For so long now the words “sex” and “church” seemed to be mutually exclusive terms - until now that is.  Now we have one pastor of a Christian church praising the virtues of good sex between a married man and woman, and saying that “hot sex” is an important and pivotal part of any Christian marriage, and should not be looked at as shameful or something to be hidden, as long as it is between two married Christian adults.

Then we had another major sex scandal with another church, a very conservative evangelical Christian wing that had thousands of followers recently had one of their top pastors involved in a sex scandal with a homosexual man, and not only that he supposedly also took methamphetamines during their sexual trists as well.

The pastor, as you all probably know now, was Ted Haggard, the married father of five children who vehemently campaigned against gay marriage and had preached traditionally conservative views to his church of over 14,000 followers.  Some are looking at this as a scandal of hypocrisy, and it may actually lessen people’s belief in the church if it keeps happening.  How many stories have we heard of Catholic priests involved in inappropriate sexual relationships with their church members also? 

One has to wonder if this environment of sexual repression is creating more problems than it’s solving.  The preacher who preaches hot sex has got it right - don’t make sex a shameful thing, make it a thing to be celebrated - in the right way, and we’ll all see less of these scandals.

Are condoms suffering from a negative connotation, or social stigma here in our modern day society?  Many young people, especially in their early 20’s, tend to look at condoms with almost a sense of distrust, as if they have failed some of their friends in the past.  They also regard them as a nuisance to carry around, and sometimes even a sexually social stigma (for women), because they indicate she may have been “around the block” to a guy. 

Another common complaint with young people and condoms is the discomfort they sometimes present during sex.  They many times take the feeling away since they dull the friction sensation a guy feels during sexual intercourse, and many times a woman does not feel the natural texture of a man’s penis, which naturally adds more sensation to the sexual experience for the woman as well.  They’ve come out with ribbed condoms, for enhanced pleasure and sensations for both partners, but many people do not think these offer as much of an improvement. 

Another thing about condoms people report they do not like is that they take away some of the sponteneity in sex, since one has to fumble to put the condom on their penis before they can go any further.  Many times, this can be an uncomfortable break in the “action” and takes away from the sexual experience.  Some men report they do not get the sexually enhanced feeling and can go for too long in a condom, finding it hard to reach orgasm. 

The important thing to remember though, is that while condoms may suffer many negative connotatoins in the realm of sexual pleasure and intimacy, they are a very important part of remaining disease free, especially for those of us who have not settled on one sexual partner yet.  They also prevent pregnancy, so they maintain a very important place in today’s society and should not be overlooked simply due to inconvenience and stigma and libido killer.

Yep, the cliche that married people “never do it” may just have gone out the window, and the notion that sexually charged teenagers are constantly thinking about having sex and actually having sex may also have gone out the window with the first cliche.  New studies are showing that married people have sex more often than teens, counterintuitively to what most of us may think.

This study, done in conjunction with other studies such as one linking promiscuity to sexually transmitted diseases, may actually debunk common sexual myths, and was commissioned by a British entity, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicines in an effort to try to break down some of our common thoughts about sex and sexual behavior.

The study, in conjunction with other simultaneous studies, found that along with a pretty much global trend of not marrying young anymore, married couples tend to have sex more often than singles, and more importantly, more often than teens (all you parents out there of teens may be breathing a sigh of relief at this statistic). 

Another important fact is that the trend to delay marriage to later ages may have actually boosted the premarital sex part of the equation, but this behavior does not seem to have caused any marked decrease in the safety in getting STD’s. 

It is definitely a changing world today.  Women’s estrogen levels seem to be increasing, and apparently men are affected as well - their testosterone levels have been on the decline over the years, and the measurable changes are just now being noticed and studied.  It is said that men’s testosterone levels, on average, in today’s day and age, are considerably lower than the men that lived ten and twenty years ago.

But why would this be?  Are you one of the affected men?  Could it be something in our diet, our environment, and how can we prevent this from getting worse?  Do we want to prevent this from getting worse, or is this a ”good thing”?

The nitty gritty of this latest testosterone study is that scientists who ran the study saw roughly a 1% decrease in testosterone per calendar year on the men they studied over roughly a 17 year period.  That’s quite significant, if not alarming!

While men’s testosterone levels do generally fall over their lifespan, just as a woman’s estrogen levels fall steadily over their lifetime, this study shows that there is actually an “overall” decrease amongst generations of men who are studied, and suggests that this may be a worldwide phenomena.  The thing is, they can’t even fully explain why this is happening. 

Some of the possible causes reportedly may be the rise in obesity and overall weight and health issues on the rise, another one that I think is actually more plausible since this effect is being noticed universally, is the chemicals we use in our environment such as pesticides, cleaners, chemicals and preservatives in our foods, and just the chemicals “floating around” in the air we breath that are from chemical plants which use industrial powered substances.  Think of all the residue we breathe in and actually ingest on a daily basis.  What do you think?  Comments would be appreciated….I think this is an important topic for men today.

It used to be that in the fairly sexually conservative India, kids were not really taught too much about sex - at least not in school, like we are here in America and probably over in Europe too (they’re notoriously open about sex).  Well now, in the interest of school aged kid’s health and well being as well as teaching them about making the right sexual choices as they are growing up, reaching puberty and desiring to date, India is stepping the sex ed side of things up in their schools.

Indian schools starting soon will be teaching children, possibly as young as five years old, about sex, drugs and all the dangers that be in this world of taboo.  They are doing it so that they can catch STD’s and promiscuity before it happens more often, as well as to help maintain a sexually healthy and disease free culture, as free of drugs as possible as well. 

They will talk to kids about sexual myths that are not true to contradict any false ideas about birth control and actual sexual intercourse that are out there, sexual and personal hygiene, birth control methods and wise sexual choices, sexual abuse, and drug abuse.

This is a huge step for the Indian school systems, since lack of sexual knowledge was plaguing many of their schools, especially those schools in remote areas, where kids were pretty much clueless about sexuality and sexual health and were turned to the wolves when it came to sex education. 

This can also help sexual transmission of diseases such as the HIV virus, by educating kids of the risks of unprotected sex and the virtue of choosing partners discriminately when they do start having sex.