MARRIAGE, FAMILY, AND OTHER SEXUAL UNIONS

Nicole M. King, managing editor of the journal, The Family in America, reflects on the fact that American youth are having far less sex “In spite of our culture’s sex-saturation.” This is not just her personal assessment. She cites the finding that:

·       Teens are initiating sex at later ages (between 1991 and 2017, the percentage of high-school students who had ever had sex went down, from 54 to 40 percent).

In support, King cites Kate Julian’s Atlantic Magazine piece, “Why are Young People having so Little Sex?” (Dec. 2018):

·       Today’s young adults are on track to have fewer sex partners than members of the two preceding generations. People now in their early 20s are two and a half times as likely to be abstinent as Gen Xers were at that age; 15 percent report having had no sex since they reached adulthood.

What can account for this in our highly sexualized society, which encourages almost all forms of sexual play? Some cite porn and masturbation. However, I don’t think that these do much to explain their preference of porn over the real thing. Perhaps, instead, many women now feel burnt-out by dating that overwhelmingly seems to be focused on scoring, without an overriding concern for commitment and permanency.

Consistent with this idea, even Julian admits that couples in “committed relationships” tend to have more sex than single adults. King cites the Marriage and Religion Research Institute in this regard:

·       Who is most likely to report feeling enjoyment? And who is least likely to feel sad, anxious, worried, or afraid? The person in an always-intact marriage who worships weekly. Christians who marry, stay married, take their faith seriously, and remain an active part of a religious body—these are the people who report the most frequent and joyful sex.

King observes:

·       This is not reported by Julian, or by any of a number of other concerned members of the media and elite, who sit in their offices puzzling over why American’s youth don’t want (or can’t seem to handle) all of the good gifts the sexual revolution has bestowed upon them.

Perhaps our God knew best when He joined Adam and Eve, making them an inseparable unit (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6). Perhaps He also knew best when He declared that such a stable unit called “family” would produce the healthiest children:

·       Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.” (Malachi 2:15-16)