Mark Daniels Christian Blog and Commentary

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Morality Creep

Allow me to read the lowlights of this Reuters news report, dateline San Francisco. You'll get a chilling new perspective on the sexual sickness we now suffer in America. You may wish to have your young ones walk away from the computer screen. Oh, and it’s my smarmy comments you'll read in italics. Please forgive my uncharacteristic disdain.

"From bondage to 'breath play' and zoophilia, it's not easy keeping up with society's fast-developing sexual trends. That's why some of North America's top sexologists are hunkered down with academics and therapists at a Fisherman's Wharf hotel this weekend: to swap findings about everything from teens with underwear fetishes to transgender couples." We used to call it "unlawful distribution of kiddy porn," in our less "enlightened" days.

"The theme for the society's four-day conference is 'Unstudied, Understudied And Underserved Sexual Communities.' Presentations range from autoerotic asphyxiation, or 'breath play,' to zoophiles (animal 'lovers'), to more mainstream topics like sex motives of dating partners. 'Let me tell you, it was not easy finding these pictures,' Hunter College  professor Jose E. Nanin told his audience in a seminar about 'specialized' sexual behavior among gay men. Nanin's photos are more than an explicit how-to of exhibitionism and sadomasochism, he says; they are examples of safe alternatives to sexual intercourse that need to be de-stigmatized in order to fight diseases like HIV/AIDS." Yes...then we can celebrate a much healthier generation of perverts. And it's so much classier to show deviant photos, than to simply explain the procedure. Good solution, guys!

"Researchers say their greater goal is to help the medical community, the public and legislators figure out what behavior is merely out of the norm versus downright dangerous. 'As sex researchers, one of our concerns is distinguishing what can be harmful and what is not-- so that instead of being based on myth, public policy can be informed,' said Charlene Muehlenhard, professor of psychology and women's studies at The University of Kansas." Not sure which set of "myths" she is referring to...but I can guess!

"When authorities caught a Midwestern U.S. teenage boy stealing girls' underwear, they immediately demonized his underwear fetish,' Penn State University researcher Patricia Barthalow Kosch said. Many clinicians attribute the boy's crime more to broken family relations. The crime was theft, not his sexual fantasies, conference attendees said." I wonder how quickly that petty theft turns into sexual assault, and it that can also be justified by a broken home. In the end, as always, only the victim suffers.

"Teen sexuality draws sensational headlines, but suffers from a lack of academic study, researchers said." I guess we’ve been leaving it all up to people like Mary-Kay LeTourneau.

Perhaps what we need is less study of teen sex these days...and more time focused on prevention. There aren't enough condoms on earth to protect us from the disease of "morality creep."