ARE your classmates constantly talking about sex? Do some of them go beyond talk? If so, you might feel similar to one teenage girl who compared being at school to “working on the set of an X-rated movie.” The fact is, at school many youths are regularly bombarded with opportunities to discuss—or even engage in—sex.
You might hear your classmates talk about “hooking up”—a term that means having sex with no emotional strings attached. In some cases kids hook up with casual acquaintances. In other cases they meet for sex with total strangers they have met online. In either scenario the goal of hooking up is to keep love out of the equation. “It doesn’t mean anything besides two people giving into their physical desires,” says 19-year-old Danielle.
Not surprisingly, hooking up has become a hot topic in many schools. “After every weekend, the halls seem to buzz with news of the latest hookup, of which the explicit details are shared between friends,” wrote a 17-year-old girl in her school newspaper.
If you are trying to live by Bible standards, being surrounded by people who seem to talk only about sex can make you feel left out. And if you do not join the crowd, you may become easy prey for ridicule. To some degree this is to be expected, for the Bible says that when others do not understand your course, they may react by “speaking abusively of you.” Still, no one likes to be made fun of. So how can you say no to sex at school and maintain a proper sense of pride about your stand? First, it is important to understand why sexual temptation is so powerful.