HOOKING
UP

Topics: Commitment; Courtship; Dating; Immorality; Relationships; Sex

References: Colossians 3:5–9; 2 Timothy 2:22

Dating a male in hopes of finding a lifelong mate has been replaced by “hooking up.” Hooking up usually is fueled by alcohol and involves sexual activity. According to a survey done by the Institute for American Values titled “Hooking Up, Hanging Out, and Looking for Mr. Right,” 40 percent of the one thousand college women surveyed admitted hooking up with men, and one in ten said she had done so at least six times.

“[The women] wish they could really get to know a guy without necessarily having a sexual relationship,” said Elizabeth Marquardt, coauthor of the report. The survey was conducted after the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University released a report in 1999 that concluded that fewer Americans are marrying, and those who do marry are less happy.

—Michael Fletcher, “Campus Romance, Unrequited,” Washington Post (July 26, 2001)