Colin: How?
John: For hundreds of years the Church has had the most enormous influence by its hold over the lives of men and women in this way. Hasn’t it?
Colin: Yes.
John: Obviously its attitude towards the whole thing is fundamental.
Colin: Yes.
John: It regards sex as sin. It’s holy when the Church permits it in matrimony; and then it’s got to remain holy, for ever and ever Amen.
Gwen: As if it did.
John: They couldn’t stop people loving outside their rules; but they’ve made them ashamed of it. They’ve made sex a secret furtive thing. Well, anyhow, we’ve got our chance now.
Margaret: Why now, particularly?
John: The Church built the system, and as a binding force it’s no longer effective. Here’s your society—in a certain mould; but the power that did the moulding, that held it together, has gone. It’s vaguely keeping its shape, at present—but it’s crumbling. It must crumble; and it’ll have to be remodelled. That was going on, anyhow. Then the war came. Everything shaken to its foundations. Personal beliefs, institutions—everything. The world’s fluid. That’s why it’s all so damnably important now.