We are in the middle of an enormous spiritual battle for the soul of America. The obvious evidence is being played out on television every day. This contest determines who will govern America.

One of the driving forces popularized by the mindless media is sexual libertarianism. This movement wants to cast off all restraint. Nothing is immoral. Nothing is a sin. To hell with the consequences. "You have no right to judge me!" I answer to no one. Anything goes. The only transgression is for a man to violate a "#MeToo" boundary - predatory sex - like Bill Cosby or Harvey Weinstein were accused of.

In this progressive era, for many women, the most valuable legal protection is the right to have an abortion. Hence the bloody Kavanaugh battle.

To understand this movement, we need to realize that sexuality without restraint and abortion (terminating unborn babies) are related to each other. If there were not unmarried sex, there would not be unwanted babies, thus few (if any) abortions. Traditionally, sex, like babies, was preserved for couples in covenant: a man and a woman married to each other. But not so any more.

Abortion is now a legal right although not morally right. Why do feminists (both male and female liberals) fight for this right? Why were they afraid of Judge Kavanaugh? He's a man. He's a husband and father (two roles ultra-feminists devalue). He's married. He's a Constitutional conservative. He's a Catholic Christian with convictions. His judicial mentality is to rule based on law, not emotions.

The fact is, an unwanted pregnancy is a burden, especially to an unmarried woman. I've been writing about absentee fathers for decades. The research proves single moms are driven into poverty. This fact drives the abortion rights movement. Sex outside of marriage has become connected to a woman's right to have an abortion. It's all one package. If men wouldn't impregnate women they are not married to, or if women withheld sex until marriage, the abortion problem is mostly solved. An old-fashioned solution.

Marriage between men and women as a social norm; moral virtue, self-control, virginity, and protecting a young man's or woman's purity: these are antithetical to modern libertarians or progressives.

Like Judge Kavanaugh, I was a virgin in high school. I was married at age 21 while in the middle of college. My wife and I together discovered God's great gift of sexual pleasure for married couples. As a pastor and lifelong Bible student, I have come to believe in the idea of "sacred sex." I believe that there is a boundary around this great gift of our Creator to humanity. Within that boundary, blessings abound.

Several years ago, I wrote an article entitled "Sex with Thousands." I talked about the dangers of immorality and promiscuity and the bad consequences to our health and our social stability for transgressing sacred boundaries. For a generation or more, we've seen an enormous drama played out on the national stage over this issue. The conflict has been cultural, moral, legal, and has enormous financial costs of welfare plus consequences for children being raised without fathers. At its core was this fight over the freedom to do what we want sexually with our bodies, especially for women. Yet the best research shows that the happiest and most sexually fulfilled people are married couples.

Freedom to be sexually promiscuous and to abort an unwanted pregnancy at will -- this is the battle that was fought against a perceived threat to that freedom by the appointment of Brett Kavanagh to the Supreme Court of the United States by President Donald Trump.

RON WOOD IS AN AUTHOR AND RETIRED PASTOR. CONTACT HIM AT [email protected] OR VISIT WWW.TOUCHEDBYGRACE.ORG. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR.