Year 11 students at Christchurch’s Papanui High School are being warned of the Wrath of God, should they engage in premarital sex.

I’m unsure which is more laughable: the assertion that God gives a shit about consensual teenage sex, or the presumption that these students – atheist or otherwise – would give a shit what God thinks.

To use a religious-based, antiquated threat in an attempt to control modern-day, technological teenagers is baseless, lacking relevance and ultimately, asinine.

The end game here, that initiators of this gambit were supposedly hoping to effect, is a reduction in teen pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, which is fair; but regarding the forced abstinence of a schoolyard full of fiercely hormonal and indeed, sexually able teenagers, all the enforcement of such a dated convention will likely achieve, if it’s to be taken seriously, is a higher frequency of youth marriage, therefore the subsequent divorce.

Additionally given today’s teenager’s rampant proclivity to engage in the carnal art forms, claiming that God is not on side with these actions will probably only turn more young people off religion…

Offered a choice between carefree young sex or the rules and tedium of religion, which would you choose?

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Tia Najia

Photography by Claire Maddy Yah