Ridiculously well-read Mike Aquilina has two teenage children, and he's a little nervous. To help prepare for the sex and dating questions, he read three books:
Christian Courtship in an Oversexed World: A Guide for Catholics, T.G. Morrow
Couples in Love: Straight Talk on Dating, Respect, Commitment, and Sexuality, John R. Waiss
Ask Me Anything: Provocative Answers for College Students, J. Budziszewki
He strongly recommends all three, although the third one is intended more for the teenager.
Writing in the current issue of Touchstone, he says:
The difficulty for singles, of course, is that theylive in a culture that urges them to satisfy every desire immediately by super-sizing their indulgence: "If it's pleasant, I must gorge myself on it. If we like tennis, we become 'tennis addicts.' If we enjoy kissing, we'll love sleeping together."
Morrow gives very practical guidelines for living in that culture. He even gives singles step-by-step instruction (and very astute cautions) in matters as simple as handholding and cheek-kissing. Morrow's advice is rooted in real-world experience. . .
Most Christians who can pass an eye test have concluded by now that the American idea of "dating" just doesn't work. The popular norm has moved from "making out" (heavy kissing) to "hooking up" (routine rutting). This has made the physical problems--STDs, for example--more manifest, but the spiritual and emotional problems have long been with us, in the gradual decline in purity and now complete disappearance of any common sexual ethic.
The good news is that a small but growing number of young people want no part of it, and an even faster-growing segment of parents want to warn their kids away from it. These books are a great place for us parents--and our kids--to start.
(Note: Touchstone doesn't place its content on-line immediately, but rather makes more parts of each issue available as time goes on. If anyone sees a link for this essay, let us know and we'll post it.)
