Christian base, but rather
on a humanistic one." Humanists, you see, view people as products
of chance, not creations of God. So, there are no transcendent
standards. Standards fluctuate depending on what’s viewed
as "necessary, expedient, or even fashionable."
Well, Christians don’t live by what’s fashionable,
and we need to let our voices be heard on this issue. To learn
more, make sure to read Mary
Eberstadt’s very important article. And the next time
you see an ad exploiting children, speak out. Write the advertisers,
boycott their products, and inform your congressman.
We can’t afford to keep silent about this issue. God
help us if the barbarians in our midst are able to convince
the American people that child molestation is just another fashionable
trend of the twenty-first century.
More from Charles Colson on CBN.com
Eberstadt, Mary. "'Pedophilia
Chic' Reconsidered." The Weekly Standard, 8 January
2001.
Schaeffer, Francis and C. Everett Koop. Whatever Happened
to the Human Race? Westchester, Ill.: Crossway, 1983.
From BreakPoint, Copyright 2005 Prison Fellowship
Ministries. "BreakPoint
with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry
of Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission of
Prison Fellowship, P.O. Box 17500, Washington, DC, 20041-0500."
Heard on more than 1000 radio stations nationwide. For more information
on the ministry of Chuck Colson and Prison Fellowship visit their
web site at http://www.breakpoint.org.