LIKE A VIRGIN

Sexual activity among teens has reached a point of widespread societal acceptance. Schools are busy having younger and younger kids practice with condoms on bananas for the inevitable 'coming of age'--you can't stop it, you know. Kids are gonna do it and only religious extremists with their heads in the sand could possibly argue otherwise. Hand in glove with this attitude is opposition not only to parental permission, but also even parental notification for an underage girl's abortion.

Against this state and societal sponsored promiscuity is some encouraging news reported by Newsweek. The Center For Disease Control finds that there has been a 10% rise in the number of teens stating they have not had sexual intercourse over the past decade. Newsweek takes a look at several teens who have decided not to have sex until marriage including some 'renewed virgins', those who have had sex but vowed not to again until after marriage.

Some seem to tempt fate, such as Daniela, the Miss Hawaiian Tropic El Paso who also cheerleads professionally and models at Harley-Davidson 'fashion' shows:

Daniela knows about temptation: every time she walks out onstage in a bathing suit, men take notice. But she doesn’t see a contradiction in her double life as virgin and beauty queen; rather, it’s a personal challenge. “I did Hawaiian Tropic because I wanted to see if I could get into a bikini in front of all these people,” she says. “I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to win.’ But I did, and I got a free trip to Houston’s state finals. I met the owner of Hawaiian Tropic. It’s like, wow, this is as good as it gets.”

Do they make burkas for 2-year olds?

But many couch their reasons for remaining chaste in utilitarian terms rather than religious ones. Alice Kunce, self-avowed feminist and Christian, still speaks out strongly against religious opposition to sexually active teens. Kunce feels empowered by the feminist movement to resist sex, and 'If anything, she feels a need to speak up for those being coerced by aggressive abstinence groups.'

Certainly, many teens are motivated by religious reasons, and that really steams folks who are opposed to anything like 'values' in education. (Well, unless it's values like tolerance, 'choice' or free sex for people who can't drive.) The only acceptable way to teach abstinence is to do so on solely utilitarian grounds. Now that teens need to know the real-life consequences of teen sex--STD risk, pregnancy, emotional consequences--goes without saying. But utimately unless their actions are based on a firm moral choice, their 'purity rings' won't matter a whit.