Women, never give up in anything you do. Trust in God that He will give you the strength, the perseverance, and the patience to live modesty in its fullness and beauty. Seek God and in doing so you will discover an amazing love such as which no one on earth can describe. Always remember that when it feels as though no one loves you, that someone does, and always will love you. God is waiting …

When I am tempted I look to Mary, nothing can taint her, nothing can lower her from the purity, the humility and the love which flowed from her during her life. All women can learn from Mary’s example on how to be a holy woman. All men can learn from Mary on how we are called to view, appreciate and love women.

-Kevin

This video comes from the men at Saint Agnes Catholic Church in CT. The guys in it spent a great deal of time studying Theology of the Body and learning that the true purpose of man’s strength is to lift up others into glory – especially women. This video is exactly what the battle for love is all about. The super sexual message of the culture can seem insurmountable, but all it takes is the simple voice of a few good men strong enough to say that it doesn’t have to be that way.

We hope that everyone who watches this video is inspired and passes it on to their friends and anyone who needs to hear this message. And we hope everyone checks out demandyourdignity.com and learns more about real love.

For 40 days, the youth minister or group leader runs the LDX by sending out a the daily text messages to all the participants. Each day, the participants receive a task and a bible verse and have until the end of the day to complete it. The tasks are pretty simple, and fun – “Don’t say anything negative to anyone or about anyone today.” or “Go out of your way to do 3 acts of kindness today.” At your weekly meetings, you can spend a few minutes asking people how the Love Dare is going and if anything exciting or interesting has happened.

We are all called to witness to true love, right? Right! But it’s not just big, sweeping, epic gestures of love. Heroic love is in the small things too; a smile, a helping hand, saying “thank you”. These are the battles of love that are being fought daily by those around you. As Mother Theresa said “There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more who are dying for a little love.” This is the difference you can make!

This game is great for youthgroups, campus ministries, or even just a group of friends at school. Take advantage of this FREE resource, and be that difference!

DOWNLOAD PDF HERE (1.3mgs)

This video comes from ThePornEffect.com, an awesome Catholic website geared to help people, particularly men, with porn and sex addiction.  The site has all sorts of resources from a lot of Catholic heavy hitters (Jason Evert, Mark Houck, etc). The site is not afraid to get right into the thick of this issue (here is a great article featuring testimonys from real porn stars), but it does so in clever and funny ways.

Hands down the best part of the website are these home-made videos from the site creator, Matthew Fradd. Most videos are of Matt teaching a particular topic in a hilarious way (like using sumo-suits to express battling temptation), but this one features some younger boys showing just how much they hate porn. I totally encourage anyone who reads this to make their own “I Hate Porn” video. It’s a MUST.

Leo Keliher is the co-president of Harvard’s chastity/abstinence club True Love Revolution. This group has been in the fight for a couple years, and they have had their fair share of bumps and bruises to show for it (they’ve even been the subject of a number of TIME articles). Leo took some time out of his day to give us a little insight from the front lines. Can the message of chastity push back on a liberal campus? Do people even want to hear it? What kind of project ideas work best? Leo touches upon all of this. Check it out:

What is the general sentiment on campus to your group? Generally good? Really bad?

The student body is so diverse that it depends on whom you talk to, but in general we’re regarded as controversial and perhaps extreme.  Many students do not understand how we could advocate for one set of sexual choices over another, much less why traditional marriage shouldn’t be changed.  However, there is also a large base of friendly students, and since our group is always civil in tone we have a good reputation for not bashing other people.

If it’s bad, how does your group keep up its morale to continue the fight?

We have to push against a lot of resistance to keep going, but whenever we get back in touch with our positions and the reasons behind them we are re-inspired.  This can happen at executive meetings or speaker events, but the Love and Fidelity conferences are especially energizing.

What are some of the more common arguments that you hear against your message?

The number one is: “If you think abstinence is better than having sex, you’re judgemental and are looking down on other people.  When it comes to sex there is no better or worse, so just choose how you want to live and don’t tell other people what to do.”  In reply, we say that sexuality involves real ethics, and that we all have to make judgements about what is right or wrong.  In TLR we advocate for what is not only right, but holds the greatest promise for a happy future.  We don’t judge any individual students, and we simply offer our philosophy to the rest of campus.

Here at BattleforLove, we love projects that promote the principles of true love in unorthodox methods – sort of like guerrilla marketing. One thing TLR is famous for, or infamous for, is when you handed out Hersey Kisses to freshmen women with cards that said “Why wait? Because you’re worth it.”  Can you explain how that project came about and some of the positive and negative reactions to it?

Our founders Justin and Sarah Murray came up with this idea as a way to send a strong positive message to freshmen women.  Because of negative criticism about “imposing” sexual value standards on women, we changed the mailing to include both men and women the next year.  If there had been enough time and money the first year we would have sent the Valentines to men also, but since there wasn’t we felt the women needed the message more.  Although there has been value to sending the Valentines, we have decided to stop sending them because of the time and money required.  Most freshmen tend to take the chocolate and recycle the card without reading it or considering the message, so we want to focus our efforts elsewhere.

Has your group done anymore Valentine’s Day projects?

We held an event on the history of Valentine’s Day one year in an effort to be fun and informative without “pushing” a message.  We’ve also co-sponsored an ad the last two years in the Crimson with the Love and Fidelity Network, the Princeton Anscombe Society, and other schools.  The ad lays out our basic beliefs, gives reasons to wait for marriage, and answers common objections.

What have been some of your most successful projects or events?

Interesting speakers that draw a sizeable audience, like Jason Evert or Christina Hoff Sommers.

How did you team up with the Love & Fidelity Network? Has a lot of good come from it?

Cassy Hough contacted us when she was starting the LFN, and we’ve had a great partnership since then.  It’s a boon to have support from a full time non-profit when you are a full time student.  The conferences we’ve attended have been especially good for boosting morale, meeting other students, and teaching us more about chastity and marriage.

Can you give any advice to students in high school or college who may want to start their own groups?

Get in touch with the LFN network (college) or the Pure Love Club (high school) and get some info!  All you need is yourself and a small circle of committed friends, and you can make a big difference on your campus.  It takes a lot of courage to stand up for what’s right, but people will take notice when you do.

—-

Thanks alot, Leo!

So what do you guys think about what he said? There’s alot going on here. Do you have any ideas on how to perfect that Hersey Kiss idea? Or tips on how to deal with hecklers? Personally, I’d like to spend more time dissecting the “Don’t tell other people how to live” argument because it’s the life-blood of our entire culture, and it honestly makes no sense at all.

True Love Revolution Website

TLR blog

TLR’s Valentine’s Chastity Ad

We are in a fight. But who are we fighting? With a website called BattleforLove it’s waaay too easy to  start splitting people into groups of “us” and “them”. We can’t do that. Peter Kreeft really gets into who is our enemy and who isn’t.  I would almost label this talk as a prerequisite for any Christian. We’d all be better off if we heeded his words. Here’s a quick sample:

So who are our enemies?  Many of us think our enemies are the liberals, but for one thing, that term is almost meaninglessly flexible, and for another, it’s a political term not a religious one.  Whatever is good or bad about any of the forms of political liberalism, it is neither the cause nor the cure of the spiritual cancer that makes this culture war a spiritual one—a matter of life or death.  Eternal life or death, not economic or political life or death.  Whether Jack and Jill go up the hill to heaven or down the hill to hell will not be decided by whether government welfare checks increase or decrease.

Our enemies are not even the anti-Christian bigots who want to kill us, whether they are Chinese communist totalitarians who imprison and persecute Christians or Sudanese Muslim terrorists who enslave and murder Christians.  They are not our enemies; they are our patients.  They are the ones we are trying to save.  We are Christ’s nurses.  Some of the patients think the nurses are their enemies, but the nurses must know better.  Our word for them is, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Peter Kreeft

“How to Win the Culture War”

There’s alot of good in this talk. He has this great way of delivering such strikingly insightful remarks in such a gentle way. It’s the kind of talk that shakes me to my core, but inspires me to be better. Give it a listen, and once you do share your thoughts in the comments.

Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and at the King’s College (Empire State Building), in New York City. He is a regular contributor to several Christian publications, is in wide demand as a speaker at conferences, and is the author of over 55 books. He has a number of talks available on his website ranging from relativism to C.S. Lewis. His “How to Win the Culture War” talk is my favorite, and I think there’s alot all Christians can learn from it, especially when working to spread the message of purity and chastity.

It takes courage to stand up for love instead of lust – to risk losing your friends – to risk becoming an outcast and ridiculed. While I wish it wasn’t the case, this stuff is going to happen. No one likes being told that promiscuity is dangerous and destructive (especially all of the businesses making money from it.)

But don’t give up! Here are some awesome words of inspiration from the great Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton:

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. The paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to live, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.”

- G.K. Chesterton

“We must oppose the pornographising of culture. Why aren’t we as worried about creating an environment destructive of the physical and mental health of girls as we are about greenhouse gasses? … What we are witnessing is not liberation but oppression. It is not liberating for young women to be told everyday that their only power is in their sexual currency. It is not liberating to convey to women that their freedom lies in participating in their own exploitation.”

-Melinda Tankard Reist “We haven’t come a long way baby”

If we are going to fight, we have to know exactly what we are fighting for. Melinda Tankard Reist is a director of Women’s Forum Australia and editor of Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls. Her article “We haven’t come a long way baby” goes into great detail of what happens to girls and women when faced with our sexually objective culture (be warned: it does get explicit).

Just to be clear. This isn’t about man-bashing. I put the emphasis on men because as men we are in a crucial position to stop this nonsense. Just about all of the exploitation of women is done to the “benefit” of men. So, as men, we can stand up and say “No”. This is our fight!

When you are done reading be sure to come back and share your thoughts in the comment section!