Phew! I thought, when you gave that reply, that you were probably red in the face, shattered wine glass all over the floor, animals giving warning signs for a hurricane...luckily I replied quick 
He's on edge about that, I presume, because he believes women and men alike should be treated equally (what a novel idea!) As such, if you're going to call a woman some names because she does certain things, then you better be doing the same to a man who does the same/reciprocal things. Of course, many people don't do this and thus put out a double standard. He *really* hates it.
It's a pet peeve of mine as well, so I understood what was happening as that sequence of posts unfolded.
***
There are reasons for abstaining that are more "sane" than religion. Sex outside of a committed relationship does entail a degree of risks: your partner may carry STDs and may not let you know about them (not necessarily out of deceit; sometimes they just don't know), and a condom, even when it works, won't protect against everything. Similarly, unless you stay away from vaginal sex, you've got to remember condoms break, and men can't verify their partners are properly using other contraception (which rarely can still fail as well). For people who believe abortion is wrong (whether or not they expect the law to enforce it), a woman may find that risk to be unacceptable, and a man does not want to risk putting that burden of choice on his partner (and it's even worse when she has no choice).
When you get into a committed relationship, then you're reasonably sure neither of you have had sex lately, so any STDs you have should show up in testing. So you get tested, and then you can engage when you're ready for that.
Besides, if your relationship can't hold up for, let's say, at least six months without sex, what makes you think it can hold up sixty years *with* sex?
Poll