Jim Stephens is the former Director of ICC Conferences in Korea. He is now living with his wife, Hiromi, and 5 children in his hometown of Bloomington, Illinois. This article appeared in the local newspaper, The Pantagraph, in a weekly column titled "From The Pulpit" on February, 1995.

What's the worst problem in the world? What's the number one disaster for all mankind, for America and for Christianity as well. Probably you will be surprised because it's not war, crime, drugs, poverty, disease, racism, hunger, overpopulation, violence, ozone holes or whatever comes immediately to your mind. Most people are so mind- numbed to this problem that they don't recognize it has the power to destroy us.

Immorality is the worst problem in the world. That's right, adultery and fornication. We are all effected by it because of it's all- persuasiveness: movies, television, all around Bloomington/Normal, in our churches, in our families and finally in ourselves. Most of us tolerate it. Many of us accept it and some of us adopt it as a way of life. A recent study of prime time television (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) showed that 89% of all sex presented was depicted as outside of marriage.

In the 1970's scientists had identified only five separate sexually transmitted diseases (STD's). Today there are more than 50. Millions upon millions of adolescents are infected, effecting them for the rest of their lives. In some countries AIDS has reached epidemic proportions.

But disease is a relatively lesser consequence of immorality. The financial burdens alone are threatening to crush our American society in a generation. And who can calculate the mental and spiritual destruction of lives.

Society currently accepts financial responsibility for the result of irresponsible sex, but soon will be unable and unwilling to do so. In 1991 (4 years ago), there were 1,200,000 babies born out of wedlock, nearly 30% of all births. 707,502 (over half) of those babies were born to single white women. That was 22% of births to white women. Illegitimacy for blacks had reached 68% and in some areas as high as 80%. Not only that, the percentage of all single mothers with LESS than a high school education rose from 35% to 48% in ten years.

The white underclass now dominates the statistics; most illegitimate children, most people in poverty, most women on welfare, most unemployed men, and most arrests for serious crimes. We are fast approaching the critical mass that could destroy our society from its sheer financial weight.

The spiritual and emotional disaster to the current generation of children is incalculable. Even children of intact two-parent families are heavily effected because their learning environment has become hazardous.

The Bible is very precise about God's view of adultery. "You shall not commit adultery" (Ex:20.14). Jesus' view is also clear, "You have heard that it was said, `You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (MT:5.27-28) Adultery is a direct violation of the principles of love which are the foundation of all God's creation. The teaching of the Unification Church was received from Jesus Christ by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. It explains in much greater detail about the prohibition of adultery in the Bible in order that modern man might understand and believe.

Christians, in general, believe that the original sin of Adam and Eve was a lack of faith and a disobedience of God's Word. They were told by God not to eat a fruit, but they disobeyed and ate it. This act was the sin that brought all sin into the world. Jesus new revelation starts on this truth, but there's more to the story. Jesus' revelation to Rev. Moon was convincingly much more specific. "Eating the fruit" is symbolic. It represents having a sexual relationship. Therefore, God's message, in essence, to Adam and Eve was "No sex until I say it's OK". God was waiting until the proper time in their love for Him and each other when He could sanctify them in marriage.

They were not only disobedient and faithless in their hearts and minds but they physically destroyed God's plan for ideal love, marriage, and family by fornicating. Why would they cover their sexual parts and realize they were naked if it was something they had eaten? Look at the dysfunctional family that resulted and deny the common sense of it. The elder son Cain kills his brother Abel. The sin of fornication and the sin of murder both entered the human race from its first ancestral family.

Part of God's covenant with the Jewish people was circumcision. Jesus remained celibate all his life. These and other Biblical evidence point to the original fall as sexual rather than eating a fruit.

Immorality has taken over the spotlight like nothing since Communism. God is clearly showing us the evils of immorality. Today, the "signs" are all around us: the rise of the world-wide women's movement, the family values movement, the heightened awareness of sexual harassment, the confusion in morals to name just a few. The world is in chaos but the truth will become clear to all who have the eyes to see it.

From the beginning, long before founding the Unification Church, Rev. Moon always taught absolute celibacy until marriage and absolute faithfulness afterward. No adultery. No divorce. The standard has always been made crystal clear as well as it's Biblical foundation.

Against all expert public relations advice, Rev. Moon holds huge mass wedding ceremonies. The reason in his mind is Biblical. All couples being married must make a public pledge before God and the world of no adultery and no divorce. Although mostly ridiculed in America, the rest of the world is responding. This past August 25th, there were over 360,000 couples in 525 worldwide locations that simultaneously participated in the ceremony. In Chicago, 50 couples, mostly ministers took the vows. Worldwide, people came from all races, religions and cultures, not just Rev. Moon's church. In 1998 there will be another world-wide mass wedding. We are expecting over 4 million couples at that event.

Rev. Moon is now initiating a world-wide movement for "Healthy Love and Sexual Purity". His goal is total sexual purity for three generations to make a foundation for God's kingdom on earth. True love will bring individual happiness and universal prosperity.

If you believe God created this world, you must believe He also had a plan for love, for sex, for marriage and for family. Only by following God's standards and principles can we attain true ideals. Following God's principles of love will result in happiness. Fornication will not.

We cannot decide centered on our own feelings and desires what is true love, any more than we can decide the laws of gravity. Wake up, people.

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