"We've come a long way, baby!", and it's NOT good! There was a time when the great universities of America were Christian in their foundations. Universities like Princeton and Harvard produced some great minds and godly pastors. There was a time in America when all who settled here were of Puritan faith. There was a time in America when, if a man was going to run for public office, he had to profess faith in Jesus Christ. There was a time in America when certain things were simply not discussed in the public arena. There was a time when modesty prevailed, when character mattered, when righteousness was pursued, and when the Christian ethic was respected.
Then we come to 2012 and what do we find? We find that a young woman can sit in a congressional hearing and testify that her sexual exploits are so common, so often, that she needs her University, a Roman Catholic University, to provide for her contraceptive needs. And, furthermore, that her contemporaries find themselves in the same position! And the shocking thing is that nobody in the hearing questioned her immorality! No one in the television media questioned the immorality of these women.
I looked up the word "slut" in my Webster's New World Dictionary and one of the definitions is a sexually promiscuous woman. The young woman in question is not married, and I assume that, for the most part, her contemporaries are not married, so it begs the question, "Is the use of the word slut accurate?"
The next word that I looked up (I want to be accurate) is the word "whore" and I found that a whore is a sexually promiscuous woman or a prostitute. So I considered whether this word is a fitting word for someone who testifies that she is promiscuous and wants others to monetarily support her promiscuity. I think it is!
One more word that I felt like I needed to research is the word "prostitute" and guess what I found! I found that one of the definitions of a prostitute is "a woman who engages in promiscuous sexual intercourse for pay". As I considered this definition I concluded that, in the strictest sense the young woman was not being paid for her sexual indiscretions, but in a wider sense, she wants others to pay for her promiscuity! So, that particular word may, or may not be, applicable.
This leads me to wonder if these words should be removed from the dictionary. I mean, if they are not supposed to be used to rightly describe the social and sexual activities of those engaging in them then why have them in the dictionary? And the next question is, "What has happened to a society that no longer wants to name behaviors for what they are?" I mean we like to call adultery having an affair. We call sodomites "gay". And, if someone should call a promiscuous woman a slut (which, by the way did not actually happen), then somehow the one using the term is the object of anger! I saw a sign a woman held up which said, "Sluts Vote Too!" and I thought, why isn't someone really angry at her self-admission?
Recently in an interview the Christian actor Curt Cameron was asked about his views concerning gay marriage. He honestly told the interviewer his views, and now is being accused of hate speech! What has gone wrong with a society that cannot bear hearing truth? Must we all live in a fantasy world, a fairy tale world where nothing is real? Must we all agree on everything? Is it becoming fashionable to lie about what you believe just to fit in? And if we say what we believe are we preaching hate?
It is very difficult for Christians to live in the secular world. The great persecutions of history are a testimony to that! But I'm talking about living in a free society that has had Christian roots. It always has been difficult, but I think it's getting worse because, at least for citizens of the U.S., we've seen a consistent decline in morality. Books, magazines, television shows, movies, the news media, and of course the Internet seem to be determined to progressively introduce more immorality to our society. So, while we are spiritual beings, we live in temporal flesh and we have to put on the full armor of God just to survive each day with our spirituality in tact!
BUT, just because depravity abounds, does not make it acceptable to us. We must "call a spade a spade" if you will. We must not back down. Curt Cameron didn't and neither should we. And if a word, so long as it is not profane (in the negative sense), is found in our English dictionary, can describe an activity, let's not be afraid to use it. Yes, we are to be kind, and no we shouldn't be unkind in our descriptions of people or their actions, but we also must consider accuracy. "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." (Proverbs 25:11)
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