Guilty as charged? An exploratory study of premarital sexual activity and Christian young adults in Singapore

Abstract

Social science research has continually produced the singular theme of an inverse relationship between premarital sexual behaviour and the intensity of Christian religious beliefs. However, this paper proposes that besides a solely inverse relationship, there exist neutral and positive correlations between the two factors. By questioning Singaporean Christian young adults who have engaged in premarital sexual activity on how they reconcile their religious beliefs and sexual behaviour, this paper explores the different methods used to maintain a constant or increased level of religiosity despite being simultaneously engaged in premarital sexual activity. The theories of plausibility structures and the privatization of religion aid in arguing that despite the still-present inverse relationship between premarital sexual behaviour and intensity of religiosity, new forms of coping with the two seemingly opposing factors exist.