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August 13, 2007
Opponents of
abstinence education have spent the past ten years denouncing these
important health education programs. Their attacks are relentless.
Opponents are
not content with allowing abstinence programs to serve students,
schools and families that want this education. They are not content
to let abstinence education exist as an alternative to other programs
promoting use of birth control as a “saferrrrr sex” message for
minors.
Opponents want
to kill abstinence education. Completely. They work tirelessly to
strip every penny of funding support for abstinence programs that
encourage and support students who make a personal commitment to
remain sexually abstinent.
One has to
wonder what the real problem with abstinence education is. Why is it
so terrible to teach our youth the importance of remaining sexually
abstinent?
Opponents would
have us believe that medically accurate information supports
encouraging teens to engage in “saferrrrr sex.” It doesn’t.
Opponents would have us believe that abstinence education doesn’t
work. It does.
These two
battles are actually smoke screens. Diversions. They hide what we
are not supposed to see. What opponents of abstinence education would
like to bury in the sand is their real reason for opposing sexual
abstinence education for teens.
Abstinence
education is about revealing truths its opponents would rather
ignore. Abstinence education does not suggest that outercourse,
petting, or naked showers together are several of many healthy and
satisfying options to abstinence that teens can choose from when they
“are ready.”
Abstinence
education shines a light on the problems inherent in promoting sex as
entertainment without rules, seeking gratification for one’s own
pleasure without concern for those we impact as a result. Abstinence
educators are not afraid of acknowledging the life in the womb created
by the union of egg and sperm.
It restores a
line in the sand. It dares to stand up for true medical accuracy. It
is supported by a growing body of research about the foundational
needs of humans. It embraces the impact of sex on the welfare of a
human being in holistic terms, not only just physically, but
emotionally, socially, financially and spiritually.
Studies confirm
what abstinence teachers around the country see in their classes.
These truths resonate with young people who have not been corrupted by
years of liberal dogma. They know when their hearts are broken and
when they have been exploited by someone who professed “love” only to
get the sex they were after.
Teens want love,
honor, fidelity. They look to adults, the role models who are in
charge of demonstrating higher goals, only to find these “role models”
either wallowing in the mud…or more often…confused about the role of
sex in their own lives.
American media,
entertainment and marketing industries have capitalized on this
confusion, exploiting the natural human tendency to want to satisfy
our appetites while ignoring the consequences. We buy their products,
and cultural “rules of engagement” allow them to market this message
to children just entering kindergarten:
-
Supreme Court
justices in 2004, preserved the right of pornographers to use the
Internet unrestrained in their promotion of material harmful to
children.
-
Girls of the
Playboy Mansion,
a television
“reality” show, builds destructive fantasies of three
twenty-something girls sharing the bed with an 81-year-old leering
millionaire.
-
Abercrombie
and Fitch glamorize teen group sex in wall-size murals greeting our
youth and their younger siblings as they enter the store at the
mall.
-
College health
centers serve as a pass-through to local abortion agencies with
little or no mention of adoption.
-
Leaders in the
most visible health crisis of the century, when challenged by a
physician at an HIV conference, refuse to set sexual abstinence as
the expected standard for children at any age.
-
Hollywood
adultery is considered a harmless transitional stage between
marriages, and this has been adopted by mainstream politicians
hoping to lead our country as President.
-
Magazines like
Redbook and Seventeen that used to offer wholesome
articles now sell promiscuity and risky sex behaviors on every page.
For nearly forty
years, we have been “educated” that the problems encountered with sex
can be cured by buying a pack of pills and a “medical procedure.”
This education is only possible if we are willing to ignore
medically-accurate truths. This is the very education that opponents
of abstinence hope to force on every child in America.
People who
oppose abstinence education oppose it for one simple reason. They
don’t want their culture to be challenged and reined in by limits to
sexual behavior…of any kind …at any age. And that’s no good reason at
all.
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Perspectives
column by Marcia Segelstein
re Redbook
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/08/perspectives_readers_beware.php
See Archives
for past editorials.
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