The cultural Right has spent the better part of five decades decrying the moral collapse ushered in by the sexual revolution. From the early broadcasts of the American Family Association in the 1970s to countless church campaigns and grassroots movements, evangelicals have sounded the alarm against a culture that turns women into commodities, undermines marriage, and elevates sexual gratification above godly character.
So why are some conservatives now celebrating the return of “sex sells” as if it’s a moral victory?
Last week, American Eagle released a new ad featuring actress Sydney Sweeney modeling jeans in a sultry, hyper-sexualized fashion. The commercial didn’t include any overt leftist ideology or identity politics. And that’s apparently all it takes for many on the Right to give it a standing ovation. Social media lit up with praise for the ad—because it wasn’t woke.
But rejecting wokeness is not the same as embracing righteousness.
Of course we should oppose the Left’s efforts to erase objective truth, distort human identity, and dismantle the family. But replacing progressive depravity with retro decadence is not progress—it’s just a different flavor of rebellion against God. We shouldn’t forget that the seeds of today’s cultural collapse weren’t only sown by Marxist academics, but also by the unchecked libertinism of the 1960s and ‘70s.
The American Family Association was founded precisely to push back against this kind of sexual exploitation in mainstream media. For decades, Christian conservatives fought the normalization of pornography, immodesty, and the objectification of women. To now see fellow conservatives cheer this kind of advertising simply because it’s “not woke” is a betrayal of that legacy.
Yes, it’s good when a commercial doesn’t lecture us about pronouns or feature two men. But that’s a low bar. Christians should expect more from our cultural engagement than choosing between left-wing propaganda and right-wing lust. We should reject both.
The real conservative movement—grounded in biblical principles—was never just about owning the libs. It was about conserving what is good, true, and beautiful. That includes the dignity of women, the sanctity of sexuality, and the virtue of self-control.
We can fight the lies of gender ideology and still insist that modesty matters. We can expose the insanity of radical feminism and still reject a worldview that reduces women to bodies and men to consumers. These aren’t contradictory convictions—they’re the fruit of the same moral root: God’s design for human flourishing.
The world will tell us we must pick one: either embrace wokeism or regress to softcore hedonism. But the gospel calls us higher. We don’t need to go back to the past—we need to return to the standard of righteousness that transcends every cultural trend.
Christians, let’s not trade one set of chains for another. Let’s fight woke ideology without forgetting why we started fighting in the first place. Not for aesthetics. Not for nostalgia. But for truth, for goodness, and for the glory of God.
Notice: This column is printed with permission. Opinion pieces published by AFN.net are the sole responsibility of the article's author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of the staff or management of, or advertisers who support the American Family News Network, AFN.net, our parent organization or its other affiliates.
