AIDS: The Ripened Fruit of the Sexual Revolution

Author:

Hank Hanegraaff

Article ID:

DA132

Updated: 

Jul 31, 2022

Published:

Mar 30, 2009

This article first appeared in the Viewpoint column of the Christian Research Journal, Winter (1992). For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal go to: http://www.equip.org/christian-research-journal/


Quite a few years have passed since the advent of the sexual revolution in the 1960s, with its promise of “open relationships” and “free love.” And, though the revolution continues to rage on many fronts, we now stand in a position to assess accu­rately and evaluate critically the battle casualties. Consider these alarming national figures:

  • One out of four new mothers is unmarried.
  • 1.5 million abortions are per­formed each year in the U.S. alone.
  • Presently, one million teenagers become pregnant every year. Teenage births have reached their highest level in fifteen years.
  • 54 percent of High School youths have had sex, and there are a reported 2.5 million cases of sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers every year.
  • 500,000 cases of incurable genital herpes are reported every year, along with 1.4 million cases of gonorrhea, 130,000 cases of syphilis, 4 million cases of chlamydia, and 300,000 cases of hepatitis B.

As shocking as these statistics are, the situation becomes even more alarming when the crisis of AIDS is brought into the picture. For example, there are approxi­mately one million Americans and eleven million individuals worldwide infected with the AIDS virus. The World Health Organiza­tion (WHO) estimates that “the number of infected people will soar to 40 million, including 10 million children, by the end of the decade.”1 In the United States alone, the current accumulative death toll from AIDS – about 120,000 – is higher than the number of lives claimed by the Korean and Vietnam wars combined.

It is projected that “more Americans will die of AIDS in the next two years than have died in the past 10,” as the disease’s rate of spread continues to accelerate.2 It’s no won­der why Dr. Ward Cates, formerly of the Cen­ters for Disease Control (CDC), said the fol­lowing about AIDS: “Anyone who has the least ability to look into the future can already see that the potential for this disease is worse than anything mankind has seen before.”3

The greatest tragedy, however, is that while tens of millions worldwide are dying from this dreaded pandemic, we continue to run from the God who holds the solution. Rather than facing squarely the root prob­lem of sin (the underlying moral disease), we continue instead to gaze helplessly at its ripened fruit. Instead of “repent and return to biblical morality,” “safe sex” is chosen as the slogan for the campaign against AIDS, a campaign humankind cannot afford to lose. Consequently, the public marches onward – misguidedly believing that its catchy rhetoric and latex solutions can more than adequately thwart the danger at hand.

While abstinence is conveniently written off as a mere pipe dream, condoms are vig­orously championed as the best “realistic” line of defense against AIDS despite an estimated failure rate ranging from 1.5 to 10 percent (with some placing the figure as high as 36 percent). It is noteworthy that a recently released CDC study conducted at New York clinics reports that “21 percent of females with sexually transmitted diseases said that their partners used condoms regu­larly.”4 It is thus not surprising to find one journalist concluding that “fighting AIDS with condoms is like fighting lung cancer with filter tips.”5

Worse still, as we witness the steady col­lapse of our health care system, many are attempting to transform AIDS from the species-threatening pandemic that it is to a civil rights issue. Looking downward rather than upward, they point to edu­cation and economic resources as “the solution” which is the rationale behind turning our schools into con­dom distribution centers. And all the while, they continue to perpetuate the myth that homosexuality is a viable alternative lifestyle.

Is there a solution to the AIDS crisis, this deadly fruit of the sexual revolution? As unwilling as the secularists may be to hear it, the answer is Jesus Christ. Only He can transform the human heart and thus save humankind from hedonism and HIV, and, more importantly, from humankind’s greater moral disease of sin (Isa. 53:4-6; 1 Pet. 2:24). Only by returning to biblical morality can Ameri­cans hope to reverse the spiraling statis­tics cited above.

As followers of Christ, we ought to fall on our knees and intercede for America and the world, as Abraham did for Sodom and Gomorrah. Now is the time for Christians to become equipped to expose the farce of the sexual revolution and communicate the truth of a Creator God who wrote the manual on life and living — the Bible. Now is the time to look at AIDS patients as a mission field, people for whom Christ died. It is time to realize that the very future of our nation (and planet) depends upon our willingness to cooperate with the Great Physician, Jesus Christ.

The big push for safe sex and condoms is but an illusory placebo for a very real and dangerous threat. And unless a sober plea for a permanent solution is voiced, we can only expect the situation to worsen. As Christians, it is incumbent upon us to shake the world from its fanciful complacency and turn its attention back to the One who offers the only true and lasting answer. With 12 million cases of sexually transmitted dis­eases occurring every year in the U.S. alone, commentator Cal Thomas’s conclusion, reflecting biblical morality, is right on target: “Free love is a free ride to destruction.”6


Notes:

  1. Lawrence K. Altman, “Tests of AIDS Vaccine Scheduled to Begin in Two Years in Four Countries,” New York Times 11 November 1991, A5.
  2. Jerry Adler, “Safer Sex,” Newsweek, 9 December 1991, 58.
  3. Cited in David Chilton, Power in the Blood (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, 1987), 5.
  4. EP News Service, 29 November 1991, 6.
  5. Joseph Sobran, “Virtue Is Practical and Desirable,” Conservative Chronicle, 27 November 1991, 1.
  6. Cal Thomas, “Free Love Is a Free Ride to Destruction,” Los Angeles Times, 11 November 1991, B11.
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