In 1976 the National Council for Civil Liberties, the respectable (and responsible) pressure group now known as Liberty, made a submission to parliament\u2019s criminal law revision committee. It caused barely a ripple. \u201cChildhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in with an adult,\u201d it read, \u201cresult in no identifiable damage \u2026 The real need is a change in the attitude which assumes that all cases of paedophilia result in lasting damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is, astonishingly, not even a full academic consensus on whether consensual paedophilic relations necessarily cause harm.<\/p>\n
But not all paedophiles are child molesters\u2026.Psychologist Glenn Wilson, co-author of The Child-Lovers: a Study of Paedophiles in Society, argues that \u201cThe majority of paedophiles, however socially inappropriate, seem to be gentle and rational.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2026the best current estimate \u2013 based on possibly flawed science \u2013 is that \u201cone in five of all adult men are, to some degree, capable of being sexually aroused by children\u201d.<\/p>\n
This is radical stuff. But there is a growing conviction, notably in Canada, that paedophilia should probably be classified as a distinct sexual orientation, like heterosexuality or homosexuality. Two eminent researchers testified to that effect to a Canadian parliamentary commission last year, and the Harvard Mental Health Letter of July 2010 stated baldly that paedophilia \u201cis a sexual orientation\u201d and therefore \u201cunlikely to change\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I know I should be impressed when \u201cexperts\u201d talk nonsense, especially if they\u2019re from Canada. But all this sounds like I\u2019ve heard it somewhere before. No one\u2019s being harmed. Not really. They can\u2019t help it. Not really. And look at how many closet paedophiles may be out there \u2014 1 in every 5 men! Maybe. Maybe that science is flawed. I\u2019m just saying. And if two people love each other, who are we to say\u2026.<\/p>\n
I would like to know how our culture can, let alone will, respond to such arguments. We\u2019ve seen all these claims before in other settings.\u00a0They have effectively swayed public opinion recently on issues such as homosexual marriage. We might even be able to say the same about the widespread acceptance of\u00a0sexual activity outside of marriage and divorce in the decades prior. At one point in the Church and in Western culture, we could not imagine such\u00a0behaviors becoming acceptable. Until they became normal.<\/p>\n
How will paedophilia be any different?<\/p>\n
The Brief Biblical Case against Paedophilia<\/h3>\n
For me, this issue is a simple one. As\u00a0a Christian, I seek to see the world through the lens of our Creator\u2019s written revelation.<\/p>\n
God designed sexual relations to be enjoyed between a man and a woman within the covenant relationship of marriage. Man<\/em> and woman<\/em> means adult<\/em> male and female. It\u2019s true that\u00a0adult<\/em> can be defined differently by different cultures, even in Scripture. But\u00a0the distinction between adult and child remains a strong one throughout the Bible. And\u00a0it should be a no-brainer to all \u2014 were it not for that whole noetic-effects-of-sin thing. It messes with our minds. Bummer, that.<\/p>\nSo, in my Biblical paradigm, sin messed up all our passions. Now our desires can be twisted in ways God never intended; our passions can, and often do,\u00a0get out of control.\u00a0The Bible calls that lust, or desire on steroids. As a further disclaimer based on the definition of marriage given above,\u00a0all sexual activity outside the bounds of marriage is ruled out by God. So there really isn\u2019t much room to maneuver. When I see the world as God sees it, I can call paedophilia what it is: acting on out-of-control desires in disobedience to the Divine authority over all.<\/p>\n
Frankly, even the convoluted arguments forming in support of paedophilia are to be expected within a Biblical paradigm. \u201cProfessing themselves to be wise, they became fools.\u201d (Rom. 1:22)<\/p>\n
But How Can It Be Wrong?<\/strong><\/h3>\nBut we live in a post-Christian culture, one in which it is anathema to call upon a Biblical view of the word for fear of trampling someone else\u2019s self-proclaimed right to autonomy. I don\u2019t like it, but that\u2019s where we are. We seem to derive our moral standards these days based on public consensus rather than an appeal to objective truth. Which raises that troubling question as I peer into the future. It is this:<\/p>\n
As a pluralistic, post-Christian culture here in the US, what is our moral argument against legalizing paedophilia?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d like to hear the arguments against it. I\u2019m having trouble imagining them, most likely due to my own narrow addiction to divine revelation and absolute truth. But maybe it\u2019s not just me that thinks boundaries are a good thing:<\/p>\n
Men must have a certain fund of natural moderation to qualify them for freedom, else it becomes noxious to themselves and a perfect Nuisance to everyone else. ~ Edmund Burke<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I would argue that the claims for acceptance given\u00a0above and hinted at in the Guardian piece\u00a0only resonate with our culture because we are unwilling to question our own underlying premise \u2014\u00a0that individual freedom\u00a0to act on our\u00a0passions must not be curtailed, but\u00a0left unhindered to the greatest extent possible.<\/p>\n
But freedom always has a price. Part of that price is recognizing our need to limit our own freedoms and passions for the good of others and the culture at large. Those who refuse to do so imperil the very culture that enables them.<\/p>\n
Indeed, I think this underlying issue may be the one which most threatens the future of ours or any\u00a0republic:<\/p>\n
Cicero was equally emphatic about the internal danger. Probably his most\u00a0quoted lines are from the opening words of his attack on the Cataline conspiracy: O tempora! O mores! (Oh the times! Oh the ways of life!) In that speech to the Senate at the trial of Rabirius, he declared bluntly, \u201cNo external or foreign threat can infiltrate our Republic. If you wish Rome to live forever and our empire to be without end, if you wish that our glory never fade, we must be on our guard against our own passions<\/strong>, against men of violence, against the enemy within.\u201d ~ Os Guinness, A Free People\u2019s Suicide<\/em> [emphasis mine]<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSome will decry my use of absolutes and apocalyptic language, but I prefer to think of it as just thinking ahead. How will we as a church and a culture answer this question about paedophilia. I, for one, prefer to answer it while we still have time to think. Or will we wait until we can no longer avoid the issue, speak up without much thought at all, and be accused of being a bunch of hurtful, hateful creeps who just want to spoil all the fun?<\/p>\n
And what will the new label be then for such haters?<\/em> Paedophilobic?<\/p>\nYour input, please. As a pluralistic, post-Christian culture here in the US, what is our moral argument against legalizing paedophilia?\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paedophilia. Why not? Some of you are\u00a0shocked that I would even bring up the topic of adults having sexual relations with children: \u201cHow could you ask such a question?! And on a religious site, no less!\u201d Some of you caught wind of\u00a0it in my FaithWalker\u2019s Daily report this morning. Others of you may have stumbled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1084,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,25,5],"tags":[1070,1068,1071,75,51],"class_list":["post-1740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","category-church","category-culture","tag-church","tag-culture","tag-family","tag-paedophilia","tag-thinking"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>For all of you, my question is this: As a pluralistic, post-Christian culture here in the US, what is our moral argument against legalizing paedophilia?<\/p>\n