Pure Valentines

Students in America and around the world will celebrate Valentine’s Day by helping educate their peers on the value of sexual purity as a positive choice. Leading up to February 14, 2008, which is the Fifth Annual Day of Purity, youth are actively promoting purity by distributing flyers, wearing white Day of Purity T-shirts and LivePure wristbands and organizing events in their schools, communities and churches.

The Day of Purity celebrates purity in relationships by focusing on Valentine’s Day, a day where many students feel pressured into unwanted sexual activity. Day of Purity participants may obtain a planning manual, wristbands, T-shirts, informative flyers and other useful information from the official Day of Purity web site, www.dayofpurity.org. Day of Purity also has a “myspace page” at www.myspace.com/dayofpurity and is also featured on www.facebook.com.

Students who embrace the purity lifestyle are countering the Hollywood culture with its risqué television shows, vulgar jokes, tasteless commercials and graphic movies. They are inundated at school, on television and on the internet with messages that lust and exploration are normal and healthy and that they should give up traditional moral values and explore their sexuality early and often. The Day of Purity is designed to raise awareness about the dangers of promiscuous behavior and encourage youth to adopt a lifestyle of sexual purity.

Each day in America 8,000 teens will be infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Two-thirds of the 10 million new cases of STDs this year will be among the 14-25 year old age group. Between 1994 and 1998 the rate of teenage girls contracting HIV rose by almost 117%. STDs are not the only issue. Over 1 million teenage girls will become pregnant this year, which is a 430% increase since 1960. As a result of those pregnancies, 20% of the 1.3 to 1.5 million abortions in America each year are performed on teenagers.

Rena Lindevaldsen, International Coordinator for the Day of Purity, explained, “The consequences of sexual promiscuity among youth are devastating. More than 3 million American teens are infected each year with sexually transmitted diseases. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of developed countries, and teens account for 20 percent of the 1.3 million abortions performed each year in this nation. These problems result directly from the failure of our society to offer clear moral guidance. We encourage students to choose sexual purity to drown out the persistent message of sexual promiscuity promoted through television, the internet, movies, video games and even in some school sex education programs. Youth who have already engaged in sexual activity can make a fresh start on the Day of Purity. Students are sending a message to their friends, parents, churches, communities, legislators, and the media that it’s time for a positive change in the culture.”