Staying Pure in a Fornication Nation

There were some raised eyebrows last week on the campus of Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL, when Lee Grady hosted a special meeting—the day before Valentine's Day—on the subject of fornication. Lee is the Editor of Charisma Magazine.

Now "fornication" is not a word you normally associate with a lecture topic, but hey, he had to get attention. And since the hormones on most college campuses are as dense as Florida humidity, he figured the kids would be all ears when he attacked the subject.

He was right. He said that at times you could hear a pin drop in the auditorium, especially when he talked about how most American young people aren't even sure how to define sexual activity anymore. (Today's college seniors were nine years old when President Clinton tried to redefine sex during the Lewinsky scandal.) At other times the students burst into nervous laughter, especially when he told how he gave his son-in-law a lecture about sexual boundaries in front of 700 of his classmates when he was dating Lee's oldest daughter.

"Losing one's virginity used to be a serious issue, but today fornication is just a standard sitcom plot device," he said.

His thoughts on "fornication" are excellent and even for the married person, make a quick refresher course in self-control...since we live in a nation that is losing all moral restraint. Here is part one of what he told that group at Southeastern. I'll bring you part two tomorrow.


"1. Don't redefine your morality. I've seen Christian young people roll their eyes when I say the word "fornication" because it sounds so much like King James English—sort of like "sodomy," another word we avoid in our PC culture. But we need to be careful how we bend the meaning of words. Terms that are in the Bible should not vanish from our modern vocabulary just because they offend some of the hosts of The View.

"When "fornication" is used in 1 Thessalonians 4:3 ("For this is the will of God ... that ye should abstain from fornication" KJV), the Greek word is porneia. It's the root word for pornography, but it means a lot more than sexually explicit material. It includes sex between unmarried people, homosexuality, bestiality, prostitution, incest and adultery.

"According to the apostle Paul, sex as God intended is limited to marriage between one man and one woman. Period. The Episcopal Church has no right to broaden the definition. Neither do Bill Clinton, Newsweek, Oprah or HBO. Don't let moral relativism infect your brain.

"2. Don't sell your birthright. Losing one's virginity used to be a serious issue, but today fornication is just a standard sitcom plot device. It's considered normal. People are considered weird if they didn't have sex by age 14; and if anybody dares to teach abstinence in a public school he is labeled a Neanderthal.

"In TV shows like Desperate Housewives, Nip/Tuck or Grey's Anatomy, life revolves around who's in bed with whom. There's even a TV series on Showtime called Californication that follows the life of a sex addict. What TV producers don't usually explore are the consequences of immorality. Audiences probably wouldn't laugh if the couples hooking up on these shows had to deal with genital warts, gonorrhea, AIDS, abortions, post-abortion trauma or clinical depression—all real fallout from illicit sexual behavior.

"If you are a single person today—whether you have lost your virginity or not—it's time to reclaim your purity and save sex for marriage. We've forgotten the story of Esau, who forfeited his birthright through one stupid act. He traded his inheritance for a bowl of stew. You really can throw your life away through one act of fornication."

Tomorrow, I'll bring you points 3 through 5. This is just plain, good advice for today, and especially for today's Christians.