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AN EVANGELICAL LOOKS AT THERAPEUTIC SEXUAL MORALITY
Daniel R. Heimbach, ETS 2001
Over the past three decades, along with songs justifying sex based on
affection regardless of marriage, a new message has arisen in popular music
that justifies sex for psychological rather than romantic reasons. In "Natural
Woman" sung by Carole King and later by Aretha Franklin, a woman says "my soul
was in the lost-and-found" and "I didn't know just what was wrong with me,"
until she discovered her own true worth through sex. From worthlessness and
poor self-esteem, sex is credited with restoring her to life and making her
"feel like a natural woman."
An increasing number of more recent songs have joined this parade
including "Whole Again" by Atomic Kitten, "I Gotta Be" by Jagged Edge, and
"Make Me Whole" by Amel Larrieux. And perhaps chief among these is the song
"Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye who claims "sexual healing is something good
for me" because when "emotional stability is leaving...I can get on the tele-
phone and call you up....And, honey, I know you'll be there to relieve me."
In 1998, New Line Cinema released Pleasantville, an entire movie dedi-
cated to the message that all good is defined by sex. Two teens from the late
nineties are pulled into an old black-and-white television program, much like
Leave It To Beaver or Father Knows Best, that idealizes small town life in the
fifties. The teens are at first overwhelmed by the "pleasantness" of
traditional moral values as compared to all the confusion and rebellion that
characterizes the contemporary life. But, rather than respect these values,
the teens lead a rebellion that changes the television world from black-and-
white to color as characters discover personal fulfillment through sex outside
traditional moral boundaries.
Pleasantville attacks biblical sexual morality in a direct and shocking
manner, but the effects are not as worthy of our attention as their cause.
Pleasantville's attack on traditional family values comes from therapeutic
sexual morality. And because this new approach is spreading rapidly through
our culture, Christians must try to understand and meet this serious new
challenge to biblical morality.
Description of Therapeutic Sexual Morality
Therapeutic sexual morality justifies sex based on ideas about human
psychology. Sex is regarded as moral or immoral depending on how it relates to
things such as mental health, personal development or social success. Thera-