Thought for the week

RECENTLY a newspaper pointed out that casual sexual relationships amongst the younger generation have almost ceased to exist: unsurprisingly in the circumstances.

Whilst few people took any notice of the fact that sexually transmitted diseases have reached almost epidemic proportions in Britain, Covid-19 has people really scared.

How much influence the media have in the spread of casual relationships I’ll leave you to judge but it seems to me that in most programmes I watch on TV two people meet briefly for the first time and the next thing is they’re in bed together.

Yet the nation wonders at the sad breakdown of family life and the tragic consequences for the children involved.

It surely isn’t that difficult to make the connection yet it seems beyond the majority.

At one time sex was a taboo subject in church but why should we avoid something which God gave as a gift to humankind?

Sex is intended to be enjoyed within the context of a lifelong loving relationship between a man and a woman in which they become one flesh.

That means they need to get to know each other before deciding whether they want to spend the rest of their lives together.

Only in that scenario should we bring children into this world. Of course things can go wrong and our best laid plans can fall apart but we are encouraged to aim for the ideal.

Young people today have not stopped visiting dating sites.

The difference now is that they cannot meet up until this crisis passes.

Instead they are using social media to talk to each other, send photographs and engage in deeper and meaningful conversations.

We used to call it courtship. Long may it continue.