The Wages of Sin

Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying by Regnerus and Uecker was an eye-opening read. Regnerus, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas, and Uecker, from the University of North Caroliana, have teamed up to give the reader an inside look at how America’s emerging adults relate to the opposite sex.

The effects of the 1960s sexual revolution have been immense. In the sixties and seventies sex outside of marriage existed. This is nothing new. But everyone knew it was wrong. Skip forward fifty years and our cultural moral compass has turned upside down. “The majority of young adults in America,” writes the authors, “not only think they should explore different relationships [sexually], they believe it may be foolish and wrong not to” (pg 171). The authors prove that 96% of 18-23 year olds in a romantic relationship are currently engaging in regular sexual intercourse. Tragically, the frequency of sex is higher and the age at first sex are actually lower amongst professing evangelicals.

Although sexual liberation and feminism seek to free women, in the sexual arena, these movements have only furthered the enslavement of females and enhanced the liberty of men. “Sexual economics” are predicated on a transaction. The female give sex and the male gives commitment, love, and security. When there are more available women than men, (the situation in our universities), the odds are tipped even more in the man’s favor. He gets sex at an even further discounted cost. In general ladies are the net losers.

Regnerus and Uecker chronicle the changing attitudes toward love and realtionships, the increasing desire to delay marriage, and the ensuing falling fertility rates which threaten western culture. All of these are tied to and affected by the sexual attitudes of our culture.

These details and others are the subject of this book. I expect it to make a significant contribution to this field of study. Anyone interested in the long term effects of feminism, or the sexual liberation movement will be helped by the material in this book.