Do Virginity Pledges Work or Do They Do More Harm Than Good? December 30, 2008

I opened a huge can of worms today. Yahoo had an article up whose headline said “Virginity Pledges Don’t Work” or something to that effect. I didn’t blog about it right away and now, when I tried to find it, it was gone. So I Googled “viriginity pledges” and WHOA!

What do I find but EIGHT articles stating, “No, virginity pledges don’t work and are harmful,” two reports stating, “They don’t work but are not actively harmful,” and one article which states, “They do work.” Here’s some links:

The “Doesn’t Work And Is Harmful” crowd:

KARK 4 News – news report about pledges NOT working

WebMD – “Virginity Pledge Doesn’t Stop Teen Sex”

Medical News Today- “Many Teens Who Take ‘Virginity Pledges’ Substitute Other High-Risk Behavior for Intercourse, Study Says”

Teenwire.com (supported by Planned Parenthood) – “The Truth About Virginity Pledges”

Washington Post – “Virginity Pledges Cannot Be Taken on Faith”

Salon.com – “The Virginity Hoax”

Everything2.com – Virginity Pledge

The Sydney Morning Herald – “Virginity Pledge No Guarantee”

Bloomberg.com “Virginity Pledges Fail to Trump Teen Lust in Look at Older Data”

The “Works” ‘crowd’:

The Heritage Foundation – “Teens Who Make Virginity Pledges Have Substantially Improved Life Outcomes”

And the “Doesn’t Work but is Basically Harmless” crowd:

Science Direct – “After the promise: The STD consequences of adolescent virginity pledge”

Science Direct – “The limits of abstinence-only in preventing sexually transmitted infection”

And then you have some source material:

“Patient Teenagers? A Comparison of the Sexual Behavior of Virginity Pledgers and Matched Nonpledgers” in which the conclusion is stated as,

The sexual behavior of virginity pledgers does not differ from that of closely matched nonpledgers, and pledgers are less likely to protect themselves from pregnancy and disease before marriage. Virginity pledges may not affect sexual behavior but may decrease the likelihood of taking precautions during sex. Clinicians should provide birth control information to all adolescents, especially virginity pledgers.

What I find really interesting is two little points. One from the Heritage Foundations article. The article states,

Overall, making a virginity pledge is strongly associated with a wide array of positive behaviors and outcomes while having NO negative effects. (2) The findings …strongly suggest that virginity pledge and similar abstinence educations programs have the potential to substantially reduce teen sexual activity, teen pregnancy, and out-of-wedlock childbearing. (Emphasis mine)

I can’t help but compare these statements with the other interesting point. Pediatrics, The Official Journal of The American Academy of Pediatrics said in their article,

Pledgers and matched nonpledgers did not differ in premarital sex, sexually transmitted diseases, and anal and oral sex variables. Pledgers had 0.1 fewer past-year partners but did not differ in lifetime sexual partners and age of first sex. Fewer pledgers than matched nonpledgers used birth control and condoms in the past year and birth control at last sex,

and came to the conclusion that…

The sexual behavior of virginity pledgers does not differ from that of closely matched nonpledgers, and pledgers are less likely to protect themselves from pregnancy and disease before marriage. Virginity pledges may not affect sexual behavior but may decrease the likelihood of taking precautions during sex. Clinicians should provide birth control information to all adolescents, especially virginity pledgers.

So how does this work? How can you have such different conclusions when the same Add Health survey was the basis for both?

I don’t know. But something else I found interesting was that, “Five years after the pledge, 82% of pledgers denied having ever pledged.”

Interesting.

I pledged to remain a virgin until I was married. And I was a virgin when I married. But not once did my signature on a pledge card come to mind when I was in a situation which could  have ended with sexual intercourse. I remained a virgin because it’s what I wanted to do and if I’d wanted to have sex before I got married, that’s what I would have done, pledge or no. In my personal experience and the experiences of people who signed virginity pledge cards with me, the Virginity Pledge is a waste of time, money, and trees and it promotes magical thinking, both in teens and adults. The teen think that because he or she signed a pledge card, they don’t need to do anything else regarding their sexuality. They rest on their pledge alone and it’s not enough. Adults pat themselves on the back because x number of teens signed pledge cards and they don’t provide those kids with the information and guidance they need regarding safe sex. Abstinence Only education doesn’t work and the sooner that’s recognized and dealt with the better.

Playing basketball linked to sexual sin! Next on wacky news! December 18, 2008

Not only are Christians terrified of the homosexual agenda to destroy America, they are also terrified of girls playing basketball on the same teams as boys. After all, “it could lead to sin.“

I’ll recap the story for those of you who are too lazy to click the link or, like a certain in-law I know, have the world’s slowest internet connection and it already took ten minutes to load this page. Westside Christian School in southern Florida played in the Suncoast Christian Conference. Westside did not have a girl’s basketball team. The school only has 112 kids and not enough interested girls. The coach for the boys JV team saw 13 year old Aliyah playing basketball with the boys during P.E., which is co-ed. He thought she had good moves, good speed and natural talent so he, after studying up on the bylaws, asked her if she’d like to play. She played on game before the school got an email from the head honcho at Suncoast. She played again and Suncoast called a meeting of their 11 schools. Once school didn’t vote but it wouldn’t have mattered as the 8-2 vote to not allow Aliyah to play was passed. Westside immediately left the conference and has lined up games with other schools, many from the conference.

The reason for the discrimination? It might lead to sin. All that bumping and grinding that happens on the court. All the ass grabbing and chest rubbing. “Inappropriate contact” was the phrase I think. It would go against the “Christian upbringing.”

I don’t even have the energy to really comment on this. It’s so ridiculous. I am all for sexual purity but come one people! After reading some of the more ignorant comments, one in which those who disagreed with Suncoast Christian Conference’s decision were accused of reading, at most, two verses on Sunday, I said this:

Interesting. As someone who did grow up reading the Bible and, no, not just two verses on Sunday, I studied it deeply, I find this very disturbing. The Bible says it is good for a man to not touch a woman and I think this is where these people are coming from. So I expect there to be a lot less hand shaking with the pastor after service because, after all, it might lead to sin, no matter how innocently it begins.

If you are going to pick and choose what parts of the Bible you are going to follow, choose love, not hate.

And if playing b-ball with a girl leads a boy to sexual sin, the problem is with the uptight upbringing and not the co-ed sport. There is no one more sex obsessed than a Christian. I know, I was there. My friends who did not grow up in the church were not NEARLY as sex obsessed as myself and every other christian kid I knew. The church sexualizes EVERYTHING from holding hands to playing sports to seeing a girl in pants.

Grow up.

And what about homosexuality? I mean, what if all that groping and touching and chest grabbing causes a boy to have homo-erotic feelings for his teammates? I think the answer is to ban all sports completely. Actually, maybe ban fun completely and then you can be sure that no one is every sinning, ever.

So, basically, Suncoast has made a mockery of Christ and his teachings. They have twisted the Bible to say what they want it to say for whatever sick little reasons they have. Some commentors on the articles have suggested pedophilia may be the cause or perhaps just jealousy of a talented girl or plain old sexism and bigotry. I would be interested in knowing a couple of facts. Number one: who was playing on the teams Westside beat their first two games with Aliyah? Who are those boys related to? Number two: What is the race of Suncoasts voting members? I doubt this is a race thing but I think it should be looked into. I think it’s an uptight, over sexualizing, perverted thing.

I also commented at Sticks of Fire, where Tommy has also blogged about this situation. (Thank you, Tommy, for suggesting I add some links.)