It is no secret that American culture does not often proclaim chastity as a virtue. Most every corner of media and education seem designed to create or encourage lustful impulse. If that isn't discouraging enough, Roberto notes in his latest column at Boundless that young evangelicals may be as susceptible to that pull as anyone. The question is, how do we convince them to counter the culture?

Today love often has to wait a dozen years or even more while being surrounded by nearly-constant reminders of what it is you shouldn't be doing. If it's difficult to exercise what Rosin called "inhuman discipline ... over [one's] hormones" for three or four years; imagine what doing so for 12 or more years must be like.

This isn't an excuse or even an explanation: It's taking note of the larger context in which teenagers and young adults are expected to be continent, never mind chaste. If anyone is talking about this confluence of biology and culture in Christian circles, it's escaped my attention. (An obvious exception are my friends at Boundless and Pure Intimacy.)

But you can't fight a hegemonic culture with curricula -- no matter how well-designed -- and pledge cards alone. You need to create an alternative culture. By "alternative" I don't mean taking the dominant culture, sanding away the most obvious objectionable bits, i.e., those relating to sexual mores, adding a bit a "God talk" and, as my family says, "huepa!"

While the cause and effect might not be clear, surely it cannot be a coincidence that young people are seeking marriage later while being railroaded with sensual imagery and messaging practically from the crib (not the MTV kind). That is a lot of years of potentially unfulfilled desires or "hope deferred."

And Roberto is certainly right to assert that the better road has become a radical, "peculiar" one. Perhaps even a completely backwards one. Marriage is not, after all, meant to be the crash landing after a youth spent dating and partying. Rather it should be the mark of the commencement of a lifetime spent unconditionally loving, serving, and sacrificing for one's beloved.

Tragically, though, the former image has become the preferred one. No wonder it is so begrudgingly entered, or so easily cast aside. Perhaps the solution, then, starts with reminding young people (and old) that commitment and fidelity are precious gifts, not curses.