TheSource4YM.com
	Jonathan's Resource Ezine

• WAITING FOR SEX: The Average Age Americans Get Married is 26 & 27. Does the World Think Students Can Wait That Long?!!
  
  
• SEX DISCUSSION IDEA
  
  
• BRING THE "RECOMMENDING SEX" EVENT TO YOUR CITY: Telling kids the truth about sex, and equipping them not to set themselves up for failure!
  
  

"The abstinence-only sex education programs in our public schools call for "abstinence until marriage."  The federal government spent $115 million on this message last year, and the Bush administration is proposing significant increases for the current year.  Sexual abstinence until marriage is now official government policy.

The average age of marriage in the United States today is 27 for men and 26 for women.  The abstinence-only program therefore asks our young people to renounce sexual activity throughout much of the early part of adult life . . .

. . . I wonder if those who seriously advocate abstinence until marriage would prefer to see the marriage age come down. . .

. . . But in modern industrialized societies, where women have educational opportunities and more than half attend college, marriage in the teenage years will likely become increasingly rare.  If we agree, as I think most Americans do, that equal educational and occupational opportunities for women are a good thing, that our society is enhanced and enriched by these developments, then I think we must accept the fact that marriage in the middle or late twenties is the modern societal norm.  If that is so, the expectation of sexual abstinence until marriage is utterly unrealistic.

I would argue also that such an expectation, when translated into a policy (such a s federally funded sex education calling for such a restriction), is wrong.  It is wrong to expect young people to be sexually abstinent until they are more than halfway through their twenties.  Sexual relations are an important component of human happiness, and there is no moral purpose served by abstaining from sex if two people are mature and responsible.  Why should they be deprived of sex?"

1.  Married and monogamous couples who waited until marriage for sex are much more UNHAPPY or at least they WERE unhappy for YEARS, until they finally were able to get married.

2.  Individuals and couples who didn"t wait- who had sex before marriage with one or more partners are much more "happy."  They look back and are pleased that they slept with multiple partners or didn"t wait until marriage.  Possibly their sex life is even more gratifying because of this experience.

1.  Married couples who waited until marriage for sex are much more HAPPY. They are free from guilt and from fears often associated with sex outside of marriage: AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, rejection, out of wedlock pregnancy, comparison to other partners, exposure, failure, embarrassment, and losing one's partner to another.

2.  Individuals and couples who didn"t wait- who had sex before marriage with one or more partners are much more REGRETFUL.  They have suffered consequences physically, emotionally or spiritually because they didn"t have the discipline to wait.

• women who were sexually active as teens are more likely to express dissatisfaction with current sex life



• strictly monogamous women experience orgasm more than twice as often as promiscuous women
  
  

Jonathan McKee is president of The Source for Youth Ministry and author of the new book "Do They Run When They See You Coming? Reaching Out to Unchurched Teenagers." This book helps us better understand youth culture today, and equips us to reach out to an unchurched generation (CLICK HERE FOR THE BOOK). Jonathan studies youth culture and trends, speaking and training across the country and providing free online resources, training, & ideas for youth workers at www.TheSource4YM.com

http://www.recommendingsex.com