MARK REGNERUS - FORBIDDEN FRUIT

There was a report in the Papua New Guinea Post Courier

12 May 2011 about the book recently published entitled

Forbidden Fruit. Sex and Religion in the Lives of American

Teenagers. Author Mark Regnerus is professor of sociology

at the University of Texas.

First Book: Forbidden Fruit - Mark Regnerus, Sociologist and Author

Tackling these and other questions, Forbidden Fruit tells the definitive

story of the sexual values and practices of American teenagers, paying

particular www.markregnerus.com/first-book-forbidden-fruit.html

- Cached - Similar

Perhaps journalist Roberto Rivera Carlo has sensationalized the

book. There is reference to the evangelical and non-evangelical

teenagers.

Professor Regnerus used three national surveys of teenagers and

250 interviews to determine that non-evangelical teenagers have

sex at 16.7 while evangelical teens have sex at 16.3.

The use of evangelical as a category is unfortunate as it conjures

up images of teenagers praying on their knees, reading Bibles

and attending prayer meetings. But they are into sex more than

the non-evangelicals according to the survey sample of Professor

Regnerus.

If Regnerus has undertaken such a wide national survey, we have

to know of his survey procedures. What were the criteria for an

evangelical boy and girl teenager? What of their families? Did they

plan to go to college? Were their parents in employment? Was the

house empty during the day?

In America, is there a drift from the rural towns to the major urban

areas more than ever before? Do boys and girls spend more years

in the big towns attending college than ever before?

The evangelicals were supposed to have more sex. What was sex?

intercourse? holding hands? petting? I recall a novel that quoted

a young man as saying that his girl friend could not think of a single

prayer when he put his hand up her dress. It seemed to imply an

hypocrisy on her part.

The journalist says that modern teenagers were required to be chaste

for longer than ever before. We are told the teenage and young adult

years are not a transition anymore. That is not really true, surely?

It may be that more young people are living away from home given

the slow drop in the American economy in recent decades. Families

may be suffering dislocation as parents move to other towns seeking

work. Families move to churches in other towns.

There are indeed massive pressures on modern teenagers in America

and all over the world. Regnerus says we are in a hyper-sexualized mass

culture on both boys and girls.

Recently on this blog is the report from Australian Michael Gregg-Carr

and his book The Princess Bitchface Syndrome. He says that family is

widening to include the peer group with the advent of internet and mobile

phones.

Young people are likely to seek advice from their friends by text message

rather than approach their parents.

Middle class young boys and girls in America have lived in a cocoon over

many decades. Boys went off to war. But perhaps they are more out in

the open now as America struggles with economic growth in the face of

expansion of China.

There is dislocation in the Episcopalian church with the pressure from gay

and lesbian rights. A schism has developed. The gay/lesbian message is
that God is out of date on sex. There is loss of faith of young people with

revelations of Catholic sex abuse of children.

This must cause a lack of confidence among young people. The gays and

lesbians of America may be promoting rights not responsibilities among

young people. Their Australian brothers and sisters are doing that in PNG.

Perhaps Regnerus has misnamed the issue as Forbidden Fruit. It is more

cultural and economic than that. But the title will sell books.

He should not give the impression that the evangelical boys and girls are

a mob of blessed virgins who have turned away from their God to have

sex. The implication must not be that evangelicals are sex starved.