True Love Waits
'True Love Waits' is an American-based Christian group that promotes sexual abstinence outside of marriage for teenagers and college students. Many follow these so-called virginity pledge programmes, with mixed success.
Keywords
- virginity pledge (n.)
- abstinence (n.)
- chastity (n.)
- temptation (n.)
Virginity pledges
A virginity pledge is a commitment made by teenagers and young adults to refrain from having sexual intercourse until they are married. They are most common in the United States, especially in the southeastern and south-central states, a region also referred to as the Bible Belt. Here, socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is an important part of culture, and church
attendance is generally above average.
Virginity pledges promote sexual purity. This means not only abstaining from sex before marriage, but also from sexual thoughts, touching, pornography, and actions that are known to lead to sexual arousal.
Did you know
that in some cases, girls were forced to wear chastity belts? They were typically fitted on teen girls to keep them virgins until marriage, from around the 1700s until the 1930s.
Background
In the late 1990s, Christian music groups began promoting the virginity pledge of 'True Love Waits'. At concerts and youth rallies, American adolescents were encouraged to sign the pledge. During the first year of the campaign, more than 102,000 young people signed it. The pledge has since continued to spread across the US. Occasions such as Valentine's Day are used to gain new followers. Under the George W. Bush administration, a lot of organisations
promoted abstinence and encouraged
teenagers to sign virginity pledges to receive
federal grants.
Promise rings
In the 1990s, another measure to discourage young people from having sex before marriage became popular: the promise ring. The ring is considered a symbol of the chastity of the one wearing it. Many parents buy a promise ring for their children in the hope that it will remind them of their virginity pledge and help them resist temptation.
Facts
Facts about virginity:
- Worldwide, people have sex for the first time at an average age of 17.3.
- Young people who take virginity pledges are just as likely to get sexually transmitted diseases as those who do not pledge.
Efficiency
The efficiency of the virginity pledge programmes has been questioned. A study from 2003 shows that six out of ten college students had broken the pledge after taking it. Of those who identified themselves as abstaining from sexual intercourse, 55 per cent acknowledged having participated in oral sex.
With these facts in mind, it can be concluded that the efficiency of the programme is not very high.