"Seize the Net," the latest project to encourage teens in sexual purity, called for young people to enter the True Love Waits (TLW) Web site and sign an online pledge card to remain abstinent until marriage. Over 31,000 teens from South America to Asia, from California to Maine, took part in the Internet-based crusade, sponsored by LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
A study, published in the January 2001 American Journal of Sociology, found that teenagers who pledge to remain sexually abstinent until marriage are 34 percent less likely to have sex, than those who do not take virginity vows.
The covenant cards read: "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."
Paul Turner, spokesman for TLW, added, "We have told teens that there is nothing magical about signing a pledge card ... But when a teenager seriously considers the pledge, and to whom the pledge is made, a lifestyle emerges that is true to the biblical standards that God established."
He concluded, "We have witnessed the decline of teen pregnancy since the TLW began, and we certainly have been a part of it. This study provides us with strong data that prove pledges do actually make a difference."