January 18, 2010, Ft. Myers News-Press

Not only is 22-year-old Sierra Minott of Fort Myers, a former Miss Florida, waiting until she’s married to have sex, there are movies and TV shows she won’t watch. It’s part of the purity pledge she took at age 11.

“It’s so important that this message gets out, because our culture is so opposite,” said Minott, a senior at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach.

Many local youth ministers remain committed to teaching virginity until marriage, as births to single mothers and sexually transmitted diseases among teens in Lee County increase.

In fact, Planned Parenthood and other public health advocates believe that although the only sure way to avoid pregnancy and STDs is abstinence, the hard line of abstinence-only groups may actually be dangerous.

The abstinence-only message is “both unsafe and unwise,” said Wendy Grassi of the local Planned Parenthood chapter.

If teens go through an abstinence-only program and are not taught about contraception at home, school or elsewhere, chances are they won’t use contraception if they do become sexually active. And with one in four teen girls in the nation infected with an STD, and Florida having the fifth-highest rate of teen pregnancy, it’s clear to Grassi that something isn’t working.

But Albert Hernandez of Parkway Life Church in Naples remains undaunted. He will help host one of three local programs next week by the Silver Ring Thing, a group from the Pittsburgh area that travels around the country with its multimedia show promoting purity.

Hernandez believes that, at least among kids who go to church, the message is taking hold.

“When the Silver Ring Thing came about,” Hernandez said, “teen pregnancy in the church had almost reached the same proportion as outside of the church. But now I’d say about 90 percent of my youth group is trying and moving toward the purity commitment.”

He expects at least 500 students to attend the presentation Friday. Tickets and sales of rings — $20 each for silver reminders of their commitment — will pay the $2,500 booking fee.

Other presentations will be held Wednesday at King’s Way Christian Center in Cape Coral and on Sunday at Roller Skating the Net in Fort Myers.

Rebecca Troyer, manager of Roller Skating the Net, hosted the group two years ago. Her daughter Jojo, 15, made an abstinence commitment then and still wears her ring. So does Troyer’s younger daughter Rachel, 13.

Troyer believes in the program for religious reasons as well as issues of safety — “including disease, but also heartbreak,” Troyer said. Admission to the Jan. 24 event is free. The group’s fee is paid by a sponsor, Step by Step Leadership in Collier County, Troyer said. Five hundred attendees are expected.

Physical, mental and emotional abstinence is a cornerstone of Andrea Stephens Ministries at New Hope Presbyterian Church in Fort Myers.

Stephens, the wife of senior pastor Bill Stephens, wrote the curriculum for her program, which teaches local girls that they are “Beautiful, Accepted, Blessed and Eternally significant.”

Youth group members wear bracelets that spell “BABE” to remind them of the program’s meaning, including sexual abstinence until marriage as well as modesty and channeling their passion into a deeper relationship with God.

Abby Floyd, a 16-year-old student at Fort Myers High School, is a member of Stephens’ group who has maintained a similar pledge made while she was 11 and a student at Fort Myers Christian School. She signed a commitment card and wore a necklace with a pink heart for several years, as a reminder.

Floyd does it because “God wants us to be holy and pure. And that is to protect us and keep us close to him,” she said. “Being in the culture we live in, it is hard to stand up and say, ‘Hey, that’s wrong and I’m not going to do that.’

“Usually when I’m in a conversation discussing that with people, they look at me like I’m crazy. Especially if there are nonreligious people around. Even Christians sometimes,” Floyd said. Although she doesn’t wear the necklace anymore, it’s in a keepsake box along with her commitment card.

Minott began wearing a purity ring after a presentation by True Love Waits, a program based in Nashville.

Youth minister Jimmy Hester and colleague Richard Ross, who both worked for LifeWay Christian Resources publishing company, started the program in 1993 as a response to the “safe sex” messages common in the first decade of the AIDS epidemic.

“In the early ’90s, a lot of students didn’t even realize that abstinence was an option for them,” Hester said. “There was a perception among some kids that they were the only ones who were virgins.”

Hester added: “I was coordinating a project at the time for Christian sex education, for parents to use for their children in the home. During that process, with focus groups around the country, we discovered that there were a lot of parents and a lot of teenagers saying, ‘We believe in sexual abstinence until marriage but we don’t know how to express those beliefs.’”

Since then, hundreds of groups and individuals have registered with the abstinence clearinghouse — many offering tokens of this type of commitment, along with resource materials for students, parents and teachers. Wearable items are available to show students’ commitment to purity, including underwear emblazoned with “STOP: No Trespassing.

By Dayna Harpster