Letter to the editor

History shows sexual freedom is not ideal

In response to Carrie Bass’ recommendations in Friday’s Kernel for, “a comprehensive sex- and body-positive education system…” Well, I agree with the latter half.

Let’s look at the historical basis for this system. Throughout history, there has been a variety in each culture of personal, social and sexual lifestyles, yet somehow through it all, sexual freedom has apparently been denounced. And now, “we could be the first generation” to push that freedom.

Clearly, sexual freedom is not the way to go. Socially, it worked so well for our parents who grew up in the Summer of Love in 1967 that now more than half of our generation grows up in homes shattered by divorce. Each year, thousands of women who had abortions join anti-abortion movements to inform friends of how great it didn’t feel. Politically, then-President Bill Clinton’s sexual freedom broke into the news in the ’90s, and immediately our nation’s popularity in the Middle East began the steady decline that still continues today. Religiously, sexual freedom has done so much good that 80 percent of Bible school graduates leave the ministry within five years and don’t ever return.

I agree completely — sexual freedom is reforming our society, but is it a change we want? I daresay the option that is absent of pleasure in the present often yields the greatest reward in the end. Those of us reading these words have decided that surrendering four years of our young lives and incurring massive debts to be in college are worth it. Most would agree that the friendships they want most are not the happy-days relationships, but those that endure both joy and pain.

Why? Meaning is enduring and fulfilling, not momentary and satisfying.

Why should we tell ourselves to settle for anything less? Do I just flatter my generation by thinking we can do this, or do I really want you — like me — to believe?