Social Purity by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 1, 1914

Social Purity

By F. M. W.

With every proper effort to awaken the public conscience to the dangers of the great social evil we are in hearty accord. If parents and all to whom the youth are intrusted for education could have realized long ago the evils resulting from the free and untrammeled association between the sexes, much evil and suffering would have been saved. We are in full accord with every laudable effort which makes for social purity, and which will serve to safeguard our young men and women from the taint of evil associations. We have been led, however, to question the wisdom and propriety of some methods which are being employed by various public teachers at the present time.

We do not believe in a false modesty which will taboo the proper discussion of the question of sex hygiene. We do believe, however, that great care should be exercised in the presentation of these subjects. They may be treated in a manner that will make for impurity rather than for purity. And we are not alone in this conviction. Many sensitive souls have been made to recoil with horror at the free and easy manner in which some of these questions have been discussed. In Zion's Herald of Dec. 10, 1913, the editor devotes two columns to a discussion of the manner in which instruction on these subjects should be imparted to the youth. He says:—

Whatever may be the rights or wrongs of the present attempt to give greater publicity to what is euphemistically called "sex hygiene," the enterprise is being tremendously overdone. Americans have become hysterical on this subject.

Regarding the frankness and openness with which these questions are now discussed, the editor remarks:—

Within a few months a remarkable change has come over this country. Children of tender years are now taught to discuss topics which were reserved for the adult years of their parents. The new vocabulary has substituted "frankness" for the old-fashioned word "modesty." A Boston theater is now presenting a play on a theme which has hitherto been handled only in the form of a medical lecture exclusively for one of the sexes. The newspapers now specifically name physical ailments which have hitherto been veiled or ignored by refined men and women. The magazines, especially those of England, are filled with articles which it would have been absolutely impossible so recently as a decade ago to read aloud before a company of decent men and women. An English literary reviewer of the latest novel of a well-known woman writer says: “Readers who cannot extract their money’s worth of illicit love out of this story must be hard to please. It simply reeks with sex. Amazing how this writer can patch her pages with suggested improprieties, and yet say nothing that is not more or less presentable!”

While approving of the eugenic movement for the bringing about of better social conditions, the editor feels that the movement “is getting beyond the control of the men and women who were its original promoters. . . . When boys and girls of tender years have reached the degree of sophistication where they glibly discuss sex topics, they are in danger of becoming callous and indifferent to the moral significance of the words.” He inquires:—

Will the knowledge acquired in this tumultuous way act as a deterrent? We confess to a growing distrust of the efficacy of the new gospel of publicity. We have been told of a case where a lecture of this kind led three young men to frequent places where they had never been before. We have no means of knowing how beneficial the lecture was in checking the vicious propensities of other auditors; the fact is that in three young men a spirit of defiance was created as the result of turning their thoughts in this direction.

He assents to the theory that it is better to impart such information to the young in a proper way than to have such knowledge acquired from evil sources, but he questions as to who are the proper persons to give such information. He does not believe that it is to be imparted in moving-picture scenes or in the newspapers, and doubts very much the propriety of its being given in the public school.

The proper teacher is the father or the mother in the privacy of the home. Lacking these, the question at once becomes the problem of a substitute father or mother. We have not yet discovered an adequate substitute. . . . We do not doubt that if this information, properly guarded, could be given by the right persons, it would save sin and suffering among both young and old. We do not object to instruction in sex hygiene per se, but we believe that the movement has now reached the abnormal and the pathological stage, and the time has come to summon men and women to calmer, saner thinking.

Concluding, the editor says:—

We shall watch with grave solicitude the progress of this new movement. If we discover that it is proving beneficial, we shall gladly bear witness to the truth. In the meantime, while reformers are turning the thoughts of young and old into this new channel, we call attention to an old theory on eugenics which has produced excellent results wherever it has been honestly and sincerely tested: “Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

The Scriptures of Truth warn against the evils of sin, but present no lurid descriptions of the manner in which these evils are enacted. The apostle Paul admonishes to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.”

Whatever may be the duty of public-school teachers in dealing with these subjects, there can be no question as to the duty of parents. By precept and example the principles of heart and social purity should be instilled into the minds of the young, and they should be taught that the only power which can save them from sin’s pollution is the abiding righteousness of Christ in the life. We believe that the faithful teaching in the home and in the church of the positive principles of purity of heart and holiness of life will do more than all else to safeguard the young against the evils of the present age.