Video series challenges premarital sex

Young people tell their stories in seried aimed at teens

Review by GLEN ARGAN
WCR Editor

Some would say this is a gloomy view of non-marital sex. But it's the truth - a truth that is not told clearly enough to many adolescents. One-quarter of sexually active teens have STDs . . . and 70 per cent of those who do don't even know it.

The truth is that sex before marriage is not only a sin - it can ruin your life.

True Love: God's Plan for Abstinence Until Marriage is an eight-video set of skits, personal testimonies and other commentary by young adults and teens meant to be shown to teens. It's produced by Mediapro of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Information about the series is available on the firm's award-winning Website http://www.mediakids.com.

The videos, only 10 to 20 minutes each, are emotionally moving, fast-paced, hard-hitting and imaginative. They are meant to stir thinking and discussion among teens about the effects of pre-marital sex. They should, in my opinion, be shown in every Catholic high school and be accompanied by discussion among the students. The series comes with a 200-page curriculum guide, complete with lesson plans, discussion materials and follow-up activities.

These videos, admittedly, do not spend a lot of time discussing "God's plan for abstinence," although there is certainly some overt religious comment. Their main content consists of the stories of young people themselves. And in that lies their power.

I suspect adults don't often have the ability to reach teenagers on such a sensitive and exciting topic for them. I suspect pretty well anything we say will be treated as preaching and be disregarded by the teens who most need to be reached with the abstinence message.

But those teens will find it much harder to dismiss the True Love series. There is a testimony by one young man who lost his virginity, now regrets it and says, "Turn to God and he'll give you a new start."

There is a young women who realized the power of the media in her life and changed the movies she watches and the music she listens to. There are stories of heartbreak. There is a riveting story told by a young woman who was date raped. And there is one video almost fully devoted to the tragic story of a young woman who got involved with alcohol and drugs, was sent to jail and when she was released entered an abusive relationship with a man who knowingly gave her HIV.

Teens face breathtakingly important choices. One road leads to freedom and fulfilled dreams. The other is a dead-end road where there is nothing but heartbreak and unfulfilled dreams.

The True Love series is the most effective way I've seen of helping teens to see the seriousness of the choices they face. The videos are both funny and poignant. They deserve a wide audience.

More information is available through the website or by calling Media pro at 1-888-661-8104.

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