You can’t argue with newly released data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Well, you could, but it would be foolish to do so. And this newly released data is especially interesting.
According to the CDC, today’s teenagers are embracing “clean living” at remarkable rate. They smoke cigarettes less, they use hard drugs less, and they have less sex than any generation of teens since 1991, when the CDC first began tracking such things. So much for the argument often heard in more conservative circles regarding a generation in decline. That said, I still have a few questions.
My first question has to do with why hard drug use and cigarette smoking are lumped in with having sex. Don’t get me wrong, I am not for kids have sex per se’, but I do think that we make a terrible mistake when we lump in behavior that is demonstrably dangerous to people’s health with doing something of which some of us may disapprove.
I gotta be honest here: as much as my personal mores make me say that I do not want my 19 year old daughter having sex, I would be a hell of a lot more worried if she were using heroin or cocaine! I hope that any parent would join me in that, but perhaps I am missing something. I don’t think so, but perhaps…
My second question, is whether or not this non-drug-using, non-smoking, no-sex-having teens are actually having any fun? Seriously, I don’t think that any of those behaviors are required for teens to have a good time, but I do think that what teens are doing is as important as what they are not doing.
A rich enjoyable life cannot just be about avoiding the things which we are better off avoiding. It must also be about filling our lives with, for lack of better terms, meaning, purpose and love.
I write those words with some trepidation, as I am sure that is obvious to most people, and yet I sometimes worry that in all our zeal to make sure “the kids are alright”, we – and yes, I include myself in this – we worry too much about making sure they are not doing what they shouldn’t be doing, and too little about helping them to do what they should be doing in order to fill up their lives with meaning, purpose and love.
I realize as I write this, that I am writing to myself and letting you read it. It’s not that I am such a hard ass – at least I hope not, and hope that my 3 daughters aged 22, 19, and 15 would agree. It’s that I really do believe in rules, and that includes the “ought nots” in which I believe. I just hope that that in attending to those “ought nots”, I/we don’t forget to spend as least much time and attention on the things we hope are kids do in order to create happy lives for themselves, and on helping them to do them. If we do, and we spend time studying and quantifying that, then I have no doubt about resting assured that they are having plenty of fun, even without the sex, drugs and cigs.

Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”