US virgins urge UK teen celibacy

[emad]

A group of US virgins and an evangelist are urging British teenagers to abstain from sex before marriage.

The Silver Ring Thing encourages young people to buy a silver ring and pledge to remain celibate.

The scheme has sold 20,000 of the $12 rings to US teenagers and is planning a British tour, preaching the beliefs and selling the rings for £10 each.

It is funded partly by the Bush administration, which is a strong supporter of abstinence.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3699851.stm


Didn't the Nazis call this sort of thing The Purity List?????

[northzax]

1. frankly, I sorta, SORTA, agree with this

few teenagers are ready for the implications and inherent dangers of sex in today's world, and I don't think many of them should have sex in high school. there, I said it. If you are still dependant on your parents for everything, and are not old enough to take care of yourself (here's my new rule: if you still get an allowance, don't get laid) you shouldn't be having sex. That doesn't mean you shouldn't fool around, if you can, or even engage in oral sex, but actualy penetrative sex, the kind that leads to pregnancy if not done carefully, should not be engaged in until you are ready for the consequences.

I am a firm believer in sex-education from parents especially, and a strong supporter of a woman's right ot choose to abort a pregnancy, but most teenagers don't have these real beleifs developed yet. You aren't your own person yet, and no one should have to choose between their future and a child, it's a devasatating choice to have to make, especially as a teenager. you shouldn't have sex unless you are rationally able to deal with the potential consequnces.

[Dedalus]

3. "Shouldn't?"

Where are you getting your "shoulds" from? Religious ideas? Sociological ones? Most middle-class youg adults, especially the ones who get advanced degrees, are still getting some type of a$$istance from their parents well into that stage. Does this mean they can't have sex until they're 28? By that same logic, poor kids, who don't get shit from their parents, can have all the sex they want--and since these are the teens who are getting pregnant, your logic defeats your stated goals. The bottom line is, condoms etc. are not rocket science, and there is no blanket statement that can be made about "readiness" relative to age that can be even a little accurate.

[northzax]

6. if you can't make a rational decision

and be able to support a child, you shouldn't be having sex. period.

If you are unable to make a rational, adult decision about whether to have a child, abort it, or give it up for adoption, then you shouldn't be having sex.

rare are the teenagers who are capable of making those decisions.

marriage is certainly important, but is a meaningless dividing line for me on this decision. That is why this isn't for me, a religious distinction.

is that clear enough for you?

[tigereye]

7. sounds pretty sensible to me

when I was a teen I didn't want the risk of pregnancy to get in the way of my goals for myself. Of course I was a teen when having sex in high school was the exception ( or at least it seemed to be) as opposed to now when it seems to be the rule, at least according to the stats I read.

Unfortunately not all teens are rational about this, although some of them certainly are. If the world were rational .... :)

[Dedalus]

14. but...

...by the "can you either take care of a child or abort a fetus" logic of who "should" be having sex:

1. Gay teens can have sex but not straight ones.
2. Poor people can never have sex in their lives.
3. Straight infertile teens can have all the sex they want.
4. Straight fertile teens can have all the buttsex they want.
5. A bunch more stuff I could think of if I kept sitting here...

...but it still comes down to the idea that the focus should be on birth control that actually works, and better access to it. The whole "but she could get pregnant" thing should NOT be a chain around women's/couples'/peoples' necks at this point, and the right combination of education, science, and open-mindedness can totally bring this about. The only reason we're not there already is because of people making an effort to hold us back, and when you say stuff like "they have a point," you give them strength.
....Also: Whenever there's stats on teen pregnancy, they never make a distinction between accidental pregnancies and teens who were trying to get pregnant (for whatever reason). Has anyone ever seen that distinction made? My partner teaches at an inner-city school with a shitload of teen pregnancy, but almost all those girls got pregnant on purpose; and yet, whenever we (left OR right) discuss teen pregnancies, we assume they're ALL accidental... If kids are trying to get pregnant, there's little we can do, but for those who are having sex but don't want a pregnancy, a combination of condoms & the pill seemed to work fine for everyone in my high school...

[tigereye]

16. I have worked a lot with inner-city youth in my career

and I realize that some pregnancies are intentional... there are as many reasons for teen pregnancy, as there are teens. Colleagues and I used to wish at one point that the implant was mandatory when people reached a certain age ( despite how Orwellian this might seem), due to all the pregnancies we saw of young children ( 11-12), because they were very unaware of their bodies and were taken advantage of, and would be raising children that they had no business to be raising. I don't think it is a bad thing for us to ask teens of all persuasions to be responsible and to also give them access to birth control. I don't think that this question has to have an either/or component.

Also I believe that good studies of this issue do attempt to make the distinction between accident and intent, whatever that may be.

and welcome to DU!

[enki23]

2. who's making the profit?

silver ring thing?

[Melsky]

4. Where are you supposed to wear the silver ring?

[Bog Frog]

5. Mind your own business, people.

This stuff makes me crazy.

[WMliberal]

8. I gave God my word...

to stop at third! haha
Abstinance-only is a total freaking disaster. I'm from southeast Virginia, I had to put up with it for 6 years in public school.

[OneBlueSky]

9. fact: teenagers are horny . . . fact: teenagers have sex . .

doesn't it make more sense to instruct teens about safe sax rather than to tell them that abstinance is the only proper way to handle their horniness? . . . some positive reinforcement about alternatives such as masturbation (individual and mutual) wouldn't hurt either, imo . . .

[elfwitch]

10. I agree...

Telling anyone they should wait to have sex until they are married is ridiculous. It is religious dogma of fanatics (who are often hypocrites on this very subject) trying to dictate morality at the federal level. The abstinence only programs do not work. They cause more pregnancies not less. The only thing thing that prevents pregnancies is education.

Education about sex, education about masturbation, education about disease, these things prevent "accidents". Teenagers should have more information not less.

And how far does this abstinence thing go? I didn't get married till I was 26. Does that mean they think I should have waited that long to have sex? If that is the case, it is utter bullshit.

[GirlinContempt]

11. You know....

I just realized, that I don't really talk about abstinence in my workshops... Oh I bring it up, but I don't dwell on it a whole lot.
I suppose because, although abstinence is really the only way to make 100% sure you're protected, it's also the least popular form of birth control/STI prevention.

Teenagers are going to have sex. Once or one hundred times. When I was a teen, a ring on my finger wouldn't stop me from having sex, and a lot of the religious kids I know wouldn't have let it stop them either. Possibly it would have been a good way to reassure their parents, however. "Look, Mum, I have the Bushco Abstinence Ring! Bobby and I aren't sleeping together". Meanwhile, in the backseat of Bobby's car.... :P

Anyway, I fully support sexuality education programs, in schools, or outside of them, continuing on as long as people feel comfortable attending them. And abstinence is part of that education, but so is protecting yourself if you choose to do it. Abstinence may be 100% effective, but it's not 100% likely.

[emad]

12. Bush abstinence for schoolkids programme is hypocrisy considering

they have sucessfully denied, covered up, whitewashed over, justified and lied about the paedophile abuse scandals going back to the 1950s, whereby children as young as two or three years old were systematically raped and tortured by professionals in religious orders who preached 'abstinence' as part of their faith.

If the BFEE gave one holy shit about the sexual welfare of minors in the US they would start by disclosing all those clerics who have enjoyed protection from the rape courts and who have hidden under the guise of religious priviledge while their victims have grown into adulthood, traumatised, fearful and brainwashed by the system into thinking that maybe it had all been their OWN fault after all...

[GirlinContempt]

13. Agreed

based on those facts...


And also because if you care about the sexual welfare of minors you'll teach them to be sexually well instead of saying "JUST DON"T DO IT"

[T_i_B]

15. I actually wouldn't worry about this

I doubt they will get very much support in the school system and really that just leaves the Churches, and even then only a few churches are likely to take the silver ring thing up with much enthusiasm.

Britain remains a more secular society than America and as such I think they will have a much greater uphill struggle. Bush may fund them but even Blair is very much unlikely to go that far.

[Kellanved]

17. the Guardian about the matter: "Joy of sex education "

America's virgin soldiers are on their way - ignoring the dangers of abstinence for teenagers.

The flame of sexual liberation may soon have to be kept alive by us geriatric delinquents. A US evangelical group has announced that next month it will be recruiting British teenagers to its campaign against sex before marriage. In the States, more than a million have taken the pledge. "Great Britain," the organiser insists, "is fascinated with the idea of sexual abstinence." In my day such a fellow would have been horsewhipped. Yet young people are flocking to him. Is there no end to the depravity of today's youth?

Not if the US government can help it. The abstinence campaign that hopes to corrupt the morals of our once proud nation - a group called the Silver Ring Thing - has so far received $700,000 from George Bush, as part of his campaign to replace sex education with Victorian values. This year he doubled the federal budget for virginity training, to $270m. In terms of participation, his programme is working. In every other respect it's a catastrophe.

...

The two western countries at the top of the disaster league, the United States and the United Kingdom, are those in which conservative campaigns are among the strongest and sex education and access to contraception are among the weakest. The US, the UN Population Fund's figures show, is the only rich nation stuck in the middle of the third world block, with 53 births per 1,000 teenagers - a record worse than those of India, the Philippines and Rwanda. The UK comes next with 20. The nations the conservatives would place at the top of the list are clumped at the bottom. Germany and Norway produce 11 babies per 1,000 teenagers, Finland eight, Sweden and Denmark seven and the Netherlands five.

Unicef's explanation is pretty unequivocal. Sweden, for example, radically changed its sex education policies in 1975. "Recommendations of abstinence and sex only within marriage were dropped, contraceptive education was made explicit, and a nationwide network of youth clinics was established specifically to provide confidential contraceptive advice and free contraceptives ... Over the next two decades, Sweden saw its teenage birth rate fall by 80 per cent." Sexually transmitted diseases, in contrast to the rising rates in the UK and the US, declined by 40% in the 1990s.
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1214045,00.html

[Piperay]

18. Nothing wrong with virginity

it's a personal issue though and should be left that way.

[mobuto]

19. Well of course they're celibate until marriage

Everybody's celibate until marriage. Hell, I'm celibate.

Celibacy means "un-married."

They don't mean "chastity" do they? Because that's something, uh, else.

[T_i_B]

20. Celebacy also means chastity

The word swings both ways, so to speak

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=celibate

celibate ( P ) Pronunciation Key (sl-bt)
n.

1. One who abstains from sexual intercourse, especially by reason of religious vows.
2. One who is unmarried.

Of course the abstention meaning is a 20th century development but it does undoubtedly mean abstention from sex.

And just to point out that Chastity does mean the same thing.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=chastity

chastity ( P ) Pronunciation Key (chst-t)
n.

1. The condition or quality of being pure or chaste.

2.
a) Virginity.
b) Virtuous character.
c) Celibacy.

A dictionary is a wonderful thing for pedantic nit-picking. :-)