by Some students at Princeton have created a Chastity Club to encourage saving sex until marriage:
The Princeton group is named after Elizabeth Anscombe, an English philosopher and staunch Roman Catholic who defended the church’s teachings on sex, and died in 2001.
People who want to take part in the society’s activities don’t have to sign a pledge or take an oath. Some members may have had sex in the past, and leaders say the group is open to everyone, even those who may just be interested in exploring the idea of chastity intellectually.
One of the main reasons the group was created was to let students who don’t want to have premarital sex know they’re not alone, organizers said. They knew beforehand that sex would be part of college life, but many were surprised at how prevalent it was.
“My freshman year … it was really distressing to me to see my peers going out, getting drunk, and having random sex,” said Clare Sully, 20, a senior originally from Princeton. “I hadn’t yet come to the conclusion that sex was only for marriage … (but) I was quite certain that sex was way too important to treat so casually.”
At the University of Colorado at Boulder, Jonathan Butler, 19, and five of his friends are starting the “College Coalition for Relationship Education,” a secular group designed to promote abstinence. They reached a similar conclusion.
“You don’t just have sex to have sex. You have to be emotionally ready,” said Butler.
The Princeton group brings in speakers who talk about issues related to sex and chastity. A recent talk titled “Real Sex: The Truth About Chastity” drew about 120 people. Another speaker from the University of Virginia focused on the effects of the sexual revolution on family and children.
