|PIC1|Sacha Parkinson, who plays Sophie Webster’s Christian friend Sian in Coronation Street, is one of many young people interviewed for “Just Sex”, a new book that takes a revolutionary look at sexual ethics.

Speaking of the purity pledge taken by her character in the soap, 17-year-old Sacha said, “I think it’s really good. It shows a different side of teenage peer pressure, it shows you don’t have to ‘do things’ and gives another option for teenagers.”

Another teenager adds, “I know that I am young and supposed to have it all and not care, but I can’t just keep doing sex like this. I want more but don’t know how to ask for it.”

Just Sex: Is it ever just sex?, published on March 20, finds a new generation of young people are challenging the old sexual revolution view that sex is harmless to others. Instead, they insist that sex is a question of social justice.

Alternative role models for this “fair sex” movement include the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana), who have also taken a vow to abstain from sex before marriage.

“Why should my previous private actions between two consenting adults follow me into our marriage, and be able to cast such a dark shadow over it?” demands one woman.

Another twenty-something observed, “London’s former mayor Ken Livingstone claimed that nobody ‘cares what consenting adults do as long as you don’t involve children, animals or vegetables’ but it seems to me everyone cares what their friends, family, colleagues, even celebrities get up to!”

A survey of 20,000 young people a couple of years ago revealed that seven out of 10 young people (69 per cent) wait until at least the age of consent before losing their virginity.

The author of Just Sex, Guy Brandon, said, “Young people are increasingly and often personally aware of the damage that results from what was once mistakenly thought to be 'free love' – the damage caused to friends, to colleagues, to past and future partners, to parents, to children, to spouses, even to society as a whole.”

“If we practice treating relationships as disposable and as though they have no impact on us or on those around us,” Brandon explained, ”then of course we are going to find it difficult to break that habit when we finally try to settle down in a long-term, stable relationship – which is what most people indicate they eventually hope to do.”

Brandon is a researcher for the Jubilee Centre, a Christian social reform organisation based in Cambridge that has spearheaded original research into sexual ethics and relationships for four years. He is also a trained counsellor and freelance writer.

“Just Sex: Is it ever just sex?” is due to be published by Inter-Varsity Press on 20 March. A series of supplementary resources will be rolled out by the Jubilee Centre over the following days, including three public information bulletins on YouTube, an accompanying lesson plan for teachers and youth workers, and a related set of studies for churches and Christian unions.

On the web:
www.ivpbooks.com
www.jubilee-centre.org