March 31, 2008
One News Now
Rotten Fruit by Rebecca Grace, AFA Newswire (click link to read the whole article)
March, 2008
Real Question: Do Christian teens have less sex than unbelieving teens, or more?
Real Quote from article: “He (Sociology professor Mark Regnerus, author of Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Relgion in the Lives of American Teeangers) reports: “Whereas non-evangelical teens have sex for the first time at age 16.7, the average age for evangelical teens is 16.3. Even worse, evangelical teens are more likely to have had three or more sexual partners (13.7%) than their non-evangelical peers (8.9%).”
In addition, World Magazine writer and culture critic Gene Edward Veith cites the same study and adds: “Some 80% of teenagers who say they have been ‘born again’ agree that sex outside of marriage is morally wrong. Still, as many as two-thirds of them violate their own beliefs in their actual behavior.”
Why? There is a disconnect between their heads and their hearts, and perhaps between the church and its teachings.
From Suzie: What’s going on? I think this is something that has been happening for a long time in the church, but more so now. I don’t know how many leaders I’ve heard who have said to teens, “I messed up, but this is what I hope you will do and why.” Maybe we need to look a little deeper.
What are your thoughts?
Suzie
Debbie says:
These are just my thoughts on the issue and I, of course, don’t know much. But I think the problem is that not enough teens “own” their faith.
I don’t think it’s actually theirs. I know my faith wasn’t mine for a long time. It was my parents’, my pastor’s, my churches.
Unfortunately, this can lead to some very dangerous places–mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Owning your faith isn’t about knowing all the “rules” (e.g. don’t have sex until you’re married). It’s about knowing the Creator of the Universe in an intimate, life-changing way. When you develop that relationship, you *want* to know what God’s word says about sex before marriage and you *want* to honor Him in what you do and say.
Not to say that you won’t screw-up (everybody does!) but you don’t want to. You want something better than that!
Just my thoughts tho,
Debbie
Lydia says:
Hey…
I think that a lot of teenagers who go to church hear the same old message, “Save sex for marriage”.
And while that statement is a 100% true, it lacks something called “character”.
It’s one thing to tell someone what to do, but it’s more effective to help them build their character and faith so that they can resist temptation when it comes.
Purity isn’t just physical– it starts in the heart. We have to learn how to guard our thoughts before we can resist those thoughts. We have to learn how to dress modestly before we can be expected to behave “modestly”. We have make dating boundries our personal convictions
before we can act according to those boundries.
Basically, we have to live righteously before we can be expected to act righteously.
One time, my church had a class for teen girls detailing why we should remain pure– but the class went deeper than just “stay pure”, it provided the basic steps to building character in our lives.
The class taught that we should remain pure in our thoughts, actions, words, attitudes, etc.
Just my thoughts…
In Christ,
Lydia Rule
T. Suzanne Eller says:
I think you are on to something. It’s easy to throw out statements like “don’t”, but harder to address the heart of an issue.
Why wait? Because Scripture says so. Yes. But also because I meet girl after girl who are hurt or jaded by relationships that turn physical and then later end. Real love is more than that. But I also think we need to talk about sex more in faith circles. It’s something that is good, that is meant for couples that love each other, that is intimate. It’s worth waiting for the right person for that kind of intimacy.
I appreciate your thoughts Lydia and Debbie. Anyone else?