No Sex Please, We're Teenagers
'No sex please, we're teenagers...' You wouldn't expect to hear that from the young people on your street corner. But right now, you might just be surprised. It's the name of a much-talked-about three-part documentary series on BBC2, which follows 12 teenagers as they take a vow of celibacy for five months to explore the physical, emotional and sometimes spiritual possibilities for a healthier lifestyle.
The project, called Romance Academy, is run by two Christian youth-workers, Dan Burke and Rachel Gardner (who is married to LICC's youth researcher, Jason). They believe that a period of sexual abstinence creates space for teenagers - from peer pressure, from drugs and alcohol, and from the insecurities of youth - to begin thinking more clearly and positively about themselves, their bodies and their relationships.
Yet abstinence, as the programme sensitively portrays, is not the ultimate aim in itself, but the means to a better end. The final programme (on Tuesday) reveals whether the group manage to fulfil its pledge; but the youth-workers have made it clear from the start that the course is not about staying the distance to win a prize, but about learning, instead, to experience grace - no matter what - and understanding how to make better decisions along the way.
Although the group visited the Silver Ring Thing project in Florida to see how the Americans don't do it, they were not exposed to overtly Christian teaching while at the Romance Academy. They were so impressed by Dan and Rachel as role models, however - whose positive emphasis was on life 'to the full' - that they asked to find out more about the faith that drives them, and some have taken it further.
As sexually transmitted diseases increase and our teen-pregnancy rate remains so high, it's hard to know what to do, or whether, even, to bother. Most of us, if we're honest, are fearful of teenagers - believing the hype about 'asbos' and 'hoodies', and we'd prefer to leave well alone. But Rachel and Dan's positive example is surely not just for the young people, but for us adults, too.
The 12 appearing on BBC 2 are clearly, deeply grateful that Rachel and Dan did bother - so much so that some have established their own groups for their peers. It's not just an STD that's contagious. Love spreads, too. And one changed life can change another, for good.
Brian Draper
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