True Love Waits 'Hits Roof,' Launches Effort for Schools

by   Terri Lackey                                                                                                                                             Vol. IX, No. 3, March 1996

Minutes after 18,000 teenagers and youth ministers watched 350,000 True Love Waits cards reach the roof of the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Southern Baptists announced a new campaign to send the abstinence movement to schools.

To the beat of the Christian rock group Newsboys, the commitment cards were hoisted to the roof of the 27-story Georgia Dome as young people lifted their friends above the crowd in a fad known as surfing. Later, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist-sponsored abstinence campaign announced a new goal and theme -- "True Love Waits Goes Campus."

"On Valentine's Day 1997, our goal is to display True Love Waits on every school campus in America -- all 56,000 schools in the U.S.," Richard Ross, youth ministry consultant at the Baptist Sunday School Board, told those attending the "True Love Waits -- Thru the Roof' celebration at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Feb. 11.

The 350,000 cards pulled to the roof of the Georgia Done were gathered from all 50 states and from 76 countries -- with the countries accounting for about half the commitments by young people.

More than 100 young people from First Baptist Church, Conyers, Ga., and Tulip Grove Baptist Church, Hermitage, Tenn., worked for hours the night before the event stringing the cards onto a 200-foot steel cable which was lifted to the roof of the dome by a giant winch and pulley mechanism. An overflow of cards, including some that were delivered the day of the celebration by attending teens, was added to a second cable.

True Love Waits, an international campaign to challenge teens and college students to remain sexually abstinent until marriage, was launched by the BSSB in April 1993. The first national True Love Waits rally was held in Washington, D.C. in July 1994.

For more than a year, organizers have been planning a second national celebration to honor young people who have made commitments to remain sexually abstinent until marriage. The Thru the Roof rally coincided with Atlanta '96, a contingent of youth leaders representing 125 denominations and Christian youth organizations gathered in Atlanta for leadership training conferences. Other contemporary Christian artists who performed at the hour-long rally included DC Talk and Michael W. Smith.

With the new campaign, True Love Waits Goes Campus, young people are being asked to take the abstinence message to high school and college campuses, Paul Turner, international spokesman for the abstinence campaign, said.

"I believe with True Love Waits Goes Campus, we are embarking on the most exciting phase of our abstinence campaign," Turner said. "It will empower students to take the message of Christ and abstinence to their peers at school"

This summer, organizers of True Love Waits Goes Campus plan to train high school and college students in using Christian clubs at school to coordinate abstinence campaigns on their campuses, Turner said. On Valentine's Day 1997, True Love Waits Goes Campus is expected to culminate with a visible demonstration of commitment cards at the schools that participate in the event.

"True Love Waits Goes Campus will allow students to take Christ to their campuses with the channels already in place," Turner said. "Campus clubs provide a natural vehicle for that, and campus club organizations and True Love Waits can partner to strengthen and support each other."

Young people who take the True Love Waits pledge to remain abstinent until marriage sign commitment cards which state: "Believing that true love waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, my friends, my future mate and my future children to be sexually abstinent from this day until the day I enter a biblical marriage relationship."

Turner said he hopes President Bill Clinton's January announcement of a national campaign against teen pregnancy to be led by Nashville gynecologist Henry Foster will be used to promote sexual abstinence. Each year, about 1 million American teenagers get pregnant. That is approximately 11 percent of females between the ages of 15 and 19, according to White House statistics.

Twice as many teens have babies in the United States than in Britain, and six times more than in France, Italy, and Denmark.

'We must share that abstinence is the only safe sex option that is 100 percent foolproof," he said.

More information about True Love Waits, which is supported by 42 other, denominations and Christian student organizations, may be obtained by calling 1-800-LUV-WAIT. To order a True Love Waits Goes Campus kit, call 1-800-458-2772. [BP]