"Regnerus does an excellent job of combining large-scale survey results with vivid interviews to provide a comprehensive portrayal of how sexuality and religion are related in the lives of American adolescents. The book shows how sexuality and religion interact in complex and sometimes surprising ways. It addresses important topics few other books on either sexuality or religion in adolescence have addressed, such as masturbation and Internet pornography. Anyone interested in the lives of today's young Americans should read this book." Jeffrey Jensen Arnett
Author of Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties "Forbidden Fruit is an iconoclastic book that shatters the sexual pieties of the religious right and the secular left. Mark Regnerus shows that churches and Christian parents—especially evangelical ones—have failed to steer their kids clear of sex because they hold out no compelling vision of the sexual good life. But he also shows that the secular left's faith in 'healthy' teen sex is chimerical: adolescents who have had sex look worse on all the outcomes that scholars and parents care about. This important book is bound to get parents, pastors, and scholars talking."
W. Bradford Wilcox, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Virginia
Author of Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands "I've waited for this book my entire ministry. It used to be that only skeptics and mystics noticed the interplay between sexuality and spirituality in young people—but Regnerus confronts the parallels head on as a sociologist, and dares the church to do the same. Forget "forbidden": Forbidden Fruit should be required reading for anyone who loves young people."
Kenda Creasy Dean, parent, pastor, Princeton Theological Seminary professor and
author of Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church "The book is a marvel. It tackles a vital issue—teen sexuality—in an even-handed, rigorous, and engaging fashion. So much information and so many important findings are packed into this book...I fully expect his book to be the gold standard on the topic. People will read this book, debate it, use it in classes, and reference it."
Michael Emerson, Professor of Sociology at Rice University
and author of Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America Regnerus (sociology, Univ. of Texas, Austin) takes an extended look—via three national surveys and vivid interviews with more than 250 subjects-into the real lives of American teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17. He documents whether religious faith affects how they think about sexuality and the practices either in which they choose to engage or from which they choose to refrain and displays the complexities that exist within America's various religious traditions. Regnerus's thoroughly researched and carefully argued factual portrait of modern adolescence gives Christians much to think about, e.g., that congregations are doing a terrible job of fashioning distinctively Christian sexual ethics, as well as researchers and educators much to recognize, e.g., that we may wish to consider sex as suboptimal for adolescents for a variety of reasons. In lucid writing, he debunks the sexual pieties of the religious Right as well as the sexual platitudes of the secular Left and suggests that much more open-minded dialog is needed in contemporary debates about sex education, teenage sexuality, and religion's place in life. Parents, youth workers, and educators will find this book enlightening and useful. Recommended.
The Library Journal, March 15, 2007:
"Forbidden Fruit is an outstanding book, constructed on a foundation of first-rate analysis. The rich interpretation and insightful speculation makes this book extremely valuable. Regnerus weaves together evidence from many sources and a wide range of theoretical perspectives to paint a detailed and fascinating picture of how religion affects how American teenagers think about sex and how and under what circumstances this influences the choices they make. He brings the issues to life through judicious use of quotes from intensive interviews with a sample of teens. The book is lively, engaging, timely and scientifically important."
Linda Waite, Lucy Flower Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago
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