(Post #1 in a series)Here is my philosophy on sex and Christianity (paraphrasing an old commercial for Reese's cups):
They are two great things that go great together.
Frankly, I should probably stop writing now because that's probably the best thing I'll have to say about the topics, but I will write on anyway.
An an introduction to this series, I would like to review prevailing beliefs about the sexual behavior of Christians. As far as I can tell, it's almost all bad news out there. Here are some data presented in Ron Sider's award winning book The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. According to Sider (pp. 22-24):
* Josh McDowell says that Evangelical youth are only 10% less likely to engage in premarital sex than non-Evangelical.
* True Love Waits states that only 12% of the young Christians taking their pledge actually keep them.
* George Barna finds that evangelicals are only a little less likely to live together outside of marriage than others.
* Steve Gallagher writes that Christian men are as likely to be involved in pornography as the unsaved.
Is this true? Are Christians little different than others when it comes to sex?
In this series, I will be looking various sexual behaviors and their rates for Christians versus others. Using data from several studies, I will examine behaviors usually spoken against (e.g., extramarital and premarital sex), behaviors debated (e.g., being gay), and behaviors encouraged (e.g., martial sex).
Next in the series: Christian rates of adultery.
Frankly, I should probably stop writing now because that's probably the best thing I'll have to say about the topics, but I will write on anyway.
An an introduction to this series, I would like to review prevailing beliefs about the sexual behavior of Christians. As far as I can tell, it's almost all bad news out there. Here are some data presented in Ron Sider's award winning book The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience. According to Sider (pp. 22-24):
* Josh McDowell says that Evangelical youth are only 10% less likely to engage in premarital sex than non-Evangelical.
* True Love Waits states that only 12% of the young Christians taking their pledge actually keep them.
* George Barna finds that evangelicals are only a little less likely to live together outside of marriage than others.
* Steve Gallagher writes that Christian men are as likely to be involved in pornography as the unsaved.
Is this true? Are Christians little different than others when it comes to sex?
In this series, I will be looking various sexual behaviors and their rates for Christians versus others. Using data from several studies, I will examine behaviors usually spoken against (e.g., extramarital and premarital sex), behaviors debated (e.g., being gay), and behaviors encouraged (e.g., martial sex).
Next in the series: Christian rates of adultery.
4 comments:
Cool. I'm half-way around the world, so I get to make the first comment to a post with an eye-catching caption. This is now officially my favorite blog. We are on the edge of our seats. How wrong will the prevailing beliefs be? Can Brad keep come up with scintillating post after post? Stay tuned . . .
Maslow's Basic Human Needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep..All necessary for life of every human on the planet.Do Christians basic human needs differ from others? Is that to say, are Christians little different than others when it comes to food?drink?warmth,shelter?
This is going to be an interesting segment and I too, look forward to seeing more posts from Brad:)
Sexual behaviors? A lot is based on upbringing (strength of the person, discipline etc)Respect for self/others and yadda yadda yadda.
Thanks for the kind words Ben, though I fear that you'll soon realize that my titles are probably better than my actual posts. :-)
At one point I could recite Maslow's needs from memory--seems like much of what we say doesn't get too far from it...
Ok,,,I am a bit dissapointed by this, the title does sound much better than the content.
I have a question that you may be able to answer, Is self-gratification a sin? can we still call ourselves celibate if we engage in masturbation in the privacy of our home?.
Patricia.
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