Is purity back in fashion?

Each summer, I have the opportunity to serve the next generation of leaders, missionaries and committed church members at youth camps in Wales and Romania. What I have observed recently is a growth in an almost puritanical movement within our youth.

As I teach the Bible and engage with Gen Z and Gen Alpha*, I am encouraged by their deep commitment to Jesus and their desire to live authentic holy lives. They have all grown up in a post-Christian secular society, saturated with sexual ideology and they are seeking refuge. I see a counter-culture that is being refined by secularism, calling a new generation back to holy living.

Gen Z and Gen Alpha appear to be serious about the Bible’s teaching: they are determined to stand for traditional values, they are applauded for embracing their biologically given gender, and they are saving themselves for marriage. Celibacy is being celebrated.