On Friday, Feb. 13, students across America will join together in commitment to remain sexually pure until the day they are married. This unique campaign, called the Day of Purity, is an official project of Liberty Counsel, the Orlando, Fla.-based civil-liberties education and legal defense organization that has been involved in many important religious freedom cases nationwide.
In just a few days since the program's formation, throngs of young people and conservative organizations have shown strong support for this campaign that directly responds to our present culture that habitually tells young people that sexual experimentation and exploration in the elementary years is healthy, normal and virtually expected behavior.
Mathew Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, told me that one freshman health text in our nation instructs students that "Testing your ability to function sexually and give pleasure to another person may be less threatening in your early teens with people of your own sex. … You may come to the conclusion that growing up means rejecting the values of your parents."
Mr. Staver added that the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network recently explained its goal: "If we do our jobs right, we're going to raise a generation of kids who don't believe the claims of the religious right."
The reason? "Whoever captures the kids owns the future."
The Day of Purity is designed to do just that – capture the innocent minds of our nation's young people before aggressive purveyors of teen sexuality can contaminate them with feel-good philosophies that carry negative and dangerous long-term consequences.
In this MTV age of sexual "freedom," many schools, the entertainment world and the Internet frequently inculcate our young people with shocking sexual images and themes. In fact, Mat Staver said the latest trend among teenage girls is known as "bisexual chic" – wherein young girls experiment with lesbianism because they have become convinced that it is socially fashionable. Some girls, he said, even publicly kiss each other while a paying audience of young boys goads them on.
These girls are victims of a society that encourages these types of actions. Kids watching MTV's "The Real World," the E! Network's "Howard Stern" or any number of syndicated dating shows witness a disturbing assortment of sexual exploits that include blunt bisexuality and homosexuality. Sadly, I imagine many kids become convinced this is simply how life is in terms of relating to the opposite sex and to members of their own gender.
It's a completely skewed version of sexuality.
But while this type of sexual experimentation has often become the trendy thing to do, our nation's young people are seldom informed that this type of behavior often bears devastating consequences. In fact, each day in our nation, an astounding 8,000 teens will be infected with a sexually transmitted disease. Furthermore, 1 million teenage girls will become pregnant this year. Many of these girls will later choose to abort their babies. Those babies become just a statistic, joining the other 1.3 to 1.5 million babies annually aborted in "the land of the free."
Mat Staver summed up the need for the Day of Purity in this age of sexual experimentation:
"While the statistics are shocking, we can make a difference. Lives can be changed. Our youth are yearning for an opportunity to stand up for what they know is right. Some students may have made mistakes that they regret by engaging in pre-marital sexual activities; but it is never too late to make a fresh start. We, as parents, leaders and pastors, need to stand alongside them. We need to be in the battle to restore our culture. The Day of Purity is the place to start. On Feb. 13, 2004, we have an opportunity to make our voices heard."
I encourage parents and young people to visit the Day of Purity website: www.dayofpurity.org. Visitors to the site can download an organizing manual, flyers on a variety of topics for distribution to friends and neighbors, obtain the Day of Purity T-shirt and review startling statistics concerning the effects of early sexual activity. Teens can also learn how to organize their own Day of Purity at their schools.
This is an important program that could have a lasting impact on our nation's youth. I'm fervently praying that millions of young people become involved in this project so that they can empower each other – and many others in the years to come – to unite in a powerful nationwide commitment to avoid the temptations of the world by remaining sexually pure for their future husbands and wives.