Cultural Lag

Cultural lag is the thought that culture takes time to catch up to the new innovations and technology. This lag causes social conflicts and it takes a while for society to catch up and adjust. An example of cultural lag in our society is the use of birth control. Birth control is a hormonal material that women take to hinder their ability to become pregnant. Birth control thickens the woman’s uterine making it hard for eggs to fertilize within the uterine walls. There are many choice of birth control from women to choose from; such as, pills, patches, IUD’s, and Depo-Provera shot. Many women want to enjoy the pleasure of sex but are not ready for the responsibilities of motherhood; such as, teenagers and young adults. Therefore, birth control is the best method for them because they want to have sex, but they do not want to become pregnant. However not all of society is an advocate of this fairly new technological advancement. To many Christians the use of birth control is morally unethical .The idea of “family planning “ is a fairly new idea , because you are not letting nature/god’s work take its course naturally therefore , it is not considered socially acceptable by some people. In the bible it states the pre-marital sex is a sin and the use of contraception encourages this practice.

The widespread acceptance of contraceptives in the 60’s cleared the path for the sexual revolution. Since it became possible to have sex without the risk of pregnancy more and more people began to see sex as a mere physical pleasure. Traditional structures of marriage were disregarded for sex without consequence. When Christians examine the nature of marriage and the marital act we can reason marriage has two main purposes: procreation and eternal unity. Therefore, it is social accepted that nothing should be done to deter these purposes and everything should be done to protect them. Contraception confuses the purpose of sex. Contraception takes God and his life-giving power out of the picture. A contraceptive couple desires to enjoy the pleasure of the sexual act but refuses to accept any life God wishes to bestow on them. This is a deliberate violation of the very nature of the act, which is procreation.

Though as time has progressed using birth control and the ideology of “family planning “has advanced and become more accepted by a larger scale of individuals, much of society as a whole look down upon the use of birth control. Though birth control and “family planning” is not fully accepted by the American people as of today, I believe that someday it will be fully integrated into society as a societal norm. Though I consider myself to be a Christian I believe that “family planning” Is a good idea. I would not condone brining a child into the world with an unmarried couple or being a teen mother because I believe that they cannot fully provide a healthy growth environment for children; they are immature and unfit as parents. As 20th century generation is taking the forefront in societal living birth control is becoming more excepted because those children were raised upon those methods with time will come.