November 6, 2015 Brethren Letter
Dear Brethren,
Earlier today, my dad and I talked with a young person (around age 30), who brought up the subject of “family values.” This person mentioned that the standards taught to them by their parents were not the same standards found in today’s society. In other words, the world’s standards are LOWER than their parent’s standards. I’m sure that’s very true.
Later, I was thinking more about this overall subject. So, tonight, I’m sending out a portion of a Plain Truth subscriber letter that Mr. Armstrong wrote in 1980 where he discusses right FAMILY LIFE.
Please have a wonderful Sabbath!
Your Brother in Christ,
Gary Liebold
November 3, 1980
Dear PLAIN TRUTH Subscriber:
…I have been deeply concerned lately about the fact that FAMILY LIFE in America and the western world is fast breaking down. Especially since World War II, morals have gone from the gutter into the cesspool and now down deeper than that!
They call it the “New Morality.” But IS it “morality”? It’s time we all stop and think a moment. WHY should there be any morality?
It’s time we look at this question sanely, unashamedly, frankly, without false modesty, and come to an UNDERSTANDING of the TRUE VALUES — of what is BEST for US — for teenagers — for parents — for every one of us.
I am the father of four children, of grandchildren and now three great grandchildren. I’m not an old-fashioned prude, and on the other hand I know we should UNDERSTAND what we accept and believe, and on PROOF know WHY we believe it.
In my position as editor of magazines, as educator, as a foundation chairman, beside being a minister of the living God — and as one who works for world peace and knows personally perhaps more heads of government over nations than any other — I have had to be SURE that I KNOW the truths of such phases of life as morals.
You know, we become so engrossed in our day-to-day activities that we sometimes do not fully realize what is happening to this civilization in which we live.
If FAMILY LIFE breaks down, all civilization will break down and go into anarchy. A solid FAMILY structure is the foundation and backbone of any healthy and enduring society!
This world has emerged from the age of “hush.” A moral revolution has swept the world. Few under 30 today have any conception of what the previous 4,000-year world was like morally. Few of you over 30 or 40 are really fully aware of the extent to which the “New Morality” has progressed!
We need seriously to realize we live today in a DIFFERENT WORLD!
…In the United States now, ONE MILLION teenage girls become pregnant UNMARRIED every year! Conditions rival this in Britain, Europe and Sweden!
A responsible survey reports 50% of U.S. teenage girls have lost virginity in premarital sex — beginning age 14 and under! Today teenagers are indeed “wise” in sex discussion and sex experience, but woefully still IGNORANT in sex KNOWLEDGE! — especially in what is BEST for THEM, and WHY!
Of course, almost NONE is receiving any intelligent teaching in real UNDERSTANDING of sex from their parents. Parents seem as embarrassed in teaching their children as ever!
…What about MARRIAGE? How did MARRIAGE get started? Few know. But today there is a definite conspiracy being used in newspapers, television, magazines and books to DESTROY the marriage institution and the FAMILY life. Few children even eat with their parents at home any more!
Today only 13% of American families include a working father, a stay-at-home homemaking and child-rearing mother, and one or more children!
Over two-and-a-half million American men and women avoid marriage altogether — yet live together as unwed heterosexuals or as homosexuals!
By 1990 a virgin standing at the marriage altar will be a phenomenon!
Many psychiatrists and psychologists are asking today, “WHY any marriage at all?” They offer several options instead of marriage!
These FACTS ought to arouse every one of us.
What was the Creator’s PURPOSE in marriage, the FAMILY structure and sex?
All our PROBLEMS in society today are of a spiritual nature — including sex. But what is the CREATOR’S purpose in all this? How did He intend sex to be used? Only for reproduction? That was a religious teaching for many centuries; yet, shockingly, THAT IS NOT God’s teaching in the Bible! The fact is, religion, Christianity, has never UNDERSTOOD the true biblical teaching straight from God the Creator!
Parents sorely NEED this knowledge — the missing dimension in knowledge. It’s PLAIN enough once you see it in your Bible. Single people need it. Youths need it. Children need right teaching from parents. But most parents either could not properly teach their children — or else have felt too embarrassed.
Teenagers need proper knowledge, yet heretofore it has not been available to them. In this age of pressures toward promiscuity, blinded by false teachings, adolescents cannot be expected to resist premarital sex unless their minds are opened to intelligent acceptance of GOD’S purposes and laws for our GOOD — for a more abundant and truly pleasurable and happy life.
Married people need this knowledge if their marriage is to be preserved and happy.
Early in the decade of the ’60s this need was pressed heavily upon me. Every book or manual I had been able to procure gave purely physical knowledge about sex, without understanding of the joys and happiness our Creator had intended when He designed and produced the reproductive system. God intended it to have a spiritual as well as physical function — to endear a husband and wife in true spiritual LOVE (something far greater than lust) — and to BIND husband and wife as ONE — spiritually as well as physically — to protect and preserve the marriage in sacredness, happiness and joy.
…Don’t forget to order your special copy I have reserved for you of the revised edition of THE MISSING DIMENSION IN SEX. If you are a parent of small children, this book will show you HOW to explain this important subject to them — and try to get it to them before they get it from other children!
With love, in Jesus’ name,
Herbert W. Armstrong