CHURCHES, GOVERNMENT TEACH ABSTINENCE

True Love Waits.

That's the message of several programs in the region geared to encourage young people to abstain from sexual relations before marriage.

One of these abstinence programs comes from a surprising place: the government. Sex education didn't work. Neither did handing out condoms at school.

Government grants are available to help curb teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease through abstinence. The East Missouri Action Agency in conjunction with four other community action agencies has received a $200,000 grant to teach abstinence in partnership with parents.

The grant comes from the Missouri Department of Health, and the lessons are taught during parent-child workshops. Community groups are being sought throughout the region to sponsor more of these workshops. Two courses are available, one for boys or girls 9-12, another for boys or girls 13-15.

The message is crystal clear: Abstinence is the only 100 percent guarantee to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

For all the advances in modern technology and medicine, the teen-age pregnancy rate in America remains high compared with other industrialized nations. Each year, about half a million teen-age girls give birth. Two-thirds of those births were unintended. Teen-aged pregnancy most often increases the chance that both the mother and child will live in poverty. And that means taxpayers foot the bill.

While well-intended, the government faces an uphill fight -- thanks, in part, to an anything-goes attitude of movies and television. From sit-coms to dramas, premarital and extramartial sex are glamorized. Repercussions such as pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases are rarely mentioned, unless they can be worked into storyline drama. But of course, it's all worked out in the allotted time frame. That's Hollywood, but not life.

Government is finding an unlikely partner in its fight against teen-age pregnancy: churches that have continued their role as positive role models.

Several churches, including Lynwood Baptist Church, are finding great success with the True Love Waits program. It is designed to challenge teen-agers and college students to remain abstinent until marriage. Lynwood's recent True Love Waits ceremony involved an impressive 50 youths and their parents.

The program began about six years ago and has developed into an international campaign at churches across the religious spectrum. The grass-roots effort began in Southern Baptist churches and has spread to about 20 other denominations.

Teens and their parents actually participate in a ceremony, where the youths sign a pledge card. The exercise also forces parents and their children to talk about this delicate subject.

The True Love Waits program teaches responsibility and commitment on the part of the teen-ager. But it also calls on parents and church members to build a support unit for these young people when they face inevitable peer pressure.

The key to both the EMMA's abstinence program and True Love Waits is parental involvement. When parents take an active role in their child's life -- addressing such tough issues as sex, drinking and drugs head on -- the child is more likely to do the right thing.

Peer pressure can be a powerful elixir. Parents, teachers and churches need powerful ammunition to offset this go-along-to-get-along mentality.

Church and government programs that involve parents and their children to fight teen-age pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease may just be the answer. Bit by bit, they can help chip away at Hollywood's image of sex without consequence. In real life, it doesn't work out that way.