Will somebody WAKE UP our clueless, rudderless leaders?

January 25, 2004

The power of the ring thingBy Richard Alwyn, This World Producer and director of American Virgins

Abstinence programmes, and the organisations that promote them, are gaining momentum in the United States. An increasing number of teenagers are pledging themselves to no sex before marriage.

Richard Alwyn, from BBC Two's This World series, has been investigating.

The silver ring is a constant reminder of the abstinence promise

I'm standing on a piece of tarmac that makes me think of the long-stay car-park at Gatwick Airport. In a distant corner is a row of airport shuttle busses. The terminal building is behind me.

But there's no smell of jet fuel, no roar of engines, and no sign of a runway. In fact, the terminal isn't a terminal at all. It's a Baptist Church in Columbia, South Carolina.

Size, as everyone knows, matters in the US of A.

As evening falls, the car-park comes alive. Sports Utility Vehicles deposit gaggles of teenage girls and boys. A large number of them sport t-shirts that proclaim the identity of their favourite star.

It seems that Nike are missing a trick; they don't have Christ on their books.

Soon, rows of tables outside the church are enveloped by youngsters offering their personal details, including the size of their ring finger.

It's an important detail as in three hours' time most of them will be exchanging $12 for a silver ring and a bible. The ring is a symbol of the pledge that they will have made: to remain sexually pure until marriage.

The abstinence movement is flourishing in America. Its proponents claim that 65 million Americans are afflicted by a sexually transmitted disease.

The "epidemic", they say, is a result of the promiscuity unleashed by the sexual revolution of the '60s. America, the abstinence lobby says, is reaping what it has sewn.

Spreading the word

In Columbia, the Silver Ring Thing is in town. It's a sexual abstinence programme that seeks to persuade teenage America that no sex before marriage is the way to go.

The Silver Ring Thing crew arrive from Pittsburgh with $80,000 worth of sound and lighting equipment

In a spectacle of flashing lights, videos and sketches, the "crew" urge their young audience to resist temptation and avoid the risk of disease.

Onstage, 16-year-old Nikki insists that being single is cool. She exalts her young audience not to cheat, as she would have it, on their future wives or husbands.

Meanwhile Rachel, a fellow 16-year-old crew member, has a slightly different spin on things. The scary world of sexually transmitted disease is less an issue for her than the obligations of Christianity. For her, the decision is a moral one.

And here's the hub of the debate surrounding the abstinence movement in the USA: is it a legitimate response to a clear medical danger, or is it a moral crusade, driven by a specific interpretation of Christian values?

Whatever the answer, it is clear that the conservative Christian morality of President Bush is finding its way into legislation that promotes abstinence.

The Bush administration gave $120m to abstinence organisations last year.

President Bush asks abstinence groups to do the work that other agencies have failed to deliver

For some Republican members of the administration, the abstinence issue is a clear case of Christian conscience. For others, it is a way of boosting their conservative credentials via an issue that remains less contentious than abortion.

Many of the abstinence organisations, like the Silver Ring Thing which received $700,000 in federal funding, are faith-based groups.

Conflict of interest?

The tightrope that these groups must walk, however, is at the heart of the American constitution, which demands the separation of church and state. The Silver Ring Thing cannot spend Bush's bucks on God.

But is this ultimately possible? The Silver Ring Thing's ringmaster, Denny Pattyn, is an ordained minister.

Abstinence, he says, is the brainchild of God. He has been preaching it for many years, only now he has a secular medical case to add to his Christian arsenal.

So what is the bottom line for Denny and the Silver Ring Thing?

Denny Pattyn, founder of the Silver Ring Thing, aims to create a movement across America

They do present a seminar to the youngsters where faith is not mentioned. But in a moment of quietness, Denny confides that he believes that the end of the world is nigh and that Christ will return within a generation.

And so where does abstinence fit into that vision? Well, abstinence, he says, is a tool to reach young people for God, safeguarding them for the Second Coming."http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/3419693.stm

> > Dear Rajeev,> > Notwithstanding my admiration for your zeal and energy to > spread Sahaja Yoga, you may benefit to know that we SYs > may have been groping and stumbling in the dark for the last > 30 years. Despite all the energy spent brainstorming - which > lately has been rumored responsible for the devastating > landslides in the Philippines - we have failed to find the path to > success. > > The glacial pace at which we SYs adapted to a rapidly > changing world left us far behind and stranded deep in the fjord. > I am not blaming SYs for the predicament for they were only > following orders and directions of the elite trackers. When you > are reduced to mere 'mules' carrying supplies and following the > expedition leaders, disasters happen. You refrain from finding > solutions and creativity ceases because that is

the sole > responsibility of the team leaders. No one will listen to the few > complaining that the expedition is veering off-course. The > collective rumor going round the camps at night initiated by > those behind the much-publicized expedition are: "Who are > these pesky troublemakers trying to steal the glory?"> > So we SYs are just here to follow instructions and dissent is a > cardinal sin. Try to be originally bold in ideas and the > Inquisition ensures excommunication, even if giving directions > with irrefutable evidence that it will lead everyone out of serious > situation. Only the chosen ones know by virtue of the simple > fact that they were chosen to lead ............... and know.> > Now the 'excommunicated' few have suddenly realized that > SYs are hopelessly lost. i mean despite a brave face from the > elite, the more intelligent know that the situation is

very grave. > (So grave that one has calculated that it will take another 6000 > years, at the present pace of progress, to cover a mere 1% of > the distance. That would be AD 8003!) > > Those responsible for this decades-old off-course expedition > are still pretending, hypocritically, that the situation is under > control and salvation of humanity is just in sight. Don't believe > them. They are just holding compasses and pointing in all > direction. A few are just scratching their heads. Don't believe > them when they say a new era in now unfolding. Just judge > from the vast emptiness around you. To be brutally honest, > they just have no clue to lead us out of this dilemma.> > Now i heard they are going to attend a World Council to chart > the course of action, something the upper echelon have been > doing ever since the expedition started. (You may be surprised

> to know that a few famous leaders turned out to be > embarrassing flops. Thus the ideas of the present exclusive > nobility may be failures of future rejected pariahs. Remember > Yogi Mahajan and his disastrous North American foray that > turned out to be an expensive stress management fiasco?)> > However i am a little bit confident they will succeed this time > and finally lead us out of wilderness. Why is this so? Well, > they have no choice but to at last tell the truth that it is the > Last Judgment and Al-Qiyamah. Maybe God Almighty and His > Messengers may finally respond to honesty. > > > > jagbir>

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

"The world is in turmoil today. People everywhere are anxious about the future. What they need is the soothing, uniting, elevating spiritual message of Sahaja Yoga. They have to be enabled toexperience "Self-Realization" and thereby attain inner transformation. Only then they will begin to regard all human beingsas members of one large human family regardless of their race, culture etc. Only then will they discard hatred and violence.Sahaja Yogis have a momentous responsibility at this crucial time in human history. They have to spread Sahaja Yoga in all the parts of the world by written and spoken word.For this purpose, a well thought out approach is needed.I entrust this crucially important task to a new "WORLD COUNCIL FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SAHAJA YOGA" with the following membership:CHAIRPERSON: SHRI

MATAJI NIRMALA DEVIMEMBERS (All designated as World Leaders)1. Rajesh Shah3. Gregoire de Kalbermatten3. Guido Lanza4. David Spiro5. Vijay Nalgirkar6. Manoj Kumar7. Eduardo Marino8. Wolfgang Hackl9. Majid Golpour10. Phillip Zeiss11. Derek Lee12. Arneau de Kalbermatten13. Sergei Perezhogni14. Nese Algan15. Ivan Tan16. Avinash Nichkawde17. Rodger Akgibe18. Karan Khurana19. Alex HenshawGagan Ahluwalia will attend the meetings of this council as anAdvisor on Financial, Accounting and Property matters; Paul Ellis will attend these meetings as an Advisor on Legal Affairs; Allan Wherry will attend these meetings as an Advisor on Publication Issues.In my absence one of the members will preside by rotation at each meeting.The World Council shall meet at least twice a year. The venues and dates for this will be decided by me. All conclusions will bereached by three fourth

majority, preferably by unanimity."Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi