The Jonas Brothers are hot. Well, that’s what my daughters tell me.

For those of you who don’t know, the Jonas Brothers are a trio of siblings in their teens and early 20s famous for their music and acting. They have also garnered attention for a quality generally unknown among pop and rock stars - a commitment to abstinence prior to marriage.

And that doesn’t seem to sit well with some.

A few months ago at the MTV Video Music Awards, the night’s host, British comedian Russell Brand (a guy who is about as opposite of the Jonas brothers as you can get) took shots at the young men for their clean image, including the purity rings they wear as a symbol of their decision to wait until marriage before they have sex. “I’m beginning to wonder if the Jonas Brothers are quite what they seem,” he declared, and then went on to pretend to have gotten a ring from one of the boys after convincing him to have sex. “Over the course of the evening, I want a collection of these b——y things,” he said.

Later in the program, he gave a half-hearted apology after another artist (Jordan Sparks of American Idol fame) told the audience, “It’s not bad to wear a promise ring because not everybody, guy or girl, wants to be a slut.” Still, Brand couldn’t help adding at the end of his “apology” that “It’s just, a bit of sex occasionally never hurt anybody.”

It’s no big surprise that a crude comedian would mock sexual abstinence on MTV. It happens all the time. For all the talk about being “true to yourself” and making your own decisions, teens who choose sexual abstinence sure get a lot of grief. And they are underestimated too. Not just by the entertainment crowd, but by the medical community and mainstream press.

Recently, press reports trumpeted a new study published in the journal Pediatrics that discovered that young people who pledged to stay sexually abstinent did not differ in their sexual behavior from those who had not made that commitment. The message from the news reports was that a declaration of sexual abstinence is worthless because it doesn’t change behavior.

The problem was that reporter after reporter completely missed the findings of the study, like CBS News whose headline declared, “Virginity Pledges Don’t Stop Teen Sex.” In reality, the research only focused on a narrow group of teenagers - those who had strong religious backgrounds. It found that teens who had pledged abstinence behaved about the same as non-pledging teens who were equally as conservative and religious.

William McGurn, writing in the Wall Street Journal pointed out, “The real headline from this study is this: “Religious Teens Differ Little in Sexual Behavior Whether or Not They Take a Pledge.” In fact, the study’s author, Janet Rosenbaum, found that all of these teenagers delayed sexual activity an average of about three years longer when compared to the national average of all teenagers.

McGurn goes on to accurately point out that it isn’t so much the pledge of abstinence, but the values imparted by the families where these kids are raised that make the difference in their decision to delay sex.

He also points out that this study found several differences between kids raised in more religious homes and those who are not. For example, they generally engage in less risky sex, are less likely to have friends who are pregnant or use drugs, and have less premarital vaginal sex. Most overlooked, he says, is the fact that a quarter of the young people who do make the pledge to remain abstinent keep it.

There’s something else worth noting. All kids, including those who make this commitment, are going to struggle and be tempted. The mere fact that a young person breaks their pledge does not mean that they have rejected the idea of abstinence as the ideal behavior. They may have been caught up in a moment and chosen to act against their convictions. That doesn’t change their beliefs, or the possibility that they redouble their efforts to their commitment.

All of this reminds us of a simple truth - family matters. Today’s teenagers need the safety and direction of a stable home to help guide them through the challenges and pressures they inevitably face in our culture. They need an involved parents or respected adult to counter the “do whatever you want” message they constantly hear.

It’s hard to say what the Jonas Brothers will be like 10 years from now. For their sake, and the sake of their scores of young fans, I hope they keep their commitment to abstinence until marriage. Their strong public stand and their family upbringing are sure to help.

And it’s important to remember that kids who do wait until marriage to have sex reap many benefits from doing so. Avoiding unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, abortion, emotional distress, and the other consequences of premarital sex will set them up for a more prosperous academic and family life.

We ought to reject the cynicism of those who would reduce any of us to nothing more than a bundle of uncontrollable impulses. We’re more than that. And the fact that so many teens actually do abstain from sex until marriage - while undoubtedly faced with great temptation - is proof.