AP

The Threat of Vomit Today

Surprised, I was shocked. I was shocked to discover that a statement from Freud about a libertine attitude to sex and its consequences confirmed what the Bible says.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. This story began in November 2024 when I was writing a series of talks on the 10 Commandments. I was also reading books by Philip Yancey and knew that he had written articles for ‘Christianity Today’. Serendipitously, (providentially), I quickly discovered his article The Lost Sex Study – Christianity Today

Yancy referred to the 1930s research by Oxford sociologist JD Unwin. Unwin wrote a monumental tome Sex and culture [electronic resource] : Unwin, J. D. (Joseph Daniel), 1895-1936. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive. Unwin wanted to test Freud’s claim that civilisations would make faster progress when their sexual energies were restrained by restricted social customs. Sexual freedom would accompany cultural decay, and sexual restraint would bring cultural progress. In his introduction Unwin says that he embarked upon his studies with an open mind about Freud’s theory. He expected to disprove Freud’s claim.

However, after an exhaustive study of numerous societies at different stages of social development, a surprised Unwin came to the startling conclusion that Freud’s prediction was true. The greatest energies are displayed by those societies which have reduced sexual opportunity. Unwin claims that polygamy is the mark of an underdeveloped society, and promiscuity is the mark of a decadent one. His research indicates that you cannot enjoy both cultural achievement and sexual licence simultaneously, at least not in the long term. Unwin found that when strict prenuptial chastity was abandoned, absolute monogamy, deism, and rational thinking disappeared within three generations of the change in sexual freedom.

After reading Yancey’s paper and excerpts from Unwin, I wanted to know if Unwin’s research method was valid by today’s scientific standards and if his results remained accurate.

For example, if the methodology is invalid, then you cannot know if the findings are reliable. Today, the world is awash with invalid methods, and people believe the results. Sadly, some people do not question unsubstantiated research claims and scientific disinformation.

Back to my story, and providentially, I found exactly what I was looking for: a 2023 thirty-four-page critical review of Unwin’s work, complete with links to other reviews. Review of J. D. Unwin’s Sex and Culture – by Arctotherium Unwin’s survey was found to be empirical, utilising an inductive historical and ethnographic method that met today’s research standards.

Arctotherium’s review of Unwin’s work also considered more contemporary data of flourishing societies and those that are starting to collapse, concluding that we’re on a trajectory of decline and that it probably can’t be stopped. Yancy had written: ‘If we make a god of sexuality, that god will fail in ways that affect our… whole society.’

(Note: I found that in the Arctotherium review, there was not enough blame attached to men for sexual promiscuity in Western society. Unwin’s more straight forward solution was: be faithful to your partner.)

This confirms what the Bible says. Leviticus 18 highlights the fact that adultery is a sin against society. Verses 24 and 28 are a chapter summary. We read: Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations I am driving out before you became unclean … lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. Moses is saying that one of the reasons Israel was empowered to conquer the land was that the Canaanites had defiled it by their sexual practices. And Moses is also warning the Israelites that God will not allow a sexually immoral societies to prosper long term.

The warming of Leviticus 18 is fulfilled every time a sexually immoral society suffers a loss of cultural impetus.

The Bible says that sexual immorality is antisocial and undermines the very dynamic by which civilisation makes progress. The land vomited out the people who engaged in these practices. This has enormous implications for Western society. We wonder why our economies are drifting downhill. We complain that the great creative genius of previous centuries seems to be a thing of the past. Maybe like the great civilizations of Greece and Rome before us, the productive energies of our people are being dissipated by our contemporary obsession with sex. The Bible is clear: sexual immorality is an offence against the very fabric of society.

Short of another Great Awakening, I see little hope for our society. For us, as Christians, First Peter and Augustine’s City of God will become increasingly relevant.

– John Buchanan