Yes, even with “the pill,” the frequency of unwanted pregnancies continues to increase. What is more tragic than for a child to be brought into this world unwanted? I have watched young couples, who once thought they were in love, struggle with the decision of whether or not to marry. There is no foolproof method of contraception. Many couples are not well enough informed. Sometimes romantic feelings prevent necessary precautions. Although the pill is considered by most doctors to be foolproof, persons taking it are not. Either because of simple forgetfulness or some deep-seated inner motivation to conceive in order to hold on to that fellow, a woman who thinks she’s safe may become pregnant.

The second reason for avoiding premarital or extramarital intercourse is the danger of disease. Venereal disease has not been checked by modern medicine. The increased incidence of sexual promiscuity has brought about a tragic soaring incidence of this. Venereal disease is exponential in its increase, as society is less and less careful about sexual behavior. And we have not even mentioned to this point the topic of AIDS and the havoc of death that it is bringing throughout the world, in both the homosexual and heterosexual communities. The fact is that AIDS, genital herpes, syphilis, hepatitis and pelvic inflammatory disease are tragic realities in our world.

And if you want to read a tragic story of what venereal disease can do to a person, read William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill, in which he describes how Churchill’s father, Lord Randolph Churchill, contracted syphilis through premarital sexual involvement. He describes how this promising British politician gradually eroded in the very public eye and, over a period of years, self-destructed and died. You read a few stories like that from secular biographies, and they make you think that God’s ways, far from being negative, are positive.

A third reason to avoid premarital or extramarital intercourse is that many men are driven to sexual conquests to prove their masculinity. I pity the woman who gets trapped into this false situation. If only the average young woman could listen in for a few moments to the conversation in a men’s locker room, she would take much less seriously the romantic pleadings, “If you really love me, you wouldn’t say ‘no.’” And now the stereotypical view of men being more interested in sex than women is no longer the case. How often we read about women who, having no desire for a love relationship and marriage, are simply on the market looking for the ideal male by whom they can become pregnant.

The fourth reason for avoiding premarital and extramarital intercourse is that it can be personally destructive, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. Premarital and extramarital sex is habit-forming. In most cases, it is not something a couple does once or twice and quits doing. It develops a personal interdependence wherein no real ultimate commitment has been agreed upon. It is an agonizing experience for a pastor to deal with the emotional, psychological and spiritual fragmentation, which so often is the experience of the man or woman who then gets jilted.