“This book is about the ideology of the Sexual Revolution. the havoc it has created in the lives of its victims, and why we have been unable to make the connection between the two up until now.”
Thats the opening line to Dr. Jennifer Morse’s new book The Sexual State: How Elite Ideologies are Destroying Lives and Why the Church Was Right All Along. The title couldn’t be more direct. Without hemming and hawing around, this book, like the intro, gets right to the point: what happened, how did we get here, what are the solutions, and what can we do to be better culture warriors?
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The opening of the book read like modern lives we all know were put into print: stories of people not unlike the ones I know: stories of single dads, professional women who never had the family they wanted because they were convinced a career was the only choice, children of divorce and spouses of multiple divorces.
A century ago these situations were unfavored and uncommon, but today, they’re normal.
This spectacular book discusses the central ideologies that got us here:
- The contraceptive ideology;
- The divorce ideology; and
- The gender ideology
It may not seem apparent until you read this book, but these ideologies even work their ways into some Catholic circles, let alone common everyday life. And because these ideological lies work their way ever so cleverly into our lives, the author clarifies the teaching of the Catholic Church in convincing fashion.
And with that, I highly recommend this book by Dr. Jennifer Morse: it is one of the books each young Catholic should read while their minds are still curious and their worldview is still moldable.
The sexual revolution is an idea your seen hints of, but this book will fully prepare you to identify and understand the culture-crippling concepts that must be re-shaped for our society to continue in real progress.
Shaun: Dr., I really think the book is a timely one and I thought the note about timely research in the beginning of the book was brilliant. Do you think this book addresses a problem our children will also face? Or, do you see society evolving away from the “Sexual Revolution”?
I believe our children will face these problems. A person raised without both their parents is at risk for poorer parenting skills, lower chance of staying married themselves and so on. that means that our current generation, in which 50% of first births are to unmarried parents, will face a steeper uphill climb than we Baby Boomers did. Even if we changed all the poor public policies tomorrow, the younger generation is still going to need a lot of support. So yes, no question about it, our children will be dealing with the fallout from the sexual revolution.
Shaun: The contraceptive ideology is a clever lie many young women buy into. What are your thoughts on the way young men treat the topic of contraception?
Apart from full-on Humanae Vitae Catholics, most young men and women take contraceptive ideology for granted. It is part of the air they breath. They don’t even recognize that there is another way to live. They just accept that sex and babies are completely separated, except for people with quirky life-style preferences.
Shaun: If there is one thing a parent can do to counter the culture’s push on the ideologies you identify in the book, what would it be?
1. The most significant thing in my opinion, is to help young people develop a strong sense of their identity as male or female. We need to be unashamed of sex differences. The Catholic culture has something unique and wonderful to offer: we accept sex differences, without getting hysterical over rigid gender roles. There are a thousand ways to be a boy, and a thousand ways to be a girl. But there are a few basics that everyone should be supported in accepting about themselves: the male need and desire to protect and provide for the weak, the female need and desire to nurture and comfort the weak and the young. The male need for respect, and the female need for love, as St. Paul so insightfully highlights in Ephesians 5.
2. Parents must be very intentional about shielding their young children, inoculating their middle-school children, and equipping their high school and college-aged children to deal with the sexual revolution. I would say the older kids should read The Sexual State. Form reading or study groups. Unmask the propaganda. Of course, that implies that the parents have equipped themselves to identify and unmask the propaganda themselves!
3. These issues are not going to go away any time soon. Do not be deceived. This is all unfair, but that is the world in which we now live.
Huge thank you to Dr. Morse for taking the time to answer these questions, and a huge congratulations on the completion of this important book. This title belongs in the hands of so many!
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