COMPASSION CONSERVATISM REDUX. Former Bush speech writer Michael Gerson is a welcome addition to the Washington Post op-ed page because, as one of the guys who actually believed in compassionate conservatism, he's willing to say things other conservatives just won't. Today, for instance, he admits that Evangelical teenagers, those same kids who are wearing chastity rings and swearing not to masturbate, actually have sex earlier than their mainline Protestant peers. This can be partly accounted for by socioeconomics -- they're less likely to go to college, for instance, which correlates with an earlier sexual debut no matter what the teenager's religion. But even controlled for social and economic class, Evangelical teens first have sex at about the same time as all American teenagers, between the ages of 16 and 17. Gerson concludes that the problem (because there's obviously a problem with sex, right?) is that although teens hear abstinence-only lectures, they aren't truly embedded in "social structures and networks that foster duty and discipline." But what about those kids who, together with hundreds of their peers, make public abstinence pledges through programs like True Love Waits and Silver Ring Thing? At some high schools, every single student attends a presentation and makes the pledge. That's a shared community meant to foster discipline, right? Well, as numerous studies show, a year after the pledge those teenagers will be having sex and contracting STIs at the same rate as their non-pledging peers, but will be using contraceptives and protection less often. I hope conservatives read to the end of Gerson's column, where he singles out one American community for successfully encouraging their children to delay sex, avoid pregnancy, and use protection: college-educated "liberal elites." Of course, their kids are having sex too. They're just being smarter about it. So maybe economic security and a quality education are the best ways to improve teenagers' sexual health? Hmmm, I wonder what we can do to foster those qualities...
--Dana Goldstein