Teens, Sex, Forbidden Fruit - Gene Veith in World Magazine

I came across a timely article in the new World magazine by Gene Veith with a review of the book Forbidden Fruit by Mark Regnerus.  The reason it is timely is that I am preaching on wining the battle with sin this Sunday and will be focusing on how sin is more a matter of affections than discipline, and is cured by the gospel not works.  Veith summarizes the book's findings that show how the evangelical church's efforts to combat promiscuity have pretty much failed:

Christian parents and churches need to face up to a problem long hidden in the dark: Evangelical teenagers are just as sexually active as thier non-Christian friends.  In fact, there is evidence that evangelical teenagers on the whole may be more immoral than non-Christians.  Statistically, evangelical teens tend to have sex first at a younger age, 16.3, compared to liberal Protestants, who tend to lose their virginity at 16.7.  And young evangelicals are far more likely to have had three or more sexual partners (13.7 percent) than non-evangelicals.

What about abstinence pledges?  Those work - for awhile - delaying sex on an average  of about 18 months, with 88 percent of pledgers eventually giving up their vow to remain virgins until marriage.

Veith goes on to offer some suggestions as to how this might be addressed.

The law alone and external regulations cannot make anyone righteous.  We need Christ for that.

He also points out that many "born again" teenagers need to be evangelized. In other words, Veith is pointing out that the gospel, not pledges, external rules and regulations and things like that, is central to addressing this issue.

There is one matter of externals he addresses where I believe he is spot on.  I don't have a clue about how to implement his suggestions here but I think he is on to something: And the bible does offer a direct solution for people who are burning in lust (I Corintihans 7:9).  Adolescence - that time when a person is physically an adult but socially a child - is a modern invention.  In the past, people married much younger, as soon as they were sexually ready.  Today's culture postpones marriage while stretching celibacy to the breaking point. A counter-cultural church may do well to encourage younger marriages. . . .

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Tags: Religion, theology, church, Christian, Christians, sex, premarital sex, promiscuity, faith, teens, teenagers, teen sex, evangelical, evangelicals