Saturday, October 15, 2011

Premarital Sex and Religious Delusions

A recent post on CNN's Belief blog, "Why Young Christians aren't waiting anymore", seems to have fallen for one of the favorite myths of the Christian Right. As the nation slowly but steadily shifts to a more secular outlook the nations morals have not really changed that much. Even if, premarital sex is an indicator of lax morals, there is nothing to indicate that the rates of sexual activity among the unmarried have changed in any statistically significant way. In general Christians are no different than any other identifiable group when it comes to sexual activity*. They may come across as more repressed and tend to deny publicly having sexual relations but that is not the same as actually abstaining. Maybe young Christians are becoming more honest and accepting of reality, at least as it relates to sexual behavior.



* Among conservative Christians there are actually some statistical differences when compared to more liberal Christians. Conservatives have higher rates of teen sex, teen pregnancies, and STDs in their general population (teens and adults). Conservatives also tend to have higher criminal rates related to sexual activity and personal relationships. They exceed their more liberal counterparts in rates of incest, adultery, domestic abuse, and rape.

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