Degenerate Moderns

In 2001, the 71-year-old Roman Catholic Archbishop of Zambia Emmanuel Milingo married 43-year-old Maria Sung from South Korea in New York according to the rites of the religious group known as Moonies (Moon), who are followers of its founder Sun Myung Moon. It was shocking news in Mexico, especially around the Roman Catholic circles. How can an archbishop get married? And not only that, how could he even get married with someone outside the Catholic Church? Astonishing, after the wedding Emmanuel Milingo, renounced to his wife in public and was received into the church again with the same rank. One question arises here, how can the church allow that? What happened? Is it that the Catholic Church in particular and the church in general has embraced post modernity?
It is interesting to see how the church through centuries has preached and believed in the doctrine of repentance. According to the Reformation view point repentance is an important doctrine in where the sinner confesses his own personal sin that was committed against God and receives an assurance of forgiveness as a reminder of the work of Christ on the Cross and the work of the Holy Spirit in His personal life. Sadly, this doctrine is not preached very often. Sanctification is a forgotten truth, it is not seen as a process but as a matter that you have it or not. If the church is not strong, it is impossible for a society to rise up because as G.K. Chesterton pointed out in his book, The Everlasting Man: “When the world goes wrong, it proves rather that the church is right. The church is justified, not because her children do not sin, but because they do”. At least we can tell by this statement that the members of the church recognize that they have a problem and the problem is sin.
The world cannot recognize sin. The Holy Spirit works in specific individuals. Salvation is not found outside the church, Cyprian wrote in the second century. I agree with him. The church is the body and bride of Christ. For the church Christ died (Ephesians 6:25).
The purpose of this paper is to explain how modernity attempts to conform truth to desire. We will see the doctrine of “Total Depravity” as it is viewed in the world today, we will look at many examples of sin as sexual misbehavior as is stated in the book of Romans in the Bible. We will look especially at the many examples that Jones is addressing in his book, covering specific chapters and finally we will try to explore an alternative that I think is lacking at the end of this book.
I chose the book Degenerate Moderns by E. Michael Jones for several reasons; the main reason is because I agree with the title. The author is very good at addressing modernity as rationalized sexual misbehavior. That is what the new intellectuals are addressing, they are trying to justify their own way of thinking, following their own agenda.
Sexual sins are not something new. We see in the Bible many examples of sexual misbehavior. Especially in the times of Lot. Romans deals with sexual immorality in chapter 1, as a cause of human minds going to their own desires, forgetting completely God. The Word of God says, “Man is without excuse” (Romans 1:20). The Bible states that because man followed his own desires against God’s “their hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21). After all that they “claimed to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22).
We will see in the book written by E. Michael Jones many figures that are considered “intellectuals” when what they really are, are fools. They are sinners who are trying to justify by many means their own sin, especially their sexual sins.
Jones starts in the introduction with the following question: “Why modernity is rationalized Lust: Why Biography is destiny”. Jones talks about Eric Gill, a British artist who chose to involve himself sexual misbehavior, but who compared to many others, always believed that what he was doing was wrong. It is interesting to know that factoid, by recognizing that he knew he was wrong, he shows that he had a knowledge of the moral law of God. As it is revealed in Romans chapter 1, “Men are without excuse”. Nobody can live according to his or her ideals. Jones explains the example of Karl Marx, father of communism who never met any proletarian but one, his own maid with whom he had an affair. Jones also addresses the problem of Paul Tillich, a liberal theologian who had struggles with pornography but never regretted it. Who didn’t believe in prayer but in meditation.
When we see these examples and the condition of the world today, we see how the original sin of our forefathers and its consequences has an impact today. According to Jones, “Sexual sins are corrupting”. The Agenda of the new moderns is related to their personal lives, that is why Jones is addressing that “Biography is destiny”. Jones also gives two alternatives, “either one conforms desire to truth or he conforms truth to desire”
The first chapter that Jones covers is Samoa Lost. In it Jones address a particular individual named Margaret Mead who believed in cultural restrictions made by the society. She believed the same as Paul Gauguin and Rousseau, in the freedom of the noble savage, a person who doesn’t know restriction nor evil coming from the West and who can explain in all its fullness how a person can really live in a liberated society.
Paul Gauguin moved to Haiti following Rousseau ideas. He just found death and many mistresses. He tried to move there following his own desires. Margaret Mead followed the same path.
Both believed that the noble savage would not have the original sin in their lives. Mead didn’t speak the language of the Samoans, nor was she even a scholar with credentials. She just wanted to rationalize her own ideas about freedom of sex and created, through lies, a perfect society where free sex is allowed. I want to state that 10 years ago in Mexico, adultery was a crime with 5 years of punishment, bigamy was also a crime with the same amount of years and sodomy was punished with 10 years. Right now, you don’t find any of those punishments in action. Third world countries are receiving the influence of the secularism from the West and are responding the same way. All the agenda of the new socialist countries in Latin America is related to sex, drugs and power. Political figures are not even graduates from college. It is sad news. We are experiencing the same situation that the old Jews experienced during the time of the judges, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). We can see how in these days everyone is doing what is right according to his or her desires.
The Second chapter that Jones writes about is called “Blue Lagoon Social Studies”. In it Jones is describing the coming death of secularism in the West. What the new elite is forcefully expressing is what they want to hear. They want everyone to believe that they are right and everybody else is wrong. I come from a society with strong links to the Roman Catholic Church; to become evangelical is a big risk, because it is soa threat to our own identity and culture. Sociology has not been a big problem for me. I believe that the West is dead but that with Christ as a Redeemer there is always hope.
I think the Spirit of God is moving to other places. I think that sociology is not the problem, even though it is an important subject to study, I believe the problem is a lack of repentance and recognition that something is wrong in our lives.
The next Chapter that Jones address is “Homosexuality as Subversive”. In it Jones mainly talks about the lives of Sir Anthony Blunt and John Maynard Keynes. Both were British and both were openly homosexual. It is interesting that even Blunt, who was a son of the Establishment, was seduced by many people who converted into Marxism. Marxism in its agenda is still looking for the Man with the capital “M”, a new man who will come at the golden age of Marxism. Blunt was a spy and was caught at it but he tried to be faithful to his friends rather than to his own country. He is not the new man with “M”, he didn’t have a system of truth. It is sad that Marxism is a product of Modernity and it has strong links to sexual misbehavior. We can see the truth of the Bible when the Word of God says, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator” (Romans 1:25). Even in Latin America the whole agenda of many countries is to fulfill the desires of the elite who are in power without any restriction.
That is the problem with the philosophy of Keynes. Many consider him the father of macroeconomics. He didn’t like the Establishment and was opposed to authority, because he was gay and the English society in those days believed that that kind of behavior was wrong, he tried to address his personal way of thinking to his economic view point. He tried to justify his own behavior. It is interesting how these people who can be considered by many outsiders, as intellectuals are not really deep thinkers.
They don’t go to the main issue because they don’t have a background or an ultimate source to distinguished between good and evil. They are, as St. Paul states, “fools”. Sadly, homosexuality is a part of the new agenda in economics, politics, and cinematography. In the academy awards there were three movies nominated in at least 7 categories whose main point was homosexuality. Even in Mexico, a person who was considered by many the new Edward R. Murrow in Mexico is openly gay graduated from Oxford and is following a homosexual agenda trying to convince the society that sexual freedom is good. All this I relate to the sin of pride, trying to be like God. They want to receive praise, it is interesting to notice that for that reason, “God gave them up to dishonorable passions… men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error”. (Romans 1:26-27)

The other chapter that Jones addresses concerns “Political Correctness”. In the same chapter Jones talks about two of his professors who tried to conform truth to their own desires and rationalized their own sexual misbehavior.
Both of his professors had an affair and lived in an adulterous relationship. It is interesting how one of his professors who taught at the English department at Temple University in Philadelphia hated the Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne. The book is about a Reverend who committed adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was the son of a religious man, believed that adultery was wrong and was against the Bible. Jane Tompkins who was Jones’s professor believed that adultery was not wrong because she was living in an adulterous relationship. She was part of an elite group of professors who are now in many universities and who are trying to liberate fresh minds from the bondage of the West. Whatever those professors said must be believed as truth and if you don’t agree with it, you can feel free to be dismissed. We can see here a clear example of the words of Paul, “God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” (Romans 1:28)
It was interesting for me to see a brochure written by the Evangelical Association of Reformed and Congregational Christian Churches. In it we can read the statement of faith. In one of those statements they affirm the following, “The Biblical guidelines for human sexuality: chastity outside of marriage, lifelong fidelity, and holiness in marriage for the sake of the kingdom”. It is the only firm association that I know that states that. It is interesting to see how important it is for an association existing in the secular culture to affirm that. I agree with them. We need to exercise self-denial. Everyday we need to preach the message of the cross, as Luther states.
The chapter concerning Kinsey was very shocking for me. I still can recall the day, after my second week in seminary when I heard about sex education in the public high school in the US. Where I come from we still don’t have those programs of education.
Young people are exposed to all sorts of sexual matters without prohibition from their parents or the government. Young men must attend those lectures in order to graduate and accomplish all that the school district is demanding. Alfred Kinsey is one of the people who is behind all this. He was completely against Christian moral values and he even stated many times that he had a bigger pornographic collection than the Vatican.
Kinsey believed in liberation from the bondage of restrictive culture. It is interesting that he claimed to be a scholar in sexual issues when he never got any degree in it. Kinsey and his followers are part of the elite that are trying to state what is right and what is wrong. But they will never agree that they are wrong. Kinsey never allowed a point of view that contradicted his own nor did he allow cameras at the lectures. When he was interviewed he tried to clean up all the things that he didn’t like.
Kinsey was very interested in sexual deviation, especially concerning the sexual habits of children. Probably Kinsey was involved in criminal activity. We will never know about his personal life because he will never allow it. Even the Kinsey institute doesn’t allow access to the files of Kinsey’s personal life. Kinsey never lived according to his own ideals. On one hand he is going against the restrictions and openness of society and on the other hand he is trying to restrict his own life and by not allowing other views emerging from society. Kinsey praises sexual misbehavior. He knew the gospel, he attended a Methodist church. Here is a reality of what St Paul expressed long ago, “Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:32). It is interesting to see the reality of sin and the truth of the Bible at this crucial time.
In the next chapter, “Liberal Guilt cookies”, Jones shares how, “in general people felt guilty because they have done something wrong”. That is part of the gospel. People need to recognize the depravity within and deal with it in God’s gracious system of confession and forgiveness leading to righteousness.
We all need the help God has provided. Jones offers two choices here for people who are plagued by guilt, “those people can adjust their behavior to suit their morality, or they can adjust their morality to suit their behavior”. Jones states that Jesus Christ is the real liberating way. In Him we can find peace and our reason of living. But people have decided to go the opposite. What they are trying to rationalize their own actions so that they can follow their own desires.
It was shocking for me to hear the percentage of abortions in the US, around 34 percent of unborn babies. I believe that Dr. Douglas Kelly is right addressing that the US is having a moral problem and will have a labor and economic problem because is loosing future workers. We can see from many graphics that one of the reasons for illegal immigration is because of a lack of laborers. People never realize all the consequences of Roe vs. Wade and I think that sadly the US is paying the price. Guilt is a word that is not used often in these days.
Spain was the country that brought Christendom to almost half of the world, but is now living in a moral and spiritual debacle. Spain was the first country where Roman Catholicism is a majority to admit civil unions of people of the same sex. The problem is as St Paul states, “They did not see fit to acknowledge God” (Romans 1:28).
Jones now addresses that even in the arts we can see marks of Modernity. He uses the example of Picasso. I still can recall the first time I was in touch with the videos by Francis Schaeffer and how he explained that modern art is a reflection of the intellectual failure of enlightment. Man is without hope and is really deformed.
We see in many pictures people screaming and far away from reality. That is why we see disturbed images. Picasso is a follower and a precursor of one new way of expression, cubism. It is interesting how we can see contrast between paintings of this Spaniard related to the happy moments and the sad moments he had with his mistress. He was completely immoral and was in a certain way proud of it. We can see his talent as a painter when he painted his wife and his early mistress. When things started to go wrong he just showed the hate he had for women. He was not living in reality, he always had a fantasy. I agree with Dr. Douglas Kelly when he states about what happened to the image of God in humans, “The image is rather twisted or depraved”. Picasso shows this truth. He painted depraved images. With the painting, Les Demoiselles d´Avignon, Picasso started cubism and was considered the father of modern art. H.R. Rookmaaker states that Modern art has a link with the death of a culture. I think Rookmaaker is right. People like Picasso don’t have an ultimate source of truth and their own moral structure is too weak. Also they never live according to their own ideals. Truth for them is nothing ultimate, so they will follow their won desires. I think that the only person who I see who lived according his ideals was Nietzsche who at the end died without hope. Picasso shows how sin can drive you to the ultimate conclusions. Your mind and heart will be filled with many bad things and later on you will reflect on all the sin in your life.
The longest chapter in the book is related to the figures of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The fathers of psychoanalysis. All the ideas that they developed were deeply influenced by their personal lives. Here Jones makes a good point that “Biography is destiny”. Sigmund Freud comes from a Jewish background were he had a Roman Catholic nanny whom he loved. He developed a sense of sexual immorality early in his life.
He even committed incest with his sister in law for many years. Like Kinsey, he never allowed anyone to investigate his private life even though he was trying to interpret dreams and relating the personal lives of his patients with sexual issues. Carl Jung was the same way; he was involved in sexual misbehavior. He committed adultery several times. He had a Protestant background but he run away from the Christian morals. Both tried to liberate themselves with psychoanalysis subjecting truth to their desires. How can the blind help another blind person to see? It is impossible. This is also a reminder to us of how sometimes we try to rationalize our own sin forgetting completely against whom we are committing the sin. We forget that we have been saved from the wrath to come and that we are in the process of sanctification. If we are not aware we can easily fall into the same path of Freud and Jung, rationalizing our own sin. That is something that Freud and Jung never realized, that they were wrong. They never humbled themselves.
The last chapter of the book is a very disappointing chapter. I don’t agree with Jones’s conclusions. He states, “Luther’s ideology on justification by faith alone culminating in his doctrine of the enslaved will was the moral and doctrinal component of his moral decline”. Jones believes that Luther created the doctrine as means to justify his intention to have sexual misbehavior. Jones’s proofs are not reliable in his studies of the Reformation.
He always quotes books written by a Jesuit priest (Hartmann Grisar) to inform the reader about Luther’s personal life. This can be seen as an angry man fighting against another angry man. The book was written in 1993 long before the case of Emmanuel Milingo, who was married while he was still ordained. Luther lost his privileges inside the church and never was called to return. Milingo was called to return; in fact he still has the same rank inside the Roman Catholic Church.
Jones blames that inside Protestantism there are a lot of denominations. We need to remember that inside Roman Catholicism there are a bunch of new orders and not all of those orders follow the orthodoxy of Catholicism as it is written in the Council of Trent. One example is the liberation theology movement in Latin America. Luther’s agenda was not to liberate himself from sexual oppression but to liberate the world from the bondage of sin. He believed that in Christ all things are made new.
In the Epilogue, Jones quoted the Bible, “The spiritual man… can appraise everything, though he himself can be appraised by no one”. 1 Corinthians 2:15. It is an excellent verse that can give us a glimpse of why the modern intellectuals cannot understand simple matters that they know are not right. It is good to see how Jones established the result of all this as the fact that modernity has run away from God. We have forgotten God, that is the reason for all our troubles. Jones states at the end of the book, “In the end modernity was debunked by its own biographies”. He is right.
I said in the introduction that I agree with Jones in his thesis, “one can subordinate truth to desire, or one can subordinate desire to truth”. I think that those two choices are good, but I think that he needs to go a little bit far. That was the same problem I had with writers like Chesterton in my youth. They are great but sometimes they don’t go far enough.
The problem is solved in the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Believing in the death and resurrection of Him. St Paul states, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead”. Paul recognizes that because for Him Christ died.
We just need to be faithful and preach the Word in season and out of season. That is the good news. In Christ you can find everything. Outside of Him you will find despair.
We need to keep two things in mind: that we have broken the moral law and that we need the sacrifice that Christ made on the Cross. By doing that we need two things: an acceptance of who we are and a dependence on the work of Christ on the cross. Those two things are tied together as two pieces of wood that form a cross.
That is the Gospel, that is the everlasting truth of salvation. That is what the world needs to hear today.