Here's a sad and disheartening report. The advertising industry, entertainment industry, and the education establishment have a lot to answer for (as do parents).
Clay Jones of Second Glance Ministries says that even 10 to 14 year olds are becoming sexually active -- so many, the CDC for the first time ever is studying sexual disease rates among girls that age.
"Those young women between the ages of 10 and 14 contracted more cases of chlamydia," said Jones, "than all the women between the ages of 40 and 50 put together."
He said, "We're seeing young people seven, eight and nine years old beginning to act out sexually in ways we've never seen before."
And many Christian young people are succumbing, or at least playing up to the edge.
. . . Clay Jones studies the sexual stats. And he talks a lot to youth pastors.
"Their kids are having sex," he said. "If they're not, they're participating in oral sex. And if they have young people in their groups who aren't sexually active, they're the rarity."
Cantliffe said, "So many parents have
no idea what their kids are doing."
. . . But studies show that many young people wish they hadn't lost their virginity.
Ayinde said, "Two in three teenagers say that they actually regret their first sexual experience."
"I've had a lot of friends who wanted to be popular and cool, and so they do it, and they end up regretting it," Cantliffe explained.
Dr. Gary Rose of The Medical Institute says that if parents can't trust the schools to teach abstinence, at least they can do it themselves.
Many resources are available for believers, like The Medical Institute's "Questions Kids Ask about Sex" or Second Glance Ministries' soon-to-be-released "Raising Kids in a Sexually Saturated Society."
Rose said, "More than 90 percent of young adolescents and adolescents, in general, want a very strong abstinence message from their parents. They want parents to talk about abstinence. And the problem is, so many of us as parents are uncomfortable talking about it." (more)