Chastity & Sexual Purity: A No-Brainer!

The Lord's law of chastity is universally dismissed as irrelevant and old-fashioned in most of the modern world. In fact, it's viewed by many as an archaic form of sexual oppression from which we are blessedly free today.

Fools mock but they shall mourn. And we'll see why.

So what is the law of chastity? And where is it taught in the Old Testament?
Simply put, the law of chastity mandates that all sexual expression and activity is reserved for within the bonds of marriage. Kids used to be taught that.
Now their taught to use condoms and given a free supply at most schools starting in Jr. High.

Joseph Flees from Potiphar's Wife

In Genesis 39 we read the story of Joseph's success as a manager. He is given responsibility to oversee all of the affairs and business of Potiphar's house and the Lord blesses the Egyptian because of Joseph's skill and righteousness.

However, Potiphar's wife has other ideas:

 And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.

 But he refused, and said unto his master’s wife, Behold, my master wotteth [knoweth] not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand;

 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?

Notice that Joseph tries to reason with her, saying in essence, "I have earned a position of great trust with your husband and he has given me oversight of and access to everything, except you, because you are his wife."

And then Joseph says something that demonstrates that he understands God's law of chastity:

"how can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

 

Chastity from the Beginning to Now

When God created Adam and Eve, it is apparent that he taught them about chastity:

"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

Generations after Joseph, the Lord reiterated this law in the Ten Commandments:

"Thou shalt not commit adultery."

"Thou shalt not covet...thy neighbor's wife."

It was obvious that the Jews of Jesus' time taught the law of chastity because they were willing to stone a woman taken in adultery.
But Christ taught an even higher law in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5):

27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. 

In The Book of Mormon, the importance of chastity is taught in several places. There is the story of Alma's son Corianton who had gone on a mission with his father and brothers to preach to the Zoramites. However, during that time, he had given into the temptation to engage the services of a well-known harlot named Isabel. When the Zoramites discover his bad example, they stopped listening to all the missionaries. Alma chastises his son and calls him to repentance in Alma 39.

"Know ye not, my son, that these things are an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea, most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost?"Now my son, I would that ye should repent and forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes, but cross yourself in all these things; for except ye do this ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God."

Pornography is the Great Counterfeit

I think it's ironic that I'm going to teach this lesson on the same weekend that I'm attending an anti-pornography conference in SLC, UT. Pornography teaches false lessons about the true purpose of sex. It teaches that

• love and intimacy are unimportant; self-gratification via exploiting another person is what's most pleasurable
• violence and rape are other deviant acts make things interesting and women secretly enjoy being disrespected and abused
• there are no negative consequences to unprotected sex

In essence, pornography normalizes sexual harm. That's what our kids are learning from the Internet these days and it's leading to dysfunctional relationships, an increase in sexual crimes and addiction.
Many people don't understand how viewing pornography can become an addiction, but the science is beginning to document just that. In fact, it's becoming clear that a sexual addiction is harder to overcome than a drug addiction. I don't have time to go into all of the brain science here, but check out my blog if you'd like to learn more about the process of pornography addiction. Read these posts:
You Have Two Brains!
Addiction and the Brain's Corrupted Reward System
The Ice Cream Truck and Addiction

WARNING: Shameless plug for book follows (which I don't feel badly about because I believe it will truly help protect many innocent children and since this is a personal blog, I have no problem posting about it here. Just don't buy the book on Sunday, OK?)

Please consider an invitation to check out my book that just got published and became a #1 Best Seller in it's category in the first week! And we sold over 200 copies in a few short hours at the Utah Coalition Against Pornography's annual conference! I know it sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm not. I'm truly excited that this resource is now available for parents and grandparents to read to their kids. Parents are hungry for an easy and comfortable way to approach this difficult topic. And they've got to do it or their kids are left to the pornography industry wolves, and believe me, they are predators!

Here's a cool video that I had done to introduce the book.
Making it was a very interesting new experience!

Studies show that viewing pornography leads to earlier and more risky sexual activity among teens. That's why we've got to intervene even earlier and educate our kids about the risks.

What does breaking the law of chastity get you?

Here is some info from the book Girls Uncovered which my friend Claudine sent over to me when she heard I was teaching this lesson...thanks Claudine!

Depression/Bonding

“In a study that controlled other factors, researchers found that sexually active girls are three times as likely to report being depressed as virgins…In a different study, sexually active boys were found to be twice as likely to be depressed as their friends who were virgins. Even more startling and sad was the finding that sexually active girls were three times as likely to have attempted suicide as their virgin counterparts. The sexually active boys, however, were eight times as likely to have attempted suicide as their virgin friends.”

This is because of hormones that are designed to create attachment during a physical relationship so that we can bond to our spouse. When we bond, and then break up we have tremendous emotional pain (which shows up on brain scans like physical pain.)  When we bond, break up, bond break up, ….it is like sticky tape.  We can do this a couple of times, but each time we bond and pull away we lose our capacity to bond again.  Kids “hooking up” is creating a generation of people who lack the ability to bond.

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI's)

Chlamydia is the most commonly reported STI (more than a million cases a year.)  Many more are undiagnosed.  The highest rate is in 15-19 year old girls.   90% of girls who get this DO NOT HAVE ANY SYMPTOMS!  If diagnosed, it can be treated with antibiotics.  But usually it isn’t diagnosed early and getting antibiotics later CANNOT REVERSE damage already caused.  This STD damages fallopian tubes.  After 1 episode of this, 8% of women will be infertile.  After 3 episodes, 40% are infertile! This disease is devastating to millions of girls who want to have their own children some day and NO ONE IS WARNING THEM!  Why are they told they need calcium in health class, but the real risks of being sexually active are NEVER discussed. SO MANY women are upset that no one ever told them about this.

It's sad to see kids and their futures compromised because they aren't living this very helpful and healthy law.

I am very grateful that I have been taught and blessed by living the law of chastity. It's awesome! It's freeing! It's empowering!