Statistics about teen sexual behavior are easily quantifiable and the number of students who have had sex has been counted in numerous surveys.
But in order to pursue accuracy and clarity society may need to investigate what really defines sex because a simple question of the ambiguity of the term “sex” has caused problems for people from the college campus to the White House. There are behaviors that categorically may not count as sex “on paper but the effects may be identical and closer to home than some virgin minds” might think.
Most students in public schools are enrolled in sex-ed by 5th grade. The curriculum ranges from teaching sex terms to learning how pregnancy happens. On some days boys and girls are split up. Other days the groups come together and are allowed an open-question forum.
According to Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s survey in 2003 47 percent of 9 through 12th grade students were involved in sexual intercourse which is a small decline from the previous 10 years.
Youth groups love discovering new curriculum for talking about sex. Don’t use old-fashioned language. Try to relate to teenage society by showing a 50 Cent video. Be honest about the pregnancy and the guilt of sin that premarital sex could bring about. Make sure to share emotional stories of redemption by those who have walked the dark path of premarital sex teen pregnancy and abortion. And conclude with a brief talk about masturbation.
During the week young people are informed to have sex. At church they are informed not to. The statistical result is that half of them are having sex. We might say then that youth groups are doing a great job by getting the message across to half of the teen population. Or we might say that they are ignoring half of their members.
Let us look at two hypothetical situations.
Warren a virgin and steadfast advocate of “saving himself will go home from a compelling and emotional youth group sermon reassured that the internet porn will soon be a struggle of the past and that the girl he fingered at summer camp will be a forgiven or perhaps forgotten mistake. Someday he might tell his parents that he once masturbated to HBO soft porn while they were asleep and that he is now a changed man, ready to live for God. In his mind, at least, he will be able to swear into marriage having never compromised his purity.
Grace, not a virgin, will go to her bed doing the same thing that she has spent the last year doing – sobbing. She gave up her virginity to Will. But it isn’t so much that Will broke up with her a week later or that she has done numerous favors” for guys at parties. It’s not even the fact that she nearly killed herself because of the guilt she felt while wearing a purity ring her parents gave her on her 16th birthday.
These cases offer no concrete data involve no survey or study and the characters are fictional. However I believe that these cases are true and in fact may even coincide with your experiences. More importantly to note these stories share a common thread – they both present a serious crisis that neither Sex-Ed nor the average youth group addresses. So maybe our parents youth pastors and yes even ourselves should start approaching the issue of sex like we are having sex – because it seems as though way more than half of us are.