By Shoshana Sefia
Saving sex for marriage was the topic explored at an event on campus as students discussed the value of purity over premarital sex.
Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles, known as CARP, held its event on Nov. 1 at College of Southern Nevada’s North Las Vegas campus with a goal of sharing the benefits of keeping oneself pure till marriage instead of being sexually active during college.
Speakers Cheryl Wetzstein, from The Washington Times, and Dr. Loren Marks, from Brigham Young University, shared facts and statistics about how sexual integrity was viewed positively in prior decades and how the youth today needs to be more educated on the subject.
According to the Institute for Family Studies, which has a mission to strengthen family life, in its article dated Oct. 22, 2018, “The 1960s changed premarital sex. Prior to the sexual revolution unmarried heterosexual sex partners tended to marry each other—sometimes motivated by a shotgun pregnancy. In more recent decades, first sex usually does not lead to marriage. Having only one sex partner has declined over the 20th century for married Americans.”
That report stated respondents in the study who had sex prior to marriage reported lower-quality unions compared to couples who slept just with each other. The odds of happiness in marriage diminished based on how many lovers one had prior to marriage with the lowest odds at 51 percent chance of divorce for those with six-to-10 sexual partners.
Mia Taguchi, who attended the event, said, “Being able to remain abstinent before marriage isn’t about just saving yourself but ultimately it’s about building relationships based on genuine love and commitment first. I feel like in this day and age, people get so caught up in feelings and immediate gratification that decisions also get lost in that as well. People do things based on what they want in the moment and fail to really consider the consequences that come with it and not just in the area of marriage and relationships but many other things as well.”
Taguchi commented on the speakers’ presentations. “The part that stood out to me the most was the quote ‘She was married to marriage before she was married to me’.”
Denzel Delara, CSN student who attended the event, said, “This is my second campus talk. It really tries to get into the root about how the idea of sex is contagious. It is a very curious subject that I was curious about. I really do want to learn to become committed in a relationship with my future wife and give my wife the best relationship I can offer.”
Marcus Fuller, CARP member, said, “To me personally [sexual purity] means I am worth more than the way I have been treating myself. I am worth more than what society tells what I am worth. A lot of my own past relationships I’ve felt like honestly nothing more than a sexual object and I was just there to be a boy toy or something.”
Fuller created the T-shirts for the event. It was a purple shirt that stated, “You are worth more.” He wants to have sexual integrity to offer his future wife more of himself and honor his future family that way.
Chungbom Katayama, CARP member, oversaw the event. He shared, “Hooking up and having casual romantic relationships might not be the best option to find lasting happiness. Having sexual integrity can give you deeper and intimate relationships and I hope this message can be considered in our society more.”
Once the event was over, Katayama said, “I believe it was helpful to the audience. I had many students who came up to me saying the campus talk changed their perspectives on how they see sexual integrity.”
Coyote Student News at the College of Southern Nevada 