Alfred Lord Tennyson in what is probably the most famous line from his poem Locksley Hall observed, “In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” Any astute observer realizes there is no great revelation in that observation, albeit Tennyson without question stated the obvious as gracefully as a man ever has.

Secular liberals do, however, appear to be quite flummoxed by the notion that the fancy of an evangelical young man (or woman) would somehow lightly turn to love, as well. Not just in spring, but ever. One such case of bewilderment comes from the pen of Hannah Rosin, writing a piece for Slate titled, Even Evangelical Teens Do It:

Evangelical teens are actually more likely to have lost their virginity than either mainline Protestants or Catholics. They tend to lose their virginity at a slightly younger age—16.3, compared with 16.7 for the other two faiths. And they are much more likely to have had three or more sexual partners by age 17…

Ms. Rosin gets her facts from the new book by Dr. Mark Regnerus, Forbidden Fruit: Sex & Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers (2007, Oxford University Press). Dr. Regnerus is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin who produced his book after having conducted extensive analysis of three national surveys of teenagers along with face to face interviews with over 250 teens on issues related to their sexual mores. I recently asked Dr. Regnerus if Rosin may be overstating the facts of what his research suggests with the implication in her piece that evangelical teens – especially evangelical teenage girls – are more promiscuous than teenagers in the population at-large. He responded:

No, that’s not really accurate. When we look at evangelicals we can actually split them even further into two very different camps: the ones who are very plugged in to their churches, who are very active, they attend a lot, their parents go, they’re in youth group; and then we can separate a larger group out actually that is not very active. The difference in sexual behavior between those two groups is really quite phenomenal.

Evangelical kids, like many teenagers in America, tend to be more conservative in attitude than in action. I think it’s sometimes considered the height of irony that when we associate religion and sexuality, we tend to think of evangelicals as born-again kids. I think Rosin had a good time probing some of the most interesting findings of the book, although there is a lot more to the book than is treated in Slate.

Dr. Regnerus’ book is not an analysis of the sexual attitudes and behavior of evangelical teenagers exclusively. The focus of the book is how religious faith in general affects the attitudes and behavior of ALL teenagers across denominational and religious affiliation, even those with no religious affiliation at all.

Secular liberals like Ms. Rosin are shocked that teenagers who identify themselves as evangelical would behave in a way secular liberals would consider normal for non-evangelical teens, as if somehow Christian teenagers possess a supernatural DNA that has nullified their sex drive. Ms. Rosin gleefully points out that teens who made a commitment to sexual purity through campaigns like True Love Waits on average postponed having sex only 18 months. What she is failing to take into consideration is whether or not these self-identifying evangelical teens actually adhere to the faith historically espoused by evangelical Christians. That is – are these kids truly born-again and living lives in the power of the Holy Spirit having been regenerated by faith in Jesus Christ? Dr. Regnerus’ argues that they are not, and therefore they are not evangelical in any sense other than self-identifying as such. Calling yourself the King of England does not you the King of England make.

In plainer words, the teenagers who identify themselves as evangelical, who in turn are engaging in sex at an even greater rate than are non-evangelical teens, are not evangelical in the sense of being truly born-again. They might attend an evangelical church – and as Ms. Rosin points out many attend evangelical megachurches – but Dr. Regnerus points not to affiliation with an evangelical church, or self-identification as an evangelical, but to a genuine faith commitment as the deciding factor in whether or not a teenager is sexually active. Ms. Rosin’s conclusion that there is rampant sexual activity among evangelical teens at higher rates than the general population is simply not supported by what Dr. Regnerus’ is actually saying.

Contrary to Ms. Rosin’s implication, the Gospel works. What Dr. Regnerus’ analysis actually demonstrates is teenagers who have responded to the Gospel of Jesus Christ are far LESS likely to engage sexually than are their peers who are not so committed spiritually. This is not to say that committed Christian teens won’t have to battle sexual temptation; nor am I suggesting that many of them will not fall to sexual temptation. Many will. But many others will successfully fight with faith the temptation to sexual sin precisely because of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, not because of their church affiliation.