Amazon faces questions over removal of transgender-critical book

Chicago, Ill., Apr 3, 2019 / 04:17 pm (CNA).- A new survey by the University of Chicago has left researchers speculating about why American adults are having less sex than in years past.

Data from the 2018 General Social Survey found that 23% of American adults had not had sex in the past year, an all-time high.

Broken down by age, the survey found that young people were largely driving the decrease in sex. Respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 were more than twice as likely to report not having sex in the past year than were those in their 30s or 40s.

While fewer than 10% of 18-29 year olds reported no sex in 2008, that share had risen to 23% one decade later.

Dr. Jean Twenge, author of “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood,” suggested several factors that may be playing a role in the decline in sexual activity.

She told the Washington Post that fewer people in their 20s have a live-in partner than in past generations. She pointed to declines in labor force participation among young men, which has been tied to a decrease in stable relationships.

Technology may also be a factor, said Twenge, who is a psychology professor at San Diego State University. The rise of social media and streaming video mean there are screens frequently competing for people’s attention, which was not the case in previous generations.

Dr. Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, agreed that “screen culture” is at least partly responsible for the decline in sex among millennials.

“Young Americans are spending lots of time binging on Netflix, playing video games, and traversing social media. These things tend to reduce opportunities for socializing… and having sex in real life,” he told CNA.

He also stressed the importance of marriage in understanding the survey results.

“The sex recession is driven to a large degree by declines in marriage—especially among young adults. Very few married Americans don’t have sex, and quite a few unmarried Americans don’t have sex,” he said.

An article by the Institute for Family Studies last November noted, “Today, there are fewer Americans married, and more Americans single, than at any point in at least the past 140 years.”

A decline in marriage rates is correlated with a decline in the frequency of sexual activity among adults age 25-34, the article said. Unmarried adults in that category are far more likely to say they have had not sex at all in the past year than are their married peers.

Experts have further suggested widespread anxiety and depression, environmental hormone disrupters, and concerns over sexual misconduct in the wake of the #MeToo movement as possible factors in the decline in sexual activity.

The General Social Survey also found a significant gender disparity in results reported by young people. In 2008, the numbers of men and women ages 18-30 who had gone a year without sex both hovered around 10%. In 2018, 18% of women in this age group said they had not had sex in the past year, compared to 28% of men.

In her comments to the Washington Post, Twenge noted that more young men than women are living with their parents.

Pornography could also be playing a role. Pornhub, the most-visited pornography site in the U.S., has seen its daily visits triple from 2012 to 2017.

In a series of studies examining pornography use, “The Social Costs of Pornography: A Collection of Papers” published by the Witherspoon Institute, researchers found that those who viewed pornography became less satisfied with their sex lives, and that viewing porn just once can lead to feelings of dissatisfaction toward a human partner.

According to a 2012 article in Psychology Today by clinical psychologist Tyger Latham, Psy.D, erectile dysfunction, once considered an issue plaguing old men, is arising more in young men who rely heavily on pornography to become sexually aroused. A study by the Italian Society of Andrology and Sexual Medicine surveyed 28,000 men on their internet porn habits, and found that porn use over time led to a lower sex drive and an eventual inability to become aroused at all.

Pornography could also be contributing to the continuing decline in marriage rates.

Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and a Catholic who has studied religion and sexual behavior, cautioned against assuming that correlation equals causation in such studies – but said that pornography use is likely part of a more complex reason for dropping marriage rates.

“We know that both things are occurring, but it’s difficult to establish a causal connection,” he told CNA in a 2015 e-mail interview. “A variety of things are contributing to the declining marriage rate.”

“I don’t think porn use necessarily causes that, but contributes to it (together with diminished earnings power, diminished confidence, etc.),” he added. “To be sure, porn use doesn’t help build confidence in men, something that’s pretty necessary (but not sufficient) to be considered marriageable. So I’d say porn use is a suspect here, but connecting the dots is hardly straightforward.”
 
 

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Washington D.C., Jul 16, 2021 / 05:40 am (CNA).
There is reason for hope for global religious freedom, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York told an international gathering of religious and civ… […]

Washington D.C., Apr 19, 2018 / 04:09 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After surviving six years of imprisonment and torture, Vietnamese pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh told CNA that prayer sustained him through his physical suffering and pain.

In 2011, the evangelical pastor was charged with “undermining national solidarity” for conducting his Christian ministry with the Montagnard ethnic minority groups that live in Vietnam’s Central Highlands.

Chinh had long been an outspoken critic of the government’s ban on preaching in the region and a pro-democracy advocate.

During his imprisonment, Chinh spent nearly one month in solitary confinement and his health quickly deteriorated. He was denied treatment or access to medication, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), who advocated on his behalf.

Chinh told CNA that he experienced consolation in knowing that his suffering was in imitation of Christ.

“Even though I suffered physical suffering and pain, I felt in my soul happiness,” Chinh told CNA through an English translator at the USCIRF summit April 18.

“I viewed it as God’s gift to me,” said Chinh. “It was like what Jesus Christ went through, the same suffering that his disciples experienced, and now I’m going through the same experience. That is how the good news comes out.”

Chinh explained his hope that sharing his experience will help increase the faith of other Christians.

Prayerful communion with Christ “gave me courage to survive the prison conditions until the day that I saw freedom,” Chinh explained.

The Vietnamese pastor was released from prison July 28, 2017, about halfway through his 11 year sentence. His release came with the condition that he leave Vietnam, so Chinh currently resides in the U.S.

Several months before his release, Chinh’s wife, Tran Thi Hong, was beaten and interrogated because she met with the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom at the time, David Saperstein, who was advocating on her husband’s behalf.

At the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom summit, Chinh was the only released prisoner to take part in a panel highlighting the specific cases of prisoners of conscience detained throughout the world. USCIRF is currently advocating for the release of prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, China, Turkey, and Pakistan.

Several other prisoners of conscience were released in 2017, including Maryam Naghash Zargaran, an Iranian Christian convert from Islam who was arrested and imprisoned in 2013.

“Every time you return a prisoner of conscience to his family that truly is a victory,” former USCIRF Chair Robert George told CNA.

The USCIRF has actively advocated for Andrew Brunson, an American evangelical pastor incarcerated in Turkey since 2016. His trial in Istanbul this week was attended by Sam Brownback, the current U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Brunson will face another hearing in Turkey May 7.

“Since my release, the government has arrested more prisoners of conscience,” said Chinh on the prisoners of conscience panel.

Although religious freedom has improved in Vietnam since the 1970s, USCIRF still designates the country as a “country of particular concern” due to ongoing violations of religious freedom within the country.

David Adams, the Cross Catholic Outreach vice president for missions, explained the current situation in Vietnam to CNA.

“On the one hand, churches are allowed to operate with some freedom, depending on where they are located, like in the urban areas. But in other areas, like the Central Highlands where Pastor Chin was ministering to in this case a minority, the Montagnards … the government can get quite repressive and forbid any proselytizing or evangelization or even worship,” said Adams.

Cross Catholic Outreach actively supports Catholic ministries in Vietnam, with an emphasis on potable water, medical aid, and educating young people in the faith.

“Even in the most repressive societies, we have to keep hope alive. There are ways to support freedom, including religious freedom at the grassroots level,” said Adams.

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