Pledge, Ring and Vow InformationTaken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Ring_ThingSilver Ring Thing is a US-based sexual abstinence program which encourages young adults to remain sexually celibate until marriage. Based on conservative Christian theology and until recently (see below) funded by the U.S. federal government, SRT uses rock concert-like events (the "Thing" in Silver Ring Thing) to try to appeal to 21st century teenagers.
SRT events feature high-energy music, club-style lighting and sound, music videos, sketch comedy, and a faith-based abstinence message. During the gathering, participants commit to a vow of sexual abstinence until marriage by purchasing rings.
Shortly before the end of the show, they receive their silver rings inscribed with Bible verses, which are usually worn on the third finger of the left hand. The verse is First Thessalonians 4:3-4 and it states "God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin. Then each of you will control your body and live in holiness and honor." The rings are tokens of their vow, a reminder of their decision to remain celibate. The rings also are a way to signal to others that they are pledged to celibacy. After they put on their rings, they take a vow to remain abstinent.
HistorySilver Ring Thing was created in 1995 by Denny Pattyn, an evangelical Christian youth minister from Yuma, Arizona, as a way to combat what he saw as rising rates of STDs and pregnancies amongst teenagers, as well as a way to protect teens from what founders saw as American culture's unhealthy obsession with sex, which, according to Pattyn, was a byproduct of the “promiscuity [of] the sexual revolution of the ‘60s”.
In 2000, Pattyn became Executive Director of the John Guest Evangelistic Team of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and SRT became part of the national outreach of the John Guest Team.
SRT claims to have won pledges of chastity of more than 25,000 young adults since its inception, and Pattyn has stated that SRT plans to have rings on the fingers of 2 million by 2010.
Initially, SRT was funded entirely by private sources, but beginning in 2003, SRT began receiving money from the federal faith-based initiatives program. As of 2004, SRT has received more than US $1,100,000 in U.S. government federal funding.
In 2004, SRT began expanding operations into the United Kingdom, with mixed results. While some teens in the UK embraced the message of abstinence, others rejected and ridiculed SRT for being anti-sex. Critics have stated that it seems unlikely that abstinence programmes will attract widespread support in the UK because of the UK's different attitude to sexuality, but the group's Assistant National Director for the UK, Denise Pfeiffer says there is a real need for such a movement in the UK to curb what she sees as the ever-increasing rates of sexually transmitted infections and teenage pregnancies, both of which she claims are the highest in Western Europe.
In 2005, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services because it believed SRT used tax dollars to promote Christianity. On August 22, the department suspended SRT's $75,000 federal grant until it submitted a "corrective action plan."
In 2006, Silver Ring Thing decided not to continue using federal funding and to continue with their message.
Criticism of SRTCritics of SRT argue that virginity pledges are an unrealistic approach to curbing teenage sexuality. These critics maintain that many teens will end up breaking their pledge and, when they do, lack the knowledge and contraceptive devices to protect themselves against STDs and pregnancy. Also, studies have shown that virginity pledges are ineffective as young adults who have made pledges are as likely to contract STD's as others and that they are less likely to use contraception when sexual encounters do take place (see virginity pledges). They also claim that because SRT favors Christianity over other belief systems, it should be ineligible for federal funding due to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It is also cautioned that in order to preserve "virginity", teens may engage in sexual acts that do not penetrate the v****a, but may nonetheless spread STD's (such as oral or a**l sex).
Another criticism concerns the fact that those who fail to keep the pledge are encouraged to remove the ring in respect of those who are successful. The concern is that by doing this the teenager reveals their behaviour publicly and thus removing the ring could become a social stigma that attracts feelings of shame and guilt.
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Taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purity_ringPurity rings, or chastity rings originated in the United States in the 1990s among Christian affiliated sexual abstinence groups. The rings are sold to adolescents, or to parents so that they may be given to their adolescent children as gifts.
It is intended that wearing a purity ring is accompanied by a religious vow to practice celibacy until marriage. The ring is usually worn on the left ring finger with the implication that the wearer will remain abstinent until it is replaced with a wedding ring. There is no particular style for purity rings; however, many worn by Christians have a cross in their design in reference to Jesus Christ. Some rings contain a diamond chip or other gemstone and/or "Love waits" embossed somewhere on the ring.
A reporter David Bario in his article posted in Chicago Tribune, Rutland Herald and on several other news websites wrote:
"Under the Bush administration, organizations that promote abstinence and encourage teens to sign virginity pledges or wear purity rings have received federal grants. The Silver Ring Thing, a subsidiary of a Pennsylvania Evangelical Church, has received more than $1 million from the government to promote abstinence and to sell its rings in the United States and abroad."
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Taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginity_pledgeVirginity pledges (or abstinence pledges) are commitments made by teenagers and young adults to refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage, in an attempt to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and teenage pregnancy. They are most common in the United States, especially among Evangelical Christian denominations
HistoryThe first virginity pledge program was True Love Waits, started in 1993 by Southern Baptist Convention, which now claims over 2.5 million pledgers world-wide in dozens of countries. A torrent of virginity pledge programs followed; virginity pledge programs take a variety of stances on the role of religion in the pledge: some use religion to motivate the pledge, putting Biblical quotes on the cards, while others use statistics and arguments to motivate the pledge.
A later, prominent virginity pledge program was the Silver Ring Thing, which was the subject of a successful ACLU lawsuit in 2004 (check date); the Silver Ring Thing had the first part of their program about abstinence, a break, and the second half of the program about Born Again Christianity. The ACLU claimed that the federal funding given to this program as part of the federal Title V abstinence funding (which began in the mid-1990's as part of Clinton's welfare reform bill) violated the separation of Church and State.
Regardless of the approach, all virginity pledge programs are run and staffed by individuals with ties to Christian organizations, mostly evangelical, although the Catholic Church sponsors both secular and a religious virginity pledges. Advocacy of virginity pledges is often coupled with support for abstinence-only sex education in public schools. Advocates propose that any other type of sexual education would promote sex outside of marriage, which they hold to be immoral and risky .
Studies of virginity pledgesThere are four peer-reviewed studies of virginity pledges and one non-peer-reviewed study. Three of the four peer-reviewed virginity pledge studies and the non-peer-reviewed study use the same federal data, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), in which 13,000 adolescents were interviewed in 1995, 1996, and 2000. The other peer-reviewed study uses a study of virginity pledges in California.
The first peer-reviewed study of virginity pledgers --- by sociologists Peter Bearman and Hannah Brueckner of Columbia and Yale, respectively --- found that in the year following their pledge, some virginity pledgers are more likely to delay sex than non-pledgers; when virginity pledgers do have sex, they are less likely to use contraception than non-pledgers.[1] This study found, however, that virginity pledges are only effective in high schools in which about 30% of the students had taken the pledge, meaning that they are not effective as a universal measure. Their analysis was that identity movements work when there is a criticial mass of members: too few members, and people don't have each other for social support, and too many members, and people don't feel distinctive for having taken the pledge. This study was criticized for not being able to conclude causality, only correlation, a criticism which applies to all studies of virginity pledges thus far.
The second peer-reviewed study, also by Bearman and Brueckner, looked at virginity pledgers 5 years after their pledge, and found that they have similar proportions of STDs and at least as high proportions of a**l and oral sex as those who have not made a virginity pledge. They speculate that pledgers may substitute oral and a**l sex for vaginal sex. [3],[4]
The third peer-reviewed study --- by Melina Bersamin and others at Berkeley --- found that adolescents who make an informal promise to themselves not to have sex will delay sex, but adolescents who take a formal virginity pledge do not delay sex.
The fourth peer-reviewed study --- by a Harvard public health researcher --- found that over half of adolescents who took virginity pledges said the following year that they had never taken a pledge.[5] This study [6], showed that those who make the pledge but have sex are likely to deny ever pledging; and many who were sexually active prior to taking the pledge deny their sexual history, which, it is speculated, may cause them underestimate their risk of having STDs.
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Taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Love_WaitsTrue Love Waits (TLW) is an international Christian group that promotes sexual abstinence outside of marriage for teenagers and college students. TLW was created in April, 1993, and is sponsored by LifeWay Christian Resources. It is based on Christian teachings that require one to be faithful to one's husband or wife, even before marriage.
The program has also begun providing public school teachers in the United States with lessons about sexual abstinence. They teach that sexual abstinence before marriage is the best way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Many argue that this leaves students with an inadequate education about sex. Supporters of TLW point out, however, that the program does not proport that abstinence is the only way to prevent pregnacy and STDs, simply that it is the only "foolproof" or absolutely sure method.
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Taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_TeensFree Teens describes itself as a "reality-based, abstinence-centered HIV/AIDS, STD, and pregnancy prevention program". It is used in 38 American states and in more than 70 countries and has been translated into 12 languages.
Like most abstinence-based sexual education programs, Free Teens promotes the idea that sex before marriage carries the potential for deleterious consequences, both physical and emotional.
Established by Richard Panzer, a Unificationist based in New Jersey, Free Teens is one of Sun Myung Moon's social organizations. Members of the group's board of directors, including its director and chief financial officer, ommitted mentioning their positions with Moon's Unification Church in their application for a $475,280 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in July 2002.
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