The "gay Bishop" of Reading furore should not be regarded as a single and simple controversy.

Our whole attitude to sexual morality and mores has gone awry and is becoming more and more destructive every day. The so-called sexual revolution began in the mid 1960s or as Philip Larkin said in his poem Annus Mirabilis:

Sexual intercourse began

In 1963

(Which was rather late for me)

Between the end of the Chatterley ban

And the Beatles first LP.

The myth has it that we were all dreadfully prudish and buttoned up before the 1960s and that the great blessing of that decade was that it taught us to "let it all hang out". And sure enough, what had been unswung for so long was now swinging all over the place. It was also described as a time of sexual liberation, but to preach the loss of restraint as a form of liberation is foolish. Are we insane? Do we really want to say to people that to be a slave to our desires and lusts is liberation? It is the opposite. It is slavery. And you can be a slave to yourself just as much as the old time cotton-picker was slave to his master. A man who cannot say "no" has no freedom at all.

Sex has been debased from its historic status as a sacrament, a sacred act between two people with a lifetime commitment, into part of the leisure industry - a merely recreational pursuit without any moral entailments. But this is stupid. Sex has moral consequences. It can involve the procreation of children and thus bestow upon those who have sex responsibilities which last a lifetime. It is the casual attitude towards sex which has caused the social evil of many single mothers, deprived children and absent fathers.

And even if children are not involved, sex is still a serious and profound matter. It is about personal involvement of the deepest sort. So when it goes wrong it is the cause of unspeakable jealousies, hatred and violence. Haven't you noticed that a lot of people have been driven to murder because of it? And to return to the subject of emotional slavery, read in the newspapers the stories of those many thousands of people addicted to Internet porn with the result that often their marriages are destroyed, families break up and the great proportion of the domestic income is squandered on phone bills to pay for this electronic filth.

It is not that we were all pure and chaste before the sexual revolution. Millions of us went wrong. People had affairs, deceived their wives and husbands, and adultery was rife throughout society. But in those old days adultery and sexual promiscuity were regarded by society as wrong, sinful, taboos. Now educators and sociologists rejoice that all the taboos have been removed.

The problem is that what was formally tolerated is now celebrated. All sense of right and wrong in sexual morality and behaviour has been abolished and, from their youth up, men and woman have been encouraged to regard one another as mere objects of gratification. We are being told that in sexual matters it is quite acceptable to behave like savages.

* Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael's, Cornhill, in the City of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange.