Stop Pretending Sex Never Hurts, By D.C. McAllister
This is the sort of editorial that would be mocked at Stuff Christian Culture Likes group (you can read my review of that group here). But I agree with some aspects of it.
(Link): Stop Pretending Sex Never Hurts
Excerpt:
- Every day we hear about something that is harmful to us, something the government needs to regulate or outlaw, something for which an avalanche of public service announcements must be unleashed on the American people as they drive home from work, watch television, or scan their favorite websites.
- Don’t eat sugar. You’ll get diabetes and die.
- ….Meanwhile there’s not a peep about one of the most dangerous activities people engage in all the time—premarital sex. Or extramarital sex.
- Or, dare I say the word—fornication? Or does that make me sound too judgmental?
- Probably, but the word fits because sex is loaded with moral implications: The possibility of dysfunctional relationships, of sexually transmitted diseases, of an unwanted pregnancy or abortion. The possibility of guilt, shame, depression, and suicide.
- … When I hear people talk about sex as if it’s no big deal, as if it’s no different than eating a steak or going for a drive on the freeway, when I see ads comparing voting to losing your virginity, or when I hear social conservatives slapped down when they voice their objections to a licentious culture, my heart grieves.
- That’s because I’m picturing the girl walking home alone after having sex on the beer-drenched floor of a fraternity house with a guy too drunk to remember her name. The tears on her cheeks. The tightness in her chest, the sick feeling deep inside, and the already-hardening effect of knowing she will do it again.
- …The Stats Are No Joke
- An estimated 8,300 young people between 13 and 24 reported to the Centers for Disease Control in 2009 that they had been diagnosed with the HIV infection.
- From 2008 through 2011, among adult and adolescent males, the annual number of diagnosed HIV infections attributed to male-to-male sexual contact increased. At the end of 2010, nearly 873,000 people reported having HIV.
- …Women who abort are four times more likely to die within a year than women who don’t get an abortion. Women who aborted in the year before their death were 60 percent more likely to die of natural causes, seven times more likely to die of suicide, and 14 times more likely to die from homicide. Abortion is linked to smoking, drug abuse, suicide, violent behavior, and eating disorders.
- ….People Have a Right to Know
- Yes, a woman has a right to do what she wants with her body. Yes, men and women can engage in all kinds of sexual behavior if they want to. But does that mean we should ignore the consequences? Remain silent to the costs? Refuse to issue warnings because we’re afraid we’ll be called judgmental or worse?
- …If we’re going to warn people of the perils of Big Gulps and French fries, shouldn’t we warn them of the dangers of sex?
(((click here to read the rest)))
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Related:
(Link): The Myth of Safe Sex by D. Foley
(Link): Some Researchers Argue that Shame Should Be Used to Treat Sexual Compulsions
(Link): Our Bodies Were Not Made for Sex by T. Swann
(Link): Why Sexual Desire is Objectifying and Hence Morally Wrong by R. Halwani
(Link): An Example of Mocking Adult Virginity Via Twitter (Virginity Used As Insult)
(Link): Syphilis Sparks Concern in Popular Vacation City
(Link): Inconsistency on Feminist Site – Choices Have Consequences
(Link): Christian Preacher Admits He Won’t Preach About Sexuality For Fear It May Offend Sexual Sinners
