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 A young Christian at an purity rally spreads the word. Why young Christians aren't waiting anymoreBy John Blake, CNN (CNN) –True love doesn’t wait after all. That’s the implication in the upcoming October issue of an evangelical magazine that claims that young, unmarried Christians are having premarital sex almost as much as their non-Christian peers. The article in Relevant magazine, entitled “(Almost) Everyone’s Doing It,” cited several studies examining the sexual activity of single Christians. One of the biggest surprises was a December 2009 study, conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, which included information on sexual activity. While the study’s primary report did not explore religion, some additional analysis focusing on sexual activity and religious identification yielded this result: 80 percent of unmarried evangelical young adults (18 to 29) said that they have had sex - slightly less than 88 percent of unmarried adults, according to the teen pregnancy prevention organization. The article highlights what challenges abstinence movements face. Movements such as “True Love Waits,” encourage teens to wear purity rings, sign virginity pledges and pledge chastity during public ceremonies. Yet many of these Christian youths eventually abandon their purity pledges, Relevant’s Tyler Charles concludes in the article. Tyler talked to people like “Maria,” an evangelical woman who said she wanted to wait until marriage to have sex. CNN's Belief Blog – all the faith angles to the day's top stories But she said she started having sex with her college boyfriend when she turned 20 because nearly everyone, even most of her Christian friends, were having sex. Maria:
Relevant theorizes about why it’s so hard for so many young Christians to wait, including the saturation of sex in popular culture, the prevalence of pornography and a popular “do what feels good philosophy.” Yet the article also asks a question that rarely comes up in discussions about abstinence movement. Relevant notes that in biblical times, people married earlier. The average age for marriage has been increasing in the U.S for the last 40 years. Today, it’s not unusual to meet a Christian who is single at 30 - or 40 or 50, for that matter. So what do you tell them? Keep waiting? Scot McKnight, author of “The Jesus Creed,” and "One.Faith: Jesus Calls, We Follow," acknowledges that young, single Christians face temptations that their counterparts in the biblical age didn’t face. He tells Relevant:
So what should a Christian parent or youth pastor do? How do they convince more young Christians to wait until marriage, or should they stop even trying? soundoff (5,729 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74Post a comment
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I remember being young and in love with the urge to spawn. Oh the ideals of the perfect life before the work even gets started. It truly is a dream, so to speak. Personally seen very few make it through dating long term, having respect, all around, get married , have beautiful intelligent well behaved children, without basic needs worries. But I have seen it, trust me, wish I would have went that path, but I did ok in the end , I guess. Which is a miracle in of itself. Have esteem, but dont be arrogant., Be kind, but not blind and foolish. Just be real I guess what Im saying.
Why arent they waiting to do what? Eat one another hotBrown buttFudge?
Sad that CNN put this one on the backburner. It was enjoyable while it lasted!
Ingesting coral formations calcium with your normal water is good for a person. It might make you stay alive extended, and yes it could seriously help appear & sense youthful. This article particulars exactly why it is ...
Quite a shame AIDs isn't 1000x as potent and transmissionable as it is.
Hopefully somone (or something) will fix that.
Rick, if you're clarifying what I personally believe, then, yes, I believe the Bible's teaching is superior. However, my belief means nothing to you and it has no bearing on the truth of God's Word. The fact that I believe in God's Word doesn't make it true. God's Word is true simply because it's true. You and I can choose to follow God's commands or we can choose to dismiss Him. However, His truth isn't something debatable. That would be like debating the color of an orange or the temperature of ice.
But, yes, I believe my morals to be superior to others' because they are founded on God's Word. That's not to say I am successful at living up to it 100% of the time, but His Word is my guide. What I find offensive are these people who come out of the woodwork to criticize a Christian for having standards beyond a "do what feels right" culture.
@Chris-
You had me up until "God's Word is true simply because it's true." The problem with this statement is the unfortunate hindrance of every religion, faith. Claiming that the bible is in fact true is impossible to measure. You want me to believe that your religion or your god is more real than every other religion, why? They all have a 'book of laws', a belief system, a structure of their faith, ect. Christianity is a religion, not a historical basis of fact that dictates our lives. You said that your god's truth isn't debatable, but it absolutely is. When you believe in something that cannot be proven as fact, then there is absolutely room for debate and the idea that what you believe is not true. I think the greatest weakness of christians is the idea that just because they believe in it, it must be absolutely true, when in reality most christians have very little understanding of the religion as a whole.
I believe I am more of a moral person than many christians I've known in my life. I do not follow a dogmatic system of beliefs, but I focus on doing what is better for me and my wife and society in general. That makes me believe that my moral system is better, becase I do not look myself to be a hypocrite when I fail to meet standards that could never be reached.
nonbeliever,
Thanks for the level-headed reply. All too often I find that I can't post too long on these subjects before the whole discussion derails into someone saying Christians are idiots and then Christians taking an overly high-handed response of "well, have fun in hell, buddy".
You said, "Christianity is a religion, not a historical basis of fact that dictates our lives." I disagree. While I may not be able to prove all the details of Genesis, I can point to the fact that Jesus believed in everything in the Old Testament. Since I believe that Jesus proved that He was who He said He was/is, that's good enough for me. Our discussion would then turn to Jesus and a veracity of the gospels. Such a discussion tends to fall on the side where you start, so I'm not sure there's a point in trying to evangelize you in a blog (although I've attempted such in the past). The evidence is so overwhelming that there's not much of a debate to be had on the history of Jesus. Sort of like talking about whether or not Napolean existed or not. Scholars uncomfortable with Jesus will be big on textual criticism and attack the gospels themselves, but it's difficult to deny the explosion of Christianity at the time of Jesus' Resurrection in the face of an extremely hostile culture.
So when I say the truth of God's Word isn't debatable, I say that after believing the historical evidence of Jesus and believing in the promises He made for salvation and a way of life He commands. I don't consider my faith to be blind faith, but informed faith founded in the confidence of historical evidence. Jesus died on the cross and rose on the third day. I believe Him and I believe what He believes. Jesus spoke of the Old Testament as historical fact.
@Chris-
I too thank you for a civil reply!
For me, and my belief in the divine, I do believe there is a god(s) however I do not believe that any religion run by man can truly break down who or what that is. I'm not scientific enough to say that there couldn't be some sort of superior guidance that has a hand in the universe, but I feel I'm educated enough in philosophy and even theology, to feel that man has had more of a hand in religion than god. What I can say, for someone who does believe in god for us to be able to not only explain it, but believe it wants a relationship with us, is a little naive.
While I do not doubt there was a man who lived named Jesus, I do not believe he was what so many claim that he was. When you look at the history and structure of scripture, the scribes passing down year after year after year in word of mouth form what we have today as the gospel. Who knows what actually happened when the scribes decided to put down on paper what was being said. And I don't know about you, but I have played the telephone game and I can't imagine how much it would change after years and not just minutes. There is no real accountability for what was put down all those years ago. Then looking at the educational level of those scribes, did they possess enough understanding of language written and spoken to be truly accurate? More than likely not. The idea that the mystical nature of Jesus was not included in the beginning of the gospels and was added in later. Why? Even when you look at the letters from paul, knowing we have no original transcript, and what authority do those authors have to be writing truth? This then moves into the forming of what we have as the new testament. Many letters that painted a picture of Jesus as less than god were not included. Many gospels and letters were not put into the new testament, because they needed a clear message that carried as little contradiction as possible. There is a rich theme, in my opinion, that religion is far more made by man than god. I know I'm only scratching the surface of this idea, and not doing it true justice in my mind, but to speak on this in true depth would take many pages worth of writing.
This moves me into today. You can talk to christians and they will tell you why their god is real and point it out in their bible. You can talk to Muslims and they will tell you why their god is real and point it out in their Quran. You can talk to Moromn's today and they will tell you why their god is real and point it out in the book of mormon. You can talk to someone who is Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, ect, and they can all tell you why they are right and others are wrong, pointing to their ancient text. You say that it is historical evidence that leads you to believe in Christianity, but you point to these religions, many far older than christianity, and tell them they are wrong. Not to be rude, but it's hypocritical in your explanation. This is why saying you believe in Jesus for historical reasons, is a bad example. It would mean historically, you would have to believe in every religion. The thing about religion, is it always fits the cultural relativity of it's time. Western religion differs from eastern religion mainly for cultural context of the time the religion was founded. Christianity has evolved and is far more secure in western society than any other culture.
That then moves me to Christianity in general. You have a religion that has changed dramatically over time. It has murdered millions in the name of expansion of it's kingdom. It oppressed African Americans and was supportive of slavery. It was a main leader in the oppression of women and seeing them as lower than man. And today it continues its stronghold against ho.mo.se.xuals and keeping them from being equal. Of course many other religions have done evil, but this tends to happen when religion is following man and not god. When you look at the 30 different denominations (not including the non-denominational) churches there are that all follow different translations of scripture and all carry differing variations of truth, then how do you know which is right and which is wrong? The whole basis for denominations is because man has translated his idea of god into a different form and created a religion to surround it. How does one look at that and not feel as if this is a man created idea of who or what god is? Add that on top of the contradictions in scripture and how it is interpreted and you have yourself a true headache.
I have no problem with people believing a religion. What I have a problem with is promoting it as truth and fact without taking the time to examine the world around them. Where is the god of the new testament today? Why was the holy spirit so active in peoples live in the NT, but yet so absent from the world today? You can point at miracles that have happend in the name of Christ, I can point at scientific anomalies that happened in the lives of Muslims and even atheist, as well as the millions of miracles that did NOT happen though christians begged for it. I can as easily tell you the universe is balancing itself out, karma if you will, just as easily as you tell me it's the divine hand of god. The bible is not listed in the historical section because it is a faith based book. You can tell me that you have faith in your god, and that's fine. But telling me that your god or religion is not fallible is impossible.
One must be careful when they speak in absolutes. At one time the world was believed to be flat and that the earth was the center of the universe. People who didn't agree were heretics. I believe in a thousand years we will look back at this time and laugh about how we believed everything worked.
so, now we have to listen the religion of the nonbeliever with the religious name Chris. So what you don't like is what you are doing. Don't you know that the question is not to stop promoting religion, but rather what religion. Every philosophy has it own ethical system as does yours. The god that you believe in is not something new. So, nothing new under the sun. You ethical system (but don't try to steal from the Man Jesus, please) has led our society to the miserable state, where we are right now.
You don't read very well. I'm a Christian. :-/
@unbeliever,
Test what the Bible says is true. Find out for yourself if it is not true. But do it exactly the way it is laid out in the New Testament. Do not skip steps or anything. God tells us to test Him to see if He is telling us the truth or not. If your treat other people the way that you want to be treated your relationships will be a whole lot better than it you do not.
All the kids in my abstinence classes were banging eachother lol. Maybe we should've been teaching them how to use condoms.
Or maybe they should have listened. Don't call a tool broken because no one chooses to use it or they fail to use it correctly.