Store-brought Chastity is a Bad Joke
by Every so often one hears of a decent idea that is doomed to fail. No matter how brilliant, as was Charles F. Kettering’s idea to feed the world by determining what makes grass green, or risky, as was the United States Football League (USFL).
Yesterday I learned of another born loser while watching a morning news show. I smirked along with the TV interviewer as she quizzed a young woman who insisted there is room in America today for her recently formed National Chastity Association. In the current era of televised condom ads, pornography on cable and three-fourths of all teens engaging in the “S” word before 18, the woman, Mary Meyer, came across as a lost time traveler. But there she was telling viewers that she would refuse to kiss, hold hands, or fall in love until after she married.
It wasn’t until after calling Miss Meyer at her office in Oak Forest, Ill., however, that I waffled and began to believe there might be room for a return of chastity in America – as long as one could update the definition. Chaste has traditionally meant to be celibate, or innocent of unlawful sexual intercourse. This definition is laughable of course by today’s standards, so Miss Meyer’s, whose humor is only surpassed by her keen business sense, offered this chastity standard:
“The pursuit of one’s ultimate sexual goals and the avoidance of any behavior that defeat those goals.” There is a certain logic here. Sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies have certainly deterred many in pursuit of their “ultimate sexual goals.” Abstinence would then seem to concur with the Meyer standard. But then she blew it. She admitted, hesitantly, that the association had rather loose requirements for admittance, namely a self-addressed stamped envelope and a few dollars to spend for an escort who on paper promises to be a safe risk against pre-marital sex.
For all her noise about providing for those desirous of an alternative value system, the association is nothing more than another dating service. It’s open to all regardless of marital status, income, sex or sexual persuasion. Despite her business ambitions, Miss Meyer has hit upon a theme desperately in need of revival in America: that of chastity or at least selective chastity.
The divorce rate among baby-boomers is over 50 percent. The unmarried children of baby boomers are engaging in more pre-marital sex then any similar group in our nations’ history.
If parents and grandparents are concerned with seeing a return to the values that made marriages and families strong 30 years ago, more people will need to start harping the virtues of chastity, the old-fashion kind. That or leave the kids with
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