TIME FOR ANOTHER REVOLUTION – BY JOHANN CHRISTOPH ARNOLD

Recently, I was asked to hold the funeral of a close friend and 83-year-old colleague, Glenn. As we sang “There is a Balm in Gilead,” his widow Marlys bent over his open casket, took his hands, and kissed him goodbye. Six hundred people wept—not just for the farewell, but for a marriage faithful over half a century.

Such commitment is rare in a culture obsessed with romance and sex—where sex has displaced God.

Encouragingly, students recently held a “Day of Purity,” wearing white T-shirts to promote saving sex for marriage. As 17-year-old Melissa said: “The way sex is talked about, it’s so casual… like going to McDonald’s.” Critics called them self-righteous—but communities like the Bruderhof applaud their courage.

Sex, as God created it, is the foundation of human society—a physical, emotional, and spiritual union where “the two become one flesh.” It is sacred: the highest expression of love, capable of transforming a person wholly.

But since Eden, we’ve turned away—replacing reverence with lust, pride, and greed. The serpent still whispers: “You can find happiness on your own terms.” Yet we never do.

Today, sex is degraded daily: Paris Hilton’s video, Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl stunt, political scandals. Children see through the pretense: sex is treated as a joke.

This trauma leads to broken relationships, crime, instability, even suicide. We must recover the truth: every person is made in God’s image. Sexual being is holy ground—like Moses before the burning bush, we should remove our sandals.

We are all weak—but it’s never too late to turn. Restore sex to its proper place—marriage—and perhaps sanity to our culture.

On Valentine’s Day, David and Alissa were married. David, 26, faces life-threatening heart surgery. Many would postpone—but they saw uncertainty as a call to greater love and faithfulness, committing “until death parts us.”

I reminded them: It doesn’t matter if their marriage lasts a week or fifty years—what matters is their commitment before God, for eternity. In His eyes, a day is like a thousand years.

We need to honor people like Glenn and Marlys, David and Alissa, and the purity students. Let us thank God for their witness—and join them in starting a revolution of faithfulness.

—Johann Christoph Arnold, pastor, Woodcrest Bruderhof