Mark J. Cherry 
Sex, Family, and the Culture Wars 

Extraordinary social and moral shifts have taken place in Western societies. Sex is
no longer the exclusive province of husband and wife set within monogamous married
family life. The world is awash in sex: advertising, books, magazines, movies,
sex clubs, internet pornography, etc. Parents, traditionally responsible for guiding
their children’s moral and social development, have been effectively sidelined by
commercial and governmental interests.


This volume pursues a detailed study of how changes in social life dating from
the sexual revolution of the 1960s have affected the family. Cherry shows that
attempts to redefine the family away from the marital union of husband and wife
come with real costs: social, emotional, psychological, and financial. He argues
that while political campaigns have fueled attempts to undermine the traditional
family, to pretend it possesses no basic biological, social, or moral reality, such
ideologically driven undertakings are injurious to society.


Acting as if there are no consequential differences between traditional marriage
and other sexual lifestyles ignores significant data demonstrating the importance
of the traditional biological family to the well-being of men and women, and the
successful raising of children. The family possesses a biological and moral being
that is foundational; an essential building block of society. Cherry argues that
the family is the most incontrovertible field of conflict in the culture wars; others
might conclude that it is the decisive battleground.

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Mark J. Cherry is the Dr. Patricia A. Hayes Professor in Applied Ethics, professor of philosophy, at St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas.