Here's a shocker, recent study shows that purity pledges do not work. Or at least not for long.

Courtesy of Salon:  

Great/horrible news for proponents of comprehensive sex education: virginity pledges don’t work, according to science. That is, they don’t work unless signers are truly and deeply religious, in which case abstinence pledges are likely to delay sexual activity a few years — but usually not until marriage. A recent study published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies has found that the efficacy of virginity pledges is not only associated directly with signers’ religiosity, but also poses serious risks to young adults who go back on their word. 

To evaluate what role religious commitment played in young adults’ adherence to virginity pledges, researchers polled 1,380 college students aged 18-24 who attended a “large, public, Southeastern state university,” asking participants whether they had previously signed a virginity pledge, their virginity status and how many past or present intercourse and oral sex partners they had. Researchers also asked students to rate their religious commitment, based on how religion or spirituality influence their daily lives, how often they seek spiritual comfort and how frequently they participate in religious events. 

More than a quarter of respondents had previously made a virginity agreement, either in writing or verbally, which is consistent with national averages; according to a 2008 study of pledge signers, 23.8 percent of adolescents aged 12-17 had agreed to remain abstinent. A majority of signers, however, were — wait for it — no longer virgins at the time of the study. 65 percent of respondents who had signed a virginity pledge reported having had sexual intercourse, and a whopping 77 percent of signers had engaged in oral sex. 

For the most part, though, those who were having oral sex or full-on coitus were also the people with lower rates of religious commitment, indicating that sincere religious belief does play a role in a person’s dedication to remaining abstinent. The researchers differentiated between “religious commitment” and “religious participation” to control for those who might have been immersed in a spiritual lifestyle without being true believers themselves; sure enough, people who were solely “religious participants” exhibited more sexual behavior than committed believers.

Okay that last part might be true, or it might simply be that those who self identify as "religiously committed" are more likely to lie about their sexual activities.

Ya think?

In my experience the girls that were the most religious and goody two shoes were the ones that went the wildest in college. That is unless the college they attended was also super religious and oppressive and they continued to be browbeaten into submission until they graduated and THEN they went wild.

In my opinion losing your virginity should not have such a stigma attached to it, because then what happens is that the focus on its importance almost invariably makes the first time full of stress and more often than not incredibly disappointing.

Yes there are great love stories out in the world concerning high school sweethearts who waited to get married, were each others first and only, and who have marriages that have endured the test of time.

However those stories are few and far between these days.

Teaching young ladies that sexuality is perfectly normal, and that taking precautions to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy, while choosing their partners wisely seems to me the best approach.

But then again I also do not believe I will burn in the eternal fires of hell for thinking impure thoughts or for coveting my neighbor's wife, so perhaps my perspective is little skewed from that of somebody who thinks that fumbling around with an inexperienced girl to take her virginity is a "gift."

Now hot sweaty, clothes rending, wild monkey sex with an experienced woman? Now THAT'S a gift.