This “Slate” article by Hanna Rosin is pretty wild. She writes that of “Teenagers who identify as “evangelical” or “born again” …80 percent think sex should be saved for marriage. But thinking is not the same as doing. Evangelical teens are actually more likely to have lost their virginity than either mainline Protestants or Catholics. They tend to lose their virginity at a slightly younger age—16.3, compared with 16.7 for the other two faiths. And they are much more likely to have had three or more sexual partners by age 17: Regnerus reports that 13.7 percent of evangelicals have, compared with 8.9 percent for mainline Protestants.
I remember back when I was touring with the band, there was this tour called the “true love waits” tour. As it turns out, the young single girl who was headlining the show became pregnant while on tour. The bass player for one of the other bands turned out to be the guy. I don’t say that to throw them under the bus. We played a show with them about a year after their baby was born. They were about the cutest couple you’ve ever seen. They had the baby on the road with them and they were doing really well.
I have no idea whether programs like this are a good thing or a bad thing. My guess is that they run about like the article explains. It seems like there has to be something that can be done to try and help young people navigate this part of their lives. The most important thing is helping people find a way to relate to each other in their brokenness. They missing element in all of this is a place for kids to relate to each other if they break the pledge some night. What do they do once the deed is done?
I thought the article was really interesting. I was actually not surprised by the fact that evangelical teens were actually more sexually active at a younger age…forbidden fruit!
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