Sexual Purity Under Attack in Nation’s Schools, Says Christian Author Dannah Gresh
Before you read the link/ editorial below, please see my previous post:
(Link, previous post at Christian Pundit Blog): The Contemporary Church Undervalues Celibacy / Virginity
(Link): (“Sexual Purity Under Attack”)
I can’t get too excited about the page or the efforts, because once again, all the concern is for the under- age- 25 demographic.
Christians don’t give a rat’s ass about anyone who is actually a virgin, still unmarried past the age of 30. Regardless, here are a few excerpts from the page (click the link to read the whole article):
- By Melissa Barnhart, May 11, 2013
Dannah Gresh, a best-selling author and advocate for the sexual purity movement, was a featured speaker at this year’s TEDxPSU event at Pennsylvania State University, and spoke about sexual myths that are hurting teenagers and college students who are navigating a culture that promotes tolerance of all sexual behaviors and choices, except abstinence.
“We’re waving the banner of tolerance over the nation, but the one thing that’s not tolerated is abstinence and sexual purity,” said Gresh in an interview with The Christian Post on Wednesday. “Something parents don’t understand is that their teenagers are living in an age where virginity isn’t tolerated.”
“Some of the messages we’re hearing about sex are myths that promote the lie that those who are waiting to have sex until the time is right are going to end up having bad sex,” she said. “Virginity is medically, emotionally and spiritually the best choice, but physically it’s also the best choice.”
Gresh cited a recent poll of college students that reveals 19 percent claim to be virgins. But she also noted that among those who are having sex, upon graduation, boys will have had more than nine sex partners and girls will have had seven or more sex partners.
“The virginity movement is increasing, but it’s still a good minority,” said Gresh who emphasized in her interview with CP that the new trend among students, starting in middle school and junior high, is the promotion of sexual activity and experimentation among their peers, and a lack of tolerance for virginity.
…Gresh, who encourages teenagers to maintain their sexual purity, said her most recent book, Get Lost: Your Guide to Finding True Love was written to help young girls understand where the craving for a relationship with a young man comes from, and to encourage girls to seek the love of God; “to step back from guys and just be in love with God.”
…Gresh also offers an apology to the abstinence movement because “we sometimes suggest that your prince charming will come if you do all of the right things. The point is not finding a guy; it’s to get lost in God’s love. And the point of living a life of purity is not to find a guy, it is to obey God. These are very solid truths outlined in Scripture.”
One reason why she set out on the path to promote sexual purity is due to the depression she felt at age 15, when she decided to have sex with a boy her same age, whom she said would be a stranger to her now. Although she didn’t bear any physical consequences, such as getting pregnant or contracting an STD, she felt depressed and hid her sadness, and she didn’t want her daughters to experience the same pain.
..She also described students who are choosing to abstain from sex until marriage as being brave; and said she wants to see the country embrace the “same tolerance and acceptance for virginity and abstinence as other sexual choices in our culture.”
Edit, May 2014.
Note that Gresh admits in the above interview that she had pre-marital sex when she was 15 years old, yet she is being invited into schools or churches and being interviewed as though she is an expert on sexual purity.
I blogged about this sort of thing before:
I also have critiqued several of her online editorials about sex and modesty, such as:
(Link): Fifty Shades of Feminine Hypocrisy – editorial by Gresh, discusses slut shaming, rape culture, modesty – has points I agree and disagree with
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—Related post(s), this blog—
(Link): The Church / Christians Have Failed Are Failing Older Single / Never Married Christians
(Link): Older Christian Singles and Celibacy
(Link): How Christians and Christian Teachings Keep Christians Single and Virgins Forever
(Link): The Contemporary Church Undervalues Celibacy / Virginity
(Link): Christian Response FAIL to Sexual Sin – Easy Forgivism
(Link): Article: Our Born-Again Virgin Bachelor – Secondary or Spiritual Virginity
(Link): The Singles Challenge ( Single Christian over 35 years old never married )
(Link): The Scandal of Singleness
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Christian Pundit 
So Gresh had sex at 15 and now she’s a best selling author writing about sexual morality. I’ve always wondered which is a more effective witness for young people: A life of mistakes and regret or a life of self control and purity. If she had given a talk to my 9th grade class, I would have fell in the floor laughing. Sadly, as you pointed, those of us who have waited are not supposed to exist.
Maybe I should do a new post about that subject. It won’t be very long, but you can chime in in the comments if you want.