I'd really like to see where your research is coming from.

I have no doubt, of course, that Orthodox Jews have a lower premarital sex rate. When I was at Chabad, men weren't allowed to even shake hands with the women there. Under these conditions, sex becomes much less likely.

While I agree that teen sex is a problem, I differ with my Evangelical brothers in the fact that I don't think the bible condemns it. Most of Paul's talk against "sexual immorality" is to places like Corinth where there was much temple prostitution.

Jesus also is pretty absent on the topic, and his "adultery of the heart" statement in context is better applied to looking at married women, rather than single ones. After all, adultery implies someone someone must be married right?

Even more to the point, Paul says the law tells us what sin is. So if it's not covered in the law, I don't think you can assume something's sin. (Major disagreement with the oral law here of course).

Looking at the written law, I don't see anywhere where it clearly states not to have premarital sex. Even the Ask Moses site says that rabbis can't agree where in the law it's prohibited, just that it's prohibited somewhere.

There are some places where it says "The sons of Israel shall not be harlots" or something like that, but most translations I see interpret that as not being "cult prostitutes," meaning temple prostitutes like there were thousands of years later in Corinth (See the pattern)? I will note that I'm not a big fan of the Stone translation because it reads the oral law into the translation instead of from the translation.

I have challenged plenty of religious leaders on this matter and have never seen anything convincingly produced on the matter. If anyone has a scripture on this that does not depend on a "lone wolf" translation, then I'd be interested in seeing it.

As for kids, of course they should keep their pants on, but for entirely different reasons than sinfullness.

--Dan