Idealism?

Attending the banquet for the Pregnancy Care Center last night got me thinking about their particular brand of idealism and it's contrast with the other (dark) side.

One of their programs is presenting abstinence education programs, which I was somewhat surprised to learn are welcomed by the schools. Oops - maybe I shouldn't let that go public and let the ACLU hear about it.

I wonder, is the idealistic hope that teens who hear the abstinence message from this program will embrace it, even though virtually everything else they see and hear in our secular culture teaches them the exact opposite?

How would anyone begin to try to offset the values of our culture, where a teen is generally ridiculed for being a virgin. Where pregnant girls are told to go ahead and abort, because it's really just some blob of tissue, and abortion is just one of many birth control options. Where sincere people working hard to offer alternatives from a perspective of faith are demonized as bible-thumping hypocrites. Where the outrageous spread of STD's and AIDS are seldom mentioned, or if they are, the only suggested solution is a condom. Where abortion is advocated as both a right and a responsibility, to be performed on-demand, without parental notification even for the youngest mothers, right up to full term.

What I found sobering was the fact that Christian children are having sex just as much as their non-churched peers. What more evidence would we need that the secular values are having a greater impact than those the church is trying to impart.

I'm thinking I would love to meet people over 18 who have chosen to remain virgins and committed to saving it for their spouse. Knowing the incredible pressures anyone in that situation faces to abandon that sort of pledge, I could have nothing but the ultimate respect for that choice. It takes an amazing amount of not only self-control, but courage. To be willing to move on from a relationship with a person one thinks might be "the one" when being rejected for saying "no". After all, what could be better than two people entering a marriage in true purity (I now wince at the myth of the white wedding dress), able to begin their lifelong relationship with no baggage from prior partners.

In the meantime, all anyone can do is offer support and help to try to save as many babies as possible. The investment in ultrasound machines for each center is turning out to be possibly more effective than just about anything else in helping convince women and girls to carry their baby to term.