Religion: Kinsey for Lutherans

With Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s new book Sexual Behavior in the Human Female almost ready for publication, Missouri Synod Lutherans are preparing a kind of Kinsey report of their own. In 1950 the church’s Triennial Convention appropriated $25,000 for a 25-man research team to investigate Biblical references and Christian teaching on marriage and family life and what Lutherans think and do about it. In charge of the survey is 38-year-old Pastor Paul Hansen of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Denver, who expects to publish the full report in 1954. Among the preliminary findings:*

¶ Only 16% of young Lutheran bachelors (age 16-20) admit to sexual intercourse (whereas Kinsey found that, among nonchurchgoing Protestants in the same age bracket, 90% of grade-school-level males, 80% at high-school-level and 45% at college level had premarital intercourse). Among older nonmarried Lutherans (age 31-35), the figure jumped to 33% (Kinsey’s figure: 59%).

¶ 4% of young married Lutheran men (age 16-20) admitted extramarital intercourse as against Kinsey’s figure of 44% for grade-school-level, 40% for high-school-level males.

¶ 64% of married Lutherans, but only 36% of the clergy, approve the use of contraceptive devices.

¶ One in 20 Lutheran marriages ends in divorce, as opposed to the general Protestant average of one in ten, and the Catholic figure of one in 25 (not counting annulments).

¶ There was disagreement between laymen and clergy on what causes family dissension. Said the laity: finances, in-laws and disputes over child-training. Said the clergy: drink, sex and religion.

*Based on a questionnaire given to 1% of the families in three Lutheran synods (Missouri, Augustana, Evangelical), it covers a total of 3,405 married lay people and 946 single men and women, plus 376 pastors, most of them married.