Evangelical Women Surveyed About Sex

A national survey of 2,000 women who attend conservative evangelical churches reports that despite church condemnation of sex outside marriage, 17% of the never-married and 31% of the divorced say they are sexually active.

“Christians are not unresponsive, sexually inhibited and unhappy, as many believe them to be,” wrote the Southern California authors of a new book built around the survey, “Secrets of Eve, Understanding the Mystery of Female Sexuality” (Word Publishing).

Seventy percent of the married women responding to the survey reported having sex one to three times a week.

“The majority of married Christian women are sexually satisfied,” wrote the three authors--Archibald Hart, a longtime psychology professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena; his daughter, Catherine Hart Weber, a marriage therapy specialist; and Debra Taylor, a certified sex therapist in Ventura.

The three recruited respondents from a variety of churches and geographical areas during 18 months in 1996 and 1997. Compared to demographics of the total U.S. population, the survey sample had more married women, more women in their 40s and fewer under 24.

“We think that this is representative of the church population,” the authors wrote. “Our primary target was women from the evangelical end of the church spectrum.”

Despite those differences, they said, the results on many questions about sexuality and frequency of sexual intercourse were similar to findings by a landmark 1994 University of Chicago study, “Sex in America,” which sampled the total population.

In Hart’s “The Sexual Man,” an earlier book surveying the sexual thoughts of religious men, he found that churchgoing males--no different from their secular brethren--tend to think about sex on a daily basis. The women questioned for the “Secrets of Eve” study said they think about sex about once a week.

According to the book, the women surveyed reported that “finding the energy for sex” is the most common sexual problem they face. About 55% of those who have children living at home reported a lack of energy, compared with 33% of those without children, according to the authors.

CONGREGATIONS

Christ Chapel of the Valley, which spent its first six years meeting in a rented storefront, moved into its first church building this week. The 200-member congregation purchased the structure at 11050 Hartsook Ave. from the Unity Church of North Hollywood.

The chapel is part of a budding alliance of gay and lesbian churches that have kept a low profile, publicizing themselves mainly in the gay press. The mother church is Christ Chapel of Long Beach, whose founding pastor is the Rev. Michael Cole. Other Christ Chapels have formed in Laguna Beach and Denver.

The Valley affiliate is pastored by the Rev. Jerrell Walls, who graduated in 1982 from the LIFE Bible College, a school now located in San Dimas that is linked to the Foursquare Gospel churches. “About three years after getting my B.A., I realized my [gay] feelings would not go away,” Walls said.

MUSIC

J.S. Bach’s “Magnificat” will be featured in a benefit concert of baroque music, conducted by Matthew Gray, Sunday at 7:30 p.m. in the Holy Family Catholic Cathedral, 566 S. Glassell St., Orange. Proceeds will go to St. Andrew’s Abbey near Palmdale. $15. (818) 340-8125.

* The Cambridge Singers, directed by Alexander Ruggieri, will present a concert of Eastern European folk music at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Steven’s Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, 1621 W. Garvey Ave., Alhambra. $16.50. (626) 584-0088.

* “Opera a la Carte,” a concert of opera duets performed by Georgetta Psaros, Paula Swornay, Ken Remo, Wardell Howard, Shelia Tate and Bernard Segal, will be presented at 2 p.m. Sunday at Founder’s Church of Religious Science, 3281 W. 6th St., Los Angeles. $25. (213) 388-9733.

* Peter Biacchi, a former associate organist at the Crystal Cathedral, will present a varied program of music at 7 p.m. Sunday at Lake Avenue Church, 393 N. Lake Ave., Pasadena. An offering will be taken. (626) 795-7221.

* The 55-voice Mansfield Chamber Singers will join the choir of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 580 Hilgard Ave., Westwood, in repeat concerts at 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Alban’s and 7:30 p.m. June 20 at St. Augustine by-the-sea Episcopal Church, 1227 4th St., Santa Monica. Conductors James Vail and Kenneth Wells will share the podium both days. $10. (310) 208-6516.

DATES

Israeli scholar Yehuda Bauer, winner of this year’s 50th anniversary Israel Prize, will speak twice today on Holocaust-related topics at Beth Jacob Congregation, 9030 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills. The Hebrew University professor will talk at 11 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. at the Orthodox synagogue. Free admission.

* Ammachi, a world-traveling Hindu teacher known for hugging members of her informal classes, will appear next week at the Furama Hotel in Westchester. Mata Amritanandamayi, as she is also known, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and 9:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Free. (818) 623-0503.

* Marcia Albert, a faculty member of the UC Irvine College of Medicine, where she has introduced spirituality issues into the curriculum, will speak on “Spirituality, Judaism and Medicine” during the 8 p.m. service Friday at Congregation Shir Ha-Ma’alot, 3652 Michelson Drive, Irvine. (714) 857-2226.

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SOCIAL JUSTICE

An unprecedented gathering of American Catholics will be held on the UCLA campus in 1999 to talk about ways to deepen church commitment to justice and peace at the start of the millennium.

More than 30 national Catholic offices and organizations will take part in or sponsor next year’s meeting. Planners expect to draw ministry teams from dioceses and parishes concerned with issues such as refugee settlement, antiabortion advocacy, health care and teaching justice in schools.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles is the honorary chairman for the National Catholic Celebration of Jubilee Justice, which was announced this month by the U.S. bishops’ office in Washington.

“We stand at a great moment of the history of the world,” Mahony said. “We want to move forward with plans for a better and more just world.”

Co-chairing the steering committee are Annette Kane, executive director of the National Council of Catholic Women, and Father Robert Vitillo, executive director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the grant-making social action arm of the bishops’ office.

The celebration should mirror the church, including lay people and clergy and “all races, young and old . . . suburban, urban and rural,” Vitillo said.