Prop 8 Post-Mortem

When Christianity Today released their list of the “Top Ten News Stories of 2008″ that have shaped, or will significantly shape, evangelical life, thought, or mission, it was no surprise to me that the 2008 election was at the top of the list.  I was surprised by what was second:  the fact that voters turned back the California Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision by approving Proposition 8.

Before the November election, we who live in California heard all sorts of 10-20 second advertisements and saw all sorts of campaign signs posted in yards or held up by advocates of both sides on street corners.  There were lots of sound bites but not very much true dialogue.

Now that the election is over, it’s almost as if there is more space for deeper discussions.  The heated rhetoric has passed (at least to some degree) and folks are asking bigger questions about the meaning of marriage, the way Scripture describes homosexuality, and how we as believers can and should engage the issue besides just casting our vote.  I find this type of post-mortem dialogue far more interesting and important than the pre-election hype.

This month, Good Sex 2.0 (a revised version of the original Good Sex co-authored by myself and Jim Hancock) will be published.  During the revisions of the book, I looked into the power of virginity pledges (or should I say the not-so-much-power of virginity pledges).  The good news is that teens who take a virginity pledge delay sexual intercourse and have fewer sexual partners than those who don’t.

The bad news is that the delay is only 21 months, making the average pledger 18.8 years old at first intercourse.  Approximately 75% of teens who make an abstinence pledge do not succeed in keeping that pledge.¹ Furthermore, pledging adolescents were found to engage in other sexual behaviors (i.e., oral sex, anal sex) at greater rates than non-pledging adolescents.²  In other words, the pledges have been more about short-term behavior change than about long-term transformation in attitudes and values (plus behavior).

I am pro-absintence pledge.  I continue to invite students to take those pledges and I hope my own kids make those pledges when they are teenagers.  But even more importantly, I’m pro-good dialogue about sexuality in our youth ministries.  Having kids sign a pledge card at the end of February Love-Sex-And-Dating series isn’t enough.

Regardless of the issue—whether it’s abstinence or homosexuality—I’d love for our churches and our ministries to model true discussions in which we listen and love and learn together.  Don’t you want that too?

1. R. Rector, K.A. Johnson, and J.A. Marshall, “Teens Who Make Virginity Pledges Have Substantially Improved Life Outcomes,” A report of the Heritage Center for Data Analysis. Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation, 2004. [↩]
2. E.S. Lefkowitz, M.M. Gillen, C.L. Shearer, and T.L. Boone, “Religiosity, Sexual Behaviors, and Sexual Attitudes During Emerging Adulthood,” The Journal of Sex Research, 41, 2004, 150-159. [↩]

©2009 Fuller Youth Institute