Nooze stories come and go so fast, in such staggering numbers, that it’s easy to forget something that was a really big deal, a sensation, just a few years ago. Like the story about the hackers getting into the guts of the Ashley Madison Dating Service and exposing married men and women who were using it to find partners with whom to commit adultery.
“Life is short. Have an affair.” That was their slogan.
I hope we all understand that advertising slogans should really not be anyone’s guide to how to live.
One disgusting aspect of the Internet is that people use it to advertise their willingness to be a part of illicit sexual activity. That is, IMO, very sick behavior.
Sex is sacred. It’s purpose is procreation; the building of families. Adultery was a Capital Offense under the Law of Moses. It’s never a trivial matter. One act of adultery, 135 years ago, has shaped my branch of the family ever since. It caused untold grief to several generations of the family. It caused division and a broken home. One relative lived a long life, feeling ashamed that she was the obvious product of an adulterous “affair”. Affair, my eye! A life was procreated and it changed the course of the family ever since.
My family, too–but I never found out about it until I was an adult. Which is probably as it should be. But I understand now that it caused my father and his brothers an awful lot of pain–pain that was avoidable, pain that didn’t have to be: pain that was the price of a few nights’ pleasure. Pain that never went away.
In the case of my family, a child was conceived in an act of adultery, many years ago. That child became the matriarch of a large family, but felt shame because of her mother’s adultery. To make matters worse, she bore traits that made it obvious that she was not of the same genetic stock as her siblings. She did not fit in with the rest of her family and, although she was fully accepted and loved, even by her mother’s husband, she always felt out of place.
In a bizarre twist, she was raised by her mother’s husband who rejected his unfaithful wife, but chose to give the innocent child a good, Christian home. I share no blood-relation to this man, but admire and love him for his decency and grace. The pain her mother caused the family, and especially her daughter, untold grief and shame.
Breaking God’s laws always carries its own punishment. And usually brings woe down upon the innocent as well.
My opinion on the matter is that sex is a gift from God for building a family. The family starts with the union between man and wife and can grow far beyond that. Family has meaning and permanence. When I see relatives, even relatives I hardly know, I feel a bond. This is not some psychological effect, it’s real and holds meaning.
In Genesis 10, the “Table of Nations” is laid out, which traces all peoples of the earth to the offspring of Noah. This is of lasting significance. Nations were founded based upon family groups. There are legends that when God confused the languages at Babel, that He likely did it by family groups. Families count; big time.
In the last 50 years or so, sex and reproduction have become separated in the minds of many people. They see sex as a right to practice in any way they see fit, but God created us in such a way that sex brought with it a strong possibility of children. This, in an of itself, gives us a great insight into what God had in mind. If that were not enough, the very first command in scripture, literally in the first page of most translations, is: ““Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth . . . ” I’ll take God at His word, on this matter (and all others, where that is concerned).