Chastity as Patriotism

Contrary to everything we are taught, the family, not the individual, is the foundation of society and government. The family is a miniature nation: a kingdom in a tiny castle. It is, of course, a monarchy, but monarchies are the only appropriate governments for raising children. Those who are adults morally are able to govern themselves; those who are children morally need to be governed and made to do right. (That is why John Adams famously said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” He might as well have said, “Our Constitution was made only for adults; it is unsuitable for children.”)

Just as the freedom of a society is dependent upon its moral adulthood, the quality of a society is determined by its values. Good values make good societies. Bad values make bad ones. These same values determine the health of a nation’s families. As the foundation of society, the state of the family determines the state of society, culture, and government. Therefore, that which affects family life for ill is an attack on the whole nation, and that which improves the family improves the whole nation.

Thus, laws that weaken parental rights are not only anti-freedom, but antisocial. Organizations which lobby for the autonomy of the child (against his parents) intentionally throw a wedge into the family, and are therefore antisocial. Even movies with kid-power propaganda (that is, the message children are smarter than adults––especially their parents) are antisocial.

Although these are all big offenders, the biggest villain is the sexual revolution. The sexual revolution cried that sexuality had been repressed and needed to be liberated from its moral tether. The trouble is that sexuality is not repressed by Judeo-Christian morality, but protected by it. We have discovered that in tearing down the moral wall, we “freed” sexuality but destroyed love. Love’s private garden has been turned into a public park, and the gardener has been fired. It’s no surprise that persons are afraid of commitment. The wall which guaranteed the garden is gone. (See The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom, chapter “Relationships.”)

Sexual behavior is required for the creation of a family, yet also has the most potential to destroy it. Sexuality, in its appropriate expression, unites married lovers and creates families. But anyone who has had an adulterous parent, a cheating spouse, an abusive relative, knows the destructive power of unchaste sexuality. This is no surprise. When perverted, the greatest goods become the greatest evils.

Misused, sex not only destroys present families, but also future ones. As a single person, my sexual behavior now affects the health of my future marriage. The more promiscuous I am now, the less stable my future marriage is likely to be. The less stable my future marriage is, the more likely it is that my children will suffer my divorce and marital unhappiness. And, as studies show, children in divorced homes are more likely to have divorces themselves.

Because families build nations, and sex makes or breaks families, our sexual behavior will either improve civilization or work to destroy it. Depending on how we use sex, we may either be patriots or traitors to the nation. It may be your body, but sexual actions have social consequences, so you may not do with it as you please.