Be part of the "counter-culture"

February 14, 2008 2:31 PM

The Day of Purity is a day when youth can make a public demonstration of their commitment to remain secularly pure, in mind and actions. ... When you stand up for sexual pruity you send a message to parents, churches, communities, legislators, and the media that you want a better world. Be politically incorrect! Sponsored by Liberty Counsel. (via)
posted by mrgrimm (68 comments total)

When you stand up for sexual pruity

Is our erotophobes learning?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:39 PM on February 14, 2008 [3 favorites]

"Secularly pure"? So that would involve, what, restraining yourself from getting it on with fundies?

I'm all for that.
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:41 PM on February 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

"Liberty Counsel" "Day of Purity" Is it 1984 again?
posted by The Light Fantastic at 2:43 PM on February 14, 2008 [3 favorites]

I'm confused.. am I suppose to have sex or not?
posted by dogbusonline at 2:43 PM on February 14, 2008 [5 favorites]

And whats with the floating guitar pick in the navigation bar that always wants to go home?
posted by Reverend John at 2:47 PM on February 14, 2008

Just have sex with yourself, I think that's OK.
posted by maxwelton at 2:47 PM on February 14, 2008

Anything that stops these simpletons breeding is good with me.

Also: yeah yeah, LOLPSYCHOS.
posted by pompomtom at 2:53 PM on February 14, 2008 [4 favorites]

Christians who think they're being persecuted or a minority or "counter-culture" in the US are, depending on how they talk about it, anything from infuriating, contemptible, or just pathetic. This falls squarely in the "pathetic" category.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:54 PM on February 14, 2008

Oh, and don't forget to buy your merch! Or swag, or whatever this gang calls it.

I've gotta woman that'd kick my ass and throw me out if I slept with another woman. Does that make me suxually pure? Or should I stop doing it with her, too, unless of course, we're merely going through the joyless motions of impregnation?
posted by Devils Rancher at 2:54 PM on February 14, 2008

Join
and
Celebrate
posted by CynicalKnight at 2:55 PM on February 14, 2008

Mark Twain:

"Total abstinence is so excellent a thing that it cannot be carried to too great an extent. In my passion for it I even carry it so far as to totally abstain from total abstinence itself."

- autograph inscription in album to Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes, reported in The Washington Post, June 11, 1881
posted by whimsicalnymph at 2:56 PM on February 14, 2008 [4 favorites]

I made a funny typo. I think I like it.
posted by Devils Rancher at 2:57 PM on February 14, 2008

Damned protestants.

I'll stick to the Catholic way: repeatedly slamming a door on my genitals as penance for all of my sexual impurities, real or imagined.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:57 PM on February 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

How are today's simple minded youth supposed to relate to nebulous concepts like sexual purity? (wtf that is)

The whole thing needs a mascot, I dunno, maybe The-Do-It-Later-Alligator, Alvin The Abstinence Aardvark, or Pecker, the Purity Porpoise.

Just sayin' is all.
posted by mattoxic at 2:58 PM on February 14, 2008 [24 favorites]

Well, they're using ColdFusion, so maybe their site *is* from 1984.
posted by the dief at 2:58 PM on February 14, 2008

Nineteen Eighty-Four:

With Julia, everything came back to her own sexuality. As soon as this was touched upon in any way she was capable of great acuteness. Unlike Winston, she had grasped the inner meaning of the Party's sexual puritanism. It was not merely that the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible. What was more important was that sexual privation induced hysteria, which was desirable because it could be transformed into war-fever and leader-worship. The way she put it was:

'When you make love you're using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don't give a damn for anything. They can't bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simpIy sex gone sour. If you're happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot?'
posted by CynicalKnight at 3:03 PM on February 14, 2008 [23 favorites]

You know, if they want to encourage kids to abstain from sex until marriage, or age 100, or whatever, fine. It's their religion, they can do whatever.

Except, you know, I thought there was this thing in the bible about not telling lies.

They say (.pdf): The US Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that condoms do not prevent the transmission of most sexually transmitted diseases...

But the CDC says:
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS
Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, are highly effective in preventing the sexual transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Discharge diseases, other than HIV
Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, can reduce the risk of transmission of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis.

I'm not finding anything on a (very brief) look through HHS's siteabout condoms. And of course, there are no cites on the pdf I linked to.
posted by rtha at 3:04 PM on February 14, 2008

So Julia had access to contraband Freudian books?
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:06 PM on February 14, 2008

LOL!
posted by roll truck roll at 3:08 PM on February 14, 2008

Someone needs to declare today Sexually Active Day. If only to spite the prudes.
posted by Xere at 3:15 PM on February 14, 2008

I just want to be able to protect the purity of my precious bodily fluids.
posted by everichon at 3:16 PM on February 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

declare today Sexually Active Day

If that became a mandated national holiday prostitutes will feel ripped off.
posted by CynicalKnight at 3:25 PM on February 14, 2008

Previous related MeFi thread: Purity Balls--Perhaps More Attention to Balls is Required

"The Father Daughter Purity Ball is a memorable ceremony for daughters to pledge commitments to purity and their fathers to pledge commitments to protect their girls." Do Purity Balls, an offshoot of the virginity pledge movement work? The research says they do postpone first intercourse but have no impact on STD rates (1, 2 - PDFs). Perhaps a discussion of, uh, protection should be added to the "Covenant of Purity and Protection" signed by the dancing dads.

posted by ericb at 3:35 PM on February 14, 2008

Meh. If they want to be sexually pure, power to them. Not a bad thing. Maybe not fun, but in many ways, safer, if they actually do it. I question some of the motives behind these things, but abstinence shouldn't necessarily be discarded off the bat.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 3:36 PM on February 14, 2008 [3 favorites]

I just want to be able to protect the purity of my precious bodily fluids.

Stop diluting them with alcohol?
posted by rokusan at 3:36 PM on February 14, 2008

You can be sexually pure and still be on the way to Hell.

Just sayin'.
posted by konolia at 3:38 PM on February 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

If only the bush administration were secularly pure.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 3:40 PM on February 14, 2008

As far as "counter-culture" goes, I think that Global Orgasm for Peace folks have them beat hands down (as it were):

Donna Sheehan and Paul Reffell co-founded the anti-war organization Baring Witness, a worldwide collective of peace activists who are alarmed enough to spell peace publicly with their naked bodies. The Global Orgasm is a way for even more men and women to be involved in changing the way human affairs are conducted in the world.
posted by shoesaphone at 3:46 PM on February 14, 2008

beat hands

Hehe.
posted by ericb at 3:47 PM on February 14, 2008

I just want to be able to protect the purity of my precious bodily fluids.

I've heard that sex is just fine as long as you deny them your essence.
posted by ssg at 3:51 PM on February 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

So, Purity Day is just one day, right? After that, they can go back to whatever they were up to? Sheesh.

Also from the site: "today's culture encourages youth to…experiment with sexual preferences." They just can't leave that alone, can they? I must conclude the lot of them are a bunch of deeply repressed homosexuals.
posted by adamrice at 3:53 PM on February 14, 2008

jesucristo todopoderoso. I'm a sex educator. I'm sick of this shit. Almost 20% of latinas between the ages of 15 and 19 get pregnant EVERY YEAR where I live.

Abstinence is fab and a great message for youth. But i hate this kind of shit. Ostrich heads buried in the dirt.

BTW, it's National Condom Week in the US.
posted by Stewriffic at 3:56 PM on February 14, 2008

Lord Chancellor writes "Meh. If they want to be sexually pure, power to them. Not a bad thing. Maybe not fun, but in many ways, safer, if they actually do it. I question some of the motives behind these things, but abstinence shouldn't necessarily be discarded off the bat."

Only problem is, it usually doesn't work. The studies I've seen show that such pledges don't discourage sexual activity in the least. Education (with accurate information) is always the best option and actually does work in cutting down pregnancy rates and STD transmission, along with availability of contraceptives. People can do whatever they want, but they should at least have good information upon which to draw their conclusions, and these abstinence programs usually give completely false information as a scare tactic. That usually backfires.
posted by krinklyfig at 3:57 PM on February 14, 2008

konolia writes "You can be sexually pure and still be on the way to Hell."

You can also be sexually pure and just wasting the few precious moments you have as a self-aware entity.
posted by mullingitover at 3:58 PM on February 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

krinklyfig: you are spot on. Informed choices are healthy choices.
posted by Stewriffic at 3:59 PM on February 14, 2008

Well, rtha, I guess they're technically not telling lies- it's true that condoms don't prevent the transmission of STDs, but they do drastically reduce the likelihood of transmission.

Still, loophole honesty or not, they're deliberately giving people a false impression.
posted by twirlypen at 4:01 PM on February 14, 2008

You can be sexually pure and still be on the way to Hell.

Please tell us more, I came here to reminded of your values.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:03 PM on February 14, 2008

So is this the thread for everyone without dates tonight?
posted by localhuman at 4:05 PM on February 14, 2008

You can be sexually pure and still be on the way to Hell.

Oh, I've dated her, believe you me!
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:13 PM on February 14, 2008

I'm purely sexual - does that count?
posted by The Light Fantastic at 4:18 PM on February 14, 2008

So is this the thread for everyone without dates tonight?

No need to rub it in.
posted by shoesaphone at 4:18 PM on February 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

Why does god care so much about my gonads again? I mean if what we do to ourselves we also do to him... well... one would think he would want me to get BA-HIZ-ZEEEE wit mah laydee becuase what I'm doing will be awesome. Which I plan to start in roughly T-Minus 2 hours and eighteen minutes. And then again in T-Minus 6 minutes after that.
posted by tkchrist at 4:32 PM on February 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

Be fruitful and multiply.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:41 PM on February 14, 2008

So is this the thread for everyone without dates tonight?

Or those who took their wives out last night.
posted by athenian at 4:42 PM on February 14, 2008

LOL XTIANS!!!
posted by ob at 4:52 PM on February 14, 2008

No need to rub it in.
posted by shoesaphone

Just rub one out...
posted by dash_slot- at 5:18 PM on February 14, 2008

These Liberty Council chaps need to come out with a book. Preferably with a cover photo as dodgy and unintentional as this Anglican book.
posted by Xere at 5:22 PM on February 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

You can be sexually pure and still be on the way to Hell.

Please tell us more, I came here to reminded of your values.

Well, my point is these groups make such a big deal about sexual purity and put a spotlight on it-but Christians were not called to preach purity -we were and are called to preach the gospel. Period.

If people get squared away with God, everything else takes care of itself.
posted by konolia at 5:32 PM on February 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

Straight Edge movement? ... Izzat you?
posted by sparkletone at 6:19 PM on February 14, 2008

Pruity, thy name is Miss Playfoot
posted by subgear at 6:40 PM on February 14, 2008

This makes me a sad panda.
posted by psmealey at 6:48 PM on February 14, 2008

[Weeeeeeird derail removed.]
posted by cortex at 7:32 PM on February 14, 2008

I'm just a little worried, if abstinence is a choice, it can be a good one, even a wise one sometimes for some people. And if they (as someone pointed out) are placed along with other, correct information, that's good.

But sometimes, this feels like the LOLVEGANS threads where some vegan says something and all the guys jump in saying how they want to cram a bloody burger down the vegan's throat. I love meat and I love sex, but there's no need to pounce on people that deny themselves either.

I wouldn't have to do this, but there is practically no one counter-balancing. So I guess I am. I'm part of the anti-sex lobby for the purposes of this thread. *grumbles a bit*
posted by Lord Chancellor at 7:51 PM on February 14, 2008

The LOLVEGAN and LOLXTIAN threads (and LOLWHATEVERTHEHELLELSE) are pretty much a direct result of a simple process.

1) Believe that whatever it is you are doing is appropriate and right.

2) Decide that simple appropriate and rightness is not enough and come up with a pack of blatant lies (or at least half truths) to support your stance.

3) When someone calls you on your bullshit, claim that you are a persecuted counter culture and that everyone who naysays you is in league with Satan, the Islamofascists, Big Pharma, Teh Gays and/or an out of Control US Government.

4) Put up a web page that says all this crap and is just a little (or a lot) overwrought (I mean who though that fantasy role playing game giant slicing blade trap of doom noise went with "buy a T-shirt?").

I don't think 12 year olds should be having sex or that a diet of pure red meat soaked in lard is healthy. I also don't think you should eat lead. Sill, if I saw a web page like this that had all sorts of inaccurate or just plain wrong statements about why you shouldn't eat lead, I'd be off to the kitchen to open a #10 can full of mockery.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 8:24 PM on February 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

Aw man. Now I want to know what the weeeeeeeird removed derail was. Do we always have to talk about sex? Especially tonight.
posted by motty at 8:31 PM on February 14, 2008

what would you rather talk about? national security strategies?!??
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:11 PM on February 14, 2008

What I don't get about these abstinence things is how they always seem to focus on the girls a lot more than guys. It seems to me that a guy in any social group who is a bit less horny or more willing to control himself would be very much appreciated. Meanwhile, I think the fact that these groups focus on girls so much just leads girls to inevitably feel guilty either way if they end up with the wrong guy (which there are a lot of anywhere), as they're either betraying their boyfriend's expectations or their religion.
posted by mccarty.tim at 9:38 PM on February 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

ceiling cat fell asleep and fell out of his hole and now he is floor cat - dead floor cat

that's what they didn't tell you - THAT GOD'S GOING TO KILL A CAT NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO!!!
posted by pyramid termite at 9:48 PM on February 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

Some people find it hard to be pure....
posted by Brak at 10:38 PM on February 14, 2008

Also, through some trick of the light, my brain keeps smooshing "counter-culture" into Coulter. That's just wrong.
posted by Brak at 10:53 PM on February 14, 2008

She does seem like a culture that spilled out on the counter, doesn't she?
posted by fleetmouse at 10:58 PM on February 14, 2008

Seriously. It's bugging me. I need to know...

Why do they put the word "secularly" in front of "pure" in that sentence?
posted by Clay201 at 11:45 PM on February 14, 2008

Why do they put the word "secularly" in front of "pure" in that sentence?

It has to be a typo for "sexually", surely? It just doesn't make any sense, otherwise. It's a rather nice Freudian slip, really.
posted by Infinite Jest at 1:50 AM on February 15, 2008

Why do they put the word "secularly" in front of "pure" in that sentence?

'securely' would be my guess.

Please tell us more, I came here to reminded of your values.

Well, my point is

IRONY! YOU KILLED IRONY, KONOLIA! IT WAS YOU! I SAW YOU WALK FROM ITS BLEEDING CORPSE WITH A BLOODSTAINED BIBLE!
posted by Sparx at 3:19 AM on February 15, 2008

I wanna know what the derail was tooooo!
I always miss the good derails. The anti-konalia one sucked.
posted by Skorgu at 4:51 AM on February 15, 2008

Liberty Council site claims that their mission is to "Restor[e] the culture one case at a time by advancing religious freedom" among other bullshit. Why is it that any organization claiming to "advance religious freedom" is actually trying to impose some sort of fundamentalist Christianity on everyone in the US? How is that "advancing religious freedom"? There's some kind of mental disconnect there that I just can't fathom.

They actually describe themselves as a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization. In that order. Litigation is their primary purpose. But they are a ministry, so they're not only non-profit, they're tax free. How convenient for the founder's income.

Promoting abstinence through lies annoys the shit out of me. Arguments against condom efficiency always include those who forgot to use them or used them incorrectly, to make abstinence look more effective. They never include numbers for people who forgot to abstain, do they? Assholes.
posted by caution live frogs at 7:05 AM on February 15, 2008

I love meat and I love sex, but there's no need to pounce on people that deny themselves either.

I completely agree with you, or at least I would if this was the only thing going on. But too frequently, these kinds of things are not just about pledging abstinence, they are about spreading misinformation about things like condoms (as commented on above).

It's fine if you want to try to encourage people to hold off on having sex, but to tell them things like condoms won't protect them does them a huge disservice for when they do decide that the time is right.

As others have already said, the best way to deal with this is lots of education, not stupid suggestions that people who have sex are somehow impure.
posted by quin at 10:02 AM on February 15, 2008

caution live frogs: It's the freedom for them to tell you what to do. Like in the good old days before the Reformation.
posted by athenian at 2:50 AM on February 17, 2008