January 8, 2009
 
   
   
 
 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Another new look at old data has caused a stir in the national media, and abstinence pledges are taking another hit just as Congress and the new Obama administration are reconsidering millions of dollars in funding for abstinence education programs.
"We know of no secular or even religious campaign that is as comprehensive and life-encompassing in its approach to moral purity."
-- Richard Ross, True Love Waits cofounder
      The latest report, appearing in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics, examined 934 teenagers with strong religious backgrounds, 289 of whom took abstinence pledges and 645 who did not. Based on this within-group comparison, the study found that teenagers who took a pledge were just as likely to have premarital sex as those who did not take a pledge; and those who took pledges were less likely to use contraceptives.
      However, the study only compared the behavior of strongly religious teenagers to other strongly religious teenagers and made no comparison of this group to teenagers with little or no religious influence in their lives. In other words, the study only looked at how "elites" of a population compared to other "elites" and did not examine this sample's behavior for differences and similarities with the general population of all teens.
      QUESTIONS REMAIN
      Baptist Press corresponded with the author of the study, Janet Rosenbaum, a Harvard graduate and a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins ... Read More


  • Gaza pastor gives update from war zone
    RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--No Christians in Gaza have been injured despite living in hard-hit areas, a Baptist pastor there reported to Baptist Press late in the afternoon Jan. 6. Read More


  • MORE NEWS
  • TLW still nurtures abstinence til marriage

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The "True Love Waits" abstinence-until-marriage movement has recorded numerous milestones since its launch by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
          The first True Love Waits national celebration took place in July 1994 ... Read More
  • Pharmacy school case in Ky. high court

    FRANKFORT, Ky. (BP)--The case involving state funding for a new pharmacy school at the University of the Cumberlands has reached the Kentucky Supreme Court. Read More
  • Survey: Pastors preach stewardship but unaware of church members' debt

  • Exodus-inspired cartoons complement SBC's January Bible study of Exodus -- New additions


  • First Person
    Bob Stith
    Do they know we care?
    SOUTHLAKE, Texas (BP)--"We don't have that problem at our church."
          That response is heard so often when the subject of homosexuality comes up that it has become something of a joke ...

       
       


     © Copyright 2009 Baptist Press. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.


    Southern Baptist Convention