From Sampler to Sower

True Love, Condoms and Purity Pledges

In my last post on this subject, True Love, Waiting and Purity Pledges, I questioned just how newsworthy the recent study by Janet Rosenbaum really is.  The study in question examines how effective purity pledges are in delaying the onset of sexual activity in teenagers by comparing students who report having made such a pledge with students from similar familial, religious and relational backgrounds who did not report making a pledge.

The study finds, ”Adolescents who take virginity pledges are not less sexually active than closely matched adolescents who do not take pledges, but they are less likely to use birth control and condoms.”

Previously, I reflected on what the first part of that finding should suggest about how we minister to teens.  Today I’d like to examine the implications of the second part of that finding – the fact that those who make purity pledges are significantly less likely than non-pledgers to use condoms or birth control if and when they do have sex.

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Purity Pledges and Waiting Until Marriage

The news has been making a lot about a recently released study by Janet E. Rosenbaum which studies the effectiveness of purity pledges in helping teens wait until marriage before having sex.  All the major outlets have run a story, from FoxNEWS to MSNBC, the Chicago Tribune to the Washington Post,  US News and World Report to Newsweek. (Oh, wait.  As far as I can tell, Newsweek is one of the few sources that hasn’t run a story on it yet.)

Stories have been leading with titles as titillating as ‘,Abstinence-only’ is a total crock, That virginity pledge I took didn’t work….and now I have four children, and the incredibly misleading Study: Teens Who Took Virginity Plan More Likely To Have Sex.

However, I have to wonder just how newsworthy this really is. (more…)

Write Them on My Heart

After a week’s hiatus for Thanksgiving, I’m back to blogging.  We’ll get things restarted with a recap of last Tuesday’s Water’s Edge services.

Weekend Teaching Series: Write them On My Heart (A series on the 10 Commandments)

Message Title: Word Seven: You Will Not Commit Adultery

Sermon in a Sentence: God’s plan for marriage: One man, one woman, becoming one flesh, for one lifetime.

Text(s): Genesis 1:27, 2:23-24; Matthew 19:1-12; 1 Corinthians 7:4; Ephesians 5:25-33

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 5 of 10 extremely straightforward service, the difficulty was communicating about adultery in a way teens found relevant.  Way too easy to simply skip past that one and say “It doesn’t apply to me because I’m not married yet.”

Message Summary: We started by challenging that viewpoint that this command doesn’t apply to us because we aren’t married yet (or at least my teens aren’t – I am.)  We looked at the fact that the command about murder, far from simply prohibiting premeditated fatal violence actually calls the people of God to a profound respect for life.  In the same way this command calls those who would call themselves God’s children to have and to demonstrate a profound respect for marriage.

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