The Challenge Team

The past week has seen a group of Canadian young people bring their message of an alternative lifestyle across the Atlantic to challenge and inspire the young people of Cornwall. The Challenge Team practice and advocate a lifestyle of chastity.
Kernowyouth caught up with the team touring Cornwall during their visit to Bodmin to find out a little bit more about the Challenge Team and the Chastity Lifestyle and to ask the questions many Cornish teenagers would feel too embarrassed to ask…

Kernowyouth: Introduce yourselves.

Challenge Team: We are four volunteers called Collete, aged 21, Angela, aged 24, Peter, aged 20 and Matthew, aged 20. We have just come from six weeks in Ireland and are touring Cornwall at the invitation of the Spire Trust.

Kernowyouth: How did the Challenge Team start?

Challenge Team: The team started in the spring of '93 when a few university students concerned about society's messages regarding sex decided to talk about another option. They thought big, and 11 of them travelled across Canada and spoke to 13,000 students. The response was overwhelming, and the Team has now done speaking tours across Canada, the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The Team has trained close to 200 young adult speakers and spoken to over 600,000 students.

Kernowyouth: So what is chastity?

Challenge Team: It is a lifestyle based on respect. It says sex is so wonderful and precious that it is worth waiting for. It is all about sexual self control, valuing your own sexuality and respecting that of others, and waiting to have sex until you are married.

Kernowyouth: What’s wrong with sleeping around before you’re married? Surely you’ve got to check to see whether you’re sexually compatible with the person you’re marrying and get some experience along the way?

Challenge Team: Great sex is about great communication. The values of loyalty, honesty, respect and fidelity are also important. Chastity is all about building healthy relationships. And when you've married the person that you love more than anyone else in the world, and you've developed these foundations in your relationship, if any problems arise, you can talk about it.

Kernowyouth: Is masturbating wrong?

Challenge Team: Sexual activity is meant to be an expression of love between two people. Masturbation  is selfish and about gratifying personal desires, where as a lifestyle of chastity is about being able to give love, appreciation and respect. Masturbating is often done as a part of unhealthy fantasies about someone, and often linked with pornography. We need to guard against sex being reduced to a purely selfish and physical level - sex is so much more precious than that.

Kernowyouth: Surely if you deny yourself sexual fulfilment you must be very frustrated people until you get married?

Challenge Team: No, we don’t deny we have sexual desires, we acknowledge them but we control them until we can use them in an appropriate way. Taking sex out of our relationships is worthwhile because we can build on other key values and make the relationship stronger. Chastity safeguards worthwhile freedoms. We are not living for the short term. We don’t deny it is difficult and lonely at times but it is fulfilling.

Kernowyouth: Why on earth should marriage be for life anyway? What’s wrong with saying goodbye to someone when your relationship has run its course?

Challenge Team: It is the pivotal relationship for both of you, for your children, for society. You should plan and prepare for it. It is a commitment for life, and many of us can relate to the damage done when that relationship is broken.

Kernowyouth: The only people who follow this lifestyle must be those who just can’t get any?

Challenge Team: No, we practice chastity by choice, not by default. It gives you the freedom to be a real man or woman. It takes more character to say no.

Kernowyouth: But aren’t you just condemning those people who have lost their virginity?

Challenge Team: Chastity is not just for virgins. Practising this lifestyle gives you the chance to start over. It helps to liberate you from the past and all the sexual pressures of your peers, and of the media.

Kernowyouth: So what are your top tips for living a lifestyle of chastity?

The Challenge Team:
• Make the commitment ahead of time.
• Tell someone of your commitment.
• Don’t date for dating sake – be friends first.
• Date someone with the same values.
• Avoid spending too much time alone together. In places where there is no accountability (like the back seat of the car) it can be extremely difficult to stick to your commitment! Quiet time is good, but do it in places where you are accountable. Involve others in your relationship, you learn a lot about your partner in group situations.
• Avoid dangerous situations, eg: getting drunk where control drops.
• Avoid pornography – it makes you look at people physically.
• Show affection in non-physical ways. Be creative. This creates good memories and if the relationship ends leaves you with no regrets.
• Set limits. We recommend drawing a line between affection and passion. Sex isn't an accident, you do things to get there. Once you start down the road to passion, it is really hard to stop.

Kernowyouth: Many thanks and much respect. Enjoy your time in Cornwall

The Spire Trust is looking to recruit a Cornish Challenge Team to take this message into Cornish schools and youth groups on a regular basis. If you are interested contact Joy Bassett at

Interview conducted by Phil Hadley.
(c) 2002 Kernowyouth.

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