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Faith-based programs promote abstinence message
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Premarital sex is an issue young people have to face.
But when curfews, stern lectures and sex education classes fail to harness teens' runaway hormones, parents are turning to faith-based organizations for support.
Extras
In Dayton recently, more than 40 generation Y-ers took vows to abstain from sex until marriage during the final evening of PureFest, a three-day event hosted by Maranatha Christian Fellowship Church, 4501 Wolf Road, Trotwood.
"We're trying to promote waiting until you're married," said Maranatha youth assistant and abstinence counselor Angie Foster. "This way young folks will be less likely to experience the emotional and physical problems that accompany pre-marital sex.
PureFest teaches about healthy relationships, building positive character and self-control."
Events such as PureFest are the next big thing in the save-it-until-marriage movement. Father/daughter purity balls — formal, white-tie ceremonies where young Christian women pledge to remain chaste until their wedding day — are a growing national trend.
The purity ball is the brainchild of Randy and Lisa Wilson, founders of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Generations of Light Ministry.
"We want to create a place in this culture where purity is exalted and valued," said Randy Wilson, speaking from his office in Colorado. "I think there's a reason this movement is spreading around the 48 states. People are seeing the breakdown of the family as a negative and they're trying to build meaningful relationships which they see as positive."
Another ministry sparked by the abstinence movement is Southern Baptist Convention's True Love Waits. Steve Stiglich, minister of youth and singles at First Baptist Church of Fairborn, 1167 Highview Drive, said First Baptist is one of many SBC churches in the southern Ohio association that have spread the message.
"True Love Waits is where the student makes a commitment to God by saying, 'I will remain pure until I am biblically married,' " Stiglich said. "Association-wise, we've held banquets in Dayton and Huber Heights where we invite youths from our association to participate. We've had special ceremonies, usually in February, where the young people sign True Love Waits cards and receive rings from their parents. The titles of these ministries differ, but they share a common goal."
White was the dominant color at Maranatha Christian Fellowship Church's PureFest Banquet last month. Young women wore white ball gowns; young men, white suits and ties.
The banquet concluded three days of PureFest activities, which began with bachelor and bachelorette parties on Friday, a video shoot on Saturday and Sunday's closing banquet where the youths received purity rings from their parents and guardians.
Twenty-year-old Trushana Martin didn't take her vow lightly.
"I'm looking forward to what is happening today because I am making a commitment to God to refrain from sex and to live a life of abstinence until I marry," Martin said.
"I believe this is something that will help me down the line emotionally and physically because being sexually pure is a special gift for my husband and my husband only."
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2167 or kmoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.
More ceremonies held, group says
Leslee Unruh, founder of Abstinence Clearinghouse, a leader in the so-called purity movement, says an estimated 1,400 purity balls were held across the United States in 2006, mainly in the South and Midwest. Double that number were expected to take place this year.
The survey says ...
The Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York, Survey on Teen Sex and Pregnancy:
Nationally, nearly 1 million young women younger than 20 become pregnant each year. That means approximately 2,800 teens get pregnant each day.
Approximately 4 in 10 young women in the United States become pregnant at least once before turning 20 years old.
Teen childbearing alone costs U.S. taxpayers nearly $7 billion annually for social services and lost tax revenues.
Yes or no?
"There's no evidence that signing a pledge card is going to change behavior. To be successful, abstinence programs must teach teens how to communicate their limits when they find themselves in compromising situations and provide them with an on-going support system. It's more complicated than just saying, 'no,' " said Leslie Kantor, director of community advocacy of the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States.
