I don't believe the assertion that the atmosphere today is more permissive of premarital sex than it was twenty years ago. These things go back and forth, but the chances of a student receiving some kind of abstinence-based teaching in high school are much better today than they were twenty years ago. I haven't been to church in years, but I'd be surprised if churches are no longer teaching that premarital sex is wrong. While many families may no longer use a religion-based rationale for telling their children to abstain until marriage, the overall attitude of our society is that there are good reasons to wait and that no one should feel pressured to have sex at an early age. Whatever the cause of the increased depression, this commentary hasn't given any real evidence that the problem is a sudden change in attitude about promiscuity.
Bill
I haven't been to church in years, but I'd be surprised if churches are no longer teaching that premarital sex is wrong. Uhhhhhhhh ... my last two churches taught that homosexual marriage was a good thing and that Jesus would have supported it. Currently, I haven't found a church to attend where I feel comfortable.
Times HAVE changed, and not for the better.
It didn't happen in the last 20 years. It happened in the 60's with birth control and "free" love, only it cost dearly.
It also corresponded to a society that came to say that God belonged in church on Sunday. I remember that even though folks went to church, the rest of the week you would not have know that there was a God. People did not mention anything about God or they were considered weird. No wonder I became an atheist at a very young age.
It was after the horrible 60's that people actually started to talk about God again. I think the hippies who became The Jesus People had a good effect on society in that way.
Sadly, though, many of the hippies of the 60's have had a terrible influence on society on a whole. We have not pulled out of the moral abyss that we fell into. We may not until Christ comes back. These do seem like the last days with things spiralling downward until the great judgment.