5.1 million viewers, that is a lot of rose-sniffing, reality-tv watching, cheesy-romance loving Americans. I am of course talking about the rabid audience for ABC’s Premier of The Bachelor that aired this past Monday night. If you are not at all familiar with this series, the story-line is simple: One man dates 30 girls and eliminates 3 or 4 each week until there are two girls left where he chooses one to propose to.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Well, this voyeuristic flapdoodle of a show is on the 23rd consecutive season of its programming which goes to show you just how many Americans love the “ridiculous”. You may be wondering how people can keep watching the same old silly storyline for 23 straight years?

Well, this year’s show is different because the man who is the bachelor is a self-proclaimed “virgin”! That’s right, never in his life has this daring new bachelor ever had sex before with a woman. I know, I know, where did they get this poor schmuck, in outer-space on the “Leave It to Beaver Planet?” Maybe he was raised in a windowless holding tank down in the bowels of his puritan parent’s basement? Because everyone knows virginity is worse than being a one-legged circus performing midget…at least that is how they are making it seem on The Bachelor.

During the first night when the bachelor meets all the beautiful and exotic women, one lady told the other girls that she had to get to the bottom of this major bachelor scandal, “Why would anyone in their right mind stay a virgin for 26 years, especially when they were so handsome as this new bachelor was?”

His answer was indirect and wimpy, “I am a virgin because I was so busy being a professional athlete, and since I am now older I want to wait to do it with someone I really care about.” Question: when has not being able to chase women ever been a problem for other professional athletes? But not to worry, his answer satisfied the girl’s question, maybe he wasn’t a deranged alien after all?

Why do I mention this? Because 5.1 million people are watching this trash. And 5.1 million is a pretty good indication of where we as a society are. It seems as if this depraved worldview is now the acceptable norm for everyone. This is the problem with most people hooked on our media-driven culture, like a school of brainless grouper fish before they are caught in the fisherman’s giant net, they just all go with the social flow – no questions asked. What everyone else does and think, we should all do and think.

And now it is assumed that being a virgin past the age of 12, as one girl said on the show, is just plain weird and a sign of a major relational abnormality.

When has virginity become a crime or a disease? Why has it become something to be embarrassed about? The people on The Bachelor are treating the poor guy like he is a helpless victim in a cruel world and hasn’t really been able to enjoy all there is to life…and luckily, now that he is on The Bachelor, this group of liberated and experienced women will help him see the light.

But virginity is not victimhood, and for centuries it was considered the normative standard for good and righteous living.

Instead of playing the weak and poor little deprived child, this bachelor needs to stand tall and confront the arrogance of a culture gone bad. Those foolish women who embrace sexual “no holds barred” should be the ones embarrassed. He should turn the tables and ask them, “Why would any good man in their right mind give themselves over to a shameless gang of women who have no respect for themselves, and are more than willing to give away their precious gift of virginity to any nameless drunk on a reckless one night stand?” Or even more important he should look each one of them in the eye and say,  “Why should I want you to be the mother of my children if you practice zero self-control in your own personal life?”

Well, the answer is pretty clear – – sex is all that matters these days. It is no longer a sacred gift that is exchanged between two committed people who are bound by a covenant of selfless love, but rather sex has become a toy to mess around with for grown-ups who still think they are children.

Why else do we want to be identified primarily by those we want to sleep with? LGBTQ, homosexuality, and bi-sexuality are nothing more than cool new labels that signify who a person wants to go to bed with. We no longer care about forming long-lasting, God-honoring relationships. The adjective “sexy” and “attractive” is now more coveted and personally desired as a way to describe myself as compared to the words “honorable”, “pure”, “good” and “mature.”

The truth is your average American is incredibly rich and blessed with an abundance of leisure time, so we have the luxury to constantly think about frivolous and stupid things: Like how I self-identify, what styles of clothes I look good in, what filter on my iPhone camera make me look younger, and who I am going to try to pick up at the local club.

 We are bored with life and sex is the preferred game of choice to distract us.

This is exactly what happened in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, “Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me.” (Ezekiel 16:49)

No longer does our sexual proclivities differ from the average brute beast roaming free and sniffing for every available type of animal in the jungle. I think the elephant man was wrong, “I am an animal!”

If you are a virgin don’t buy the lie that you are missing out. You are not a victim, you are noble. In fact, you are just like Jesus Christ, who was and is and will always be a virgin. The problem with allowing yourself to be looked on as a victim is that you no longer see any virtue in being good.

Singleness is not a curse, it is freedom. Purity is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. So turn off The Bachelor so you can stop swimming with the grouper fish. The net is being lowered and you don’t want to get caught.