c. 1997 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ When Valentine’s Day rolls around this year and young people’s fancies turn to romance _ and its physical expression _ a growing number of teens are telling their peers that love is a waiting game and sexual abstinence a virtue.

That message will come from students involved in”True Love Waits Goes Campus,”a campaign urging sexual abstinence among teens and college students that includes rallies, Bible studies and card-signing commitments on the days leading up to and including Feb. 14.

Kate Bowen, a junior at Foothill High School in Pleasanton, Calif., has been organizing speakers at her school’s Christian club to encourage students to refrain from sex in their relationships.”A lot of times around Valentine’s Day … love is portrayed as maybe superficial but this is an alternative way that kids can recognize how they can express … love by respecting the other person and themselves as well,”said Bowen, leader of the FISH (Friends Interested in Serving Him) Club at her school.”I think we as a society can expect that our youth can control ourselves because we can, especially with God’s help.” The True Love Waits program began in 1993, launched by the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board, and has spread to include more than 40 other denominations and Christian student groups.

In 1994, more than 100,000 cards pledging an individual’s commitment to abstinence were displayed outside the meeting hall of the Southern Baptist Convention. In 1995, a display of some 220,000 cards was exhibited during the Baptist World Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Most recently, in 1996, a chain of some 350,000 pledge cards was lifted to the roof of the 27-story Georgia Dome during a Christian youth rally.

Now, organizers and supporters are moving the cards into public venues where they will be seen by the people they want to influence most _ other students. Their aim is to have a display on every public secondary school campus in the next two years.”The `Goes Campus’ campaign really is a move to get teenagers who have already committed to sexual purity to take that to their campuses,”said Glen Whatley, youth consultant for True Love Waits.

Students supporting the campaign can wear tan-colored”True Love Waits Goes Campus”T-shirts, which depict what Whatley calls a”rad looking dude”racing to school on a bicycle, pencil behind ear and backpack slung over his shoulder. There also are Bible-study books titled”Holding Out for True Love”that are being used by Christian student clubs prior to Feb. 14.

Whatley said his office gives students”a game plan,”but youth ministers and students are individualizing the plan. Commitment cards declaring a student’s decision to abstain from sex will be tacked on lockers, posted in hallways and tucked around flagpoles.

The card reads:”Believing that True Love Waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, my friends, my future mate, and my future children to be sexually abstinent from this day until the day I enter a biblical marriage relationship.” In some cases, Christian club members at schools throughout a community plan to gather for a single rally on Feb. 14 or on a day leading up to Valentine’s Day.

For example, students are planning to bring their Valentine’s Day dates to a rally in Volusia County, Fla., said Vicki Stewart, a youth leader at Glencoe Baptist Church in New Smyrna Beach, Fla.”Through the Christian clubs, these kids are taking the message of abstinence to their peers,”said Stewart, who has helped students organize a rally at the local high school.”That’s what’s really neat about it.” The True Love Waits effort also is being highlighted in rallies across the country featuring Christian artists Patty Cabrera and Jonathan Pierce. The two sing songs and join other speakers in challenging youths to remain virgins or make a new commitment to abstinence.

Pierce, who has participated in 15 rallies, tells students about his decision to remain a virgin until he married his wife, Denise, in June 1995 at age 26.”The schools are handing them … condoms and saying it’s OK,”said Pierce, who performs as a solo artist and as a member of the Gaither Vocal Band.”I just wanted to give them an alternative, to think about it first.” Pierce said he also encourages students who are no longer virgins to begin an abstinent lifestyle.”You say, `From this day forward, I’m going to start over and I’m going to save myself … for that one that I’ll marry,'”he said.

Although many activities are planned at the high school and middle school levels, college campuses are involved as well.

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, students at the University of North Texas plan to hold a candlelight ceremony at which interested students will sign the commitment card, keeping half in their wallets and posting the other half on”Greek Hill,”the spot on the Denton, Texas, campus where most of the fraternities and sororities have placed big wooden Greek letters.

They’ll also post a sign that says,”Want Safe Sex? Wait ‘Til Marriage,”said Tracey Fields, an associate intern at the Baptist Student Ministry at the university.”I think that one thing that students have got to realize, especially Christian students, is that their first love definitely has to be Jesus Christ,”said Fields.”I think that so many times we forget … that God has a standard that we’re to live by.”

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