Are You Saving Yourself for Marriage? Anyone?

The deadline for the “Marriage for a Lifetime” contest is next Friday. Applicant couples must be engaged… and saving themselves for marriage. If they enter, they could win $10,000. And flowers. And wedding invites. And “other bridal goodies.”

You might want to consider entering… so far, no one has applied.

The organizer, perhaps out of embarrassment, has decided to bend the rules a bit:

“Someone asked me, ‘Is anyone going to respond?’ ” said contest organizer Phillippia Faust, director of an abstinence education program for Rockdale, DeKalb and Newton counties. “In our society, it is going to be hard to find [a couple who has not had premarital sex]. … But the standard is the standard.”

Yet in a recent interview, Faust seemed inclined to relax the rules, saying couples engaging in sex can still qualify but they must acknowledge, “The right choice is probably not to have had done it.”

She will, however, draw the line at couples living together.

If you want to enter, one of you must live in a certain part of Georgia. A few other strings are attached, too. Like you can’t serve alcohol at the wedding.

(I wonder how Faust would know if the couple really has abstained from sex… or if they really do regret it.)

Oh… and, by the way, her contest — along with her pro-abstinence program that she preaches to schools year-round — is made possible by a $2,270,000 federal grant.

You might as well enter the contest. It’s your tax money paying for the prize.

(via Black Sun Journal)

Catherine

her contest — along with her pro-abstinence program that she preaches to schools year-round — is made possible by a $2,270,000 federal grant.

Why on earth does it cost over 2 million dollars to teach ‘no sexy time until marriage’?
llewelly

I’m saving my teddy bear for marriage. I have it in a locked box under my pillow.
Polly

My wife and I “saved ourselves” for marriage. Where’s our check?

I don’t regret it one bit, of course. OTOH, had I not held back, I seriously doubt I would have any regrets today.

But, as it is, I’m glad I didn’t. I don’t give a flying monkey turd what anyone else does.
Asylum Seeker

Wow. Words fail me.
Richard Wade

Phillippia sure is interested in what other people do in private. I wonder what drives her to be so eager to control strangers’ consensual sexual behavior.

So, her operating assumption is that couples who abstain from sex until marriage will have lifelong marriages? What is the logic behind that? Several analogies about things like driving new cars around the block or walking around the store in a new pair of shoes come to mind.
Epistaxis

Could a gay couple apply? I mean, if they were hypothetically abstinent.
Miko

Oh… and, by the way, her contest — along with her pro-abstinence program that she preaches to schools year-round — is made possible by a $2,270,000 federal grant.

Things like this are why I’m glad I’m a libertarian…
Milena

Now I wish I was engaged to someone from Georgia, so I could claim the money and donate it to some comprehensive sex-ed orginization, or something.
Jen

If I wanted to get married- which I don’t- and I lived there- which I don’t- I would totally lie under the condition they did not bring up my probably-fake lack of premarital nookie, as nookie just should never be discussed near my parents. Ew.
Adam

I not saving my myself for marriage, just the right person 😉
Renacier

Dammit, Georgia. Why you gotta keep embarrassing us like this?
Steven

Perhaps someone should get a grant to advise couples to have as much sex as possible before marriage – because they are sure to have a lot less afterwards.
Um, at least that’s what I’ve heard on Dr. Phil.
How on earth has the idea of committing yourself for a lifetime to another person before sharing sexual intimacy survived into the 21st century? Sure, sometimes it works out well but I’m certain there have been many disasters and many unhappy marriages as a result.
I certainly wouldn’t want to marry someone without knowing that I could meet all of their needs (their wants, of course, are a different story.)
Vincent

Yeah! I want my check too. Married 11 years now and saved myself for it, though unlike Polly, I do regret it – but not much.
Desert Son

Hemant posted:

It’s your tax money paying for the prize.

I believe the technical term for this is: “insult to injury.”

I retain the consolation that somewhere in this great nation, my tax money is also funding something that surely drives the puritanical extremists into apoplexy.

No kings,

Robert
noodleguy

Now I wish I was engaged to someone from Georgia, so I could claim the money and donate it to some comprehensive sex-ed orginization, or something.

haha do it! Get engaged just for that purpose because it would be AWESOME!

the FSM commands you and you must obey!
David D.G.

“In our society, it is going to be hard to find [a couple who has not had premarital sex]. … But the standard is the standard.”

Someone needs to define the word standard for this woman. In the words of Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think that word means what you think it means.”

~David D.G.