In His Book, Forbidden Fruit: Sex & Religion In ...

In his book, Forbidden Fruit: Sex & Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers, sociology professor Mark Regnerus says evangelical teens are slightly more sexually active than their non-evangelical peers. Non-evangelical teens have sex for the first time at age 16.7 vs.16.3 for evangelicals. Worse, 13.7% of evangelical teens have had 3 or more sex partners vs. 8.9% of their non-evangelical peers. World Magazine reports 80% of U.S. teens claiming to be born-again agree sex outside of marriage is morally wrong, yet 66% violate their own beliefs “Evangelical teens don’t have sex less than their non-evangelical friends; they just feel guiltier about it.” He credits the clash of cultures in the evangelical youth experience: urged to drink deeply from the waters of American individualism and its self-focused pleasure ethic, yet asked to value time-honored religious traditions like family and chastity. “Who can serve two masters? Teens need a pure community of true believers who teach the truth about sex, including its beauty in marriage.” OneNewsNow 3/29/08)