{"id":58037,"date":"2021-11-26T06:00:40","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=58037"},"modified":"2021-11-26T09:22:57","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T14:22:57","slug":"single-christians-are-increasingly-celibate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2021\/11\/single-christians-are-increasingly-celibate\/","title":{"rendered":"Single Christians Are Increasingly Celibate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Reversing a previous trend, single Christians between 18 and 35 are increasingly obeying the Bible when it comes to pre-marital sex.<\/p>\n

Such is the finding of Lyman Stone, a researcher with the Institute of Family Studies (and a Missouri Synod Lutheran).\u00a0 \u00a0In a study<\/a> of sexual activity among young adults under 35, he found that the percentage that said they had not had sex in the previous year shot up from 8% in 2008 to 21% in 2021.\u00a0 Some of that can be accounted for by the decline of marriage rates, since married couples have much more sex than the unmarried do.\u00a0 Among singles, the abstinence numbers have risen from 20% to 30%.<\/p>\n

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What accounts for this?\u00a0 It isn\u2019t that pornography is replacing actual sex.\u00a0 Stone finds\u2013surprisingly\u2013little correlation.\u00a0 The biggest factor seems to be religious commitment.\u00a0\u00a0Back in 2008, among single young adults who attend religious services at least once a month, only 20% said that they did not have sex during the previous year, about the same as their non-religious peers.\u00a0 But as of 2021, the percentage of church-going single Christians who abstain from premarital sex shot up to 60%.<\/p>\n

In an article<\/a> that he wrote for Christianity Today<\/em> discussing the findings, Stone says that two factors might explain this increased fidelity to Christian sexual ethics.\u00a0 Since the percentage of young adults who go to church has been declining\u2013from over 30% in the 1990s to under 20% today\u2013it could be that those who are sexually active are leaving the church.\u00a0 That no doubt happens, says Stone, but the drop in church attendance has been gradual and does not correlate with the shift on sexual behavior since 2008.\u00a0 Since then, he says, there has been hardly any change in the \u201creligiosity\u201d of this demographic.<\/p>\n

Coupled with evidence from the study showing a similar correlation with those who believe pre-marital sex to be immoral and their actual behavior, Stone concludes that \u201ca key part of this story of changing sexual behavior in America is a change among religious people, or others, who believe premarital sex is wrong. Increasingly, religious young adults are \u2018practicing what they preach,\u2019 adopting a distinctive set of sexual behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is to say, they are practicing what their pastors preach , or what the Bible preaches.<\/p>\n

The next question, though, is why are so many of them now taking Christian sexual ethics seriously, in a way that they did not in 2008?<\/p>\n

I suppose over those 13 years we have some different generational factors.\u00a0 Has the church suddenly started doing something right in its catechesis and moral formation?\u00a0 Are today\u2019s Christians millennials more devout or more morally savvy\u2013perhaps as the fruit of experience\u2013than their peers in 2008?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to see some research about that.\u00a0 Any ideas?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image by\u00a0Yvette W<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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