The Violence of Sexual Perversion-7

   Over the past 6 tidbits, I wrote of the violence that sexual perversion perpetrates upon the physical body. However, because the wages of sin is death (Rom3:23), sin not only devastates the body but also wreaks havoc upon the soul. One part of the soul where sin works its horrors is the emotions which today is more popularly referred as mental health.
   Tragically, there has been a massive uptick in mental health issues especially among youth. Although there are many reasons one might offer for this evil, one thing is for certain: they all have one origin--sin!
   For example, NBC correspondent Erika Edwards writes in February 13, 2023,
“Sexual attacks and other traumatic experiences have led to an unprecedented level of hopelessness and suicidal thoughts among America's young women, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. "Our teenage girls are suffering through an overwhelming wave of violence and trauma, and it’s affecting their mental health," said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health.”
   “Sexual violence, too, has risen among girls, with 1 in 5 saying they'd experienced it within the past year, the CDC said.  Fourteen percent said they had been forced into having sex. That's a jump from 11% of teen girls who said they'd been sexually assaulted in 2019.”
"For every 10 teenage girl you know, at least one of them, and probably more, has been raped," according to Ethier. This article also says at least 52% of teenagers who identified as LGBTQii “struggled with mental health” which was nearly double the rate of every other group.” 
   “Results from the CDC's 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey show startling trends. Nearly 3 in 5 teen girls (57%) said they felt "persistently sad or hopeless." That's the highest rate in a decade. And 30% said they have seriously considered dying by suicide — a percentage that's risen by nearly 60% over the past 10 years.”
   “Overall, more than 40% of boys and girls said that they'd felt so sad or hopeless within the past year that they were unable to do their regular activities, such as schoolwork or sports, for at least two weeks. When researchers looked at gender differences, girls were far more likely to report such feelings than boys.”

These statistics in fact do present a strong case that sexual perversion contributes to mental health issues.
Of course, I cannot use these kinds of stats to connect ALL emotional trauma to sexual perversion. Obviously, psychologists, psychiatrists, and professional counselors etc. through their experiences and encounters with our youth will cite many possible causes/reasons that they believe are contributing to the overwhelming sadness that is blanketing our nation in general, and specifically our children.
   Social Media enthusiast Zuby tweeted, “Why is depression on the rise?” He then listed the following as his answer: “garbage food; sedentary lifestyle, cubicle work, social media, toxic politics, hookup culture, loss of religion, identity crises, broken families, drugs, consumerism.” Obviously, these things are all irrefutable issues that contribute to the downward spiral of one’s mental health!
   Moreover, Auschwitz Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote in his book ‘In Search of Meaning’, “The greatest human need aside from food is meaning.” In the middle of unmitigated death and horror, he was able to overcome his experience. How? He writes, “I forced my thoughts to turn to another subject. Suddenly, I saw myself standing on a platform of a well-lit, warm pleasant lecture room. In front of me sat an attentive audience on comfortable upholstered seats. I was giving a lecture on the psychology of the concentration camp!”
    Frankl, who subsequently earned a doctorate and made this very vision a reality was able to create hope against hope, creating ‘meaning’ in the midst of the death camp! He later wrote, once a victim abandoned all hope, he literally gave up…and that person was either shot, gassed, or died from hopelessness. Hopelessness destroys mental health!!!
An abstract by JAMA psychiatry entitled the ‘Association Between Religious Service Attendance and Lower Suicide Rates Among US Women’ studied the effect of church attendance on women. They reported: “Among 89,708 women aged 30 to 55 years who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study, attendance at religious services once per week or more was associated with an approximately 5-fold lower rate of suicide compared with never attending religious services.”  Why is this true? Because God’s word offers faith, hope, and love (1Cor13:13) which creates healing and emotional strength to endure life’s most difficult situations and challenges!
   How does sexual perversion affect the soul*? When God made mankind, He not only created him male and female (Mat19:1-4) with different body parts; He also created the man to function as one: in spirit, soul & body(1Thes5:23); AND…He created the woman to function as one: in spirit, soul, & body! This means man and woman are uniquely trinitarian…and also God-designed to be complimentary so that when joined together---the two trinitarians become one! The oneness of man and woman in marriage is so miraculous (Eph5:31-32) it is used as a natural example of the oneness of the trinitarian God!!!!!
-Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. -Gen 2:24
-Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD -Deut 6:4
The word “one” is the Hebrew word ‘echad’ and means a plurality in unity!
    When a man (or woman) joins himself to one sex partner after another—the souls of both are ripped apart with each encounter. This is called soul-tying!**
   This reveals what is perhaps the primary reason sexual sin is so devastating to humanity! Or, the greater the sexual perversion the more precipitous the fall.
   In conclusion, may I remind you that all sexual perversion like no other sin ignites the flesh which is the origin of man’s sin nature. The potential of the sin nature is unveiled in Genesis 11:6:
“And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”
 
May God have mercy on contemporary America!
 
*I refer not only to homosexuality but to all sex sin.
**Genesis 34:3. The word “clave” is the Hebrew word and means: impinge, i.e. cling or adhere; fig. to catch by pursuit:—abide fast, cleave (fast together), follow close (hard after), be joined (together), keep (fast), overtake, pursue hard, stick, take.   -Strong’s
 
 
 
QuoteBit
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
         -George Santayana, Philosopher