Dr. Frank Turek thinks all of society's problems revolve around sex. He's completely wrong.
Anyway, his whole thing is proving why Christianity is logical and reasonable, which I have no problem with even if I think he's wrong. But then he goes and tweets silly things that really show you how illogical and unreasonable he is.
Frank Turek tweeted this comment recently that was meant to demonize sex outside of marriage, I guess, but it really revealed how irrational conservative Christians can be when it comes to talking about sex.
Here's what he said: "Sex is sacred because people are sacred. And if you look at so many of our problems, they're related to sex. Abortion, killing people, sex trade, pornography are related to sex."
Yikes. Let's break down the problems with that, shall we?
Sex is not sacred
It's a part of life. It can be good or bad or meaningless or a regular part of your heterosexual monogamous marriage. It can have consequences, emotional or physical if you're not prepared.But there's no reason to pretend it's some sort of special act only reserved for certain people, in certain situations, in certain positions. If it's legal and consensual, no one should be looking over your shoulders and judging you for it. (Unless, of course, that's something you enjoy. I don't judge.)
People are not "sacred"
At least not to evangelicals like Turek, and all you need to do to see evidence of that is looking at how they reacted during the pandemic.While just about everyone else made sacrifices over the past year, and self-quarantined and didn't see their friends or family in person, a lot of conservative Christians chose to ignore scientists' warnings, held in-person church services where the virus could be spread, filed lawsuits when government officials asked them not to do that, boosted conspiracy theories about the vaccines, and continue to be among the worst demographic groups in the country when it comes to getting their shots.
They don't care about life, so let's stop pretending they genuinely believe people are sacred.
Abortion is not a sex problem
It's only a problem at all if you wrongly assume every fertilized egg is the equivalent of a human being -- they're not. But when is abortion ever just about sex?
You may need an abortion for medical reasons, or because raising a child takes a lot of resources you may not have, or because you weren't taught about contraception, or because you didn't have access to contraception, or because you were sexually assaulted, or because you just don't feel like having a baby and it's nobody else's business.
Not every abortion is the result of people having unprotected sex. If people like Turek want to prevent abortion, the solution is not controlling everyone's sex lives.
Its things liked making sure contraception is accessible, and health care is affordable, and that people who want children have the resources to raise healthy ones. White evangelicals typically oppose all those things.
Killing people isn't a sex problem
Honestly, I don't even know why this one made the list unless Turek is hiding some sort of bizarre secret. Murder would still exist even if everyone obeyed conservative Christian rules about sex.
But there can be instances where the two are linked. There are men who have committed acts of violence because women wouldn't sleep with them.
But the problem here isn't sex; it's the men. What about affairs that lead to violence? Again, the problem here isn't sex; it's the underlying relationship.
As anyone who's ever watched Law & Order: SVU could tell you, sex crimes are rarely about sex itself. There's a lot more going on.
What about the sex trade
It CAN be a problem when it's not regulated (and therefore less safe), or when people are in the business against their will, or when they feel like they have no other choice but to go into that line of work.
But all of those problems are not about sex itself. It's situational. It's often about money far more than it's about sex.
Pornography works the same way
There can be legitimate concerns with both viewers and participants but if we're just talking about consenting adults in all aspects here, it is downright ignorant to treat all adult content as if it's always immoral and problematic.
It can be, but it doesn't have to be, and Turek doesn't allow for that latter possibility. Ultimately, it is not surprising that all this comes from a guy who believes in abstinence-only sex education, and who believes sex is something that must be saved until marriage, and that there's something broken about you if you break that rule, and who believes the only kind of acceptable sex is the kind that could lead to procreation.
The problems in our society are almost never about sex -- certainly not only about sex. But a lot of problems that revolve around sex are often made worse because of people like Turek who have a completely unhealthy and unrealistic understanding of the subject.
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