"Pre-marital" and "promiscuous" are nowhere near the same thing.
Thank You!!! There is a a major difference. Probably vast majority of FR posters(as well as most people) have had premarital sex in a strong, committed relationship, don't regret it and are still happily married and premarital sex does not lead to the higher divorce rates.
Several weeks back on "19 Kids and Counting" one of the Duggars friends were getting married. Young, early 20's couple had only known each other for 6 months, had never kissed(waiting for the marriage day) and they had never been alone together w/o others being present. How do they even get to know each other on a truly close, personal level in 6 months under these conditions?? My gut feeling was the couple was going into the marriage very naieve. I truly wonder how many of these marriages are really happy down the road behind the "facede"? And yes, Christians cheat/get divorced at the same percentage as the rest of the general population as another poster pointed out (sorry Uncle Slayton)
On another site I post on, a similar thread was made and one of the women posters mentioned while she was not a virgin, (she had a couple previous relationships), her husband was and she decided to remain abstinent in this relationship until marriage because that is what her husband wanted(religious reasons). Well after 3 years of marriage she finally divorced him..cited the lack of no real passion from him.."mechanical sex' on his part, just no spark.. just nothing there. She regretted not knowing him before marriage on a more personal level and she did everything in her power to make it work. Of course not all no sex before marriage relationships are like this but how many are. Life is too short to go through life in a unhappy marriage or find yourself in a unaffectionate marriage.
Being abstinent until marriage is not for me but I do not condemn or make fun of the people who want to remain abstinent until marriage...good for you if that is the route you have taken. I have a long term GF, and we were very best friends, incredibly close, way before we fell for each other and became lovers...and that did not happen overnight trust me and neither of us regret becoming intimate..it has made our relationship much stronger.