USA (MNN) — Sexuality has been explored to a fault by many university students, but a more detestable form of this sensuality is on the rise. "We're at the beginning stages of seeing a sharp increase in the acceptance of debauchery," says InterVarsity Christian Fellowship evangelist York Moore.
Debauchery may not be a term used very often today, yet it provides the perfect description of what is being seen today on college campuses across the United States.
"A simple definition [of debauchery] is 'excessive indulgence in the appetites': indulgences of lusts, of intemperance, of sensuality," says Moore. "Biblically, the concept of debauchery describes practices that people groups engage in that revolve around sensuality."
Most American Christians have probably already viewed the society as hyper-sexualized since at least the 1960s, but debauchery goes much further than the racy models or premarital relations associated with a sexual culture. "It's a corporate expression and an open-faced embrace of sexual practices," explains Moore. In a blog post on his Web site tellthestory.net, Moore writes, "Debauchery is more than sexual sin, more than public indecency; it is a phenomenon, one that occurs in a people group when the rot of spiritual decay under the surface of familial and cultural institutions bleeds out into the public sphere."
This phenomenon is characterized in the U.S. by "clothes optional" parties in Las Vegas, strip clubs, and the introduction of adult entertainment merchandise in chains like Target and Walmart. Frighteningly though, it has callously spilled over into one of the most formative spheres for American youth: the university.
Due to InterVarsity's interactions with university students, their ministry has been able to observe the ways in which the sex industry has infiltrated what is meant to be a haven for education. Adult entertainment merchandise and films are being distributed to schools through student organizations under the auspices of sex education, tolerance, and free speech. Moore says this sort of exchange is becoming increasingly frequent.
Furthermore, college students are more and more likely to engage in group sexual activity. Gatherings dubbed with the crude label of ‘Pimps and Hoes' parties, in which men dress as pimps and women as prostitutes, are not unusual. Increasingly, young women are pursuing young men for sexual gratification rather than relationship. It's not uncommon to see female students kissing other girls to get male attention, or to observe several young ladies providing sensual attention for one man.
The issue goes past commonplace premarital sex on college campuses and delves into something far more akin to societal decay. Yet at the same time, InterVarsity is seeing the highest numbers in its history of students choosing to leave this lifestyle and stand for Christ. Clearly, many are searching for something fulfilling but are only truly fulfilled in Christ.
To combat debauchery and bring people to the Truth is no small task, though. "If debauchery is a corporate expression of sensuality, it needs to be countered by a corporate expression of spiritual health–a corporate expression of God's power," explains Moore. When it comes to debauchery, Moore says, individual witness is often not enough. Believers need to bind together to be an expression of Christ that will counteract expressions of lewdness.
One important way of doing this is through prayer. Pray for God to save the people of the American nation before it too falls as every other great nation has done in history. Pray that students, who will be the future of American churches and political offices, would turn to the God of the ages to fill them rather than give themselves over to fleeting sensuality. Prayer is imperative if God is to move mightily in this situation.
"Unless we see God open the floodgates of heaven," says Moore, "unless we see the Holy Spirit come in power, unless we see a great and mighty revival in the church and a great awakening in the United States, I believe the best that we can do is merely slow the decay that eventually overtakes nearly every people group in the history of the planet."
