(Meg Meeker, MD – LIfeZette) “We must use these scandals as an opportunity to confront a toxic sexual culture that confuses our children, ushers numerous diseases into their lives (if you doubt me, check out the latest data on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website), and stand firmly against the foul sexual messages pushed out by the media.”
Powerful men often fall short in their personal lives. We’ve all seen Matt Lauer, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and many others fall — scandalously.
This may be just the tip of the iceberg, sadly, when it comes to discovering that men who hold the public’s trust have behaved very badly in private.
But as much as I would like to say I’m surprised, I’m not.
Let’s look around. Many women voraciously consume books like the “Fifty Shades of Grey” series, which glorifies sadomasochistic sex. We need to ask ourselves as women: Is it OK to be entertained by something we would never tolerate in real life?
My answer is no.
There is a danger here and every woman and every mother must wrestle with it. As we applaud the inherent justice of seeing powerful and sexually disturbed men get their due, we need to be very careful ourselves.
First, we should never brand all men as perpetrators. For the health of our marriages and our relationships with our children, we cannot ascribe practices of sexual perversion, domination, and other bad behaviors to the millions of good co-workers, fathers, brothers, and yes — pastors and priests — among us.
When we brand all men as evil, we do an enormous disservice to our children. We communicate to our sons that masculinity is something to be despised, and this can cause them shame. We must teach our sons why their sexuality is to be cherished, protected, and never used to abuse others. This way, we teach them about the level of respect they deserve to show themselves as men.
Related:
Sexuality and Marriage: Why Do Young People Fail to Grasp the Biblical Definitions?
Nashville Statement Boldly Affirms Biblical Marriage and Sexuality — The Nashville Statement affirms a biblical and historic Christian view of only two genders, male and female, and marriage as a lifelong union between a man and woman.