[1]NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–True Love Waits can now be considered as American as apple pie and baseball. With its induction into the Parker Brothers’ Trivial Pursuit Genus III edition, the Sunday School Board-sponsored sexual abstinence campaign has found a place in history.
Literally.
The “History” question, “What did teenagers pledge not to do when they signed Southern Baptist pledge cards in the 1990s?” was found on a Trivial Pursuit card recently by Sunday School Board employee Kathy Sharp and her daughter, Rebekah.
And the answer is? “Have sex before marriage.”
“My 18-year-old daughter thought it was ‘cool’ that True Love Waits made it into Americana,” said Sharp, who acknowledged her daughter has taken the True Love Waits pledge not to have sex before marriage. “She even wears the commitment ring.”
Richard Ross, one of the Sunday School Board founders of the sexual abstinence-before-marriage program, reflected, “It is one thing to discuss True Love Waits within the four walls of the church. It is quite another thing to see it spilling over into mainstream culture.
“When True Love Waits shows up in Rolling Stone magazine, on the big screen in ‘Escape From L.A.’ and even in Playboy, we can be sure the secular world is taking note,” Ross said. “The Trivial Pursuit card is just another affirmation that True Love Waits is anything but trivial.”
True Love Waits was launched in April 1993, and since, hundreds of thousands of young people have signed a covenant to remain sexually pure until marriage. The campaign continues with an annual Valentine’s Day celebration on high school and college campuses across the country.
On April 14, 1998, True Love Waits leaders will go to Washington D.C., to report to the president, state governors and key state and national leaders on the results of the 1998 Valentine’s Day sexual abstinence campaign. A school-by-school reporting process is currently being examined by the True Love Waits coordination team.
For more information on the True Love Waits Goes Campus (Valentine’s Day) campaign, call 1-800-LUV-WAIT. To order a Goes Campus kit, call 1-800-458-2772.