R-E-S-P-E-C-T One Another - Do we know how today?

Interesting article in Prism magazine by Bruce Wydick that I found over at The Dawn Patrol.

Below is how Wydick explains his goal in writing about this subject.

My goal here is to help us understand why sex outside of marriage violates God’s laws and to reconnect it to some of the basic guidelines we find in Scripture concerning love for our neighbor, social justice, and a respect for the welfare of other human beings.

I will attempt to demonstrate why I believe sex outside of marriage violates these core values and is not an arbitrary rule imposed by a God who wants to ruin all our fun. On the contrary, I believe that the more closely we study this issue, the more we discover that God’s laws reveal his deep love for us as a creator who desires genuine happiness for us.

He builds a good case however I have to agree with Andie, who left this comment on Dawn's blog;
The analogy is very good, but would be better if it were extended to men and women (who are both exploited, both in industry and in our sexual culture).

I've often noted that arguments for chastity focus on the emotional well-being of women while ignoring that of men, as if men are impervious to harm from extramarital sex. This seems, to my admittedly unstudied mind, to deny the critical truth that men are human too, and as such carriers of the same dignity (and emotion) as women.

It also seems to indirectly make chastity a matter of taking care of fragile, emotional women, which is selling it short. Chastity is about women and men respecting and looking after each other, mutually and with charity.

To me we commit violence on both women and men when we over-simplify the biological differences the way that Wydick does however his connection of the "love your neighbor" macro and the micro with a sense of social justice is solid. I also like his analogy:

—consensuality is an insufficient condition for social justice. But many male college students today will sleep out on the steps of the Capitol protesting sweatshop labor and then sleep with their girlfriends, completely unaware of the inherent contradictions of their beliefs and lifestyle.

and his closing argument...

...sexual purity is at its root an act of social justice, and understanding this can help us to steer clear of sexual landmines. Because God is good, walking in obedience to his ways is what will ultimately give us the most joy.

Can you imagine all the "liberal" social justice crowd realizing that sexual purity is at the root of their cause and in fact at the very root of their being?