Donna Freitas, author of a book entitled Sex & the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America’s College Campuses. has some bad news for those who think that sending their kids to Catholic colleges will foster chastity. It doesn’t.
Freitas, an assistant professor of religion at Boston University, surveyed attitudes toward sex at seven institutions of higher learning including at seven colleges, including evangelical Christian, Catholic, and public and private secular institutions. The result? The hookup culture is just as prevalent among students at Catholic colleges as at secular institutions. The Evangelicals, however, do better.
One would think the colleges would divide according to religious affiliation, but they don’t. It’s evangelical colleges and everyone else. Students at Catholic schools showed up as nearly identical with regard to their opinions about sex and religion as students at nonreligious schools. That’s a real wake up to Catholic colleges.
Second, across the board, almost everyone, both men and women, was dissatisfied with hookup culture. The fact that it’s both men and women is really important, because everyone assumes that hookup culture is really bad for women. Men are just as unhappy.
I asked them to talk about their romantic ideals. Almost all the students left sex — even kissing — out of the picture, and so romance was almost asexual whether you were evangelical or not. It’s a very traditional, romantic, asexual, a very restrained sense of eros, in their romantic notions.
Before you pack up those college age kids in a few weeks and take them to the dorm thinking they are safe because they go to a Catholic college, you might want to have a chat or two first.
July 12, 2008 at 9:32 am
I blame the women… we men are, for the most part, going to act as selfish, rude, disrespectful and pig-headed as women will allow us.
But since the value of being a woman has been turned upside down by our media, girls now think they have to tolerate our BS behavior just in order to be in a relationship.
We still cling to our romantic ideas of romance… but romance is, for the most part, dead.
-Kevin
July 12, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Of course, acknowledging this would mean acknowledging that the hook-up culture begins in high school.
50%+ Of teens are sexually active, yes, even in Catholic HSs.
Maybe we should ditch the Shared Christian Praxis approach of “truth is what you feel” and start presenting actual Faith and Morals?
July 12, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Something else to consider is how many of the students at Catholic universities are actually Catholic. Many non-Catholic, non-Christian, non-religious students go to Catholic colleges.
I agree with LCB, though. It starts in high school and we need to be presenting solid truths, not wishy-washy feelings. It’s okay to give definitive answers! That’s what our faith is, Truth.
I think another piece of the problem is that Catholic institutions of education have lost their Catholic identity. We need to start living that identity again and presenting it to the public. I mean, half the students who go to Catholic universities like Xavier, St. John’s, St. Mary’s, or Benedictine don’t know who these people are. That’s a problem. And the same thing rings true in Catholic high schools. Perhaps we should start being more than just Catholic in name first, and then start addressing specific issues.
July 12, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I heard Donna Freitas being interviewed about the book on the America Magazine podcast. It seemed that she saw this as a problem, but seems to not understand the moral reality of sexual sin.
I think it ironically the very worldview of persons like her at Catholic Universites who propound the problem by not understanding and teaching the truth of what the Church has to say on this.
July 12, 2008 at 5:40 pm
What I can’t comprehend is how any Catholic or Christian can learn the Ten Commandments and then commit fornication and adultery regardless.
Wait, didn’t they teach the 10 Commandments in the second grade, when little ears were too young to comprehend it all? Then by the time Confirmation class came around, no one saw the need to revisit these things. Discussing feelings was far more important.
I know, that is how my catechism was in 8th grade.
All kidding aside, all Catholic colleges should require a course entitled: Catechism 101. In that course they will learn that it is not the 10 “suggestions”, and that Jesus did not do away with the 10 Commandments (nor Confession).
I actually met someone around 35 who told me she had no idea it was wrong to have pre-marital sex. If it wasn’t discussed at home, and it wasn’t discussed in catechism, we know that television aimed at young people advocated it, and so does secular culture.
There’s a whole lot of ignorance out there. It is visible in the words of those who finally get catechized and cease the God-displeasing behavior.
July 12, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I would also like to ask when was the last time you heard a priest in your parish talk about pre-marital sex as a sin, why it is a sin?
Anyone in the Detroit area should drop in to my parish, where these things are addressed several times yearly, along with abortion, contraception and many other Catholic teachings.
July 13, 2008 at 10:45 am
My sixteen year old son is a junior at a Midwest Catholic HS, my wife is in her senior year at Franciscan U. My twelve year old daughter is in our Parish elementary school. We have emphasized the aspect of premarital sex as a sin and the importance of Chastity. We practice Natural Family Planning and to make our point about “things that can happen, when you are not Chaste” we have a 5 month old son. Our older son is his God father. Is this enough???
July 13, 2008 at 7:40 pm
To swap Catholic horror stories:
At my Catholic school we were taught how to put on condoms, that morality is whatever we feel to be true, and as long as we fight for social change and social justice (translation: vote democrat) then we are guaranteed to go to heaven no matter what.
When asked directly about moral questions, the teacher responded, “You need to decide what your own personal truth is, and what fits with your own personal story.”
Montigrande,
Not knowing any other information, I would answer: No, it isn’t enough. Home school them when your wife graduates. This isn’t a knee-jerk response, and if you’d like I’d gladly detail reasons.
Alternatively, send your HS boy to St. Gregory’s Academy if it is possible.