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Ethical & Social Issues Chastity

Chastity’s Contagious

Rev. Thomas H. Trapp Chastity’s contagious. Think of two people on a date. One insists on chastity; the other’s going to practice it too. It’s contagious! It’s also 100 percent safe (as well as God-pleasing). But not everyone practices chastity….

Premarital Relationships

Premarital Relationships

Premarital Relationships

Rev. Wayne Mueller In a bygone era, when people were still ashamed to talk about it (Ephesians 5:12), it was called cohabitation. Today’s terms are more unashamedly descriptive: living together, shacking up, living in. Still, these more picturesque terms are…

popcorn

Sex Is Like Eating Popcorn

Sex Is Like Eating Popcorn

I Am Caught! Did you ever notice that a bowl of popcorn rarely sits half empty? Once you start eating it you don’t stop until it’s gone. Someone once said that having sex is like eating popcorn. Once you have…

Take the Pledge: Study Says Virginity Pledges Work

Take the Pledge: Study Says Virginity Pledges Work

Programs like “True Love Waits” – in which teens pledge to abstain from sex until marriage – have long been touted by pro-family groups as effective countermeasures to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and teen pregnancy. But critics have long argued…

Talking to Your Kids About Chastity

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you…

The Truth About Sex Before Marriage

What Is the Purpose of a Sexual Relationship? Companionship Genesis 2:18 – ”The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’ ” Children Genesis 1:28 – “God…

Youth Corner: Dating

Cindy Ewings Dating. The words and images rush through everyone’s heads. The first date. The movie that you saw, and the restaurant that you went to together. The jokes that you shared and the special moments that you spent together….

Marriage and Family Under God

Pastor Lyle J. Lindloff Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21). Which key unlocks the door? To find the key that unlocks the door of Ephesians 5:21 we must go to the beginning of the chapter….

Would You Like to Go to a Movie?

Rev. Robert Fleischmann, National Director, Christian Life Resources Solomon Wrote (Ecclesiastes 1:9): “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” I think of this passage often as…

Shepherding Your Teens to Adulthood

Mark Clifford Brunner Teen dating? Perhaps, it’s time to assign these words to the dustbin of outmoded phrases. At least, if most 15 year-olds had their way, they would be happy never to hear these words again. We “get together”…

Sharing the Facts of Life

Pastor James A. Aderman I trusted him when he told me, “I love you.” He trusted me when I said the same. We trusted our emotions when they said, “It’s OK. Show each other how much you care.” When our…

Saying ‘Yes’ to Sex

Pastor Rolfe Westendorf Society has always had trouble with the subject of sex. Some societies like the Victorian have hidden the topic in a closet as if it did not exist. Sex went on as usual, including its rankest forms…

Human Sexuality

Rev. Wayne Mueller What do the words crime, innuendo, molestation, bias, misconduct, discrimination, overtones, violence, and perversion have in common? They all follow the adjective “sexual” in today’s news reports. There is something especially repulsive about sexual sins. St. Paul…

Saved Sex Is the Only Safe Sex

Ryan MacPherson As a teenager, I hear the media telling my peers and me about sex more than any other topic. I have to ask myself two questions: What are they telling us? And, are we listening? Overwhelmingly, they are…

Decent Sex [5-Part Series]

Part 1: Man’s Word on Sex The words people use to describe sex and sexual activity already betray much about the way they feel. On the one hand are words that reveal ignorance, confusion and hurt. We hear words like…

Reserving Sex for Marriage

Pastor Fredric Piepenbrink God’s precious gift of sex is only for those who publicly promise faithfulness to one another for life. Since the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the idea of reserving sexual relations for married couples has become utterly…

Q&A on Abstinence/Teaching Teens about Birth Control

QUESTION: I’ve heard that teen pregnancy rates have increased. Is it time to teach our kids about birth control? ANSWER: The teen birth rate has been on a steep decline since the early 1990s. Yet, teaching about birth control is…

Q&A on Teens and Chastity

QUESTION: My two children are approaching their teen years. I want to talk with them about chastity, but I made some mistakes when I was their age. Am I being hypocritical if I tell them to wait until marriage to…