(Almost) Everyone’s Doing It

A must-read from Relevant Magazine, this article examines the high rate of Christian singles having sex and digs deep into why our abstinence campaigns aren’t working.  Also check out CNN’s take on the issue here.
Considering the staggering statistics that are cited (80% of single Christian evangelicals between 18-29 have had sex), Joanna Hyatt says, “You cannot talk about sex within the Christian community without also [mentioning] God’s grace.  If we’re serious about people growing in their faith, we have to help them see this issue will stand in the way of their relationship with God, but it doesn’t have to keep them from God.”

Carissa Woodwyk argues that in order for chastity to stand a chance, we must “go back to the beginning”: “Our image of God and His heart for men and women and couples needs to be revisited and corrected.  God didn’t create this beautiful and sacred and amazing act called ‘sex’ to tempt us with = it and then make it a bad thing,” Woodwyk says.  “Could it be that if God is in everything good, that God reveals Himself through the profoundly breathtaking act of sex, too–that God reveals Himself specifically through men and specifically through women?”