This World: American Virgins Tx Date: 25th January 2004 This script was made from audio tape – any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible 10.00.00 This World Theme Music 10.00.09 Denny Pattyn The Silver Ring Thing programme is a high tech, high energy programme. 10.00.10 Title Page American Virgins 10.00.13 Denny Pattyn It is the most effective abstinence programme out there right now and it’s deployable. Sixteen thousand kids have put on the ring. What they get is this ring, they put it on their finger and on their wedding day they take it off and they give it to their husband or wife and say I have waited for you. 10.00.28 Girl We both come from Christian families and so we decided we’re not going to have sex and we’re going to have good morals together. There’s people wearing the ring and they have made the promise as well and also just wearing it every day I see it and it serves as a constant reminder that I’m not going to have sex until I’m married. 10.00.47 Michael Lumsden It’s November 2003. 10.00.48 Music 10.00.51 Michael Lumsden Denny Pattyn has brought together a group of Christian youth leaders to tell them about his Silver Ring Thing organisation which campaigns for a sex free teenage world. 10.01.00 Music 10.01.01 Michael Lumsden With him is a paediatrician and author of a book called ‘Epidemic; how teen sex is killing our kids’, Doctor Meg Meeker. 10.01.10 Dr Meg Meeker So when I grew up in the nineteen seventies, as part of the, with my colleagues starting the sexual revolution we didn’t think about sexual health. We, our generation, were focused on making sure that sexual freedom could be had by all. Nineteen sixty we had two sexually transmitted diseases, syphilis and gonorrhoea. Now, at the turn of the century, there were thirty and counting. But here’s the biggest problem; they are concentrated on our youth. Eight thousand kids every day in the United States get a new sexually transmitted disease. 10.01.54 Voice on radio But do you know what’s scary? This is an example of what would happen if terrorists tried to spread a really virulent and deadly disease. 10.02.06 Michael Lumsden Denny Pattyn is an ordained minister. His Silver Ring Thing is one of hundreds of abstinence programmes across America. A faith based organisation; its headquarters are at a large church in an affluent suburb of Pittsburgh. 10.02.23 Michael Lumsden The staff of volunteers and paid officers are preparing for a national summit and fund raising event. A new range of publications and videos will tell America about the teenage sexual disease epidemic. 10.02.36 Jonathan True story. A twelve year old girl at a party is pressured into giving oral sex to seven guys in the same night. An unnoticed fever blister on her lip. Oh crap! An unnoticed fever blister on her lip gives herpes to all seven guys. These guys will not only give their names to their wives but their diseases too. Are we going to do something? 10.02.59 Producer Are we going to fight back? 10.03.00 Jonathan Yeah. Are we going to fight back? 10.03.01 Producer That’s pretty good. 10.03.02 Rachel True story. A seventeen year old girl is admitted into the hospital with a hundred and two fever and abdominal pain. Doctors find out she slept with six guys and had an abortion at the age of sixteen. 10.03.12 Car horn 10.03.14 Producer Maybe we could use it. 10.03.21 Michael Lumsden At the heart of the Silver Ring Thing is the crew, hardcore young virgins who have pledged their lives not just to abstinence but to spreading the word. 10.03.29 Producer Go for it! 10.03.30 Nicky Hi, my name is Nicky. Everyday in America eight thousand teens will contract a sexually transmitted disease. And nearly three thousand will become pregnant. 10.03.42 Nicky I came to a Silver Ring Thing show and I just fell in love with the programme. It really was heartfelt to hear that people actually cared and people actually believed in abstinence and these people that I met were so, so like on fire for God and so just amazing like good people, it just made me really want to just be just like them. 10.04.06 Nicky And like at that time in my life I was really not confident at all, I had a very low self esteem, I didn’t have any friends, I was just looking for something. 10.04.15 Nicky MTV, BET and others have glamorised the lifestyle that should be saved for marriage and pressured kids younger and younger into making a decision they’re not yet old enough to make. 10.04.30 Nicky A lot of people they fool around, they have sex, they do whatever. I don’t agree with that and I say something about it because for me personally my faith is it’s biblically wrong, you shouldn’t be doing that, you know, if you really want to think about it, think about your future husband or future wife and if they’re, you know, you don’t want to be cheating on your future husband or wife, you know. And I just, I don’t know, that’s… 10.04.55 Nicky Most of us sit back and watch as today’s culture slowly destroys our youth. Sure, the government started teaching about safe sex. But safe sex, what is that. And safer than what. 10.05.09 Michael Lumsden Most weekends the Silver Ring Things crew take their show on the road. Most are in their home state of Pennsylvania but next weekend’s will involve a thirteen hour drive to Colombia in South Carolina. 10.05.21 Girl in black dress Itinerary, we’re driving down all day Thursday. Yeah but if you can make an extra effort all of you really, to just talk to people that you don’t know. Play games in the car, I mean we’re going to bring stuff for you guys to do but it’s going to be more responsibility than normal. 10.05.34 Denny Pattyn This came off an e-mail appeal. See what I’m saying. You could fix it up and make it look a little better if you wouldn’t mind taking about five or twenty minutes. And on those e-mails, when you re-type it, if you can type at the top ‘e-mails from students’. 10.05.50 Denny Pattyn We send out e-mails to the kids…then they write us back a lot of times and tell us these unbelievable stories. I’ve got, if I show you, I’ve got a thousand e-mails here, if you start reading these you’d go, holy mackerel when you see what’s going on, it’s really stuff, they tell you the real stuff. 10.06.04 Denny Pattyn reading e-mail And here’s one. My name is Emily. Sunday was my first time at the Silver Ring Thing but I really enjoyed being there. It really made me see how special it is to give your virginity to your husband. But I do have a question. I know at SRT they said that oral sex is still sex and I’m not involved in that but I was just wondering now that I have the Silver Ring would that be wrong to do. It’s not that I’m planning on having oral sex any time soon I was just curious. 10.06.32 Interviewer What was the answer? 10.06.33 Denny Pattyn Told her that I didn’t believe oral sex was right, that it’s sex. Because if you can get a sexually transmitted disease from oral sex, which of course you can, then oral sex has got to be, in essence, sex. 10.06.45 Interviewer What is permissible sexually? 10.06.48 Denny Pattyn What is? Well we believe, you know, anything that has, anything that you cover up is covered up for a reason and that should not be, you know, used by a member of the opposite sex. That’s the best way to describe it. 10.07.09 Rachel Ohh. A lot of stuff gets porn on these things, like, like…when you’re talking on line and someone like IM’s you and you’re like ok, what’s up and they’re like yeah, come watch my webcam, I’m like woah. 10.07.21 Nicky I don’t get it on IM… 10.07.23 Rachel I get it on IM but I don’t get it on e-mail any more. 10.07.25 Nicky I get it on e-mail. 10.07.26 Rachel I used to get the worst porn things, like it would be like girl on horse XXX plus X, eighteen I was like phew! 10.07.33 Nicky I get the Viagra commercials all the time. 10.07.36 Rachel Viagra! 10.07.37 Denny Pattyn reading e-mail I would think of girls in all the wrong ways like lustfully and I still do but its weird because when I have the ring on I don’t but when I don’t have it on I do think about them and I don’t know what to do about it. 10.07.49 Denny Pattyn reading e-mail If you’re asking when would the ring be off, well I weight lift a lot during lunch. I take it off sometimes I forget to put it back on. In my next class I have, there are some very beautiful girls and I think about them in the wrong way if I don’t have my ring on. 10.08.03 Interviewer What was your advice? 10.08.04 Denny Pattyn I just, my advice would be, it’s not about the ring it’s about the condition of your heart, you know. 10.08.13 Music 10.08.21 Rachel I think it’s such an adventure. I love it. Driving. I love it. 10.08.26 Music 10.08.54 Aston Rachel The Silver Ring Thing is a great programme but it doesn’t like define necessarily how we live in every aspect, do you know what I mean. Sure it plays like a great role and it’s a great model but it’s not, you know, it’s not, like a bible by any means. 10.09.13 Rachel I think like everyone has their own kind of idea of how they think dating is appropriate or, you know, desirable or whatever but I think it’s got to come from your heart and what you think. 10.09.25 Rachel People have like all kinds of things like oh well, like oral sex for example, people say you can’t call that sex because you know, that’s not like intercourse and so then you know you want to say that makes sense but then, you know, there’s so many different things you could be doing like, you know, what’s the difference between having oral sex or like a girl getting fingered, like what’s the difference, do you know what I mean. Those are, those are the kind of questions you ask and there’s just no, like no answer that everyone’s going to agree with. 10.09.54 Rachel Most of my friends who do have sex aren’t like, hmm, I’m worried that they might have an STD, you know, that’s really not like the big thing and so if the health factor was the only thing holding me back then I don’t think that it would. For me it’s more morals over the health but the health, the health side goes right along with it. Because it’s true, so many kids don’t know, you know and it is, it’s, it’s an epidemic, it really is. 10.10.22 Girl Also in these little packets there’s a prayer partner for you all and there’s a little note that I wrote on how that works. 10.10.30 Jared It’s going to be, it’s going to be an awesome weekend, you know, we’re going to have a great time, I think we have a chance to do something like nine hundred students signed up for Saturday night pre-registered. 10.10.38 Voice 1 How awesome is that? 10.10.40 Voice 2 Yeah! 10.10.41 Jared So we’re looking at well over a thousand kids who are going to be there and four hundred Friday night so it’s going to be a great time. 10.10.47 Girl Let’s load ‘em up. Pee, if you’ve not peed, pee now! 10.10.50 Music 10.11.17 Girl with frizzy hair Ok you guys, let’s pray. I just got off the phone with Jared and they’re about two hours back, they’ve just got their tyre fixed. And only three out of their four brake pads are working so they’re going to be really, be going really slow behind us. So why don’t we just pray for them that they’ll get there safely and one of the brake pads is actually leaking oil. So. 10.11.40 Girl with frizzy hair Dear God I thank you for what’s going to take place this weekend, Lord, that something awesome is going to happen, Lord God, that there would be so many setbacks. So we just ask that you would send your band of angels to just surround the tech truck. Lord God, that you would be with Jared, Lord God, help him to make wise decisions as he drives down to South Carolina. Lord God, as they go to brake, Lord God, that you would be with their brake pads. Lord God, that you would stop them in enough time. Lord God, that they would go the pace that you need them to go to get down there and that they would arrive safely, Lord God and not be harmed. Lord God, we pray that you would give them supernatural strength, Lord God, as they travel and give them patience and wisdom in Jesus’ name. Amen. 10.12.31 Aston Shandon Baptist Church 10.12.38 Michael Lumsden The damaged truck has arrived safely. Bringing with it the eighty thousand dollars worth of sound and lighting equipment needed for the show. 10.12.51 Michael Lumsden President Bush is a personal advocate of no sex before marriage teaching. Last year his administration awarded a hundred and twenty million dollars of federal money to organisations promoting abstinence. 10.13.05 Michael Lumsden The Silver Ring Thing has been exceptionally blessed with a grant of seven hundred thousand dollars. 10.13.12 Denny Pattyn Our total budget will probably be for two thousand and four, three times what we are going to receive from the federal government so probably two thirds of our faith based raised funds and one third will be federal funds. 10.13.29 Denny Pattyn Anybody who received federal funding basically are not permitted to proselytise their faith issues with those dollars. So, all the shows we started since we received the government funding will include an alternate seminar which is designed for kids who would want to hear and have an opportunity to hear about abstinence without any faith mentioned whatsoever. 10.13.52 Denny Pattyn But this show here in Colombia is a little bit different because we started working with the folks from South Carolina three years ago and so this show really doesn’t involve government funds. 10.14.10 Denny Pattyn That looks good! 10.14.16 Rachel Well, the kids come in and they basically need to find a ring size that fits. Most people don’t know their ring size especially guys. You take one of these cards and you fill out your name and your e-mail and you better write your e-mail like nicely because me and Nicky have to enter it into the computer and if we can’t read that then it really makes us upset. 10.14.38 Interviewer What does it say there? 10.14.39 Rachel It’s first Theseleans four, three, three, four. It’s a bible verse. It basically just says like you should keep your body… 10.14.46 Nicky Holy. 10.14.47 Rachel …holy and sanctified till marriage or something. 10.14.51 Rachel You guys, if you think about it, there’s all different versions of the bible so every single one is different. So there’s no sense in memorising because… 10.15.03 Girl at door And this’ll get you in. Hello, that’ll be twelve dollars. 10.15.13 Music/Silver Ring Thing show 10.15.32 Girl on microphone All the parents to go over and go upstairs on the other side for the parent’s meeting, at six o’clock, right now. 10.15.38 Silver Ring Show 10.16.10 Denny Pattyn Well basically tonight, what we’re going to do is try to get you out of here as fast as we can because we think the best parent’s seminar we have going here tonight is downstairs. Ok. Because what I want you to become convinced of tonight is that there is a major problem in our society today, it’s called a sexually transmitted disease epidemic as well as a teen pregnancy epidemic in our country. 10.16.33 Jared Sex is great! Oh and it is great, in the right context, you see, hey listen to this. Listen. That’s why we have hormones, ok, that’s why out in the lobby, ssh, ok, calm down or I’ll get the hose. That’s why outside in the lobby, you girls, you’re like look at him, he’s so… 10.16.53 Rachel It’s only six fifty-eight pm, as in almost seven o’clock, it’s going to be a long night Richard. A long night. I’m happy to be here but it’s, I’m so tired. 10.17.08 Jared Now, now you may be saying, Jared, how do you know that sex is so good. Can you zoom in on this, do you know what this is? 10.17.17 Music 10.17.28 Jared Yes. I’m a married guy. I’ve been married about three and a half years and sex is pretty cool! 10.17.37 Denny Pattyn Our business plan, our role out plan, is to be in seventy- five US cities in the next seven years and to put two million rings on kid’s fingers to create a reverse peer pressure effect in the communities where they live and maybe, God willing, create a movement. 10.17.53 Music 10.17.56 Nicky Hey guys, how’s everyone doing tonight? 10.17.58 Cheering 10.18.01 Nicky My name is Nicky; I’m sixteen years old and I’m a junior at Lentil High School up in Pittsburgh, somewhere and just to let all of you know, I am single. Who else is single out there? 10.18.12 Cheering 10.18.20 Nicky Now I’ve been talking about purity and what purity is in my life. Being pure means not being messed with or even touched. Now there’s a lot of things that I do in my life to try to keep myself pure so, so here’s some tips for... Girls; wear clothes. Don’t wear dental floss and band aids just to impress some guy. 10.18.46 Rachel I don’t really like our merchandise to be honest with you. I just wouldn’t wear any of it. In fact half of us hate it. I like hoodies, our hoodies are sweet. But, honest, if you asked me to pick out something to wear from up there, I’d wear the pants and I’d probably wear those jackets on the ends but, nothing else. 10.19.07 Nicky I hear all the time why so and so messed around with their girlfriend or their boyfriend, it just kind of happened. Let me tell you, nothing just kind of happens, I mean do your clothes vanish in thin air or something. 10.19.22 Rachel I think that sex is like one of the best things you can give whoever you’re going to marry and like I can’t wait to get married because I think that would be great to spend the rest of your life with somebody and I’m sure that when I really, really love somebody I’m want to, I’m going to want to be able to give them like, ‘all of me’, so, absolutely I mean, in a nutshell like, plus, that’s what you’re called to do as a Christian, you know. 10.19.53 Nicky Guys, it’s your future. No one can make any decisions for you, you have to take your life and run with it. But for me, whoever my husband is out there, I’m keeping it pure for you. I hope all of you can do the same. Thank you guys. 10.20.09 Music 10.20.12 Rachel Marriage should definitely be more than just sex because one day you’re going to get bald and ugly and you’re not going to have sex any more. I mean not really, right. Richard? I don’t know Richard, are you married? 10.20.25 Interviewer Yes. 10.20.26 Rachel Do you still like to have sex with your wife Richard? Ok we’ll see, well maybe not then. 10.20.30 Music 10.20.34 Silver Ring Show 10.20.50 Speaker There are diseases out there that can kill you and stay with you, you can pass it on to your unborn baby, you can pass it on at birth. It is truly an epidemic out there. 10.21.00 Music 10.21.11 Denny Pattyn See because I know, in a crowd this size, I’ve lived in your place, there’s a lot of garbage going on. There’s a lot of pain, there’s a lot of history, you’ve been doing some stuff that you’re not very proud of, you’re pretty ashamed of. Maybe some of it sexual, maybe some of it’s some other stuff. 10.21.35 Denny Pattyn Maybe tonight you just need to make your peace with God. Maybe tonight’s the night that you need to settle it. Why not let tonight be the night that when you put on the ring it’s the same night you said, Lord, forgive me. Just forgive me for what I’ve been up to. I want to start over. See because here’s the deal. Tonight we want you to put this ring on, like this. 10.22.07 Denny Pattyn But on your wedding night we want you to take it off. On your wedding day and look at your husband or wife and say to them with the most passion you’ve ever said; I have waited for you since the day I put this ring on. Whether you waited from the beginning or you started over. I have waited for you since I put this ring on. Then you might say; now, let’s get it on!. 10.22.31 Cheering 10.22.36 Denny Pattyn You might just want to say that. Ok. 10.22.39 Silver Ring Show 10.23.12 Jared Hold on, hold on, before we do that. Before we do this picture. All right before we do this last one, we need everybody to be dead quiet. Dead quiet. Sshh. I’m going to go one, two, three… 10.23.26 Music 10.23.52 Michael Lumsden In downtown Pittsburgh another non-profit organisation has been providing family planning and health care services since nineteen sixteen. 10.23.59 Voice Welcome to Planned Parenthood at Western Pennsylvania’s… 10.24.02 Michael Lumsden The women who work for Planned Parenthood provide comprehensive sex education. They argue that it is the only way to help young people to make informed choices about sex. 10.24.13 Planned Parenthood worker 1 I have three penises. 10.24.17 Planned Parenthood worker 2 Ok, I have two. 10.24.19 Planned Parenthood worker 1 We teach birth control in the high school every year. So, but even after, you know, sometimes two or three years, sometimes they still don’t get the information that they need to know and they’re still misinformed about things. They know more than maybe some of the other students because we teach it but, you know, they still sometimes forget. 10.24.35 Planned Parenthood worker 2 Or they get confused. 10.24.36 Planned Parenthood worker 1 They get confused about it. 10.24.37 Planned Parenthood worker 2 They mix things up. A perfect, well, also like Mountain Dew is a big drink and it’s a soft drink and a lot of kids have been told that if you drink Mountain Dew it will reduce your sperm count and they use that, they think they can use that as birth control, it’s a very common myth that goes all around the middle and high schools and so, you know, we’re there to say, you know what, if you drink Mountain Dew you’re just not going to be thirsty any more but you’re still going to have, you know… 10.25.01 Planned Parenthood worker 1 Don’t know about your stomach. 10.25.01 Planned Parenthood worker 2 Right. It won’t do anything to your sperm count and so, you know, things like that, things like douching. A lot of them… 10.25.07 Planned Parenthood worker 1 And other methods. That if you shake up a coke bottle after you have sex and douche with it and put it there, and open it and put it there then it will wash away the semen, it won’t, won’t make you pregnant. 10.25.18 Aston Wilkinsburg High School 10.25.18 Michael Lumsden With no centralised policy on sex education individual school boards in Pittsburgh decide what to teach their students about sex. Planned Parenthood and other agencies are only invited into some of the City’s schools. 10.25.33 Planned Parenthood worker 2 We’re going to talk about all the different methods of birth control but the first thing we’re going to talk about is; what is the most effective way to keep yourself from getting pregnant and to keep yourself from getting a disease? 10.25.44 Class Abstinence. 10.25.45 Planned Parenthood worker 2 Ok, not having sex, sex or being abstinent, right. And if you’re abstinent, if you’re not having sex, you’re not putting yourself at risk for pregnancy, right. You’re not putting yourself at risk for disease. And that’s a good thing, would we all agree? 10.25.58 Class Yeah. 10.25.59 Planned Parenthood worker 2 Yeah. Ok. And actually, I would say a very good option at this point in your life. 10.26.09 Planned Parenthood worker 1 First things first, we’re going to talk about what condoms are. What are they? Rubber. 10.26.15 Class member Rubber. 10.26.16 Planned Parenthood worker 1 Right, they’re made of rubber. And what do they do? 10.26.18 Class member Aids protection. 10.26.20 Planned Parenthood worker 1 They’re STD protection, right. They can stop pregnancy. They can help to stop pregnancy and they can help to stop STDs. Ok. And I’m going to go through the steps to teach you how to put on a condom correctly. 10.26.32 Planned Parenthood worker 1 Now, I have to put my condom on an erect penis, it’s not going to go on correctly if the penis is not completely erect. Ok. So if the penis is soft, it’s not going to go on right, ok. Ok ssh. I have it on the right way I know it rolls down this way. I put it carefully on the tip and just roll my condom down the whole way, the whole way, as far as it will go. All right. See how that is? So, after the people have sex, you know, fun, fun, fun, he ejaculates or he comes, has an orgasm, there’s going to be semen in the condom. What do I need to do? 10.27.12 Class member Pull out. 10.27.13 Planned Parenthood worker 1 Pull out. Right. 10.27.14 Michael Lumsden It’s only with the older high school students, amongst whom teenage pregnancy is a nationally acknowledged problem, that Planned Parenthood can be so explicit in their teaching. With younger children the restrictions are far greater. 10.27.28 Planned Parenthood worker 2 We have girls in our middle school who are twelve year old mothers. 10.27.31 Planned Parenthood worker 1 And there’s girls, you know girls and guys that tell me that they’re having sex and are sexually active, in middle school. They’re thirteen, twelve, thirteen or they’re thinking about having sex. 10.27.41 Planned Parenthood worker 2 And we’re not allowed to talk about to them about birth control and in some instances we can talk about reproductive anatomy and some we can’t. 10.27.51 Interviewer Why aren’t you allowed to teach them birth control? 10.27.54 Planned Parenthood worker 2 Because like, in most of our schools, well in all of our schools they just don’t think it’s appropriate. They don’t think it’s something to talk about with younger students, they don’t think, I think that the parents would be receptive, that the community would be receptive. They don’t want to get in trouble. 10.28.11 Planned Parenthood worker 1 And next week what I’ll do; next week I’ll give you all a chance, I want see if you can properly do it. I’d like everybody to try, you don’t have to if you don’t want to but next week we’ll do this and you can try it yourself, you can show me that you know how to do it. Because practice makes perfect, the more you practice the more you know, the more likely you’re doing it correctly. 10.28.29 Music 10.28.55 Denny and daughter watching football 10.29.07 Denny Pattyn’s wife That picture was taken at a, at a wedding reception. That was actually before we were dating. 10.29.14 Interviewer Is that Denny? 10.29.15 Denny Pattyn’s wife Yeah. Yeah, looking...ok, no comment. 10.29.24 Interviewer How old were you then? 10.29.28 Denny Pattyn’s wife I’m nineteen or twenty in that photo. 10.29.30 Denny Pattyn’s daughter That’s my ring. It means to stay abstinent until you’re married and to keep a promise until kind of whenever you look at it, it reminds you. This is the narrow one. There’s so many diseases out there today that I wouldn’t want to be getting and I think if people put these rings on we can stop from getting even more diseases in the world so we don’t have, our kids don’t have to come in a generation to even worse things. 10.30.09 Denny Pattyn’s wife I think that’s like the perfect age to start because you’re capturing a pure mind and you are rallying friends around them, that is the time to capture a mind and a heart because it’s not already experienced sexual activity, it’s not going down the road, it’s not facing the same kind of peer pressure you are at a high school level. 10.30.34 Denny Pattyn’s daughter I’m only eleven years old and I have to wait all these years and it’s more like sometimes pressure because you think like oh, you’re the founder of the Silver Ring Thing you can’t mess up, you know. So it’s a little hard but it’s fun at the same time. 10.30.50 Denny Pattyn’s wife This ring is talking about, the verse on here is awesome, it talks about being sanctified, we’re talking about these kids being set apart, being different, you know, being holy, being pure, it’s not just about completely abstaining from sex, it’s about how you carry yourself, it’s about how you dress, how you feel about yourself, how you value your body that God created. 10.31.15 Denny Pattyn We’re very concerned about the world in general, I’m concerned about terrorism and how there is no real easy way to fight that. And that all plays into my faith because I believe that the end of the world is approaching very quickly and I believe Christ will come back. 10.31.33 Denny Pattyn I think about that, I think about the fact that I might be living in the last days, I’m not freaked out, I’m not, you know, shutting down things to about that but I actually believe that we are approaching the return of Christ which is a, a huge event. 10.31.51 Interviewer If the end of the world is so close, is abstinence where you should be putting your energy? 10.31.57 Denny Pattyn We’re not really putting our energy into abstinence as much as we’re putting it into faith. Abstinence is the tool that we’re using to reach children. 10.32.08 Deny Pattyn My children; I’m not sure they’re going to get a chance to do some of the things in their future but I also intend to be prepared spiritually should they die tonight, would they be heading to heaven, would they know what it takes to face God one day and he asks them why should I let you into my kingdom, they have to have the right answer to that. 10.32.28 Music 10.33.26 Michael Lumsden There’s only a week to go now before the national summit and fundraiser and preparations are well under way. 10.33.36 Michael Lumsden The University of Pittsburgh has contacted the Silver Ring Thing asking them to take part in a public debate on abstinence, with the local branch of Planned Parenthood. 10.33.46 Michael Lumsden Denny wants Dr Meeker to speak on behalf of the Silver Ring Thing. 10.33.52 Dr Meg Meeker I’m having difficulty with my schedule, I’ll be honest because I was anticipating coming in Thursday night because I, see I have my office patients on Wednesdays. 10.34.02 Denny Pattyn Oh do you. Ok, so I will, if I got a private plane somehow, would that help you? 10.34.10 Dr Meg Meeker A private plane! You don’t need to get a private plane. 10.34.14 Denny Pattyn Well to get you down here. 10.34.16 Dr Meg Meeker Huh? No, no, no, we don’t want to be doing that kind of stuff. 10.34.19 Denny Pattyn Well. 10.34.19 Dr Meg Meeker Oh, I think, the thing is, let me look into, let me look into… 10.34.25 Denny Pattyn I may be able to get a private plane. 10.34.27 Dr Meg Meeker Huh? 10.34.37 Denny Pattyn I may be able to get a private plane. 10.34.30 Jared I actually thought about pulling a, we’ll have like a pizza little party here Sunday night and everyone can sit around and we’ll have a big phonathon. 10.34.39 Jared I have to get these calls made and there’s two hundred and forty people to do it, I’ve never even made two hundred and forty calls in my whole life. 10.34.46 Woman You can do it. 10.34.48 Jared No way. 10.34.48 Denny Pattyn Meg, don’t let me get off the phone; let’s pray real quick. We pray for this event that’s coming up in November that once we get here, however we get here, you would just be glorified...and I know Lord you’ll work out the details, you promised to do so. Bless our lives right now, Lord Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen. 10.35.08 Denny Pattyn You’ve got to remember prayer Meg. You know, got to remember because that settles us down. 10.35.10 Dr Meg Meeker Oh, I know. 10.35.15 Denny Pattyn It settles us down, you know, that’s where, that’s the peace you know. 10.35.18 Dr Meg Meeker Right. 10.35.19 Denny Pattyn It brings the peace. 10.35.23 Music 10.35.26 Michael Lumsden Denny is off to lobby key government supporters in Washington where Congress is due to vote on a new round of health spending. 10.35.32 Music 10.35.35 Michael Lumsden But the Silver Ring Thing’s ambitions aren’t limited to saving teenage America. More than one and a half billion dollars has been pledged by President Bush for abstinence programmes to fight Aids in Africa. 10.35.47 Music 10.35.48 Michael Lumsden The Silver Ring Thing wants to be part of it. 10.34.51 Music 10.34.52 Denny Pattyn See if you can turn around and get going that way. 10.34.56 Denny Pattyn We’ve asked for two million dollars for our work here in the United States…get off here, just circle round…and we’ve asked for one and a half million dollars for our work in Uganda where we want to build a ring making factory in Uganda so that the students themselves can make rings and then we’ll just get them out in the schools after the programme. So, that’s what we’re hoping to do anyway. Guess you go right underneath this Jas, come up on the other side, where’s the north, ok. We want to get Jonathan to just kind of talk about how the programme has affected your life Jonathan and just what a difference it’s made and there’s nothing like personal testimony where you talk about what it’s like to wear the ring, day in and day out. So, don’t screw up. 10.36.48 Denny Pattyn This is the mall, Jonathan, if you look straight down, there’s the Washington monument, there’s the Capitol. 10.36.56 Denny Pattyn Notice there’s a few police down here. 10.36.58 Yeah. 10.36.59 Denny Pattyn On every corner. Used to be able to just drive around down here, it’s all changed since nine eleven. 10.37.12 Denny Pattyn These aren’t just planters you know; those are security to stop people driving up here. 10.37.16 Michael Lumsden In order to ensure that their programme receives federal dollars and is known to some of the most important members of the Bush administration, the Silver Ring Thing employs Paul Marconi, a lobbyist. 10.37.29 Paul Marconi Hello. Hi, I’m Paul. 10.37.32 Denny Pattyn Paul, this is Jonathan. 10.37.33 Paul Marconi Hi Jonathan, good to meet you. Paul Marconi. 10.37.37 Denny Pattyn Ok so we’ve got, we don’t have any more appointments than what you gave me earlier right. 10.37.42 Paul Marconi That’s right. Bill Rush cannot do it. ...office historically has never been responsive to meetings unless you’re from his district. 10.37.49 Denny Pattyn Ok. Does Spectre actually give us the grant or is it Santorum? 10.37.54 Paul Marconi I think it’s a combination of, let’s say you get seven hundred thousand again, maybe Spectre puts, gives you four hundred thousand of his allocation and Santorum gives you three. 10.38.03 Denny Pattyn Oh really, so it will really come out of his… 10.38.07 Paul Marconi …directly out of his allocation. 10.38.08 Denny Pattyn It didn’t happen that way last year though did it? 10.38.11 Paul Marconi I think it did, I think last year it was a combination. 10.38.14 Denny Pattyn Really. 10.38.14 Paul Marconi But mostly Santorum. 10.38.18 Denny Pattyn Ok. 10.38.19 Paul Marconi And this year… 10.38.20 Denny Pattyn Is that because Spectre wants to get credit for some of that? 10.38.25 Paul Marconi He wants, politically he needs to bolster his conservative credentials, abstinence is a good way for him to do it because he’s not going, you know he’s not going to change his stance on abortion, he’s going to be pro- choice… 10.38.39 Denny Pattyn Right. 10.38.40 Paul Marconi ..but so he needs to pick an issue where he can curry favour with the conservatives that’s not going to, not turn into a freebie but you know, he’ll say I really support abstinence only. It’s a good issue for him because it doesn’t upset liberals as much as, the liberals would care more about abortion than they would abstinence. 10.38.59 Denny Pattyn Right. Check that out. 10.39.01 Paul Marconi And I think what you also want to thank him for is his leadership on the issue of congress, that he’s courageous enough to stand up and talk about the issue… 10.39.09 Denny Pattyn Leadership and abstinence in general right. 10.39.12 Paul Marconi Yeah and other issues that mean a lot to families in America. 10.39.15 Denny Pattyn I’m not going to remember how to say the, let’s go one more time over the forum. 10.39.20 Paul Marconi Would you do the honours? Paul Marconi. 10.39.31 Denny Pattyn He’s a good guy; he’s a believer… 10.39.36 Denny Pattyn Look at this. It’s important to know that, when the representative is a believer because then you can be a little bit more talk about your faith. You know, so you can if we, if you talk to him say the most important part for me is my personal faith, which really gives me that conviction inside and hold to it. Be cool huh. 10.40.05 Robert Aderholt Well thanks for coming in. 10.40.08 Denny Pattyn Glad to be with you. Just wanted to get you updated. We’re in a major roll out now, the funding we received and again thank you for your support. We’re playing now to about eight cities in two thousand and four, we actually got our, our grant in August of this year because it was so delayed so, we we’re hoping to get rolled out in two thousand and three but it’s been kind of pushed back to two thousand and four… 10.40.30 Robert Aderholt And the delay was due because of the appropriation late from last year so, and that was the case with everyone so. Remind me again what the request for this year is. 10.40.38 Paul Marconi It’s two million dollars on …HHS. Last year we got seven hundred thousand and it was the first year that they actually earmarked for abstinence programmes and we worked closely with Melissa Hart… 10.40.50 Senator Right. 10.40.50 Paul Marconi …and with Santorum and Spectre on the senate were very helpful. We’re hearing from Santorum’s office that we’ll probably get a similar earmark again this year. 10.41.01 Denny Pattyn We’re also trying to do something in the beginning of next year. We want to host a legislative…what would it be… 10.41.07 Paul Marconi We’re trying to think of either a lunch briefing or, or breakfast briefing to counteract the arguments that a lot of liberals are making that you need to teach kids about condoms and abstinence doesn’t work, that it’s not effective. We want to have a two pronged message. Number one abstinence does work, it is effective and talk about that but also bring Doctor Meeker in to talk about the dramatic spread of STDs among young people. 10.41.33 Denny Pattyn Doctor Meeker yesterday said, you know, if I were to get, she used to teach the safe sex thing, oral contraceptives, condoms, she said if I now know what I know and I were to teach that, I would be liable for malpractice. I would be saying this will keep you safe. You would do it; you would get a disease, not a problem, a disease. And we’ve been using federal dollars to go into the schools to teach safe sex. 10.41.56 Senator Sure well we’d want to be a help at that briefing to, we could help set that up, if you let us know, we all staying in contact with Megan I know and she’s worked on this and we would, anything we can do to facilitate that briefing we’d love to help you. 10.42.09 Denny Pattyn That would be great. Thank you very much. 10.42.11 Senator Where are you from Jonathan? 10.42.12 Jonathan I’m from Webster in Pittsburgh and I’ve been wearing the ring for about three years now and everywhere you go pretty much you run into people, I have a ring on actually right now, they’d have a ring and it’s very common and I’m in a dating relationship right now and I went to homecoming and we saw a lot of sexual dancing and that kind of stuff but since I have the ring it’s a constant reminder of my abstinence. 10.42.38 Senator Well thanks for the work that you do, I mean it’s calling attention to not only the American public but especially to the students that it’s going to benefit so we want to work with you and I’m glad that we’ve been able to work with you in the past on this appropriation issue and look forward to working with you in the future on it. Okay. Thank you. 10.42.57 Denny Pattyn Ok. 10.42.59 Thanks you’s and goodbyes 10.43.02 Music 10.43.12 Denny Pattyn It looked like you were sort of like saying your lines… 10.43.15 Jonathan Yeah that’s what I thought. At the beginning I wasn’t really… 10.43.18 Denny Pattyn Well just start saying it from the heart. 10.43.20 Music 10.43.29 Interviewer How important is Santorum for you? 10.43.34 Denny Pattyn He’s number one. He’s the top of the ladder, he the guy that really made this happen and he’s a, he’s a good friend and his Chief of Staff’s a good friend of mine. He’s not a, he’s not really a political kind of person, he’s a real honest, down to earth senator and he really believes in this. He’s Catholic, he’s got six children, he believes in, you know all the conservative view points and very big supporter of abstinence. He’d love to see the country turn around. 10.44.04 Interviewer Where does he kind of sit within the Republican party? 10.44.06 Denny Pattyn Very high up, he’s number three and he’s a possible, you know, candidate for President. 10.44.11 Rick Santorum So how’s it going? 10.44.13 Denny Pattyn Phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal, we’re getting tremendous coverage on what we’re doing. We’re doing a big event in Pittsburgh in two weeks with Miss America and Doctor Meg Meeker. We just got, we just brought this down to show you, we got a, an e-mail or fax from the University of Pittsburgh who want us to do a debate against Planned Parenthood right on the University. And so I asked… 10.44.39 Rick Santorum And, and Planned Parenthood’s approach is, have as much sex as you want and just be, you know, just protect yourself, is that it? 10.44.46 Denny Pattyn Well the debate up here is; should we teach abstinence only as the curricula for primary and secondary schools. So we’re the affirmative in the debate and Planned Parenthood would be the opposition. 10.45.00 Rick Santorum I, I suspect you have statistics that shows the introduction of sexual education in the classroom and the level of activity among those who, among those kids who have been exposed to that sexual education. 10.45.15 Denny Pattyn Yeah, there was just an article that went out on that, they’re talking about the morning after pill’s been introduced in England for quite a few years now. They’re giving it to thirteen and fourteen year old girls, in the schools, and it’s gotten much worse. So, we’re getting all this interest… 10.45.29 Rick Santorum The message is pretty clear to me. You know, if I’m a thirteen or fourteen year old, say, you know we have morning after pills, now do whatever you think is right but here are these pills and what the expectation is, is really obvious. 10.45.40 Denny Pattyn Exactly. 10.45.41 Paul Marconi It’s as if you have anti-drug programmes saying don’t do drugs but if you do here’s a manual on how to safely shoot yourself up with heroin or how to safely cut up cocaine, I mean it’s the same, no one who went to any drug programme would do that. It’s a, it’s a horrible message. 10.45.55 Rick Santorum Thanks guys, appreciate that. 10.45.57 Denny Pattyn Thank you senator. 10.45.58 Thank you’s and goodbyes 10.46.09 Denny Pattyn I hit this about a hundred and twenty-five so we’ll see. This goes a hundred and twenty-five that will be about right. 10.46.21 Denny Pattyn Whoops; pulled that one. 10.46.33 Denny Pattyn Sounded like a gun shot. Ok, one more for fun. One more. That was perfect distance. If I can just get one. They think they’re safe back there. 10.46.54 Denny Pattyn Ooh. I hit that one. He went under water. 10.47.05 Denny Pattyn The geese aren’t biting today. Oh well. 10.47.17 Denny Pattyn How are you? Good. I’m at my office. Phenomenal, just tremendous. Yeah. Well I met with several senators and congressmen. Just got off the phone with the debate team down at the University of Pittsburgh. They’re going to be sending you an e-mail, I have not told them you’ve written the book or at least I have tried not to because I don’t want them to go out and get it and read it. 10.47.42 Dr Brenda Green The debate is a debate, the question is, sexual, sexuality education in primary and secondary schools should be limited to abstinence only. And the affirmative side is going to be represented by Meg Meeker who is a physician, she’s a board member of the American Academy of Paediatrics and she’s, she’s a favourite of the far right, she’s the new darling on Fox News. 10.48.07 Denny Pattyn The Education Director for Planned Parenthood locally here in Pittsburgh. Her name is, I don’t know if you want to look into that, her name is Doctor Brenda Green. 10.48.19 Dr Brenda Green Initially I was supposed to be dating the exec, dating, oh my God is that a Freudian slip. Oh my God Freud is just smiling in his grave somewhere. 10.48.31 Dr Brenda Green But, I was supposed to be debating the Executive Director of the Silver Ring Thing and they’re using part of their huge federal government budget to fly her in. So they made the change after the arrangements were already made. They’re also flying in Miss America because they have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to work with of your federal tax money whereas my programme gets not one cent of federal money. 10.48.55 Woman Right. Well, I wish you good luck Brenda because you’re basically up against, you know, a doctor and a woman wearing a crown. So; oh my God! 10.49.08 Dr Brenda Green Oh well. 10.49.13 Denny Pattyn She’s here. Which one? 10.49.15 Man In the black. 10.49.17 Denny Pattyn I think you’re right, that is her isn’t it. 10.49.19 Michael Lumsden Miss America has flown into town. 10.49.22 Denny Pattyn Erica? 10.49.24 Michael Lumsden Since winning her crown last year she has been touring the country speaking in favour of abstinence as part of her manifesto; ‘Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself’. 10.49.35 Denny Pattyn We’re also picking up Meg Meeker here in about twenty minutes; she’ll be flying in from Detroit, so. 10.49.43 Michael Lumsden Denny has enlisted Miss America for the debate and the national summit and fundraiser. She will also speak at a number of local school assemblies. 10.49.51 Music 10.49.56 Dr Meg Meeker Listen to me; can you have great sex for the next fifty or sixty years, if you got penile herpes? No. 10.50.09 Miss America And that’s why for me, I said; I respect myself enough that I’m not going to sleep with any man who doesn’t respect me enough to give me a lifetime commitment and a wedding ring on my wedding night. 10.50.18 Dr Meg Meeker Ladies; can you, can you have great sex if you’ve had half of your cervix burned off because you had cervical cancer when you were sixteen? No. 10.50.27 Music 10.50.34 Gordon Mitchell Greetings. My name is Gordon Mitchell; I’m the token guy up on the stage. 10.50.36 Aston University of Pittsburgh 10.50.41 Gordon Mitchell They asked me to come up here to try and prevent the male side of the species from being completely eclipsed by this excellent line up of eloquent and dynamic female speakers that we’ve assembled for today’s public debate. 10.50.59 Dr Brenda Green When educating young people our goal is to help them grow into sexually healthy adults. This cannot be accomplished through fear based abstinence only until marriage curricula which rely on fear and shame, include misinformation about sexually transmitted infection and Aids, present condoms and contraceptions only in terms of failure rates, idealise only one family structure, portraying families living with outside this structure as troubled or even abnormal. 10.51.30 Dr Brenda Green Most of these fear based curricula violate the doctrine of separation of church and state that we hold so dear in the first amendment. They attempt to camouflage this by relying on terms such as morality and ethics to mask obviously sectarian doctrines. When school curricula is used to stigmatise and shame children we have a far greater problem in this country than adolescent pregnancy or disease. 10.51.53 Miss World You’ve said that abstinence education does not work and… 10.51.57 Dr Brenda Green No, I said fear based abstinence education doesn’t work. 10.52.00 Miss World Well I don’t think anyone supports fear based abstinence education. 10.52.03 Dr Brenda Green Well the federal government’s funding twelve curriculums that endorse it. 10.52.08 Miss World Then, you, you’ve found a statement that said fear based. 10.52.09 Applause 10.52.13 Miss World Can you give me, can you give me that specific governmental citation where it says we would like to use federal dollars to support fear based sex education, or would that be your own bias. 10.52.21 Dr Brenda Green I’d say that when one of the government requirements of these programmes is that they talk about marriage and relationships only being between a man and a woman when you know that you have gay and lesbian and bi- sexual and transgender kids in your classroom, that’s hate. 10.52.36 Miss World So you’re afraid of marriage? 10.52.37 Applause 10.52.38 Miss World Ok, you’ve claimed that abstinence doesn’t work. Can you name one specific case in all of mankind and human history where abstinence has not worked? 10.52.48 Dr Brenda Green Yeah, where someone said they were going to be abstinent… 10.52.50 Miss World No, no, no, where abstinence did not work. 10.52.54 Dr Brenda Green Well if people don’t follow through, yes, it does not work. 10.52.55 Miss World If abstinence did not work. If abstinence did not work. 10.53.58 Applause 10.53.03 Dr Brenda Green Actually people can take a vow of abstinence… 10.53.05 Miss World If abstinence did not work. 10.53.08 Dr Brenda Green If you don’t follow through it does not work and the perfect example of this is when we tell children to sign… 10.53.13 Miss World The answer to the question is, please answer the question as stated. 10.53.16 Dr Brenda Green Allow me to answer the question please. You ask it, I’ll answer it. More vows of chastity have been broken than condoms will ever break. 10.53.24 Dr Meg Meeker Condoms reduce the risk of HIV and gonorrhoea in men but for all of the other sexually transmitted diseases there is insufficient evidence that condoms reduce the risk at all. Sex is very dangerous, it’s very much like taking drugs, actually it’s more dangerous to be sexually active when you’re a teenager than to be smoking cigarettes because you can smoke cigarettes for years, stop smoking and your lungs can heal. If you have sexual activity for a year you can walk away with herpes or HIV or anything else. 10.53.55 Girl Empirically teenagers do have sex. I grew up in a very conservative state in the mid-west that taught abstinence only education and I was an honour roll scholarship recipient student that came from a together home and gosh, darn it, I had sex and I loved it. When you say that we’re talking about children do you realise that we’re grouping eighteen year old voters within that group. Even if they are children, do you deny that they’re faced with adult choices and feelings every day? Eighteen year olds hold jobs, pay rent, have relationships, take care of themselves and vote. How can you deny giving them full education and full information. 10.54.30 Dr Meg Meeker I’d never deny that, that’s why I wrote the book. 10.54.33 Girl But that’s what you said you deny in your last speech. 10.54.35 Dr Meg Meeker No, no, no, no, you misunderstood me. I believe in telling kids about everything that’s why I wrote the book and anybody says abstinence only educators want to withhold information, read the book; it’s more graphic than you’d care to know about. 10.54.57 Man with hat I’d just like to say I practised abstinence in high school, not by choice, I’m not Brad Pitt but I’d like to, I’d like to ask the abstinence side would, like what she said about…and the whole masturbation thing. What if you encourage that, that’d be cool. You know, self love man; you don’t get no diseases from that stuff. I mean I don’t got nothing man. 10.55.13 Dr Meg Meeker You know kids will practice mutual masturbation or self- masturbation, I think that really you need to clarify, are you talking about… 10.55.20 Man with hat Oh just by myself ma’am. 10.55.23 Dr Meg Meeker By yourself, honey you’re fine, you’re fine. 10.55.25 Man with hat Well apparently not because there was a dude on the Howard Stern show, he like you know, did something wrong and he ended getting Pirones disease, see it’s a very complicated… 10.55.33 Dr Meg Meeker No, no, no, no, no, I, I, I… 10.55.34 Man Ok now you can take a seat, enjoy the answer, right. 10.55.34 Music 10.55.41 Michael Lumsden Twenty-four hours after the debate local supporters gather for the Silver Ring Thing’s national summit and fundraising evening. Denny is back amongst the faithful. 10.55.50 Music 10.55.53 Denny Pattyn So please pray for us. Seriously. I thank those of you that prayed for us during our debate last night; it was war, truly war. It was unbelievable, we saw what it looks like, we understand the battle. Please pray for us; the battle is going to get fierce, much more so than we’re facing right now. We’re talking about major issues. Ok, well God bless you. 10.56.22 Music 10.53.23 Nicky True story. A sixteen year old girl walks into an auditorium one Saturday night and sees an event about sexual abstinence. The show is so powerful and the message so exciting it influenced this girl to put a silver ring on her finger and wait for her future husband. I am that girl. I made that commitment one Saturday night and joined seventeen thousand others across the country to do the same. We know the truth, teens are hurting, teens are dying, we need your help. It’s time to fight back. 10.56.51 Girl 1 I need you. 10.56.52 Girl 2 I need you. 10.56.53 Girl 3 I need you. 10.56.54 Jonathan I need you. 10.56.55 Crowd We need you. 10.56.57 Aston REID CARPENTER Silver Ring Thing Consultant Without Jesus, this is a, this thing is a failure. We’ve got to keep on attacking it, we’ve got to go into schools and we’ve got to be cool and we’ve got to be careful but at the end of the day the Christian church has got to get radical about the fact that Jesus Christ can make it in the world of herpes. 10.57.19 Reid Carpenter You can do something tonight but I can tell you we need prayer and we need volunteerism. We need money. Windows like this don’t come along every day and I’m not here to advocate, well I better not say that. But I think we’ve got people in government right now who get it and understand it and believe in the transforming power of Christ and are now willing to put money where their mouth is and we’re getting some of it. Ok everybody, thank you very much for coming tonight. 10.57.51 Applause 10.57.54 End Music 10.58.33 Credits Narrator MICHAEL LUMSDEN 10.58.35 Voice over Have your say on tonight’s show and explore a world of extra information, news stories and features by visiting our web site at: 10.58.43 www.bbc.co.uk/thisworld Photography RICHARD RANKEN Sound GEORGE HITCHENS Dubbing Mixer CLIFF JONES Colourist VINCE NARDUZZO VT Editor BOYD NAGLE Graphic Design STEVE ENGLAND Production Team JULIA DANNENBERG SARAH EVA SARAH HANKS MARTHA O’SULLIVAN AGNES TEEK Production Manager JANE WILLEY Unit Manager SUSAN CRIGHTON Assistant Producer BARBARA ARVANITIDIS Film Editor FRED HART Deputy Editor DAVID BELTON Produced and Directed by RICHARD ALWYN 10.58.58 THIS WORLD 10.58.58 Editor KAREN O’CONNOR BBC © BBC MMIV 10.59.02 End BBC This World 1 1