GrnBay007
02-20-2008, 09:46 PM
Thou Shalt Have Sex Every Day
When debate turns to the value of marriage, attention normally goes to the religious sanctity of the union, the socio-economic benefits to the married adults and their children and even health pluses. Married couples tend to live longer, healthier lives and are typically less depressed or anxious than their single, divorced, or widowed counterparts.
But one Ybor City, Fla, pastor has taken up the mantle of another marriage blessing. In an attempt to curb high divorce rates, Relevant Church head pastor Paul Wirth issued a challenge for his married congregants: Have sex every day for one month.
"Sometimes life gets in the way," Wirth told the Associated Press. "Our jobs get in the way. And that's no different for people who attend church."
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the rate of divorce in the U.S. is 3.6 divorces per 1,000 people; the rate peaked at 5.3 per 1,000 in 1981. Notably, divorce rates are highest in states where many conservative Christians live, including Arkansas and Mississippi, while the percentage dips in the more liberal Northeast and upper Midwest.
What accounts for the overall decline in divorce rates? Many experts attribute it to a combination of the rise in cohabitation, the older age of marriage, and the overall decline in the marriage rate -- a whopping 30 percent since the mid-1980s. Others factors in income and education levels.
Some, like Pastor Wirth, believe lower divorce rates somehow relates to higher sexual activitiy.
One recent online study by clinical sexologist Bob Berkowitz, PhD and his wife Susan Yager-Berkowitz, authors of 'He's Just Not Up for It Anymore,' however, found that the U.S. divorce rate is well below the nation's average of married couples in sexless marriages (couples having sex fewer than 10 times per year). And it said the most frequent reason couples stop regular lovemaking was 'unadventurous sex,' or a loss of enthusiasm or novelty.
Pastor Wirth's invitation does not extend to unmarried congregants.
When debate turns to the value of marriage, attention normally goes to the religious sanctity of the union, the socio-economic benefits to the married adults and their children and even health pluses. Married couples tend to live longer, healthier lives and are typically less depressed or anxious than their single, divorced, or widowed counterparts.
But one Ybor City, Fla, pastor has taken up the mantle of another marriage blessing. In an attempt to curb high divorce rates, Relevant Church head pastor Paul Wirth issued a challenge for his married congregants: Have sex every day for one month.
"Sometimes life gets in the way," Wirth told the Associated Press. "Our jobs get in the way. And that's no different for people who attend church."
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the rate of divorce in the U.S. is 3.6 divorces per 1,000 people; the rate peaked at 5.3 per 1,000 in 1981. Notably, divorce rates are highest in states where many conservative Christians live, including Arkansas and Mississippi, while the percentage dips in the more liberal Northeast and upper Midwest.
What accounts for the overall decline in divorce rates? Many experts attribute it to a combination of the rise in cohabitation, the older age of marriage, and the overall decline in the marriage rate -- a whopping 30 percent since the mid-1980s. Others factors in income and education levels.
Some, like Pastor Wirth, believe lower divorce rates somehow relates to higher sexual activitiy.
One recent online study by clinical sexologist Bob Berkowitz, PhD and his wife Susan Yager-Berkowitz, authors of 'He's Just Not Up for It Anymore,' however, found that the U.S. divorce rate is well below the nation's average of married couples in sexless marriages (couples having sex fewer than 10 times per year). And it said the most frequent reason couples stop regular lovemaking was 'unadventurous sex,' or a loss of enthusiasm or novelty.
Pastor Wirth's invitation does not extend to unmarried congregants.