The truth hurts -- assuming it's really the truth

"Don't we have it exactly backward? Shouldn't one's overall happiness -- physical, marital or otherwise -- be directly equated with exceptional amounts of sexual training and education and awareness?"

So says Mark Morford, SF Gate columnist in "Christian Virgins Are Overrated / Think sex and drugs destroy America? Try naive chastity. Oh, and "Purity Balls". Exactly where he claims to have tried and proven his own theories is beyond me, but the article is intentionally provocative, and one you should read twice.

Morford cites recent research which claims that within one year of taking an abstinence pledge, half of all teens who did so had sex anyway. Furthermore, 88 percent break the vow at some point before marriage. Numbers like that lead Morford to this conclusion:

Let's just say it: There is no sacredness in the virgin. There is only the fear, were she to be educated and empowered and really let loose, of what she could become.

Say what you want about Morford's mockery of religious tradition and sacred beliefs. But if those numbers are correct, shouldn't we Christians be asking ourselves what the missing element is?