File Under:(Un)True Love Waits?

Wouldn't it be great if this were a post about Tom Waits? Yeah, but it isn't.

I don't like New Year's resolutions, because they're like diets: they fail once the sense of urgency leaves the room to take a smoke break, or when focus wanes, or temptation becomes stronger than expected, etc. And, much like virginity lost, once a pledge is broken, it's broken. So guilt comes in and purpose goes out, and the pledge has failed.

I'm not really sure what this has to do with teen virginity pledges and their apparent correspondence to untruths, but I do know that the Church has done a pretty good job at telling kids not to have sex, and not so much at communicating their unchanging place in God's kingdom if they do fall out of the virginity van, or after other failures in their lives.

Is that what the lying is about? Wanting to be accepted in the holy club? Not wanting to be asked to turn in their membership cards?

I would love to see purity taught not as a diet, but as a lifestyle. And not just to kids. And not just in regards to sexuality. What would the church look like if we admitted our impurities to ourselves and to God, but actually believed ourselves to be new creations in Christ, and thus strived in hope to live our lives that way?