The Dangerous Moral Environment
“SEX is forever being displayed before the public in magazines, advertisements on billboards, in books, in the movies, in the theatre, and on television . . . Being sexually promiscuous is no longer considered shocking. It is accepted as normal. Young people . . . who are anxious for acceptance conform by experimenting with sexual intimacies and promiscuity. This increase in sexual activity is responsible for the rise in the number of cases of venereal disease.”—From the book Venereal Disease, by E. R. Young.
How widespread and serious is VD? It has become pandemic. According to the respected British journal The Lancet, WHO (World Health Organization) estimates that throughout the world each year there are now about fifty million new cases of syphilis, which can cause insanity and death. Gonorrhea, which can cause sterility and physical disability, is becoming even more widespread, with WHO estimating about two hundred and fifty million new cases annually.
A newer venereal disease, genital herpes, is also spreading rapidly, reportedly with about five million victims in the United States alone. In addition to being painful, it can cause death or brain damage to newborn babies. Women with this infection are said to be five times more likely to develop cervical cancer.
Those who avoid sexual immorality seldom get VD. However, it is possible to contract syphilis by kissing the lips of an infected person. Regarding syphilis germs, the book Venereal Disease warns: “They can also be spread from mouth to mouth and from genital organ to mouth.” With the increase of oral sex, syphilis sores appear “very often in the throats of young people . . . If you kiss someone . . . who has syphilitic sores inside the mouth, you can become infected with the disease.”
By seeking to avoid this world’s immoral environment a person not only can maintain his, or her, self-respect but certainly can help to safeguard his health from loathsome diseases. Such ones appreciate the Biblical advice: “Flee from fornication. . . . He that practices fornication is sinning against his own body,” ‘receiving in himself the full recompense, which was due for his error.’—1 Corinthians 6:18; Romans 1:27.