Here are excerpts from the article entitled, "California school district sued over abstinence-only sex ed" written by Sevil Omer from NBC News:
"Two California moms are suing a Central Valley school district over its abstinence-only sex education, saying the policy puts students' health at risk by failing to give teens information about condoms and contraception and about how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. The civil lawsuit against the Clovis Unified School District was filed … by two parents, the California District of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network.…. According to the lawsuit, the school district teaches students that all people, even adults, should avoid sexual activity until they are married."
Are you scratching your head over this? Since when does a parent so thoroughly abdicate his or her responsibility to teach their children about sexuality that they decide a school "ought" to be the main source of that education and that the school "ought" to teach it only from the perspective of that parent?
Schools should not be the primary place our children go to learn about handling their bodies responsibly. That is a parent's job. Schools should provide children with lessons in subjects like biology (which includes reproduction) and anatomy, but telling children about birth control but not self control (part of the fruit of the Spirit, by the way) is out of line.
The birth control movement has been in full swing since around the 1960s, and I’m sure it has had some impact. But, in case anyone hasn't noticed, not only have STDs continued to thrive in spite of birth control, the types of diseases have grown exponentially worse with each generation. Abstinence is the only thing that is 100% effective, but we refuse to consider it a valid option. Research dollars are gladly spent on behavior modification to get people to use condoms, but not to modify behaviors to help young people respect their bodies and delay sexual activity.
Abstinence education has never been given the same level of comprehensive support that has been given to birth control education. Perhaps it’s because parents and communities expect our young people to fail in the area of self-control and then set them up for failure in the name of "keeping it real." We allow them to saturate their minds with sexually-charged music, dress and dance provocatively, view sexually explicit movies and do countless other things that groom and doom them for early sex.
It's about time someone gave abstinence education a real concerted effort, and I heartily commend the officials in that California school district for taking such a bold stance. Sure, it wouldn't hurt to mention birth control in an abstinence-focused sex ed class, as long as the grim consequences that go along with the failure of the birth control movement are not glossed over or minimized. Our kids deserve to see the societal and spiritual failures of that movement, not just the false hopes that society wants them to hang onto.
Instead of giving in to societal peer pressure or operating out of the guilt of our own failures, we should expect and prepare our children to be better and stronger than we were. Our children deserve the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Because we were created in the image of God, that truth is:
• We know that sex is a gift from God and that He has provided a safe place for us to fully enjoy it--a God-centered marriage where both partners remain faithful to God and each other;
• We are not wild animals that are unable to control our sexual urges;
• Saving sex until marriage is a valid option when we remember not to lean on our own understanding and sincerely submit to God, boldly asking Him to steer us away from or out of temptation;
• God will always honor self-control, but can always override birth control, especially if we put more faith into it than into Him.
Let’s not allow our personal guilt or societal pressure prevent us from talking to our children about sex from God's perspective or from fully encouraging them to honor God with their bodies. Society can do or claim whatever it wants. But, we who bear the name of Christ will be held accountable for leading our young ones astray, so let's stop projecting the moral failures of our generation onto them. Plus, our children don't really need us to teach them about condoms and the other forms of birth control because there are more than enough ads on television, buses, billboards, songs, music videos, movies and private discussions with their peers to tell them all they need to know, which really isn't much when it comes to birth control.
We don't need to waste time telling them what they already know, or spend time validating secular perspectives on something as sacred as sex. What they really need to know is how to avoid tempting situations up front and how to get out of them if they are about to fall--because they don’t need our help to fall, they need our help to stand.
What our kids need to know is that the strong urges they feel are a normal part of hormonal development, and that despite it being called a “sex drive” their hormones are not in the driver’s seat-- their minds, hearts and spirits are. Our kids need to know that they won't die from remaining a virgin-- but they can die from premarital sex. What they need to know is how beautiful, rich and satisfying God designed sex to be, not an act filled with shame, guilt, fear and regret. They need to know that sex is designed to be life-giving, not a death sentence.
I don't care how many times society tries to flip the truth upside down, repackage it and tell me that I'm not seeing what I'm seeing or that I don't know what I know. I know the truth when I see it, and I know a lie when I see one. I refuse to exchange the truth of God for a lie because a lie will only carry me as far as my imagination will allow it to. But God, who IS truth, can do exceedingly abundantly above all I can think or imagine, and truth always wins in the end.
BNcouraged!
Rev. Karen
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