Mormonism: Sexual Activity

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a strong position about sexual activity: people should not engage in sexual activity until they are married, and sexual activity should be confined to their marriage partner. The LDS church bases its position about marriage on revelation from God in which pregnancies are side effects of sexual activity, and the real sin is sexual activity not pregnancies.

A study published in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Family Psychology states that couples who wait until marriage to become sexually active have stronger marriages. The question that has not been fully answered is, "How do we get couples to wait until marriage?" Two approaches to this question have been tried. Many educators believe that girls and boys should be taught the details of sexual activity, sexual disease, and birth control so they can make intelligent decisions whether to become sexually active or not. Other people, especially parents, believe sex education should be taught in the home with a feeling of love, compassion, and respect for the sexual relationship between couples. Many parents are struggling to get abstinence taught in schools as one way of preventing the negative aspects of sexual activity. Some people who believe that sexual activity should be delayed until the person is married advocate that sex education classes be based on an abstinence-only approach to sexual activity. However, some researchers say that "Abstinence-only Education Does Not Lead to Abstinent Behavior" (report from the University of Georgia).

The researchers looked at teen pregnancy and birth data from 48 U.S. states to evaluate the effectiveness of those states' approaches to sex education, as prescribed by local laws and policies.

"Our analysis adds to the overwhelming evidence indicating that abstinence-only education does not reduce teen pregnancy rates," said Kathrin Stanger-Hall, assistant professor of plant biology and biological sciences in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

I've read other studies that indicate that abstinence alone does not solve the problem of teen pregnancies.  Concerning sex education in schools, the question in my mind is how much detail should schools go into concerning sexual activity? Is there a combination of traditional sex education and abstinence education that will reduce the pregnancy rate of young adults? In addition to being taught details of sexual activity, I believe that children should be taught their bodies are sacred, that sex is the method God has given married couples for reproduction, and that they are the children of a loving Heavenly Father. Since this approach is not something appropriate for public schools, it is critical that parents and churches become active in teaching their youth about the sacred nature of sex. The weakness of this approach is, of course, that many if not most parents shun their responsibility to provide wholesome sex education in their homes. In addition, churches are divided about the issue of sexual activity and don't provide strong foundations for sexual activities that are approved by God.

I fear that the sexual drive in our youth and the influence of peer pressure are stronger than we realize, and that we don't fully comprehend the urgency of this matter. There are many youth who want to be chaste and wait until marriage, but they succumb to temptations and peer pressure. In some way, we must get our youth to make commitments to themselves to be chaste. That decision must be theirs, not ours, not their peers, or that of their churches.