Campus consequences of the sexual revolution

With so much reporting lately—some of it reckless and shoddy—on the moral state of affairs on university campuses, I spoke with John Stonestreet of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview about the sexual revolution and the challenges it poses for young people.

“We’re seeing this so-called sexual freedom take its toll on university campuses,” Stonestreet said. Though some reports about a rape culture on college campuses might be overblown, the reality of how sexually fired-up university students are is smacking the public in the face. And it’s related to the sexual libertarianism that culture has promoted.

“That’s the thing about these ideas, they’re either going to work in real life, or they’re not going to work, and if they don’t work, there’s going to be casualties,” Stonestreet said.

To prevent those casualties, older generations can raise the standards for younger ones, particularly adolescents. Stonestreet called adolescence a “made-up stage of existence,” during which time adults make excuses for young people’s poor behavior. Historically, other cultures have required boys and girls coming of age to take on more adult responsibilities, and young people have risen to the challenge.

“We get them off the hook for being idiots by saying, ‘boys will be boys,’ or, ‘girls will be girls,’ but we’re not talking about boys. We’re talking about young men and young women,” Stonestreet said. But he also has seen examples of adolescents accepting hard challenges and caring about things that are important. They will be prepared for the hardships that adulthood brings, he said.

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