AN “EXCITING sexual-abstinence programme” arrives in Claygate, Surrey, this Friday.
Fifty members of the Silver Ring Thing, an American group which promotes chastity before marriage, will descend on the village to warn teenage virgins of the risks of premarital sex and try to persuade them to wear a “chastity ring” on their wedding fingers.
The only problem is that there seem to be no teenage virgins in Claygate. After a day spent scouring the village for candidates, The Times could not find anyone between the ages of 14 and 19 who even knew of such a person. One 15-year-old boy called Owen unwittingly summed up the situation when he asked: “What’s celibate?”
All this confirms the fears of the people behind Silver Ring Thing who have chosen Claygate, a microcosm of Middle England, as the first stop on their forthcoming tour of the British Isles. They will be calling at Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast with a handful of teenage American converts in tow to act as role models.
Although Silver Ring Thing is a Christian group, its message is not about finding God. Rather, it can be surmised from the words of its British representative, Paula Jacobs, a mother of three teenagers. “It is heart-wrenching that children are being taught almost how to kill themselves,” she said. In Silver Ring Thing’s view, there is no such thing as safe sex.
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When she was a child, Mrs Jacobs said, there were only three sexually transmitted diseases being passed on. Now there are 30.
She recited them like letters of the alphabet. Condoms are no use as they do not prevent skin-to-skin contact. Human papilloma virus (genital warts) is, if Silver Ring Thing’s statistics are accurate, contracted by 46 per cent of girls the first time they have sex. “Invisible” infections such as chlamydia can lie dormant and undetected, causing cervical cancer a few years down the line.
“The Government is teaching ‘safe sex’ but the truth is dying to be told,” said Mrs Jacobs.
“We are truly plagued by sexually transmitted dis-eases and what we are teaching our kids is not working. I don’t know why we are not looking at the statistics. Abstinence is the only way to stay disease and pregnant-free.”
Not many teenagers in Claygate have heard of chlamydia. Asked if they think the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among the under-18s is a problem, they nod their heads but are stumped when asked to name any diseases.
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Janine, a confident 16-year-old who has had a steady boyfriend for two years, took the opportunity to criticise her peers: “The amount of people who sleep together in Claygate, they probably all have something,” she said. “They’re disgusting. There’s this one girl who goes around saying she’s been raped but she’s just embarrassed because she slept with a 12-year-old. I’m not being funny but girls around here are just slags.”
She went on to give us a tour of preferred areas for teenage trysts: in the park, outside the tennis courts. “Someone did it last week in the paper bins in the Somerfield car park,” she said.
Such bold talk is not confined to street corners and bus shelters.
In the local chemist, staff have grown used to the assertive manner with which teenagers buy condoms and pregnancy testing kits.
Craig Richmond, a locum, said that while those aged in their thirties and forties skulk guiltily around the aisles before summoning up the courage to buy prophylactics, their children march confidently up to the till.
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“We usually see 16 or 17-year-olds; we very rarely get a 15-year-old,” he said. “Anything from the morning-after pill to advice on contraception — they’re very open. They’re very knowledgeable and there doesn’t seem to be a stigma about buying condoms at all. They normally buy dozens now. The packet of three is not selling as well.”
Mr Richmond does not think most teenagers would be “very responsive to abstinence”. “It’s for churchy types,” said Tom, 17. “I don’t know anyone who is going, to be honest. They make too much of a deal about sex. It should be seen as more of a recreational thing.”
Doug, 15, conceded that perhaps a vow of chastity would help some girls to reclaim their damaged reputations.
Silver Ring Thing offers anyone who wants to return to chastity a 12-step support programme modelled on Alcoholics Anonymous.
Teenagers will also have the opportunity on Friday to meet a 31-year-old virgin. They will be shown comedy sketches and take part in what is billed as a disco — but with no alcohol, sex or drugs. For £10 they can buy a chastity ring.
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Canon Julian Henderson, of Holy Trinity Church in Clay-gate, said: “I wouldn’t allow them to use the premises if I was not supporting what they are doing.”
One girl who will not be attending is Nicola, who thinks the group’s message will be irrelevant to most teenagers who “are mature enough to lose their virginities at 14”. She thinks it is up to schools and parents to inform their children of the risks of sex. Asked whether any of her friends had accidentally become pregnant she rocked her head back, as if racking her brains.
Then she said: “Well, there’s me. I got pregnant at 14 and had the baby but it was dead.”
Chastity, if it ever arrives in Claygate, will be much too late for some.
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Some names have been changed