May is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month, and Leslee Unruh, founder and president of Abstinence Clearinghouse, says abstinence is often overlooked in society.
"It's sad that sometimes people just do not even want to go to that first," she laments. "They want to take pills, powders, and potions, and they don't understand the most important sex organ is right up in your mind."
There is also a lack of use of the word "abstinence."
"They're calling it sexual integrity; they're calling it purity," Unruh observes. "Some are doing some trainings and are calling it sexual risk avoidance. If you want to be healthy, you want to be emotionally healthy … there is a plan. It was given a long time ago, and it is called purity."
Though there are abstinence clubs in schools, many of which are underground, Unruh submits that sexual purity instruction is most effective when it comes from parents of faith – "not schools, not the next-door neighbor."
"They need to learn from parents about purity, and we've seen it work," she tells AFN, reiterating that the Bible is clear that "the truth still sets people free" (John 8:32).
Likewise, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 encourages purity, admonishing believers to abstain from sexual immorality, as each one knows how to control his or her own body.
