Herbert W Armstrong

Is MARRIAGE on the way out? Is adultery still wrong? Many authorities are beginning to question whether marriage is now becoming an outmoded custom. What's happened to the time-honored institution that has been called sacred and holy?

   SHOCKING PREDICTIONS are being voiced by psychologists and other professional people. "Are we," asks The Observer, London, "the last married generation?"
   British psychologist James Heming, in Marriage Guidance, official organ of Britain's Marriage Guidance Council, predicts engagement rings are doomed, and weddings will be rituals of the past. A mass-circulation London paper publishes a series, beginning under a screaming two-page headline: "Is MARRIAGE OUT OF DATE?"

What's Happening?

   Anyone making such predictions a few decades ago would have been considered crazy — or idiotic. Even now, such statements are shocking.
   Until the last decade or two, marriage was the long-established taken-for-granted custom. To question it would have been unthinkable. Of course a very few remained unmarried. But for people as a whole it was one of the three great events of life — birth, marriage, death. Young men and women approaching adulthood looked forward naturally to marrying, as normally as breathing air. What girl wanted to become an "old maid"?
   WHAT'S HAPPENED?
   The changes that led to it didn't happen in a 50-day period. It has developed in a surprisingly short fifty years! But moral concepts and standards have changed so gradually and steadily during that half century that people generally were hardly aware of what was happening. And conditions during these years have been punctuated by the jarring effect of two world wars, a prolonged "cold war," emergence through the machine age, the atomic age, the jet age — and now, the space age!
   Society has taken all this in stride, unshocked, undismayed. And no one today seems conscious of just how staggering is this moral collapse into what is deceptively labeled the "new morality." It is as if society has been anesthetized into unquestioning acceptance of a degenerated attitude toward sex and marriage that would have been shockingly revolting, had it been introduced suddenly.
   When I was married, in 1917, the marriage was "until death do us part." Chastity was still the demanded ethic of society. Any girl who gave in to premarital sex had "lost her honor." She was "damaged goods."
   Parents followed the tradition of "keep our children innocent and pure through ignorance until marriage —and then," they supposed, "instinct will teach them what to do." But instinct did not teach them. Humans did not come equipped with instinct. Humans must be taught. But they were not taught. Their parents had not been taught, and probably were bungling their marriage. And besides, even had the parents known what to teach their children, it would have been too embarrassing. Sex was supposed to be shameful, if not positively sinful.
   When we were married, my young wife and I sought in vain to purchase a book that would provide technical instruction in sex, pregnancy and childbirth. But it was illegal, then, to publish, sell and distribute printed instruction in the area of sex and marriage.

The Floodgates Open

   After World War I the legal bars were removed, and morals toppled also. The floodgates opened to an avalanche of sex literature. Gradually the prudish morality relaxed, and society became inoculated by the immoral "new morality."
   Something was criminally wrong with this tidal wave of sex literature. It revealed only half of the vitally needed knowledge — the physical, biological half. And even that from a materialistic sensual approach. The "authorities" who produced this new flood of sex instruction were themselves ignorant of the true meaning and PURPOSES of sex and of MARRIAGE!
   Actually, this whole toboggan-slide of morals probably was triggered by Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis. Freud attributed neuroses and many nervous and mental disorders to sexual repression and ignorance. The old morality that had come through the Middle Ages regarded sex as shameful, degrading and sinful. Not merely the wrong use outside of marriage — but the human body itself was suspect.
   Of course reproduction in marriage had to be tolerated. But, the chaste "fathers" of second and third century "Christianity" wondered, why couldn't the Creator have thought out a more decent and less shameful way to preserve the human race?
   So the western world had sex repression. Wives, kept ignorant of proper sex knowledge, often were virtually raped by their equally uninstructed husbands. In angry frustration, husbands accused wives of selfish frigidity. Wives by the millions suffered a sense of guilt when forced to give in to their husbands, and labeled all men "brutes." Of course the husbands were not brutes. They were merely ignorant.
   This repression and ignorance rendered about nine in ten marriages unhappy. Divorce seldom resulted, due to religious convictions and the economic dependency of wives on their husbands.
   So Freud attributed the neuroses, and nervous and mental disturbances, to this sexual repression and ignorance. His idea of a solution was to reverse the definition of sex. Since the "sex is sinful" attitude caused all the troubles, why not reverse the definition, and call sex GOOD? — any use of sex, in or out of marriage! If repression, self-denial and ignorance caused neurotic disquiet, reasoned Freud and his followers, let's emancipate the people from restraints — create a "NEW morality," and educate the people in sex knowledge.
   So, in a one-generation plunge, civilization in our world has swung to the opposite extreme of the moral pendulum. Premarital sexual experience is no longer being discouraged. Modern teenage girls are being "emancipated" from the old taboos.
   Nothing is more needed, today, than a VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS to speak out against this sudden moral collapse, and enlighten the world with the MISSING HALF of the knowledge about sex and marriage. The world has been given the physical and biological half. But it has come from a materialistic viewpoint, IGNORANT of the real MEANING and PURPOSE of sex and of MARRIAGE!
   Neither the old repressive morality nor the so-called "new" — which is cesspool immorality — is the TRUE morality. The TRUE morality will bring happiness, joys and blessings! The world seriously needs the true knowledge that no author, until now, has made available. They need, not only the physical and technical details about sex. They need, also, a knowledge of the PURPOSES of sex — and of MARRIAGE!
   But, being ignorant of these PURPOSES - and of right USES that would bring rich blessings, joys and delights — the psychologists now are questioning even the time-honored sacred institution of MARRIAGE!
   If Freud, his colleagues and immediate followers, questioned the desirability of marriage as a universally accepted institution, they precipitated no public crusade for its abolition. It is only now that psychologists are breaking into print with their astonishing predictions about marriage becoming obsolete. This questioning of the desirability and continuance of the marriage institution is merely the natural result of the radically changed concept and conduct in morals.
   The Freudian "enlightenment" started the toboggan-slide in morals. This drift of immorality has accelerated until the current moral collapse is staggering almost beyond belief. It is fast becoming a greater threat to the survival of civilization than the hydrogen bomb.
   Concurrent with this new promiscuity in immorality is another phenomenon. Women are deserting the wifely and motherly profession of homemaking. They are becoming salary and wage-earners, and gaining financial independence. I have mentioned two reasons why, until forty or fifty years ago, few unhappy marriages were terminated by divorce: religious convictions, and the economic dependency of wives. But religious restraints have relaxed, and wives are becoming self-sufficient.

Unbelievable? No, It's TRUE!

   The actual state of morals in the world today are almost unbelievable! Immoral acts are not often entered into under bright floodlights in public. The existing condition is therefore much worse than reported. But the known facts may seem incredible.
   No one would have believed it could ever be possible fifty years ago. Perhaps two World Wars and changing conditions have stupefied us into moral insensibility. But what follows ought to be shocking, even today! For, realize it or not, this trend sounds the death knell of civilization.
   As a "cure" for what's ailing matrimony, here were serious suggestions from professional men: "Healthy adultery" to make wedlock more tolerable; trial marriage for a five-year period; or a premarital "apprentice period" for testing compatibility. These "serious suggestions" were advanced about a year ago by two speakers before the convention, of the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C.
   The suggestion that adultery may be just what the family circle needs to make it "slightly more tolerable," was advanced by a New York psychologist. "Healthy adultery," he said, is better than mahjong or television.
   And just what is "healthy adultery?" Well, said the psychologist, a "healthy adulterer" has the ability to carry on an extramarital affair without destroying his marriage and family relationships. "Hordes of healthy husbands and wives," he added, "become involved in extramarital affairs." Apparently he did not state what often are the tragic results.
   In England, it is reported, there were 43,000 divorces in 1965 — an increase of 50% in five years. But the United States leads in divorce.
   In the last 100 years, U. S. population increased 400% — but divorce 7 times the population increase. That illustrates what I have said above. A hundred years ago, marriage was "until death do us part." Even 50 years ago, we had not departed alarmingly from that concept. But now, there is an American divorce every 1½ minutes! Millions of Americans are now divorced or separated. Each day more than 1,000 divorce decrees are granted — or about 400,000 a year — affecting hundreds of thousands of children.
   One of the basic causes of divorce is the deterioration in modern dating and courtship practices. "Going steady" is a 20th century American invention. Now girls as young as eleven and twelve are beginning to "go steady." Many teenagers do not date enough of the opposite sex to know whether they are really properly mated and in love. Going steady too often degenerates into sexual experience, often resulting in pregnancy and an abortion, or a premature "shotgun marriage." Dating has become a lost art.
   When I dated a girl, I wanted to get to know her. Usually there was a challenging, scintillating conversation. We discussed things worthwhile. Today a date means, too often, a mind-dulling ready-made daydream in a movie, sex-arousing "necking," or other sense-pleasing, time-wasting pursuit.
   Today, in the U. S., 40% of the brides are between 15 and 18. In half the cases the parties have known each other only a short time. One out of two ends in divorce within five years! And 42% of them — nearly half — resulted from premarital pregnancy! Nearly 300,000 (known) illegitimate babies are now born in the U. S. every year. One out of every 14 births is illegitimate. (Among non-whites it's one out of four.) 40% of illegitimate babies are born to girls 15 to 19.
   Pregnancy is the number one health problem among teenage girls, says Dr. Enrique Leon Matta, Jr., director of the Maternal and Child Health Division of the Dade County (Miami, Florida) Department of Public Health. "And," he added, "venereal disease is ranked number two." Two big factors in the problem, he said, were "going steady," and easy accessibility to use of cars.
   Here is the result of one study of promiscuous illegitimacy: Of 100 unwed teenage mothers studied in Connecticut (U.S.A.), from their first pregnancies in 1959, to 1966, 95 continued to have up to five illegitimate children. Only nine had married, and 60 were living on welfare.
   The American Medical Association reports that every day 1,500 U. S. teenagers and young adults are infected with syphilis, gonorrhea, or both. In 1961, the U. S. Surgeon General formed a task force of experts to study the VD plague in the U. S. Since then, yearly infections have tripled! Some areas are up 800%. There are now approximately 1,700,000 new cases of VD every year. And, NOTE IT! - an increasing percentage of VD (especially among youths) is caused by homosexual contact!
   What do teenage girls look for in a mate? In a survey, the most frequently mentioned qualities sought were: "Good looking," "Cool," "Smooth dresser," and "Exciting."
   A noted painter is reputed to have said of his own marital failure: "Marriage is a dull meal following the dessert" — following premarital sex!

A New International Sickness!

   Now sweeping the world is a new international SOCIAL sickness — homosexuality!
   This most revolting of all immoral practices is spreading, is organized, is pushing for public acceptance!
   I quote from a London newspaper report: "The [former) Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Geoffrey Fisher, tonight spoke in the House of Lords in support of a change in British law to make homosexual acts between consenting adults in private no longer a criminal offense: The Archbishop said the right to decide one's own moral code and obey it, even to a man's hurt, was a 'fundamental right of man given to him by God, and to be strictly respected by society and by the criminal code'. "
   Dr. Fisher ought to have known that the Biblical teaching is that SIN is the transgression of GOD'S inexorable spiritual law, summed up in brief by the Ten Commandments — that one of them labels homosexuality, fornication, adultery or other sex act outside marriage a capital SIN. He should have known that Biblical teaching nowhere permits MAN to decide WHAT is right or wrong. GOD has revealed WHAT is sin. He allows man to decide WHETHER to sin — affirming that as a man sows, so shall he reap!
   Some clergymen argue falsely that the Bible nowhere condemns fornication (premarital sex) or homosexuality (sodomy). Repeatedly, in the strongest language, the Bible condemns these things — as any clergyman ought to know!
   I quote here just one of many such Biblical condemnations: "Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind [homosexuals]... shall inherit the Kingdom of God" (I Corinthians 6:9-10). Members of the clergy ought to know why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.
   It is reliably reported that homosexuals are ORGANIZED and that they are waging a determined campaign to seek out, seduce, and "convert" to this loathsome perversion CHILD "converts."
   In Human Events, September 29, 1960, a report by R. G. Waldeck stated: Homosexuals, "by the very nature of their vice... belong to a sinister, mysterious and efficient International. Welded together by the identity of their forbidden desires, of their strange sad needs, habits, dangers, not to mention their outrageously fatuous vocabulary, members of this International constitute a worldwide conspiracy against Society. This conspiracy has spread all over the globe; has penetrated all classes; operates in armies and in prisons; has infiltrated into the press, the movies and government cabinets; and it all but dominates the arts, literature, theatre, music and television."
   Said the Wall Street Journal (New York), July 17, 1960, "... homosexuality is fast coming out into the open... Among homosexuals' other allies in the heterosexual world are growing numbers of Protestant clergymen."
   It's high time the public becomes AROUSED by this growing, fast-spreading PERVERSION. The St. Petersburg Times (Florida), May 11, 1966, reported a serious, organized movement in Dade County, Florida, recruiting boys as young as 12 years of age, as homosexuals. There are procurers who have lists of boys. These are placed at the service of wealthy homosexuals from cities all over America. Some school boys are "hustlers." Boys led beyond the point of no return are "hooked" with something worse than dope addiction. It's a type of cancer that DESTROYS!
   I could quote enough published news stories of this revolting perversion to fill the whole magazine. But it is only one of the moral evils of our time that are DESTROYING civilization!

The "Wife-Swapping Sport"

   Reports now indicate millions of cases of "spouse-swapping" in America — and, undoubtedly, in many if not most other countries.
   The Chicago Daily News Service sent out a story on this, July 7, 1967. This "sport" is called by participants "swinging." It seems to have become a popular week-end pastime in many Chicago middle-class suburban neighborhoods. And, of course, in other cities.
   It is estimated that not less than 1,500 couples in the Chicago area have attended these extramarital sessions. The swappers — in groups of anywhere from two to two dozen couples — meet in the living room or family room of a member. They have a few drinks, chat, exchange spouses for an adulterous experience — then go home to their children who have been in keeping of a baby sitter.
   They regard this "sport" as being safe and secure. The man's wife can't "find out" and accuse — she was as guilty as he. They have their own set of "do's" and "don'ts." The "do's": Look nice, be clean, be fun. The "don'ts": No narcotics, no roughness, no race-mixing. They think of themselves as the sophisticated forerunners of a new and better age. This practice began spreading into a popular perversion in 1963 and 1964. It seems to have begun expanding about the time the "pill" became widely used.

But WHY Marriage?

   This toboggan-slide in morals down into the filth of the cesspool has brought conditions to a status where MARRIAGE is being questioned.
   As a London Sunday newspaper recently commented, "Now, for the first time, marriage itself is being eyed for its possible unsuitability to human nature."
   WHY marriage? How, when, did it start? Is there, after all, any real MEANING — any PURPOSE in the marriage relationship?
   INDEED THERE IS!
   But so many, today, stultified by the postwar wave of moral degeneration, are tragically unaware of the beautiful blessedness that could and should be theirs!
   The answer is a startling, even shocking truth which has been altogether overlooked by science, by religion, by education, and by society!
   How — of all things, even religion could have failed to comprehend this-eye-opening truth is difficult to understand. It's too big — too strong and startling for a magazine article. In this article, we have reported the FACTS as they exist today, and the changing conditions that have led to the present state of decadence.
   But if the reader would like to know the real ANSWER, you may have, absolutely without charge for the asking, a richly illustrated (full color) 50-page booklet, giving you the ASTONISHING answer. The title of the booklet, WHY Marriage! It is exciting, it is surprising, it is exceedingly INTERESTING, it is INSPIRING — and it is THE TRUTH! Of course we have nothing to sell. There's no price on the booklet. We send it, on personal request, as a public service.
   Today many are asking, "WHY marriage?" Many young men are saying, "Today I can have all that marriage offers — from several girls or women — without getting married. Why should I tie myself down? I can have love without the responsibilities." What these people DON'T KNOW could mean the difference between ultimate frustration and the happy, inspiring, rewarding life humans were intended to enjoy!
   This booklet will give the ANSWER — the answer that will open astonishing UNDERSTANDING.
   In this article I spoke of the "MISSING HALF" of sex knowledge, never before published. I spoke of a RIGHT and TRUE morality, different from the medieval repressive morality, or the so-called "new morality."
   In October, 1964, Ambassador College published a full 324-page quality book, GOD SPEAKS OUT on "The New Morality." It is the book on sex and marriage the world has sorely needed. It speaks Out FRANKLY. It pulls no punches! It presents sex, and the MEANING of marriage, in its right and true perspective.
   Although this is a finely printed quality book, it is plainly marked, "Not to be Sold." There is NO PRICE. But every ENGAGED couple NEEDS this book. Every married couple NEEDS it!
   To avoid criticism and complaint, we cannot send this book to unmarried minors. Yet. I say with emphasis, every teenager seriously NEEDS this book. So I urge teenagers to ask their parents to request a copy for them.
   More than a third of a million copies have been mailed out. It's an eye-opening book from which even doctors and registered nurses learn things they didn't know about sex and marriage! This vital knowledge ought not be suppressed!
   If you would like to receive a copy, you must state that you are either 1) married; or 2) past 21; or 3) engaged to be married, with parental consent, within three months, and state the wedding date. We are willing to give this book, without charge but we do not wish to bring criticism or accusation from parents of minors. Therefore we feel constrained to offer this valuable book only on these CONDITIONS! Just send request to the editor, at the address listed for you on the inside front cover of this magazine. [Address no longer vadid, please click link for booklet.]

Plain Truth Magazine

September 1968

Vol XXXIII, No.9