Band of Brothers

Lord, give us pure minds to know you, pure hearts to love you,  and pure hands to do your will.  Amen.

Every girl dreams of find­ing “the one,” “Mr. Right,” that spe­cial guy who looks into her eyes and makes her heart flutter… Every guy searches for that one girl who makes him feel like he’s king of the world. It turns out, no mat­ter how famous or rich you get, that doesn’t change; at least so say the teen pop sen­sa­tions, the Jonas Broth­ers. But these guys aren’t dat­ing in typ­i­cal Hol­ly­wood fashion.

Break­ing Big

Even if you don’t like their music, there is no deny­ing their suc­cess. Though their ages are only 16, 19, and 21, these three New Jer­sey broth­ers have already ful­filled a lifetime’s worth of dreams. They’ve sold mil­lions of CD’s and mp3 down­loads, starred in movies, and played to packed are­nas world­wide. Their pic­tures and posters line the lock­ers of tens of thou­sands of girls, and their fans are so into them it’s almost creepy. So whether or not their lat­est songs are on your playlist, they must be doing some­thing right to be so successful.

Nick, the youngest in the band, was in a Broad­way show at a very young age. By 12, he was approached by Colum­bia Records and offered a deal to make Chris­t­ian music. On some of the record­ings, Nick’s two older broth­ers, Kevin and Joe, joined him. The record com­pany loved the sound so much, they decided to mar­ket them as “the Jonas Broth­ers”. Their first album of Chris­t­ian music didn’t sell well with Colum­bia Records. But because of both their raw tal­ent and their whole­some fam­ily appeal, Dis­ney and Hol­ly­wood Records picked them up imme­di­ately. Their sec­ond CD was almost sold out before it was released.

BB Good in Hollywood

Though they are not mak­ing reli­gious music any­more, the same Chris­t­ian val­ues their par­ents raised them with still influ­ence their music, lyrics, videos, and, most impor­tantly, their lives. Nick told Fox Extra, “We believe that we are Chris­tians in a pop-​​rock band. That’s just the way we do it. Our faith is really impor­tant to us and it’s a big thing in every­thing we do.”

Kevin tells Cross Rhymes, “With our music we’re try­ing to be suc­cess­ful. Our whole thing is to play main­stream music but to be a light in a dark world and to tell peo­ple that we are Chris­tians when they ask, ‘What’s so dif­fer­ent about you?’ We’re like, ‘Well, we’re Chris­tians and we love the Lord.’ That’s our oppor­tu­nity to wit­ness to peo­ple. We just feel like this is where we belong - ‘This is who we are and let’s just go for it!’”

Love­bug

In spite of their fast-​​paced, star-​​studded careers, Nick, Joe, and Kevin seem to be look­ing for the same things that most teens are. “Like all peo­ple our age we are try­ing to find some­one spe­cial that we can share time with in our busy lives,” they recently wrote on their MySpace. They admit it is hard to have rela­tion­ships when they live life the way they do. Many times they find them­selves on dif­fer­ent con­ti­nents than their friends. This makes it hard to take a girl they like to the mall, the movies, or a school dance.

The Girl

So what kind of girl does a inter­na­tional, teenage, mil­lion­aire, heart-​​throb date? Well, the list of girls linked to the Jonas Broth­ers includes famous star­lets such as Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Camilla Belle, and Tay­lor Swift. But you will find a com­mon trait among many of the girls that are seen hang­ing out with Nick, Joe, and Kevin: most of them have stated pub­licly that they are sav­ing sex for marriage.

Why should this be impor­tant to these three TV, movie, and rock stars? Although they are rich, famous, and can date nearly any­one they would want, the boys have decided that chastity is the most impor­tant value to them; both per­son­ally and in dat­ing relationships.

The Rings

Not too long ago, in an inter­view on the Dis­ney Chan­nel, the Jonas Broth­ers told the world that they wear “purity rings” (also called “promise rings”) to sym­bol­ize their com­mit­ment to liv­ing a chaste life until they are married.

Push­ing Them Away

Almost imme­di­ately, the press began to make a huge stink about the rings. Some news reporters tried to dis­credit them. Oth­ers brought on experts say­ing that it is not pos­si­ble to be a men­tally healthy teen while mak­ing a promise like this to abstain from sex until mar­riage. Some peo­ple accused the boys of using this as a pub­lic­ity stunt. It seems that the news media and gos­sip colum­nists can’t believe that three famous, wealthy, good-​​looking guys could pos­si­bly sur­vive Hol­ly­wood careers while hold­ing on to their virginity.

Hold­ing On

But the boys defend their posi­tion. They do their best to keep their pri­vate lives pri­vate. They try to keep their rela­tion­ships with young women on a friendly level. This is a very mature atti­tude, because it shows they real­ize that at their age, and with their busy sched­ules, it doesn’t make sense to let a rela­tion­ship get too seri­ous. Nick explained the rings in an inter­view with Rolling Stone Mag­a­zine, “To us the [purity] rings are a con­stant reminder to live a life of val­ues. It’s about being a gen­tle­man, treat­ing peo­ple with respect and being the best guys we can be.”

That’s Just the Way We Roll

Chastity and purity rings all of a sud­den became very pop­u­lar. From that point on, most of the press for the band con­sis­tently included dis­cus­sions about the rings. A very famous jour­nal­ist named Bar­bara Wal­ters wanted to inter­view the boys. Wal­ters did her best to get the boys to slip up or back down about their purity rings, but they would not break. There was one other thing that was very evi­dent in their inter­view with Ms. Wal­ters: these broth­ers stick together.

Band of Brothers

This is the secret to their suc­cess both musi­cally, and morally. They rely on each other, pro­tect each other, and find strength in know­ing that they’re liv­ing chaste lives together. When one of them was offered a part in the movie Camp Rock, their father insisted that all three be included. Their father knows that if they stay together, they can sur­vive the crazy rat-​​race that usu­ally ruins teen stars.

Strength in family

Another source of strength these guys have is their par­ents. Dad and Mom are their best friends. And they not only give them advice, but they also know the ropes of per­form­ing in a band and going on tour. Their par­ents were per­form­ing Chris­t­ian artists for many years. Dad is actu­ally their man­ager and vocal coach. “There’s times when he’s Dad and times when he a man­ager,” explains Joe. “He’s a ‘dadager’… He’s awe­some. We love our dad.” But what the broth­ers espe­cially admire about their par­ents are their val­ues. Their par­ents have ded­i­cated their lives to stand­ing up for Jesus and for Chris­t­ian val­ues (Dad is a Chris­t­ian pas­tor and Mom is his #1 helper). They have also shown the boys that, in spite of the fact that they are not per­fect, they can walk the talk, and help their sons walk it too.

“Our fam­ily is really close,” said Joe. “We kind of built our whole foun­da­tion on mak­ing sure that our fam­ily is really strong. They’ve always been there for us… That’s why we decided to go (on tour) with our own fam­ily bus.” Hang­ing out with Mom and Dad may not seem very cool to many teenagers and pop stars, but the Jonas Broth­ers have shown that fam­ily can give us strength to live up to our val­ues, even when the attrac­tion of easy, loose rela­tion­ships seems so powerful.

Keep­ing All the Promises

The Jonas Broth­ers have shown us that the best way to keep a com­mit­ment to God and to their future spouses is to sur­round our­selves with broth­ers (and sis­ters) who share the same val­ues and who are striv­ing to live a life of faith in God. They acknowl­edge that despite all their wealth, fame, and good looks, the best gift they can give their future spouses is the com­plete gift of themselves.

Giv­ing Hope

Nick, Joe, and Kevin also real­ize they have a respon­si­bil­ity, even in the midst of so much suc­cess. They can give hope to oth­ers. If they can live a life of purity and chastity amidst the glitz and glam of Hol­ly­wood and rock-​​stardom, they give hope to teenagers every­where. Girls deserve to know they are worth wait­ing for. There’s no deny­ing that this is a big part of the suc­cess of these brothers.

Attrac­tion

Why are boys so attracted to girls? And why are girls so attracted to boys? Because we are made in the image of God. And God is love. God is rela­tional. God, within his very being, lives in a rela­tion­ship of love (He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.), and God lives in a rela­tion­ship of love with his crea­tures. So, like him, God made us to love. We are made to love him, and we are made to love others.

Spe­cial Love

One of the most spe­cial ways to love like God is the love between a man and a woman. In mar­ried love, spouses ded­i­cate their lives totally and exclu­sively to each other. In mar­ried love, a boy and a girl are called to be the liv­ing expres­sion of God’s love for the other person.

Built on Friend­ship and Respect

But this type of love does not just hap­pen by a phys­i­cal rela­tion­ship. It is built on friend­ship. It is sus­tained by respect, kind­ness, and patience. It only truly works when there is total com­mit­ment, after a sus­tained period of get­ting to know each other and respect each other. When we put the phys­i­cal rela­tion­ship before there is a solid friend­ship and respect, and before there is a total com­mit­ment, we find that love does not last. It sim­ply ends in bro­ken hearts.

Some­thing We Can Learn

So, guys, show ten­der­ness to the girls, but show respect. Show each girl you really can wait. You may find that it’s not just the Jonas Broth­ers that the girls are swoon­ing about (although they might not admit it … until they really trust you.) And girls, con­tinue to believe in that spe­cial some­one. There are good guys out there, guys worth wait­ing for. Hold on, and God will bless your love.