“It’s impossible to simultaneously maintain yes and no around matters sexual. It creates cognitive dissonance. So, there’s been a widespread move to shed that no along with various articles of clothing. It’s definitely worked. The sexual revolution, says Berger, “has been very successful in changing the mores and the law. It should not be surprising that many people, especially younger ones, enjoy the new libidinous benefits of this revolution.”

The Christian faith says a few rather firm things about sexual conduct, what goes and when. Our culture, on the other hand, tends to think anything goes, whenever. But there are dire spiritual costs hidden in this supposed benefits package.

On the large scale, says sociologist Peter Berger, this conflict has nurtured the rise of secularism—i.e., keep your Bible out of my bedroom! “The new American secularism is in defense of the sexual revolution [of the 1960s],” he blogged last year at The American Interest.

It’s impossible to simultaneously maintain yes and no around matters sexual. It creates cognitive dissonance. So, there’s been a widespread move to shed that no along with various articles of clothing. It’s definitely worked. The sexual revolution, says Berger, “has been very successful in changing the mores and the law. It should not be surprising that many people, especially younger ones, enjoy the new libidinous benefits of this revolution.”

But the ramifications of indulging sexuality beyond the bounds of traditional Christian morality extend beyond law and society.

How immorality affects individual believers

The more immediate ramifications can be found in the lives of believers who trip, wander, nudge, or lunge over the established line. The pattern Berger describes holds for individuals, a sort of personal secularism in which we distance ourselves from the faith to the extent it interferes with our passions.

College students who lose their virginity, for instance, report declining interest in religion and religious services, according to a new study by Pennsylvania State University. Skipping church, say researchers, is “a way to relieve cognitive dissonance that results from engaging in prohibited behaviors. . . .” The study, summarized by the Boston Globe, is not yet published but seems to echo the observations of others.

In his book, The Making of an Atheist, Taylor University philosophy professor James S. Spiegel quotes Søren Kierkegaard saying it’s wrong to assume objections to Christianity stem from doubt. They instead “spring from insubordination, the dislike of obedience. . . .” Willful immorality, in other words, undermines our faith. We, as Paul says, suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

It’s hard to manage that kind of active suppression and keep showing up for liturgy, prayers, and so on. Like Adam in the garden, we run. I’m no pastor or confessor so I don’t know how long the average person can keep it up. We’ve all got our own sins, so we can address it for ourselves. But indulgence is truly perilous—as some of us have already learned the hard way.

Speaking only here in human terms, we might be able to ignore and endure some low-volume dissonance, but the more grating our behavior becomes the more we’re forced to mute the truth that says our behavior is wrong.

Nate Larkin personally charts this course in his book, Samson and the Pirate Monks. “I often screamed at God,” says Larkin, then a pastor engaging in sexual immorality, “banging on the steering wheel and begging him to relieve me of this terrible wickedness, to take the urge away, but the heavens were silent. After a while, I started wondering whether God was listening, whether he cared about me anymore, or whether he even existed at all.”

Read More