Making it Realistic

Is saving oneself for marriage unrealistic? According to Sarah Palin's daughter, it is. And you know what? I agree with her, and so does Al Mohler. His blog post today puts it most succinctly.

Is sexual abstinence realistic for teenagers and young adults? Well, abstinence is certainly not realistic when teenagers put themselves - or they are put there by others - into a situation where sexual activity is likely. At some point, sexual abstinence becomes very unrealistic indeed.

The real issue for Christian teenagers and their parents is not to debate whether sexual abstinence before marriage is realistic or not. The larger and more important issue is that sexual abstinence until marriage is the biblical expectation and command. Once this is realized, the responsibility for everyone concerned is to ensure that expectations and structures are in place so that abstinence is realistic.

The debate over whether abstinence is realistic or not misses the more important issue -- abstinence must be made realistic. [Emphasis mine.]

Parents and teenagers must make certain that adequate protections and expectations are in place so that sexual abstinence is very realistic indeed. Far too many Christian parents allow their teenagers to be part of the "hooking up" scene of teenage culture. In that highly sexualized context, sexual abstinence would appear unrealistic in the extreme.

Read the whole post here. He makes the point here that the way modern dating practices are exercised, even by Christians, set up a situation where abstinence is nearly impossible. "Premature pair dating and unsupervised liaisons," as Mohler describes them, are not set in place to maintain purity. This is the reason that Kelly and I long ago decided that our family will not be taking part in modern teenage dating practices. Hopefully, Bristol Palin's comments will serve as a wake up call to Christian parents.