The problem lies not primarily in the behaviour: the behaviour is the product of the conviction that drives it. Sin is normal, and the most gross sins are increasingly normalised, because there is no thought of God. The transformation that occurs in a converted man is the transformation that begins when he is confronted with God and his world is turned upside down. Only then is that world perceived, interpreted and approached rightly.

When I first saw the article on polyamory to which Carl subsequently referred I was grieved by its tone of everday reportage, the normalisation of sin. It is no consolation to be tickled by the notion that Prof. Trueman was, until recently, on some kind of presidential prayer shortlist, and now, having got away with everything to even date, and due to one inadvertent and much-mourned counter-cultural slip, has been regretfully sidelined by the powers that be.

Just to make clear, it is not that the UK is suddenly being swept by a polyamorous tide: this perverted series of relationships is unusual and would still be, I think, distasteful to many – the debated gag reflex. But the casual manner in which the article on polyamory was written, the confidence with which this aberration was presented as something to be accepted, if not now then at some inevitable future point, betrays a deeper problem.

The foundation is laid for this normalisation of sin in deed by the absence, or outright rejection, of God and his word. The world is perceived and interpreted entirely by human wisdom in all its various and specious forms: “The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts” (Ps 10.4). If I may borrow a controverted term, it is a worldview in which there is no place for God and for his truth.

So, for example, scroll down – please do, it will spare you – to the bottom of that article on polyamory, and you will see the giveaway line. What is the attitude that lies behind the action? “‘But we don’t have a choice. We’re in love with each other,’ they chime.” Love, you see, is this overwhelming force, this insatiable and unbiddable desire that carries everything before it, ungoverned and ungovernable by reason or principle, certainly not conditioned by any moral reality.

Or try another headline: Children need more exercise – especially girls, study says. I am not suggesting that girls should be denied exercise, but – again – what seems to be the working assumption of those from the Institute of Studies, or whatever it may be, who has produced this work, and which is communicated by the article? That we should expect a uniformity in our children, regardless of gender. No space is given for the possibility that boys and girls, equally created in God’s image but distinctive in their differing sexuality, might play in different ways and to different degrees. No, in this brave new world all gender distinction is a matter for grave concern, as we set out to sublimate all notions of sexual identity into some grey and androgynous mass.

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