Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
—Jude 7
3601 Shifting Standards
In 1974, the research firm of Daniel Yankelovich, Inc., surveyed thirty-five hundred young people, ages sixteen to twenty-five. The interviews sought to learn what these selected individuals felt about “every important value” in today’s world.
The study indicated that only 31 percent considered premarital sexual relations as morally wrong, compared with 52 percent in a 1969 survey. Opposition to abortion dropped from 58 percent to 45 percent in the same period. The proportion who considered “Living a clean moral life a very important value” fell from 71 percent to 52 percent. It would seem that standards are shifting into the patterns that existed in the days of Noah.
—Bible Expositor
3602 Sex Credit Card
It is reported, on what we believe to be reliable authority, that Chicago has a credit plan, whereby prostitutes can sell themselves, and the men can pay later as they would their gasoline credit card. This “Credit Plan” gross is now running about $300,000 a month. It is said that around 6,000 men in the Chicago area carry and use their Sex Credit Card.
—Gospel Tract Society
3603 Sex-For-Hire Among Housewives
A sociology professor says that many of Winnipeg’s better class prostitutes are suburban housewives who help out with the family budget. Prof. William Morrison, head of the sociology department of the University of Winnipeg, is conducting research in sex-for-hire among housewives. He reports that he interviewed more than 50 prostitutes who said that they were happily married, and many had families.
Some said that their husbands know what they are doing and don’t mind because it brings more money to support their families. The women and their clients are upper-middle-class people. The housewife-prostitutes actually believe that they are doing service to society. Mr. Morrison says that he sees no reason why prostitution should not be made legal in Canada. He is writing a book that will give the prostitute “a better name than she has been labeled with in the past.”
—Christian Victory
3604 And Wife Swapping
A Temple University sociologist conducted a survey of 2,300 wives and found that 50 percent felt that they would eventually go outside their marriage for sexual experiences, and one out of every three said they already had. Wife-swapping has become common in some areas.
Hotel and motel managers report an ever increasing number of unmarried couples register as such. They say that they cannot afford to turn away thousands of unmarried people, so they accept them without question. They say, “We aren’t moralists.”
3605 Swedish Morality
According to a Reuters report from Stockholm, Sweden has long ago arrived at complete sexual freedom and liberty. Old-fashioned fornication is quite accepted by parents as normal for their youngsters. It is reported that only 5% of the girls and 2% of the boys go with their purity to the marriage altar. Is this moral deterioration reflected in Sweden’s having the highest percentage of suicides of any country of the world?
3606 Delivering Babies In High Schools
Emergency instructions on how to deliver a baby in school have been sent to all city school principals by the Department of Health in New York City. The instructions said each school should have an appropriate room with a high table or bench and two people trained in delivery procedures to help until a doctor reaches the school. This is to encourage pregnant girls to remain in school instead of dismissing them.
Next, we will hear of the schools being equipped with nurseries.
3607 Abortion Rates
More than one million legal abortions were performed in the U. S. annually. More than 2% of U. S. women (of reproductive age) obtained abortions each year, and a fourth of pregnancies (excluding those ending in miscarriages) were aborted.
The rates of abortion per 1000 women of reproductive age in countries with liberal abortion laws are as follows:
U. S. (22)
Finland (21)
Norway & Sweden (20)
Denmark (27)
East Germany (29)
Czechoslovakia (26)
Cuba (71)
Bulgaria (65)
Hungary (42)
England (11)
Canada (10)
Scotland (8)
3608 Illegitimate Babies
In the United States 21% of all first babies are conceived before marriage, and 10% of all births are illegitimate. In some countries the rate is as high as 70% illegitimate.
3609 Prostitution Arrests Called Unfair
San Francisco (AP)—Actress Jane Fonda proposed at the Second Annual Hookers’ Convention that prostitution be decriminalized or that laws against it be enforced equally against prostitutes and their clients.
Ms. Fonda addressed a panel audience of about 200 persons. She pledged at a news conference to support the organization’s drive to decriminalize prostitution.
The actress said the unfairness of the prostitution laws was evident in Hollywood where customers, who included heads of studios, executives and politicians, were seldom charged, though prostitutes catering to them were arrested.
3610 Legally She Could Do Both
From Bologna, Italy, a prostitute who was stripped of her driving license after being caught plying her trade in her car can have the license back, a local judge ruled.
The prostitute’s lawyer had objected to the reason given by a policeman for taking the license away: “She is leading a scandalous life.”
Defense lawyer Salvatore d’ Errico argued that one could “drive a car carefully and at the same time lead a scandalous life.”
3611 Governor Calls It “Feasts Of Hell”
The rock festival revolutionaries invaded the heartland of Midwest America, Labor Day weekend, 1970. Between 20,000 and 25,000 came to a wheat field near Pittsburg, Kansas.
They came in a state of unconventional dress and birthday clothes to attend what was billed as a rock musical festival but it turned out to be a wild orgy of promiscuous sex and narcotics. They were not a bunch of innocent youth, but rather the worst elements of society.
Among them were hard-core revolutionaries. The American flag was desecrated. They waded and wallowed in filth. The sale and use of narcotics were wide open. It was the biggest pot party and sex orgy the Midwest has ever seen.
Forty young people were arrested, being charged with carrying concealed weapons, possessing drugs or liquor, and driving while intoxicated. There was display of nudity, and there were mixed nude swimming parties in a nearby creek. With no sanitation facilities and failure to comply with health regulations, one can imagine what the place was like.
The former Kansas Governor and Presidential candidate, Alf Landon said: “They call these things festivals, but I have another name for them—“feasts of hell.””
—Christianity Today
3612 Anglican Bishop Advocates Early Sex
Dr. John Robinson, former Anglican Suffragan Bishop of Woolwich and controversial author of Honest to God, has been sharply criticized for his recent suggestion that children should legally be allowed to have sexual relations at age 14. The Church of England had no comment on the criticisms which Bishop Ronald Williams of Leicester leveled against the suggestion.
—Pastor’s Manual
3613 A New Argument
A Presbyterian minister, Rev. Gordon Clanton, writing in the Christian Century argued that sexual intercourse outside of marriage should not be condemned by the church.
See also: Divorce ; Homosexuality ; Movies ; Nudity ; Pornography ; Sin ; Television ; Rom. 1:24; I Thess. 4:5; II Tim. 3:13; II Pet. 2:10, 14; Rev. 2:14; 9:21.