Sex in the Community - Virginity Pledges Can't Stand Alone

Kristen passed this great article on to me yesterday from Lauren Winner that was in the NY Times. Here's her opening line, "THE recent Harvard study that found teenagers' virginity pledges to be ineffective should come as a surprise to no one." To this I would like to say a HUGE "AMEN!"

Lauren has articulated quite well what I think chastity pledges are missing, the community they are in pledging alongside of them. Here's her summary,

"Perhaps pledges for chastity need to be made not only by the individual teenager. Perhaps we also need pledges made by the teenager's whole Christian community: we pledge to support you in this difficult, countercultural choice; we pledge that the church is a place where you can lay bare your brokenness and sin, where you don't have to dissemble; we pledge to cheer you on when chastity seems unbearably difficult, and we pledge to speak God's forgiveness to you if you falter. No retooled pledge will guarantee teenagers' chastity, but words of grace and communal commitment are perhaps a firmer basis for sexual ethics than simple assertions that true love waits. "

Methodist bishop William Willimon once wrote: "Decisions are fine. But decisions that are not reinforced and reformed by the community tend to be short-lived."