Ruth Institute Blog

by Terrell Clemmons

Okay, I need to understand this ‘victory,’” Jeannie started in. The governor of our state had just signed legislation stripping abortion giant Planned Parenthood of about $4 million in annual taxpayer funding. “First, you do not want to teach sex-ed and provide condoms in schools. Second, you do not want to fund an organization that provides contraception to prevent pregnancy. And you do not want abortion as an option. Do you really think that more teens will practice abstinence because of this?” Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Pressure and lack of self control lead teens in developing countries to regret sex, a new study shows.

Next week a British television channel begins the second series of a show called “The Joy of Teen Sex”. The programme promises “A bold, informative look at the love lives and sex lives of teenagers that tells it like it really is, and is definitely not just for teens.” Not justfor teens? Is a show with such a misleading title useful for teens at all? Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

A professor of sociology wrote a week or so ago in the New York Timesthat American family life might be much improved if parents in the US were more like those in the Netherlands who — typically, it is implied — allow their teenage daughters to have their boyfriends sleep over in the family home, or sons to have their girlfriends do the same. Read more…

by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse

How science is consistent with the ancient Christian teachings

Now after all this theology and philosophy, you may be astonished by my next move. I am going to show that science now substantiates many of the important claims that Christianity has been making since the beginning.  Let me begin with the most basic. The human person is meant for love. Read more…

by Shannon Buckley

A survey by a condom maker has found New Zealand women to be the most promiscuous in the world.  Not the most flattering thing to be leading the world in.  The survey found that New Zealand women had 20.3 sexual partners on average.  Another long-running Otago multi-disciplinary study finds that half the female participants had 8 or fewer partners by age 32, but that a smaller group of highly active women push up the average.  The New Zealand Herald reports: Read more…

By Carlos Polo

The age at which teenagers begin to engage in sexual activity is a critical variable for those who would make public policy in the health field. Early onset of sexual activity is associated with higher rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), teen pregnancy, depression, suicide, and other adverse consequences. Read more…

By Pat Hagan

It’s a bit of a cliche that women settle down for love, and men for regular sex.

But scientists are claiming it’s true. A study shows that women agree to cohabit because they view it as a stepping stone to marriage.

Yet men move in hoping for more sex and to ‘test drive’ the relationship to see if it is worth sticking around. Read more…

By TAMAR LEWIN

The popular stereotype of college campuses as a hive of same-sex experimentation for young women may be all wrong.

To the surprise of many researchers and sex experts, the National Survey on Family Growth found that women with bachelor’s degrees were actually less likely to have had a same-sex experience than those who did not finish high school. Read more…

Dr J was in North Carolina this past weekend, where she gave two talks.  The first one, “Love & Economics,” was given at the John Locke Foundation; it deals with marriage as the basic unit of a functioning society.  The second one, “Retreat from Relationship in the Hook-Up Culture,” was given at Duke University; it discusses the ways sex was designed to be used and the things that go wrong when it is misused.

Here is an excellent talk on sex and happiness

Standing on the Threshold of an Inconceivable Age: Sexuality in the 21st Century, by Reverend Dale S. Kuehne from Alexander Hamilton Institute on Vimeo.

This is about an hour long, but there is alot of good food for thought here.

A commentary by Margaret Brooks in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education, “Sex Week” Should Arouse Caution Most of All, points out the most powerful cultural force promulgating the permissive sexual norms that concern Rob and Bob — the sex industry. And this force isn’t contained by controlling our kids’ access to cable and MTV.   Here’s her description of what’s happening on our college campuses:

In recent years, weeklong programs dubbed Sex Week were held at institutions including Brown, Northwestern, and Yale Universities and the University of Kentucky. Student groups, not administrators, organized the programs. The events, billed as educational, used the universities’ names and facilities. They were open to everyone, including the outside community.  . . . Judging from the program descriptions, the emphasis of most Sex Week programming seems to be more on providing entertainment and promoting pleasure, rather than teaching students about sexual health and safety. While some sessions covered topics like women’s health and sex trafficking, others featured such offerings as pornographic-film screenings; a lingerie show using college students as models; and a topless porn star demonstrating bondage, discipline, dominance, and submission to a student audience.

Read more…

Keep checking the podcast page for more lectures from “It Takes a Family.”  The most recent one up is Dr. Robert Gagnon’s talk, entitled “Jesus and Sex.”  He’s a professor from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and he discussed what Jesus taught about sex–including marriage, homosexuality, and divorce–and how His teachings related to the Mosaic law and the mores of the culture.

Jesus and Sex @ ITAF

The first two podcasts of talks given at this year’s summer student conference are up on the podcast page for your listening pleasure.  There will be around 10 talks when all of them are podcasted (categorized under “ITAF 2010″).  Thanks to everyone who was a part of “It Takes a Family.”

Dr. Miriam Grossman

Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse

Great post today over at the First Things blog.

It is odd that simply because of its “sexual freedom” our time should be considered extraordinarily physical. In fact, our “sexual revolution” is mostly an industrial phenomenon, in which the body is used as a idea of pleasure or a pleasure machine with the aim of “freeing” natural pleasure from natural consequence.

Like any other industrial enterprise, industrial sexuality seeks to conquer nature by exploiting it and ignoring the consequences, by denying any connection between nature and spirit or body and soul, and by evading social responsibility. The spiritual, physical, and economic costs of this “freedom” are immense, and are characteristically belittled or ignored. The diseases of sexual irresponsibility are regarded as a technological problem and an affront to liberty.

Industrial sex, characteristically, establishes its freeness and goodness by an industrial accounting, dutifully toting up numbers of sexual partners, orgasms, and so on, with the inevitable industrial implication Read more…

The thought of kids having kids is really disturbing to me. I had my first child when I was 25, and I can say, it’s serious business. I can’t imagine doing it while trying to go to high school or even college. And who is really going to be raising these children anyhow? My guess is, the grandmothers. Let’s do a survey of how mothers of pregnant teens feel about teen pregnancy.

The picture a 13-year-old boy sitting next to his baby, which accompanied an article on this topic a while back, still burns in my memory. It was such a heart-wrenching sight. The thirteen-year-old  looked so tiny. Plus his face spoke volumes of “What have I gotten myself into?” This dad is still asking to have his pb and j cut into triangles and for rides to the library. I wouldn’t let a 13-year-old boy babysit my toddlers. Babies deserve more. Read more…

I agree. And Ray Guarendi is a real top notch guy who knows his stuff. This makes sense.

by Carolyn Moynihan

Most kids are dating way too early

That’s the opinion of family psychologist Ray Guarendi, and judging from the schoolkids I see smooching on the street and at the mall he is right. Read more…

Ruth Institute Staff post

We were all transfixed this afternoon as Tiger Woods took the international podium to follow in the footsteps of countless other men in the public eye who got caught inflagrante delicto by offering his heartfelt apologies both to us and his (absent) wife.

So….what? Do we believe him? Do we not? Does it matter? Was he actually contrite about what he did or just for getting caught?

This man is arguably the most visible athlete in the civilized world; his trail cuts and leaves a wide swath in our society, and hence in the minds of our children.

Should Tiger be held to a higher standard? What do you think, Ruth supporters and blog readers?

We put up a short poll about this to the right of this page, but we want to know how you feel beyond the numbers. Weigh in here and tell us what you think the ramifications of this marriage scandal are, or will be?

Yet another fantastic way to screw up kids.

Carolyn Moynihan

The sexualisation of children’s entertainment has reached a new low with the arrival of an online game in which kids can “hook up” and play strippers and prostitutes with avatars. Read more…

Way to go, PM! Way to voice your opinion even when it’s so horribly unpopular. . . and when you’re right.

Carolyn Moynihan

Horrors! The next prime minister of Australia might be a man who advocates virginity for young people.

Here is this week’s shock-horror story from Australia: the country’s next prime minister might be a man who advises his daughters not to throw their virginity away on just anyone. Fair go, that’s what he dared to say during an interview with a women’s magazine. You probably heard the resulting outcry in America, above the President’s State of the Union address, above the iPad hysteria: ‘What a chauvinist! What a pontificator! What a hypocrite!’ — to recite only the more flattering epithets. Read more…

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but still, nice to see some confirmation by someone overtly stating it.

Carolyn Moynihan

A British feminist is sounding the alarm about the effects on teenagers of easy access to pornography, saying that a skewed view of sex is becoming the norm in society and the idea of intimacy is dying. Read more…