Miss America Goofs with Abstinence Line?

Some days you can't get it right, even when you're Miss America.

With the world in a stew over terrorism and such, one would think that — end times and everything — the populace would go easy on a female wanting to push sexual purity.

But NOT.

Erika Harold insisted on pushing no-sex-before-marriage. Conservatives applauded her. But pageant officials initially clapped "Nix."

They contended that the beauty was contracted to speak against violence. Well, did Ms. Am slip over the line just a wee bit when advocating conformity to God's code, which, after all, is anti-violence in championing the protection of deity's sex gift till marital vows?

George Bauer, Miss America Pageant chief executive, told reporters that he wanted her to keep to her original promise — anti-violence in the narrowest definition of the term.

Two days of talks with pageant heads last month topped Harold winning out, that is, persuading the higher echelon to permit her to speak about abstinence in addition to youth violence.

Now doesn't it seem that that twosome might just make a lot of sense?

"In an age where beauty queens are regularly disqualified for inappropriatebehavior, who would have thought a virtuous one would be silenced for her virtue?" said Sandy Rios, Concerned Women for America President.

Ms. Harold, 22, hailing from Urbana, Illinois, was a featured abstinence speaker long before she placed the Miss Illinois crown on her head. So, having proven her worth, why not let the gorgeous role model continue with her handsome line?