In a study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unwanted Pregnancies, it was found that Christian teens and young people were almost as likely to have engaged in premarital sex as their non-Christian counterparts (of those polled from age 18 to 29, 82% of Christian singles were sexually active compared to 88% of non-Christian singles).

In other words, despite the pledges for chastity and abstinence, despite the teaching of the Christian churches against sexual activity among non-married people, sex is still happening.  It’s happening a lot.

I am an old married lady now, but I was a bit of a late bloomer.  If they had polled me back in the day, I’d have been the 18% they spoke of.  At least, for a while.  I am the mother of a 21 year old son and an 18 year old daughter.  I have never tried to drill abstinence and chastity into their heads, because it wouldn’t have made any difference.  Instead, I drilled in knowledge.  Knowledge of where babies come from.  Knowledge about sexually transmitted diseases.  Knowledge about how to at least minimally protect their pride and their hearts as they reached adulthood and the inevitable shift to becoming sexually active.

In other words, I preached prevention, caution, and care.  Telling them not to do it was not an option.  Instead, I made sure they were fully informed of the methods they should use to prevent pregnancy and disease, and hoped for the best.  Because I, as a sexually active being with the same human urges as any other human being (most of them, anyway), realize that thinking my kids won’t do it because I don’t want them to, or because I don’t think they will, is just stupid.

Better well-armed, than ignoring the problem.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.