May 3, 1979

New Morality An Ethics Crisis

The topic of our sermon today, brothers and sisters, is sin.

At what point do old fashion, carved-in granite commandments give way to modern, traced in-sand morality?

The Mosaic standards have suffered considerable erosion in recent weeks from a series of national events that stirred up mighty yawns.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action suit against the State of Massachusetts seeking to permit school children to see pornographic movies, claiming violation of civil rights.

California Governor Jerry Brown concluded a ten-day African trip of state with his live-in girl friend Rock Singer Linda Ronstadt, ending the ticklish protocol of whether the couple should have one or two bedrooms.

The U.S. Secret Service, embarrassed by the necessity of guarding President Carter's son Jeff while he smoked marijuana regularly at a friend's house, solved the dilemma by installing electronic security devices that leave agents discretely outside.

Actor Lee Martin was ordered to pay his unwed housemate Michelle Triola $104,000 in "rehabilitation" expenses as settlement of a breach of contract suit.

Such goings on are accepted by a large segment of society as a permissive "lifestyle."  A majority, however, still hold that self indulgence is best held at bay.

Says Doris Jonas Freed, research chairman of the American Bar Association's family-law section: "The trend is to acknowledge the facts of life."

The facts are, according to the Census Bureau, that at least 1.5 million American couples "cohabit," twice the number of seven years ago when the first such official estimate was made.

School girl pregnancies are zooming, now reaching down into junior high school where sexual favors are bought for candy bars.

The ACLU takes the position that sexual maturity arrives at age 13, and denial of sexual stimulation to teen-agers is discriminatory.

You're darn right!

There is a world of difference between what nature allows and what civilized men aspire to.  The ability to discriminate is the secret of human success.

Animals conceive at first rutting.  Yet they do not pray, write sonnets or fly to the moon.

It was by rising above natural desires that humans found a soul.

We have accepted the responsibility of training our children to higher aspirations than eating, sleeping and fornicating.  To make some progress in this uniquely human endeavor we require a temporary repression of primeval urges.

The brain, a relatively recent evolutionary development, is the last organ of our body to reach maturity.  To obtain its maximum potential the primitive organs cannot be allowed to take early possession of our energies and attention.

For the last ten thousand years mankind has struggled to overcome the beast within its nature.  The ACLU would write off this hard won battle for ten minutes of titillation in the bushes.

No way!

Cohabitation has been made acceptable by actors and highly placed public officials.  Yet, their royal freedoms fly in the face of useful tradition.

Women who consent to the joys of "free love" quickly discover that is not enough.  Eventually one must acquire some of the material things of life and rear a child or two.  It is a difficult and time-consuming task even for a man and woman bound by conventional ties.

Marriage vows are a specific, binding contract developed over thousands of years experience.  The rights of each partner to this contract have been fine-tuned to a practical balance, dictated by needs of society.

The Marvin case is a public acknowledgement that men and women can not long maintain a satisfactory relationship on sex alone.  Inevitably, passion gives way to the larger demands of family and society.  It is at this time that a contractual relationship becomes paramount.

Miss Triola, without benefit of the wedding contract, sought to imply one.  But she could not overcome centuries of common law jurisprudence.  She got a little "palimony" but no substantial relief.

The principal outcome of the Marvin breach of contract case is a rush by the let-it-all-hangout set to draw up contracts with each other.  It is an ironic development.  Unwilling to tie themselves to a marriage contract based on trust, they sign tougher contracts based on mistrust - on an assumption their lovers eventually will try to rip them off.

It is strange that the deterioration of moral standards is so passively tolerated by the majority which adheres to a stricter accounting.

When the president's son put his bodyguards into an untenable position - how to perform their duty to protect while ignoring their duty to uphold drug laws - their reaction was to stick their heads into the sand.  No see, no worry.

This attitude has permeated our institutions of learning.  The Carnegie Foundation last week released a policy study on ethics in our colleges.  The report warns we are in the midst of an "ethics crisis" which includes an increase in test cheating, theft and destruction of books, misuse of financial aid, easy grades, lower admission standards and dishonest advertising by universities seeking students.

We talk a lot these days about the possibility of a nuclear holocaust driving us back to the caves.

Can it be that this dismal reversion will be accomplished more subtly by the sins of ACLU and Actors Equity?

Author: Lindsey Williams