Physician touts her virginity to promote purity, abstinence

Dr. Lindsay Marsh, 30, is beautiful, well-educated successful ... and a virgin.

The anesthesiologist and ordained minister from Upper Marlboro, Md., is the founder of I Am Worth the Wait, an organization that promotes sexual purity and abstinence.

Marsh will give a presentation, "The Next Step," at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Hartford Middle School at 1824 Third St. SE in Canton. The event is sponsored by LIFE Ministries International Church, and the Stark Community Foundation.

Author of the book, "The Best Sex of My Life," Marsh said she made the decision to remain a virgin until marriage at an early age.

"I was like your normal 16-year-old," she recalled. "I had my first boyfriend and I was in love, but my parents raised me to believe that virginity was a special and important gift. It carried over into my relationship."

But Marsh admits the relationship became physical, by other means.

THE BODY AS TEMPLE

"I got caught up in vicious cycle," she said. "I found myself doing things I never intended to do. The young man who was my boyfriend, left to find his satisfaction elsewhere. At 16, that was a difficult concept for me to grasp. That propelled me into a place, and I took a step back. Out of nowhere, I decided to sit down and develop a relationship with God."

At 17, Marsh said she embraced the biblical concept of the body as a "temple," that "I really deserved to wait for a person who will deserve and earn me."

Marsh said today's young adults are deluged with messages to the contrary, and too many, she added, get their information from TV, the barbershop, locker rooms, or the cafeteria.

MEDIA INFLUENCE

"A lot of (music) videos could qualify as soft pornography," she said. "Quite honestly, the media is probably the most powerful influence that young people have right now, in some instances more than parents. Some parents are ignoring the subject. Meanwhile, Kanye West, and Beyonce and Jay-Z don't have any problem at all, talking about it."

Marsh pointed to R&B singer Usher's new song "(I Wanna Make) Love in The Club."

"It's going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy," she said. "People play out what they see. That's just the truth of the matter ... people don't have a defense because they're not being taught."

Marsh said black families often don't teach abstinence because it's seen as a "Republican or "Bush" policy.

"Also, we associate a person who is abstinent, as lonely, sad, unpopular and rejected, " she said. "You can be attractive, popular and successful. I want to have the same influence that Kanye West or Alicia Keys has on mainstream culture, but for sexual purity."

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