Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
SEVENTY-ONE per cent of pastors and 49 per cent of laity reported in a United States survey that they were "very satisfied" with their marriage. The overwhelming majority of persons in both groups 93 per cent for pastors and 71 per cent for laity who reported 'very satisfied' with his/her marriage also said they were likely to talk with their spouses about sexual temptation being experienced.
Those and other findings were contained in the report Christians and Sex: Sexual Issues in the Church, which was conducted by the evangelical media conglomerate Christianity Today International.
The 53-page report may be ordered at http://shop.store.yahoo.com/buildingchurchleaders/specialreports.html
From May and July 2003, Christianity Today International conducted mail and Internet surveys of U.S.-based pastors and church goers.
A total of 680 pastors and 1,972 churchgoers responded yielding a margin of error of plus or minus four and two percentage points, respectively.
The survey was targeted at subscribers of the family of publications put out by the evangelical organisation.
MARRIAGE SATISFACTION
The survey revealed that having children in the home does have an impact on marital satisfaction. Seven in 10 lay persons who had no children (68 per cent) or whose children live outside of the home (71 per cent) reported being 'very satisfied' with their marriage.
More than one-half of the laity (53 per cent) surveyed said they were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with their sex life with spouses. Pastors, however, reported a greater level of sexual satisfaction with their spouses. Seventy-one per cent of pastors surveyed said they were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with marital sex.
Forty-two per cent of lay persons and 53 per cent of pastors who said they were 'very satisfied' with their marriage also said that they were 'very satisfied' with their sex life with their spouses.
STRESS-RELATED
Lay persons reported that where there was dissatisfaction with their sex life with their spouses, such often related to stress personal and family. And, stress related to having children in the home.
Pastors who said they were dissatisfied with their sex life with their spouse, such was often traceable to their wife's/husband's sexual inhibitions and busyness.
Both pastors (55 per cent) and laity (64 per cent) said they would like their sexual intimacy to become more frequent. The survey did not reveal anything concerning pastors who are 'very satisfied' with their sex life and the frequency with which they talked or argued with their spouse about sex. But, the laity in this 'very satisfied' group was canvassed concerning the frequency they spoke with their spouses about sex.
Nearly one-half (48 per cent) of lay persons reported that they talked about sex with their spouses more than once per month. Eleven per cent said they argued about sex more than once per month.
Lay persons under 50 years old were more likely to talk or argue with their spouses about sex at least once monthly. More specifically, 68 per cent of persons under 50 were likely to talk with their spouses about sex at least once monthly. While 22 per cent of these under 50 persons were likely to argue over sex at least once monthly, the survey reported.
INTIMACY
One-half of lay persons 50 years and older the survey revealed, were likely to talk about sex at least once monthly. A further 22 per cent of lay persons over 50 years were likely to argue about sex with their spouses at least one time per month.
A little more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of the laity who reported that they were 'very satisfied' with the frequency of sexual intimacy, think their spouses were also 'very satisfied'.
For pastors, however, the figure is much higher. Ninety-two per cent of pastors said that their spouses were 'very satisfied' with the frequency of sexual intimacy.
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