Today on Listen Up TV -Rewriting the definition of indecency. Canada’s Supreme Court allows group sex and partner
swapping and changes obscenity laws to make it legal.
The rules on sex have been questioned for as long as there’s been talk on the subject. Who decides where to draw
the boundaries? Is it common sense, is it a couple’s choice, the choice of the church, or is the court? Today we
look at Canada’s shocking decision from its Supreme Court that legalizes group sex clubs. In a landmark ruling that
shifts the ground for sexual morality, the court ruled that what goes on between consenting adults in swingers clubs
is not criminal, because it can’t be proved harmful. Today, reactions to the ruling, from those who run the sex clubs,
and those who’d like to see them shut down. It all prompts a wide ranging look at how do we decide when sex is harmful?
COMMENTARY CORNER
No Harms from Swingers Clubs? Really? By Harold Jantz
This is a lament for a country that has lost its moral compass. Canada’s Supreme Court justices in a 7-2 decision could
find no ”harms„ in swingers clubs, accepting the argument that what swingers do behind doors ought to
trouble no one else because it isn’t hurting anyone else. The owner of the Montreal club L’Orage who brought the appeal
to the Supreme Court could celebrate that he had persuaded the justices that kinky group sex, voyeurism, sado-masochistic
activities, etc., should not be considered harmful within a ldquo;tolerantrdquo; society.
It would seem like an unlikely decision, when in so many ways we have become hyper-sensitive to possible harms elsewhere.
We are so concerned now about protecting ourselves against possible harms that the term “risk management” is increasingly
used to describe our culture. Streets are designed, play structures built, medicines tested, planes built, staged events
planned, outings for school children arranged, with risks a key element in the planning. Examples can be found
everywhere. In Winnipeg, some school divisions are thinking of ending field trips and outings altogether because going
through all the hoops to answer safety concerns has become such a burden. Recall the massive activity just prior to the
beginning of January 1, 2000 because of fears of a global Y2K computer crash. Or the activity now around the fear of a
worldwide pandemic.
Those who respond to a Christian ethos will recall the words of Jesus, ”Do not fear those who can kill the
body…„ The greater danger, Jesus always reminded his followers, comes from those who can destroy the
spirit — who can turn the heart to greed, lust, self-gratification and abuse — or as Jesus without mincing words put it,
can ”condemn us to hell.„ Surely that is what is represented by what one columnist described as the
”non-judgmentalism toward sexual degradation as the preferred Canadian value.„
We seem to have turned resolutely away from what we once regarded as harmful and now fear intensely what we once took
in our stride. Are there really no harms in the activities that go on behind those closed club doors?
One has to wonder, because the statistics are clear about harms caused by other far less troubling arrangements into
which couples may drift. For example, it is statistically clear that children who are raised within common-law settings,
or even where the parents married after living common law, don’t do as well as children raised in two parent families
where the parents are married and never lived common law, according to studies published in Canadian Social Trends or
done for Statistics Canada. Moreover marriages are more stable than common law relationships—in fact, in our Canadian
setting they appear to be twice as stable. In a 2002 study, Statistics Canada said that about 30% of those who marry
without living common law are expected to divorce, while 60% of those living common law are expected to separate.
Family breakdowns inevitably cause longterm harm: studies show that children of divorce and separation are more likely
to experience emotional, behavioural and social problems. These are harms that all of us pay for.
It is telling that Quebec has the highest rates of couples living common law in Canada. In fact, they are some of the
highest among the countries of Europe and North America. A recent study showed that among Quebec women between the ages
of 30 and 39, only 26% were expected to choose marriage, while for the rest of Canada it was 59%. Conversely, 70% are
starting their conjugal life living common law, while in the rest of Canada it is 34%. Outside the territories of
Canada’s north, Quebec also has the highest suicide rate in this country.
The Supreme Court justices appear to believe that the children of ”swinging couples„ won’t suffer any harms
from what their parents do and that no harms come to the people themselves. In fact, it is likely that what couples
do behind those doors does carry with it harms—both physical and moral—that can follow those who engage in it for the
rest of their lives. The justices might read Hazel Rowling’’s book about the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and
his partner Simone de Beauvior and their multiple liaisons ”with the innocents around them,„ as Harvard
scholar Leland de la Durantaye put it. Their liaisons were not as innocent as the two might have thought, as the
bitterness and anger of some of their survivors reveals.
It is one of the ironies of our culture that the swingers clubs in Montreal—or those that will almost certainly be
opening across the country—are more likely now to be closed for violating anti-smoking laws then for the degrading
behaviours practiced within them.
It’s instructive too to place the Supreme Court’s decision alongside what the government has done with
gun registration. We’ve spent enormous amounts of money to disarm people who would use guns in entirely
lawful ways. We’ve cast suspicion on entire groups of people—native people in Canada, westerners, rural
Canadians--who think that the gun legislation has been wildly misdirected. We’ve done this because there are some
criminally inclined or mentally unstable people who might in fact be prepared to use guns to harm or kill others.
Consequently, people who are clearly decent and law-abiding, whose use of guns would carry no risk of harm to others,
are restrained because of that tiny minority. That’s how far we are prepared to go with something that can harm
physically, even though a huge majority of people would never use the guns in such destructive ways.
Yet in the case of practices that couldn’t be more at odds with healthy sexuality, our highest court cannot
express a verdict in defense of the family or sound marriages. It has set aside moral categories. It cannot recognize
the possibility of harms, either to the people engaging in the practices or to society as a whole.
A Hamilton letter writer to the Toronto Star made an observation about the tolerance that the Court appears to want
Canadians to embrace worth reflecting on. Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin had written, ”Consensual
conduct behind code-locked doors can hardly be supposed to jeopardize a society as vigorous and tolerant as Canadian
society.„ Paul Kokoski’s rejoinder: ”But why should tolerance count for anything unless it has as
its foundation some other value? Tolerance that is blind ends up becoming a form of intolerance for that which
actually gives tolerance its true value—moral convictions.„
It was moral conviction that suffered the loss in the pre-Christmas ruling. Perhaps the greatest harm the ruling did
was to leave many with the impression that there really is no difference between one kind of sexual behaviour
and another; that they all have the same moral value. That is where abandoning morals leaves us. All Canada is harmed.
Sy Rogers is a gifted international communicator, award-winning talk show host, recording artist and pastor, serving
for over two decades in ministry as a pastoral care specialist regarding sexuality and related concerns. Featured in
numerous media interviews & articles, Sy has been selected as one of 50 Up & Coming Evangelical Leaders Under 40 by
Christianity Today Magazine. Married since 1982, Sy and his family have lived abroad for more than a decade in Singapore
and New Zealand.
Pastor Darryl L. Foster is Founder and Senior Servant at
Restoration Sanctuary United Church of God in Christ, located in metropolitan Atlanta, GA. In 1996, Pastor along with Dee founded WITNESS!, the outreach ministry that has now become
known worldwide for it's passion to minister to men and women trapped in unwanted homosexuality. Together, the Fosters
have invested years of intensive labor in teaching, mentoring and evangelism. Because of his clear vision and strong
commitment to ministry, Pastor Foster has been sought after and recognized across the country as an credible source of
information and inspiration for Christian leaders who aspire to make a difference in the lives of same sex attracted
people.
Pastor Foster is author of the groundbreaking book, Touching A Dead Man: One Man's Explosive Story of Deliverance from
Homosexuality (Morris Publishing 2002). He has also freelanced with his work appearing in USA Today, Charisma Magazine,
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Ministry Today, Waco (TX) Tribune-Herald, and the Fort Benning (GA) Bayonet where he was
employed as a staff writer. He serves as a Board Member of both
Exodus Global Alliance and
Parents and Friends of
Exgays (PFOX).
He is currently working on his second book Deliverance and Discipleship: Lifting God's Children Up and Out of
Homosexuality.
Paula Howley was kicked out of the house at 17 when she discovered she was pregnant. After a heartwrenching abortion,
she became a stripper to support herself and her lifestyle. Numbing herself with drugs and alcohol, Paula became a
strong supporter of feminism and Wicca. But a chance encounter with a backslidden Christian was soon to change her life.
Paula is now reaching out with support and care to exotic dancers in Vancouver, BC.
James Peterson is a Professor of Theology and Ethics at McMaster University in Hamilton. He has received two Templeton
awards for his contribution to the field of theology and science, and has recently published one book on the ethics
of human genetic intervention and another on the related theology.
Laura Smit (Ph.D., Boston University) is dean of the chapel and assistant professor of theology at Calvin College
in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is ordained in both the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Christian Reformed Church
and has served in a variety of pastoral settings. She is also the author of Love me, Loves me not - the Ethics of Unrequited Love.
”I am horrified that the Supreme Court ruling - one need only study the history of civilizations to see that
when standards of morality follow the fringe few, the good of the whole is compromised. This seems to me to be an
example of tolerance gone wrong.„ - E. Duffield
”I understand how people can talk themselves into this belief in our increasingly sexualized and lonely world,
but I know from experience that there is untold damage to the psyche and spirit, not to mention significantly increased
potential for contracting sexually transmitted diseases. The unfortunate truth is that no one who is participating
in this life style will admit to the damage until after it is done.„ - Paula Howley
”Perhaps the greatest harm the ruling did was to leave many with the impression that there really is no difference
between one kind of sexual behaviour and another. That they all have the same moral value. That is where abandoning
morals leaves us. All Canada is harmed. - H. Jantz
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On April 30, 2005 Lorna was privileged to receive an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries from Canada's largest Christian university, Trinity Western University. Lorna was recognized for the witness and leadership that Listen Up TV has provided in public messaging: "a leader in the voice of evangelical life in Canada."
