Dating wisely

Stuart Burgess describes the blessings that flow from biblical courtship

My first experience of meeting Christians was as a student at university in the 1980s. I was struck by how these young men treated women with great respect. I also noticed how Christians practised restraint and purity in courtship – or dating. Their witness was one reason for my conversion.

In recent years I have been Senior Tutor to over 700 students at my university. In that role I have seen first-hand the harmful consequences caused by liberal attitudes to sex. Recent studies have shown that about a third of teenage girls in the UK suffer sexual assault during relationships. A key reason for this terrible statistic is that boys think that their girlfriends ‘belong to them’ and they therefore have a right to touch them as they want.