Mike Havens has helped put on the Boys Bash for seventh- and eighth-grade boys before. He is realistic about the various motives for the boys’ attendance at the program, designed to promote sexual abstinence before marriage.

“They listen politely,” said Havens, youth minister at Boulevard Christian Church. “Some really take it to heart and listen. Some are here for the free prizes and to get out of school. But, we’re at least giving them another view than the world’s, which says we’re like animals and do whatever you want.”

Havens, Steve Moss, associate pastor for family ministry at Boulevard, and Jason Snyder, youth minister at Timothy Baptist Church, were the presenters at the Boys Bash Thursday morning at Fort Gibson High School.

Moss said this is the 10th year the event has been held. Students from all over the area attended.

Moss, the main speaker, used a combination of straight, sometimes blunt, talk and videos produced by Bluefish TV, to drive home his message.

“My challenge to you is that you’ll decide to remain sexually pure until you put a ring on your finger and commit yourself to a woman for life,” Moss said.

Havens thinks having Christian clergy speak on sexual ethics at a public school is perfectly constitutional.

“We don’t talk about God,” Havens said. “It’s more from a moral perspective. If somebody comes in and talks about gang violence to discourage it, that’s good, right? But it’s religious and moral to be peaceful.”

Havens said he and the other speakers want the boys to understand that premarital sex has consequences.

“It’s more than just STDs and pregnancy,” he said. “There are emotional and relational consequences as well.”

 Melissa Owens, the mother of a seventh-grader from Wainwright, was in the audience. She appreciated the speakers’ message, but wondered if it was incomplete.

“They talked about waiting till you’re married,” Owens said. “Just because you’re married doesn’t mean you’re ready to have children. They need to emphasize the responsibilities that come with having kids.”

Greg Phares, principal at Fort Gibson Middle School, said a similar program, Ladies Tea, is offered for eighth-grade girls in the spring.

“The message there is, ‘Girls, you’re like fine china. You’re not a paper plate to be used and thrown away,” Phares said.

Reach Kirk Kramer at 684-2901 or kkramer @muskogeephoenix.com.