"Red Sex, Blue Sex"

Or: Why are so many evangelical teens getting knocked up? And why do their parents seem so "unfazed, or even buoyed, by the news"?

Here are some interesting things I just learned from reading the advance copy of a The New Yorker article that officially comes out on November 3rd:

"But the reactions to [Bristol Palin's pregnancy] have exposed a cultural rift that mirrors America’s dominant political divide. Social liberals in the country’s “blue states” tend to support sex education and are not particularly troubled by the idea that many teen-agers have sex before marriage, but would regard a teen-age daughter’s pregnancy as devastating news. And the social conservatives in “red states” generally advocate abstinence-only education and denounce sex before marriage, but are relatively unruffled if a teen-ager becomes pregnant, as long as she doesn’t choose to have an abortion."

And guess what? According to this piece, evangelical teens are a lot "faster", and "coming out" earlier (typically just after turning sixteen) than even I would have ever guessed:

"[A]ccording to Add Health data, evangelical teen-agers are more sexually active than Mormons, mainline Protestants, and Jews. On average, white evangelical Protestants make their “sexual début”—to use the festive term of social-science researchers—shortly after turning sixteen. Among major religious groups, only black Protestants begin having sex earlier."

Once again, I feel a bit like I'm "Through the Looking Glass" here, where black is white and up is down, and "Family Values"... sigh. I just don't know any more...

What I do know, though, is that explosive population growth worldwide is/will be one of the biggest challenges facing the 21st Century. And it makes the call for a "Code Green" in our country, and worldwide, just that much the harder to accomplish.

But listen up, future teenager of mine (if I ever have one), in the event you ever get yourself into such a life-altering predicament. I will first give you a hug... and let you know that I support you 100%. But then... I'm gonna set the kitchen timer at 5 minutes, and my words will fly...

Read the full article here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/03/081103fa_fact_talbot