Church attendance linked to sex?

The truth is out: People go to church for the sex.

This is according to an Arizona State University study that analyzed questionnaires from 22,000 mainly Christian Americans. The study found that sex-related factors - marital status, number of children, preferred family size, views on adultery and contraception - showed the strongest links to churchgoing. Moral views on sex were more strongly linked to church attendance than moral views on other issues.

In the researchers' view, "A central function of religious attendance in the contemporary United States is to support a high-fertility, monogamous mating strategy. " If you're going to have a lot of kids, you want a partner who will help you take care of them. The NewScientist.com quotes study author James Weeden: "You surround yourself with people who strongly believe that one of the worst things you can do is to abandon your spouse or sleep around."

It seems dubious to completely reduce church-going to sexual factors (the study doesn't seem to ask about little things like belief in God), but is it actually true that church attendance supports a "high-fertility, monogamous mating strategy"?

When it comes to a high-fertility mating strategy, a Gallup poll last year found that Americans who attend church weekly or almost weekly are actually divided on the ideal family size. Some 47% said two or fewer children is ideal, and 41% favored a family size of three or more. Among those who attend church less often, a solid majority favored a family size of zero to two.

When it comes to marriage and divorce, the Barna Group recently found that 84% of "born-again Christians" get married - a higher percentage than atheists, agnostics, and those who adhere to non-Christian faiths. Evangelicals (26%) were among the born-again Christians least likely to have been divorced, but born-again Christians as a whole were just as likely (32%) to have been divorced than non-born again Christians (33%).

But these statistics look at religious belief, not church attendance. According to sociologist Brad Wilcox in Christianity Today, "This idea that Christians are just as likely to divorce as secular folks is not correct if we factor church attendance into our thinking. Churchgoing evangelical Protestants, churchgoing Catholics, and churchgoing mainline Protestants are all significantly less likely to divorce."