Premarital Sex is the Cigarette Smoking of This Century.

Premarital sex is the cigarette smoking of this century.

In the 1950’s nearly half of adult Americans smoked tobacco (1). Smart and sophisticated people, even very spiritual people, frequently smoked and gave it relatively little thought. Society molded to accommodate smokers so they could smoke as often and conveniently as they wished: at home, in public, and in their cars. Then researchers started to dig into the horrific effects that long-term smoking had on people’s health and social outcomes. Once researchers realized the truth, they enlisted public and private messengers to help educate people out of their habit. Despite the evidence, entrenched advocates of smoking said that the research was wrong and encouraged people to continue smoking (2). The truth continued to spread, and now most people disdain smoking and pity the one person in six who is addicted.

While we were overcoming our bad habit of smoking, we were falling even more deeply into a more damaging habit--sexual immorality. Premarital sex is far more common now than smoking was at its peak (3). Society has shifted to accommodate adults and even children to sexually explore based on their immediate desires, not overly worried about their long-term health outcomes or the impact this will have on society.

Sex is one of the most significant steps in the process of forming a close emotional attachment to a partner—and this attachment is the factor most closely linked with long-term happiness. Our bodies and minds are designed to release chemicals and form deep mental and emotional connections with our partner. The emotional, physical, and psychological bond created in this relationship, which includes sex, is one of the key contributors to happiness throughout our lives. Having sex outside of a committed relationship causes our bodies to release emotional superweapons of good feelings, only to be let down by the lack of commitment between ourselves and our partner. We are biologically designed to be monogamous. Sex is like the tape that sticks two people together for the best chances at long-term happiness. Imagine taking that brand new tape, impulsively sticking it to someone in adolescence in an awkward and ill-informed way, and then painfully ripping it off. Imagine a few weeks or years later, sticking it to someone else, and ripping it off again. Now stick it and rip it away 10, 20, or 100 more times, and you will have sad and dysfunctional tape. Our society is treating sex like a conquest or an entertainment. We are literally ruining ourselves. The prevalence of

divorces, single-parent homes, and depression may be evidence of this.

In the 1900s we discovered and then educated people about the horrors that smoking had on our bodies and our long-term health and happiness. In the 2000s we have learned that premarital sex is causing emotional, psychological, and even financial problems for individuals and society as a whole. It’s time to kick another bad habit before it claims millions more victims. Learn about the effects of premarital sex on your mind and your body. Seek support and motivate yourself to quit and stay quit. Don’t worry about the detractors who tell you to enjoy it and to lighten up. Detractors also scorned warnings about tobacco smoke and teased their friends who quit early—many of those detractors are now suffering and paying immensely for holding on to their habit.

You can quit. You can save yourself, your friends, and your family from the emotional and spiritual cancer caused by premarital sex.

1 http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762370.html

2 http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6447/

3 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/key_statistics/p.htm#premarital