or your local bookstore.
Recently I had a conversation with a parent of a young adult who is now out of the house, has chosen not to live according to his parents’ faith values, and who is in a new relationship. The father said, “I just told my son to be sure he was having protected sex.”
He felt powerless to challenge anything different.
So I want to stir up some good discussion here.
Watch Oprah’s show on Friday, on August 7th, 14 Years Old: They Say They’re Ready to Have Sex, a rerun, and you’ll quickly pick up a sense of the culture’s prevailing attitude about teen sex.
Related links on Oprah’s site:
Having the Sex Talk with Your Kids
Middle School Girls Talk About Sex
Contrast that with another discussion through Christianity Today’s August, 2009 article “The Case for Early Marriages.”
In this piece, Mark Regnerus says that abstinence pledges and courtship training may have left out teaching “young Christians how to tie the knot.” While some of his conclusions in his presented case for early marriages may or may not be the ultimate or only way to go, he brings up some interesting ideas to consider. (If you subscribe to the magazine, you can also read the three responses to Regenerus’s position, which add more interesting thoughts to the discussion.)
Read it all. Consider it.
Instead of feeling powerless as pastors, mentors, or parents of teens (or ignoring addressing the topic altogether), what can we do? What would help our children, teens, and young adults move in the healthiest way toward marriage with a God-honoring respect for the gift of sex and toward great relationships in marriage?
Please share your thoughts. But before you slap down a reaction, really consider the whole picture. I’ll be upfront and admit that this discussion is primarily targeted to those who have generally held to a faith-based perspective. What do you think God is calling us to? And how can we best help our youth get there?
And what advice would you have for the father I mentioned at the beginning? Is there an age when a parent should stop having influence on his child’s, albeit adult child’s, decisions about sex, relationships, and marriage?
Weigh in.
