Sex and Civilization

Normalizing unnatural sex is a demonic attempt to topple civilization - and you.

‘Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But the person who is joined to the LORD (by faith) becomes one spirit with Him.’ - I Corinthians 6:16-17

‘Sex is a substitute for religion and (the) young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for GOD.’ - Bruce Marshall.

Scottish writer Bruce Marshall wrote The World, the Flesh and Father Smith in 1945.

It’s a novel filled with spiritual truth that should cause us all to examine our lives.

Marshall’s writing is characterized by sarcastic cuts against secular culture, appropriate for a world filled with people skeptical of Christian truth. In several of his best-selling fictional novels, Marshall portrays God’s truth through the illogical thinking and moral dilemmas of larger-than-life, self-indulgent characters he creates.

This book by Bruce Marshall is worth reading, for it answers why illicit sex has become a substitute for a relationship with God through our union with Christ.

One such bestseller is The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith.

Father Smith, the book's protagonist (e.g., ‘the one who drives the story's narrative’), is walking home one day and encounters a young woman in seductive clothes standing on the front porch of her apartment.

Miss Dana Agdala has her provocative short dress, ‘blowing all around her lovely legs.’

Dana introduces herself to Father Smith and quickly tells him she’s the author of the best-selling scintillating book, ‘Naked and Unashamed.’

‘But perhaps you haven’t read me?’ she demurely asks.

Father Smith only smiles and shakes his head negatively.

Dana smirks, ‘Tell me, do you get much response to the old, old story (the Gospel) these days?’

Dana represents a modernist skeptic who’s long rejected ‘the poppycock doctrine about purity and the Virgin Birth…’ because ‘it’s against all modern science and obstetrics.’

Dana continues:

‘I’ve been dying for years to meet a Catholic priest, but somehow there never seems to be any at any of the parties I go to. I have oodles and oodles to ask you about, that I don’t know if I’ll ever have time.’

So, Father Smith invites Dana to walk with him to his next appointment. He tells her that she can ask him any question that she desires.

Father Smith and Dana are walking together on the streets.

Among her many questions, Dana asks about his sexuality and how he manages to, as she put it, ‘live without us?’ (e.g., without having women in a sexual relationship).

Easily and confidently, Fr. Smith answers:

‘Women’s bodies are rarely perfect; they soon grow old and sag, and always the contemplation of them even at their best is a poor and boring substitute for walking with God in His House as a friend . . .’

Startled at such a bold statement, Dana judges that Smith’s answer proves what she has always maintained about Christians. She retorts.

‘Faith in God is only a substitute for sex.’

But Father Smith counters her objection with a quote worth remembering:

‘I prefer to believe that sex is a substitute for religion.

‘The young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.’

That last line, a young man who rings the bell at a brothel is unconsciously looking for God, is sometimes wrongly attributed to Christian apologist and author G.K. Chesterton.

Chesterton probably read the book, The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith, and he may have quoted from it, but the quote comes from author Bruce Marshall.

I believe Marshall is spot on about sex being an earthly type of another, eternal union.

Sex As a Type of Our Eternal Union with Christ