HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG, Chairman Publisher of The PLAIN TRUTH Magazine
EXTENSION DEPARTMENT An educational service at all levels for all people worldwide
April 9, 1971
Dear Friend and Subscriber:
Several years ago — in 1964 — we published and offered free of charge to subscribers of The PLAIN TRUTH, as an educational service, a 334-page book on the subject of sex and marriage. It was a seriously needed book. Never before had there been a book like it! But the moral revolution has accelerated — and we feel a new REVISED EDITION of that book is an imperative NEED!
When my wife and I were married, in 1917, we sorely needed honest, authoritative information about marriage and sex. It was then still unlawful to publish, sell or distribute knowledge or information about sex. I knew only what I had learned from other boys and young men my age — with much MISinformation, and much needed knowledge missing. My wife's mother had died when she was twelve. Her father taught her only the impression that sex was a shameful, sinful thing.
Parents generally taught their children nothing. Usually, they knew little or nothing themselves. Their parents had never taught them; And besides, it would have been too embarrassing! The prevailing attitude was: "Keep our children pure and innocent by ignorance until marriage, and then instinct will tell them what to do." But instinct did not teach them. Humans, unlike animals, do not come equipped with instinct. The newborn baby is helpless, knowing NOTHING at birth. Humans must be TAUGHT, or must learn, EVERYTHING!
But after World War I, the legal bars prohibiting dissemination of sex knowledge were knocked down, and moral standards began also to topple. Around the turn of the century Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, decided that moral standards were in need of revision. He attributed neuroses and mental disturbances to sex repression and ignorance. Through the centuries, the dualistic attitude of traditional Christianity, that sex was indecent, shameful and sinful, prevailed. Even in marriage, except for the purpose of reproduction, sex was viewed as sinful, even though venial. This attitude imposed restraint and repression, enforced by IGNORANCE! It rendered countless millions of marriages frustrated tragedies.
Freud and his followers urged dissemination of knowledge, and permissive full sexual "freedom" as the panacea. When the legal bars were removed, following the first World War, a veritable avalanche of sex literature began to flood book stores, magazine and newspaper stands, giving instruction in the physical details of sex. But THE MOST SERIOUSLY NEEDED DIMENSION OF SEX KNOWLEDGE WAS MISSING!
With that vital dimension missing, the instruction being hurled at people was doing serious harm. The door to permissiveness, promiscuity and fast-increasing immorality was opened. Psychiatrists, some medical doctors, and certain modernist Protestant ministers cloaked the increasing sexual "freedom" with a pseudo connotation of respect, under the catch-phrase "The New Morality." But this immoral "New Morality" failed to solve, but only worsened the problem. The new moral revolution was like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
The all-important MISSING DIMENSION in knowledge in the area of sex and marriage remained unpublished until our book came out in 1964. But since then the moral revolution has surged ahead at accelerated pace. The whole moral climate has CHANGED GREATLY since the 1964 edition. We feel that the time has come When a REVISED EDITION of our book is a very serious NEED — NECESSARY READING for all our subscribers — especially all who did not receive the first edition.
For the past few months I have been working on the new revised edition. It is coming out under the NEW TITLE:
THE MISSING DIMENSION IN SEX
The most tragically needed dimension in knowledge about sex and marriage has been MISSING — heretofore unpublished. This book gives frank answers to questions you may have been too embarrassed to ask. Especially if you did not receive the first edition of this book, you'll find it truly a surprising, eye-opening book. No matter how many books or articles you may have read on this delicate subject, I say candidly you need YOUR copy which I am setting aside and reserving for you — to be sent gratis — no cost to you. And I'm sure you know we have NOTHING to sell — never any follow-up to sell you something.
This book WAS a collaboration of the following faculty members of Ambassador College: Charles V. Dorothy, Ph.D., Herman L. Hoeh, Ph.D., Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D. (then M.A.), Roderick C. Meredith, Th.D., Benjamin J.. Rea, Ph.D., Ralph E. Merrill, M.D., and myself. In the revised edition, I have written the first three chapters, and made certain deletions and editing of the rest, but essentially it is the same book, brought up to date.
It's true, of course, that even though we do have our own printing plants, it is a really huge undertaking for us to produce an estimated half-to-three-quarters of a million copies of so large a book. It's something we can not often afford to do. In fact, we are having to use a lower-cost but still a reasonably good grade of paper than in the 1964 edition — and we have found it necessary, because of cost, to reduce the size by omitting the first seven chapters, and substituting three new chapters in their place. But I feel that the NEED to get this tragically necessary knowledge to our subscribers is so great that we must make whatever sacrifice is necessary to produce and send it.
Let me say, too, that I feel this book ought to be read by every teen-ager. HOWEVER, this poses a problem for us. We do not want to offend any parents who might feel, still, they do not want even this wholesome and authentic knowledge on this subject to come into the hands of their teen-age children.
Therefore, we feel it necessary to require the written approval and consent of parent or guardian of all unmarried youth under the age of eighteen. But I do urge all such parents either to give this consent, or order the book yourself, read it, and then decide.
Let me add, that in collaboration with our own teachers of first and second grade, and sixth through eighth grades, I have already been working on three other books on sex instruction — one for children of six or seven, one for those of about ten years old, and one for young teen-agers.
These books will help parents in teaching their children. I regard them as a VERY URGENT need. I HOPE to have one or all of them ready by November. But that's not a PROMISE. It depends on whether I can find the time, and whether finances allow — although they will be much, much shorter than this present book.
This vital, eye-opening revised edition of "The Missing Dimension in Sex" is sent only on YOUR request. To make it easier for you to order your free copy, we enclose a self-addressed reply envelope.
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