by Sally Imoto-Hollywood, CA
Mrs. Lehong Brown, accompanied by her husband David and three young children, was among Long Beach residents who took to the streets of Hollywood recently with placards and balloons to urge young people to save sex for marriage and to promote true love as a way of life.
Called "The Pure and Proud Rally for Pure Love," the event brought several hundred demonstrators out into the balmy Sunday afternoon sun on Hollywood Boulevard. Speakers called Hollywood's movie and TV industries "the source of immoral and toxic information which glorifies violence, infidelity, broken families, sexual abuse and perverse relationships."
"Is this what it means to live in a sexually liberated society?" asked speaker Jin Hun Moon, who invited participants and observers to sign the Pure Love Pledge.
The pledge reads, in part: "The pure relationship of love between a man and woman is a gift from God to be cherished and honored for the sake of building a true family, a healthy society, and a world of peace for future generations. Once that love is consummated, it should never be broken."
"I thought it was really refreshing," Brown said. "I could really feel the purity in the young people who participated and I was very much inspired!"
Marchers, who included an assortment of teenagers, college students, and families with babies in backpacks and strollers, chanted, "Keep it pure, keep it sure," and carried signs reading: "Save sex, not safe sex," "Pure is the cure," "Love is long, lust is wrong," and "Break- ups boom in Hollywood."
Marchers stopped opposite the busy Mann Chinese Theater and sang, listened to speeches, cheered, and generally had a good time while putting forth their message.
Gary Jones-Locke, a rally organizer, said, "Hollywood has sold our young people down the drain. We wanted to get in its face and tell them that we won't accept any more portrayals of immorality as the norm and of infidelity as acceptable."
Jones-Locke said that 300 participants and observers signed the Pure Love Pledge "to refrain from all sexual relationships before marriage, to respect and honor the ideal of purity in myself and others, to learn how to practice pure love as a child, friend, spouse and parent, to dedicate myself to absolute fidelity within marriage, and to encourage others to do the same."
He agreed with Jin Hun Nim that this new vision of pure love is what Generation X has been looking for in order to reclaim their identity and value.
Jin Hun Nim said that pure love does not simply mean abstinence, but that "a pure love lifestyle is much more vibrant, exciting and dynamic than we have ever experienced before." He added, "We need to understand that there is a deeper kind of happiness that goes far beyond pleasure and need gratification."
He said, "Pure love teaches us how to love and live for the sake of others" and "how to respect and appreciate the uniqueness of every human being, as well as all races, cultures and nationalities."
Jin Hun Nim said, "If we live this kind of lifestyle, we can eliminate the gravest problems of humanity"-AIDS and STDs, "the menace of rape, sexual assault, incest, sexual abuse, and other crimes of violence against women and children." The streets would then be safe again, and "divorce would cease to destroy lives...instead, moral and stable families will be restored.
"As pure love and true families become the norm rather than the exception, the transformation of humanity will be well under way," he promised.
Jin Hun said that the world's major religions teach about a Supreme Being who is said to be eternal, absolute, unchanging and unconditional. "These are the same qualities as pure love. Perhaps it is because we lost God in our families that we lost purity and the experience of true love in our families," he said. Perhaps "once we bring God back into our relationships, pure love will reappear and we can create lasting love in our marriages and families."
He said such families will then bring about the transformation of humanity and are the only possible foundation for lasting world peace.