For ‘One Knight Only,’ a toast to the virtues of chastity
by Rhonda Parks Manville
A Westmont College junior who is passionate about chastity has organized a banquet for college-age women interested in the virtues of purity.
“I’ve always felt strongly about saving sex for marriage,” said Jaime Rau, 20, who is the leader of a group called Purely Committed, which exists to support college women who choose to abstain. “There is a lot of support for abstinence in high school, but I found that a lot of my college peers hadn’t heard about it. I took it upon myself to get the word out.”
Miss Rau and 11 members of Purely Committed have organized an abstinence banquet at 5 p.m. April 20 at the Radisson Hotel, which they are calling “One Knight Only.”
Miss Rau took a semester off from her studies to plan the event. About 90 women have reserved seats so far and there is room for 250 people. Fliers about the event about the event have been posted at UCSB, Brooks Institute, Santa Barbara City College and Westmont.
Actor Kirk Cameron and former Miss Wisconsin Mary-Louise Kurey, the keynote speakers, will talk about why they chose to remain chaste until marriage, and the benefits it brought them.
“I know I needed a big star to bring in the girls,” Miss Rau said of Mr. Cameron, who appeared on the TV sitcom “Growing Pains” and the apocryphal film “Left Behind.”
While Miss Rau and most of the participants in the conference are devout Christians, “we have stayed away from this being a Christian or evangelizing event,” said Miss Rau. “This is not about saving souls. It’s not about faith. It’s about purity and self-control.”
Miss Rau cites romantic, spiritual and health-related reasons for waiting to have sex until marriage.
“Our society treats sex like it is a trashy, casual occurrence, which doesn’t give it the respect it deserves,” said Miss Rau. “We’ve really taken the beauty from it, and really, the more society treats it as no big deal, the bigger deal virginity becomes, because it so rare.”
Miss Rau said she can’t fully explain her passion for the cause, except to say that it perhaps stems from the fact that her parents divorced when she was young, and she was raised by a single mother who went through difficult times.
“We have so many strikes against us in wanting to pursue a lasting marriage,” said Miss Rau, a communications major who said her greatest ambition in life is to be a wife and mother. “Why would you want to take the risk of jeopardizing the greatest intimacy you can ever achieve with your future spouse?”
At 13, Miss Rau pledged in her diary to save herself until marriage. She signed and dated the page, and asked her mother to sign as a witness. She saved a spot on the page for her future daughter to sign the page also.
“I believe that this (issue) is a burden that God laid on my heart,” she said.
At her high school in Eagan1, Minn., Miss Rau was active in the teen “True Love Waits” movement. She pledged then, too, to remain chaste until marriage.
“Our society makes it sound impossible, but it’s not,” said Miss Rau, who has kept her pledge and remains a virgin, despite two serious relationships. “We are not animals. We have self-control.”
Miss Rau said that it is never too late to commit to a vow of chastity, even if a person has had sex in the past. She said that the banquet will explore this aspect of purity, which she calls “secondary virginity.”
While the conference seeks to support college women in their pledges of chastity, it also will extol the virtues of chastity in male partners. Miss Rau said she has convinced several mail friends to give chastity a try.
The “One Knight Only” conference will also feature musical performances and testimony from a doctor, a married couple, and college women about the benefits of chastity, from their various points of view. After the banquet, there will be a candlelight commitment ceremony at the beach across the street for women who want to take part.
Purely Committed obtained nonprofit status for the event through the Life Network of Santa Barbara, although it is not affiliated with the agency, said Miss Rau, who is seeking donations to underwrite the event.
The deadline for reservations is Monday. For information on the schedule of events or to make donations, check the Web site at www.oneknightonly.com or call 565-7003.
1 Correction to spelling of city name
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