Conference Takes Abstinence Message to the Heart of Hollywood
by Mary Rettig and Jenni Parker
August 8, 2005
(AgapePress) - Abstinence Clearinghouse president Leslee Unruh says she is really excited by the outpouring of support for the Ninth International Abstinence Leadership Conference that took place this past weekend. The theme, taken from the conference locale this year, was "Abstinence Takes on Hollywood." The August 4-6 event brought some 1,000 "abstinence until marriage" educators together in Tinseltown, along with participants from more than 100 countries around the world. Also, Unruh notes, the conference featured a number of movie industry personalities as speakers -- individuals committed to promoting clean, positive family entertainment.
Abstinence Takes on Hollywood included "some great keynote speakers, Hollywood producers, who are trying very hard to bring wholesome movies to all of America," the Clearinghouse spokeswoman says. Also, she adds, it had "some great youth speakers, movie stars, people in the media industry, films and some new exhibits."
In keeping with the theme, Unruh points out that the youth arm of the conference has been involved in a petition drive aimed at encouraging moviemakers to stop producing films with irresponsible sexual content. She says this year's conference included "a youth track and a faith-based track" and involved young abstinence advocates in a campaign "petitioning the producers of Hollywood to clean up the smut."
The petition was presented at the conference, along with a video narrative, on August 4. The presentation was an impassioned call to the moviemaking industry to curb the glorified recreational sex and sensuality depicted in movies, and to acknowledge onscreen the less glamorous truth. The authors of the petition suggest that a more honest treatment of so-called "casual sex," might include such images as "the teenage beauty queen getting STDs from her boyfriend ... the insecurity children feel living in homes with unmarried adults," or "the 137,213 AIDS patients writhing in their deathbeds."
As a call for support on the Abstinence Clearinghouse website explains, typical Hollywood depictions have led many young people to expect "happy endings" from the passions of unmarried sex. However, the 2005 Youth Petition's authors state, "we've found that sex before marriage only ends well in the movies.
"Our friends are getting STDs, roughly 1 in 4 of them," the petition points out. "Kids from broken or never-married homes are depressed at greater rates than we've ever known in America's history. And lots of us have broken hearts from trying sex before marriage and realizing it wasn't true love and it didn't fill our desire for intimacy."
The document adds, "We, the youth of America, simply ask for a movie industry that will teach us about a lifestyle that brings happy endings in real life. We believe this lifestyle is abstinence until marriage." The open communication to the film industry ends with a heartfelt plea to "hear our voices and give us the lessons of life that will enrich our minds and enhance our lives" for the sake of the younger generation's future.
