Christian Sexual Culture Beats Past and Present 'Pagan Sexuality', Catholic Researcher Says
WASHINGTON – The monogamous, family-friendly culture shared by Christians, Jews, and Muslims proves both more sexually satisfying and more socially philanthropic than the promiscuous culture of hook-ups, homosexuality, and porn, a Roman Catholic researcher argued on Wednesday.
"Those who worship God weekly have the best sex," asserted Patrick F. Fagan, Senior Fellow and Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI) at the Family Research Council, which hosted the event. Fagan's assertion that intact, married couples enjoy sex the most was based on data from the National Health and Social Life Survey.
But not only do faithful, religious husbands and wives have the best love life, he said, they are also "the core strength of the country." The marriage and religion expert cited studies showing the higher performance – academically, socially, and economically – of children from intact families that worship God weekly. "On every single thing measured so far in the federal data system, these children, from parents like this, do best on everything, as a group," Fagan pointed out.
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He previewed a paper by Henry Potrykus, due to be released next week by MARRI, showing the dependence of government charity on strong families. "Irony of ironies," he said, "the welfare state needs the young, intact, married family that worships weekly, to sustain itself."
The most effective workers, "the heavy lifters in the economy…are married men with three kids or more," he added. Faithful men with more children may work harder because they have more incentive to work, more mouths to feed, he said.
However, a culture antithetical to marriage and family has emerged. "Our times are a bit analogous to Pagan Rome, where Christianity first grew up," Fagan observed.
"Abortion, homosexuality, infidelity, pornography, euthanasia, infanticide, all of these things were just the common sexual practice of Pagan Rome, and Christians were noted for being very, very different – monogamous, faithful, struggling for chastity."
This sexually liberal culture has proven negative for American lives and the economy, with divorce reducing the growth rate of the American economy by one-sixth every year over the past 20 years, Fagan argued, citing another paper by Potrykus.
He also said that one in six men and 17 percent of women struggle with porn, and that leads to dissatisfaction in marriage. He used census data to show that women who have had sex before or outside of marriage were more likely to divorce, while 80 percent of women who do not engage in premarital or extramarital sex remain in intact marriages.
Citing, among others, social scientist Jill Manning's book The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the Research, he argued that "pornography generates alienation between men and women." It causes distrust among husbands and wives, and misshapes children's ability to understand sex as God intended.
This problem becomes acute in college, where young men "experiment with evil to find out what's good." Although the sexual culture predominates most campuses, Fagan suggested picking friends committed to chastity, a healthy social life, and exercise as alternatives. The "convivial time together where self-control and sobriety is key to the enjoyment of the other," is the best way to combat porn.
Fagan concluded by encouraging Christians, Jews, and Muslims to unite and champion their sexual culture. Only in this restrained, chaste, devoted way can a man say to his wife, "I give my heart whole, and not in pieces," Fagan said.
