The shifting landscape of sexual morality: Challenges and concerns

A BRUTAL cancer is corroding the moral fabric of the nation in the form of sexual immorality.

This has left legions of teenage girls entangled in the web of teenage pregnancies.

Reports show that teenage pregnancies are at an all-time high in the country.

It’s not that teenage pregnancies were unheard of in the past, but today the trend has assumed sinister dimensions, indicating that our moral barometer as a nation is falling rapidly.

A report from a National Assessment of Adolescent Pregnancies in Zimbabwe revealed that 21 percent of all antenatal clinic bookings made between 2019 and 2022 were for young girls aged 10 to 19 years.

What adds salt to the wound is that the report further revealed that out of the 1 532 maternal deaths recorded in the country from 2019 to 2022, 25 percent were among adolescent girls and young women.

What comes out loud and clear from all this is that a significant number of adolescent girls in the country have lost the conscience that should be the guiding principle of conduct and are ruining their future by giving in to immoral sexual impulses.

It is of paramount importance to mention that teen years should be used to grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually and to develop a balanced attitude about sexuality in preparation for the future.

Adolescent girls who are shamelessly indulging in immoral sexual activities are actually cheapening and damaging the happiness of their future marriages. Having sex before marriage is a grave mistake, which they and their boyfriends are sure to regret later in life.

Studies show that premarital teenage pregnancy affects many people. Parents and families are often deeply affected, first with shock, hurt and anger, and then with worries for their pregnant daughters’ future.

In our own teen years, teenage pregnancies were a rare phenomenon. Sex was sacred; it was something that we whispered lowly about after first making sure that no adult was around to hear us. As teenagers, most of us avoided getting involved in any immoral sexual activities.

As far as we were concerned then, sex was strictly adult business — between married men and women. However, attitudes towards sex among today’s teenagers have changed, making what was once a relative rarity — sex out of wedlock — a routine.

We are living in a sex-saturated age.

Sexual promiscuity has spiked to high levels and become an epidemic among most young people in today’s society.

This has resulted in an alarming spike in teenage pregnancies in the country.

What adds a chilling dimension to the whole scenario is that the scourge of teenage pregnancy has now spread its hideous tentacles into our schools and tertiary institutions as well.

According to official reports, more than 3 368 learners dropped out of school due to pregnancy out of a grand total of 33 746 pupils who left school for divergent other reasons in 2024. Indeed, this is a pitiful spectacle and a national disgrace!

Today, many young women and men regard sex as a mere toy to be played around and experimented with. They have swallowed — hook, line and sinker — the falsehood that courtship or romantic relationships and sexual intimacy go hand in hand.

However, what they appear to be completely oblivious of is that Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, is the one who made the human body and prohibits sex outside marriage (Exodus 20 verse 14, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 18).

God designed sex as a pleasure bond between a legally married couple in the privacy of their home.

He intended sex to be a loving bond which, apart from motivating and inspiring humans to marry, sanctifies and preserves the institution of marriage.

The supreme enjoyment and happiness of marital love stems from the very exclusiveness of the marriage relationship — a relationship which is unique and sacred to the two — a husband and his wife — and unshared with any other person.

However, the bitter reality is that God’s instructions in respect of sex — that it should be the sole preserve of married couples — have not only been scoffed at, but have been summarily repudiated by an overly permissive, lust-gripped society.

Those who are spiritually connected will, no doubt, concur with this scribe that the obsession with sex among today’s teenagers, as well as adults, is clear evidence of the presence of an enemy, Satan the devil, who is waging a spiritual war against God through humans.

The Holy Bible reveals that Satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4 verse 4). He is a master of the art of deception and is deceiving the whole world (Revelation 12 verse 9).

What has happened to our cultural norms and values? Nowadays, many young women, and men alike, dress in a very physical, seductive and sensual way.

They do this, no doubt, to satisfy their vanity and enjoy the luxury of having the opposite sex find them exciting or sexually appealing.

It’s true that God made women in such a way that they are naturally sexually appealing to men.

However, it’s fair to surmise that God did not intend that they parade themselves, publicly attired in mini-skirts or see-through clothing so as to intentionally excite sexual desire from men. 1 Timothy 2 verse 9 admonishes women to “adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation”.

Dressing, for both women and men, should be appropriate for the occasion and exemplify discretion, balance and moderation.

Another of Satan’s methods of enticing youths as well as adults to engage in immoral sexual activities is what one relationship and marriage expert called “pornography by deceit.”

Included in this category are areas that, on the surface, may not appear to be sex-related at all, but in reality are laced with illicit, lustful actions and attitudes.

One good illustration of this category is music.

The music industry is a very lucrative business. Popular musicians and their promoters are reportedly making a lot of money.

However, the truth which must be told without fear of criticism or contradiction whatsoever is that some music is morally, emotionally and spiritually debasing and is actually adversely affecting the behaviour of many young people in today’s society.

In light of this, parents need to take particular interest in the kind of music that their children find enjoyable.

They should do this, not from a negative, vindictive, and condemning standpoint, but in an attitude of helpfulness in steering children in the right direction.

Much of today’s music, whether it is soul, pop, hip-hop, amapiano, RnB, sungura etc with its themes of violence, alcoholism, illicit sex, rebellion against authority etc is simply not good fare for entertainment.

Such music is not constructive and uplifting to the mind and body and leads listeners in moral and emotional directions they shouldn’t go.

According to some experts, music is one of the most powerful instruments that influences people’s behaviour.

The music that a teenager selects can make a difference in the attitude and behaviour that he or she develops.

This calls for parents to encourage their children to be cautious about the kind of music they listen to.

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It is the view shared by most men of the cloth that parents should be positive and show their children that they love and deeply care about them by teaching them to apply Bible principles in their lives.

This is in line with Proverbs 22 verse 6 which says “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”.

When parents use the inspired scriptures as guidelines in nurturing children, children will be protected from the Satan-induced compulsion for premarital sex, and will find joy in giving heed to the admonitions given by God through His written Word — the Holy Bible.

Father Alex Mukaro, a Masvingo-based Roman Catholic Church priest made a poignant remark, noting that, “The home is an indispensable element in the instilling of right character and morals in children.

Parents have a profound effect on how their children will conduct their lives after they leave home. Children want proper guidelines.

They earnestly desire help from parents. It gives them a sense of security.

Children will know that their parents love them and are concerned about their well-being if they (parents) take time to instil in them sound moral standards based on the Word of the Creator God.

“Teaching children to avoid premarital sex is a difficult task, yes.

But it is a crucial task because all parents expect their children to be decent, law-abiding, healthy and successful in life.

None of this happens automatically — it takes conscious, committed effort.

There’s no genetic transmission of virtues. In today’s permissive society, saying no to premarital sex is not easy.

It takes personal courage and determination. We are sexual beings and sex is the most powerful driving force in our lives.

However, parents have a moral and spiritual responsibility to teach children to respect this force and not allow its power to dominate their lives and lead them to engage in sex outside marriage, which is a sin”.

As a Christian nation, loyalty and fidelity to God the Father and Jesus Christ, who is our Saviour and Redeemer is needed in the fight against sexual promiscuity and prevention of teenage pregnancies in the country.

Conforming to Godly standards of morality will empower us to prevail in all our spiritual battles, sexual or otherwise.

With God’s help, we can control our sexual impulses rather than being dominated by them.

Sexual temptation becomes a sin only when we give in to it.

As Martin Luther King (Junior) once quipped, “We are not able to stop birds from flying around our heads, but we are well able to stop them from building nests on our heads”.

l Cuthbert Mavheko is a freelance writer and theologian. He can be contacted on 0773963448 /0775522095 or via email [email protected].