Evangelicals More Promiscuous?
This is not news. But it is written well. What do you expect from a Slate book review of Mark Regnerus’ Forbidden Fruit. I love the premise, a kid on the prowl for sex and he overhears a girl talking about saving it for marriage, so he moves on. In point [...]
This is not news. But it is written well. What do you expect from a Slate book review of Mark Regnerus’ Forbidden Fruit. I love the premise, a kid on the prowl for sex and he overhears a girl talking about saving it for marriage, so he moves on. In point of fact, he should have hit on her, as his chances of getting laid were better with the evangelical girl, even if she’d taken the pledge.
Evangelical girls are easy? Well, not quite. What is clear is that they haven’t been equipped by parents or church to make decisions, but have only been taught to say “no.” With our culture ever-present and endlessly influential, these kids are getting hypersexed messages constantly. If not taught the mechanics of sex, the consequences, etc., girls and boys aren’t ready to make decisions. And make no mistake, merely being taught to say “no” isn’t enough to combat the cultural messages that drive healthy teens towards active sexuality. As the author here notes, it is almost as if the evangelical prescription, education about how to say “no,” is setting up evangelical girls for failure.
And after reading this article, if you’re a teen boy, you’ll know who to hit on if you want some action.
Actually, there’s very clear evidence that the more conservative one’s religion, the more confused one’s sex life becomes. George Barna did a survey years ago. The results were published in Christianity Today. The highest divorce rate is among fundamentalists, who are almost all conservative. Next are evangelicals, who lean conservative. And least likely to divorce was everyone else.
As Barna pointed out, this is especially cause for chagrin because most fundamentalists in the survey had divorced and remarried after becoming fundamentalists. Fundamentalists, of course, claim to believe that God equates remarriage with adultery.
As for whether evangelical women are taught nothing except “no,” that’s not the problem. The hanky panky happens because the emotional ecstasy uncapped by religious worship tend to flow out into human relationships.