Youths at Baptist Convention Pledge Chastity Till Marriage
More than a thousand teen-agers at a Baptist convention signed cards vowing to remain virgins until marriage, joining other youths nationwide who have taken similar pledges of celibacy.
“Virginity is the greatest gift you can give your future mate,” Seth Rodriquez, 17, said last week to cheers from other teen-agers at the Southern Baptist State Youth Conference.
Rodriquez was one of about 1,200 convention-goers who signed “True Love Waits” cards, pledging themselves to God and promising to remain chaste.
Other churches and organizations have joined the program. By July the coalition hopes to gather 500,000 signed pledges for display in Washington.
Rick Prall, youth pastor at El Toro Baptist Church, said he sees the campaign as a way to get youths thinking about the sacredness of their sexuality.
“My goal is to get them to make sexual choices now instead of waiting until they’re in the back seat of a car,” he said.
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