In taking a tour of the internet and its resources, I explored the topic of affairs. The word itself is now synonymous with ‘an adventure”. Hollywood has taken the term and has managed to take the bite out of it. When the term itself is associated with an adventure, then what is the stigma that would discourage people from having one? In looking at trends, the terms ‘affair’, and ‘infidelity’ remain somewhat constant on the internet. ‘Adultery’ on the other hand did experience an increase last year and is now declining.
From a strict Biblical viewpoint, adultery was considered a form of theft. The consequences were severe, although necessary in order to enforce loyalty between husband and wife. In many other cultures children knew their mothers but did not always know who their fathers were. This was not the case with the Jews who had the Mosaic law. So this prohibition on adulterous behavior actually brought stability to the family. There is also the importance of the picture of loyalty to ones spouse and loyalty to one’s God. If you were not loyal to your spouse how could you be loyal to God. This is where the term “Infidelity” takes on a myriad of meanings. An adulterous affair meant that you were dis-loyal, or outside of fidelity. Consider also the present day meanings of adulterate. The term means to ‘water down’ or debase a substance. If you adulterate gold, you reduce its purity and put other materials inside it.
With all the changes in the meanings of words, people have now assume that ‘affairs’ are more accepted. The mainstream media and Hollywood are not reliable standards of human behavior, and for that matter neither are “psychological’ studies, where the researcher fishes for the results they want and report only what they consider useful, such as in the Kinsey study.
These are just a few things to consider in understanding affairs both now and in the context of history.
