Many of society's traditional values have been under siege during the last few decades, but perhaps no onslaught has been more disrupting and pervasive than the so-called sexual revolution. It finds expression in a diversity of new patterns of behavior and relationships and seems characterized, above all, by experimentation—not only in research centers where, for instance, genetic codes are being deciphered, but also in the larger laboratory of daily living.
In quiet contrast to the importunings of the advocates of unlimited sexual freedom, one finds this statement of Mrs. Eddy's: "Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress. Without it there is no stability in society, and without it one cannot attain the Science of Life."Science and Health, p. 57;
It is important to think through this matter of morality (specifically sexual morality, or chastity) and its worth, because so much depends on whether one perceives it as a permanently viable and truly freeing divine demand related to the seventh commandment or as an obsolete, repressive edict. Few are likely to obey a law or command they sincerely believe is against the nature of man. Such a law could, indeed, exact a cruel and unjustifiable price from those who honestly tried to observe it, while others would play the game of the hypocrite and give it lip service while disobeying it.
