Damaging message about sex

What is the damaging message about sex so frequently communicated through the media, either directly or indirectly? Abbylin Sellers, author of The Sexual Abstinence Message Causes Positive Change in Adolescent Behavior, identifies six media lies about sex. For each lie, Sellers gives us the truthful message our kids need to grasp:

Lie #1: Sex creates intimacy. True intimacy is built on commitment to honesty, love and freedom. A prostitute may expose her body, but her relationships are hardly intimate.

Lie #2: Starting sex early in a relationship will help you get to know one another and become better partners later. Sex is an art that is learned best in the safe environment of marriage.

Lie #3: Casual sex without long-term commitment is both fun and freeing. A satisfying sexual relationship requires trust--trust which grows only in the context of the life-long commitment of marriage.

Lie #4: If you don’t express your sexuality freely, you must be repressed, sick or prudish. This can be a very intimidating lie, but the facts are that premature sex is bad for your emotional, physical and cultural health.

Lie #5: Sex is freedom. Young people who become sexually active in response to peer pressure to be sophisticated and independent are actually becoming victims of current public opinion. No one is really free who engages in any activity to impress the majority.

Lie #6: Surely God understands that this is the twentieth century! God did not give these rules because he is a spoil-sport. Quite the contrary. Because He is God and because He loves us more than we can ever know, He has told us how to have the best, most satisfying sexual experiences--in the context of marriage.

Josh McDowell