“biblical courtship as the alternative to increasingly depraved”
Actually this is on the rise as well. What I take from this article and from observation is that those in one half will continue into depravity and the other half appears to be moving even more traditional. I would agree with the article that the “traditional” way of dating these past few decades is dying and being replaced by a loose definition of dating and relationship. Those that still practice religion may move back to what was the traditional form of courtship prior to the 60s Social upheaval.
Even dating back in the 50’s and 60’s wasn’t all that healthy. In small towns (and large as well) dating consisted a lot of teenagers going to the drive-in theater, smooching and hugging (or worse), then later cruising the parking lot of the “Dairy Queen” and then another “parking” session on some remote road before taking the girl home by 10:30 PM. Going “steady” and breaking up pretty soon was par for the course. - It led to many “unplanned” teenage pregnancies, not surprisingly. - “Dating” was always a miserable experience to me, and I didn’t date much because, fortunately, back then I wouldn’t have known what sex was if it had jumped up and bit me on the backside. So, when the hugging and kissing got boring for us naive and innocent ones, we just found a way to “break up”.
The concept of courting has increased as well. While the bad has increased, so has the good.
By the way, I am pretty young, and none of the teens or college kids I know consider “hooking up” as casual sex. Hooking up is also used to mean meeting somebody you like at a dance or bar or whatever and then leaving to go out somewhere.
Maybe in New York it means casual sex, but not here. It is almost related to dating, just happening to meet someone at a place you are interested in; it doesn’t mean you meet and then go back to the apartment for sex.
My high school son is about to ask a girl to a school dance. It will be his first “date”.
My son goes to a Christian private school, so I’m okay with him going to the dance.
So far, we haven’t had to deal with the whole boy/girl issue, but it is fast approaching us.
My son is learning from his friends about some of the problems with dating. I’m encouraging him to just be friends with girls in high school so that he can avoid some of those problems.