Day of Purity Counters Peer Pressure

Youth celebrate Valentine's Day by taking a vow of abstinence.

The Day of Purity is aimed at encouraging singles of every age to remain sexually pure — a strong counterpoint to the popular cultural message to have sex early, often and with many.

Young people are bombarded with messages — through mass media, music and peer pressure — encouraging them to become sexually active at a young age and even to experiment with homosexuality.

Take, for example, one ninth-grade health textbook that says "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."

In a nation where more than 3 million teens have a sexually transmitted disease and nearly 1 million young girls become pregnant each year, the Day of Purity — a project of Liberty Counsel — offers an opportunity for youth to stand up for self-respect and purity.

Rena Lindevaldsen, senior litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel, said Valentine's Day is the perfect time to focus on what kind of relationship a young person wants to be in.

"It is a day that youth — college students, high school students — are focusing on sending some sort of message to their loved one," she said. "So it made natural sense to focus on another aspect of that relationship and to focus on sexual purity and what that would mean in the dating relationship."

She said many cultural messages directed at young people are unhealthy.

"They're being told that there is something called 'safe sex' when we all know there really isn't safe sex," she said. "They see on TV that the norm is to show a lot of skin and to look a certain way — and that it's OK to enter into casual sexual relationships."

The perception by many is that everyone out there is having sex, she said, and that's just not true.

"There are so many who are making a commitment to remain sexually pure and that message needs to get out," Lindevaldsen said. "Even if you're the only one in your school, you can go to our site and see that there are over 700 organizations supporting you and almost 130 schools participating at this point. You may be the only one in your school but you're not alone in this country."

And you can make a difference in your community, she emphasized.

"Try writing a letter to the editor about why you want to remain sexually pure," she said. "Go to our Web site, print off some fliers and hand a flier out to ten people at school that day during non-class time and they're going to get a potentially life-saving message. Maybe they are going to think about it when they've never thought about it before."

Lindevaldsen also suggested getting a group of friends to wear white T-shirts on Feb. 14.

"If five of your friends go to school wearing white, people are going to ask you, 'What's this about?' " she said. "And you are going to have an opportunity to tell them."

And while the Day of Purity lasts only a day, Lindevaldsen said making a long-term commitment to remain sexually pure until marriage is healthy physically, emotionally and psychologically.

"This isn't a one day commitment," she said. "We want it to be life-long, year-round and we're trying to provide you with the resources to do that."

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Liberty Counsel has a page on its Web site with more ideas on how to be involved in the Day of Purity.

Abstinence-Committed Youth Gear Up To Mark Third Annual 'Day of Purity'

By Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
February 13, 2006

(AgapePress) - This Valentine's Day, young people throughout the nation and the world are taking a stand for sexual purity, self-respect, and voluntary sexual abstinence as the third annual "Day of Purity" takes place on Tuesday.

The Day of Purity, a project of the Florida-based pro-family organization Liberty Counsel, is an annual observance designed to encourage young people to remain sexually pure until marriage. Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, says the message of the special focus day and its related events run counter to the teen-targeted messages about sex that come from secular culture.

The Day of Purity is "a day for youth to stand up for sexual purity, to go against MTV and the counter-culture that is suggesting that youth should engage in sexual activity early, often, and with many," Staver explains. He believes the alternative message the Day of Purity offers is sorely needed in a culture in which more than three million American teens are infected with sexually transmitted diseases each year, and nearly one million teenage girls become pregnant each year.

Mat Staver

The head of Liberty Counsel contends that secular messages about sex are often damaging and dangerous, encouraging sexual experimentation and rebellion against parental standards. "In fact," he notes, "one ninth-grade textbook tells students that testing their ability to function sexually and give pleasure to one another may be less threatening in your early teens with people of your own sex."

That book goes on to tell young people they may "come to the conclusion that growing up means rejecting the values of your parents," Staver says. However, he insists that the "information" coming from such books and from the Hollywood media "that early sex is desirable and happening frequently is absolutely wrong."

Another important aspect of the Day of Purity, the Liberty Counsel spokesman points out, is letting youth and young adults know about the consequences of pornography, an influence that is not only harmful but also addictive. In a recent statement, the group cited some alarming statistics regarding child sexual abuse and minors involved in sexual behavior, relating these to the sex-saturated climate in which young people live today. "One explanation for these shocking statistics," the statement noted, "is that we, as a nation, don't convey the message to our youth that we value sexual purity."

Most young people know that the messages they are getting about sex from MTV, Hollywood and other secular media sources are wrong, Staver asserts. For those young people who want to take a stand for the truth, he says, the Day of Purity "gives them the opportunity to stand up, to dress in white or to wear the Day of Purity tee shirts and to stand for sexual purity."

Staver is urging those young people not already involved to visit DayofPurity.org for more information about the February 14 event, during which youth are encouraged to hand out flyers and wear clothing expressing pro-abstinence messages. He says the website allows those interested to download a planning manual and informative flyers on several topics, to order tee shirts, or to link to other valuable resources.

By Liberty Counsel's latest count, more than 600 organizations and individuals representing ten different countries have expressed support for the Day of Purity.

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