States refraining from abstinence-only education

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Riley259 said:
Some states won’t even accept money for abstinence education because they don’t think it’s practical…obviously, Planned Parenthood has made alot of inroads in education. This article is disturbing in that it shows how the culture of death has pervaded our education system.

boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/09/states_refraining_from_abstinence_only_sex_education/
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20% of the country is meant to be catholic, and yet gov’t money goes to oppose our religion - but again many of these catholics don’t accept the Church’s teaching. 😦

Catholig
 
Ug. Yet how many schools pour money in technology in the classroom, despite research showing that it’s making no difference in math and science? (see: cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/04/05/education.technology.ap/index.html )

I wonder if anyone will bother tracking the teen pregnancy, STD, and abortion rates in the states mentioned in the article.

The article states:
In an Oct. 3 report that surveyed abstinence programs in 10 states, the Government Accountability Office concluded that such programs have not proven to work, and at times teach children medically inaccurate about condoms and AIDS.

But I’m totally sure that the Planned Parenthood/birth control manufacturers are going to teach our kids TOTALLY medically accurate information. :eek:
 
Amen, Cari ! - Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Montana, New Jersey, and Wisconsin are the states the article says are turning down the federal money offered to them to teach abstinence.

(I’ll probably regret this but I can’t seem to resist asking: is there maybe some pattern regarding party affiliation of these governors?)

Ok nevermind that - the article says:
To critics, the policy shift addresses growing concerns that sexually active youths are not getting access to medically accurate information about the use of contraceptives and disease prevention.
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In an Oct. 3 report that surveyed abstinence programs in 10 states, the Government Accountability Office concluded that such programs have not proven to work, and at times teach children medically inaccurate about [sic] condoms and AIDS.
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“medically accurate information” seems to be a favorite phrase these days for pro-contraception sex-ed proponents. But I have to wonder if these same whiners are careful to teach the “medically accurate” truth about contraceptives. I don’t mean the emotional/psychological truths they can’t seem to grasp, but do they even teach the objective truths that everybody in their line of work should know, such as the failure rate of the various contraceptive methods?
guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3105699.html
So for example from the above link, if in real-world usage the pill results in 7 out of 100 sexually-active women becoming pregnant within a year, is that what high-school girls are told? And are they told that the failure rate is even a little bit higher for women under the age of 20? And that abstinence does not require parental permission, costs no money, is hormone-free, and that there are definite methods to make it easier, such as avoiding pornography (for boys) and avoiding situations where you are secluded and alone with your date (for girls)?

I doubt it. If abstinence education is not working, they need better teachers of it, not to just junk the best protection kids have. The governors of these states have made a major blunder and we should write them letters pointing this out to them, charitably but very clearly.

Here is what my state did with (what I presume was at least partially funded by) federal abstinence funds:
nosexnoproblems.com/
I was very pleasantly surprised and I think this is money well spent. They even have ads for the website displayed inside Seattle Metro buses where teenagers can see them while riding the bus. (although there are also ads there for abortion clinics who will provide “pregnancy termination to 19 weeks” :mad: Today I was on a bus that had both ads on the same wall of the bus, with an unrelated ad in between. Lord have mercy! )
 
How sad. 😦 Now they can learn about evil contraception and such! :mad:
 
It seems to me the problem with the abstinence-only education being used in the U.S. is that it only focuses on that one salient instance of abstinence. What should be taught is chastity education. I remember my psych prof going on about why the abstinence-only approach wasn’t working and blah blah blah ABC… but at least he mentioned what was happening: the kids were engaging in other (well, disordered) kinds of sexual acts.

Obviously, the kids thought they could “get away” with these. If chastity is emphasized, and chastity does include abstinence proper plus more, it seems to me the logic of it would not allow those acts to be seen as acts that ppl could “get away” with. And what urban-hermit said about avoidance strategies would also obviously be covered as they are part of what being chaste is about, while they probably are not talked about in the current programs. 🤷 You know, at the very least it would give them a more comprehensive approach, closer to the Church’s approach (not that most people will want to hear that last part, but anyway).
 
Catholig said:
20% of the country is meant to be catholic, and yet gov’t money goes to oppose our religion - but again many of these catholics don’t accept the Church’s teaching. 😦

Catholig
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When you combine catholics with evanglical and other christian denominations, well over half the country claims faith in biblical teachings, yet schools still indoctrinate our children otherwise.

Fact: Abstinence is the best way to avoid disease and pregnancy. That statement isn’t a religious principle, or even a moral principle, it is a physiological, medical, and provable fact–yet because it is supported by christians, which supposedly includes a majority of the population, they refrain from it. ABSURD!

God bless.
 
I guess this issue may be revisited after antibiotic resistant STDs become more common. Things might just have to get worse before they get better. Fight it at the school board level for sure. Teach your children. I guess what can you expect when parents don’t want to teach the subject, and are happy to pass it on to the school, there will always be a desire to teach it at the lowest common denominator. Once things get even more out of control, there might be pull back with lots of momentum.
 
The problem is this: strength to remain chaste comes from God, not education.

My husband and I started dating when we were 15 and dated for six years before we married. We were virgins when we married.

Were we ever tempted? OH YES! We were normal, hormonal teenagers.

So what kept us chaste? Fears of pregnancy, STDs, peers, parental disapproval, financial ruin, derailment of our college and career plans, psychological problems that would ruin our future marriage?

None of the above. What kept us chaste was FEAR OF GOD!

We knew that fornication (sex outside of marriage) was a SIN. We knew that even if no one ever found out, GOD knew. And even though as Protestants we knew that we were forgiven anyway, somehow we knew that we couldn’t just sin deliberately and expect the Lord to simply forgive us and not hold us accountable. (Even back then, we were apparently Catholic in our thinking!).

We also knew that God made “rules” not to make us miserable, but to make us happy. How could we expect God to bless us when we blatently disobeyed His commandments? We wanted to be happy, not miserable.

Abstinence education is OK, but I don’t for a minute think it’s going to work unless the child/teenager is committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I don’t think that most teenagers, including Christian teenagers (Catholic or Protestant) are truly committed the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think in many cases, the teenager is simply talking the talk because that’s what is expected of him/her. I don’t think most teenagers have had a life-changing conversion experience. This is why the rate of sexual activity among Christian teenagers is so great–they really haven’t gotten to a place where they are truly trusting God in all things and willing to commit their lives to obeying Him in all things, including sexual things.

So what is the answer? Prayer.

We can’t force a teenager into conversion. Although the Catholic Church (and many Protestant churches) confirms teenagers into the church, this is no guarantee that they have personalized their relationship with God, and it’s certainly no guarantee that they have accepted all of the commands of God and decided to obey them at any cost.

And although many Protestant (evangelical/charismatic/fundamental) teenagers “go forward” during an altar call, this is no guarantee that they have personalized their relationship with God, accepted the commands, and decided to obey them at any cost.

In fact, I believe that the “feeling-based” experiential practice of religion in the Protestant churches, especially the Pentecostal churches, predisposes these kids especially to early sexual experiences. They want to “feel good.” They’re used to it in their churches, and they want it outside of church.

However, I believe that baptized/confirmed people have the Holy Spirit working their lives, and that parents can pray and plead with the Holy Spirit to work in their child’s life and protect them.

I also believe that teenagers need to hear more talks like I just posted. Christian teenagers need to hear straight out that sex is the most wonderful experience they will ever have, and that when they are tempted, they will be willing to give up almost anything, including eternal salvation, to give in because it feels so darn GREAT!

All too often, Christians present sex as something that isn’t all that wonderful. How can we expect kids to respond when we lie to them? We need to tell the truth, and warn them that sex is FANTASTIC, especially when you are young and thin and in good shape and have no other responsibilities like kids or jobs. Many people have been willing to give up heaven and go to hell just to have sex.

Then we need to tell them what God has said about sex outside of marriage. Catholics have such an advantage here, because we have the wonderful “Theology of the Body” materials. These are amazing. I wonder how many Catholic parishes actually use this material in their middle school youth groups. (I wonder how many Catholic parishes even have a middle school youth group.)

And no, this kind of educating shouldn’t wait for high school. It should be presented to the young people when they are 10-12 years old, and then the presentations should continue into the middle school years and into high school and yes, college.

And yes, parents can and should do the educating, but I do think that many pre-teens and teens respond better to someone other than their parents. If a parent wants to do the educating, wonderful. But since many parents won’t, I think it’s appropriate for the Church to do the educating. After all, the Church is our Mother.

Anyway, all this isn’t going to happen outside of the Church. Abstinence education is basically just a “starvation diet” for people who don’t see themselves as fat. If God isn’t in it, it won’t work.
 
This is a complete non-issue. You people are just being duped into getting angry over something the state wants you to, in other words you are being played around with. Consider this: we are all asking whether abstinence programs should be taught or not. This is the way the state makes you automatically all agree that there should be some kind of public sex ed. And the reason why is because they try their hardest to make you avoid thinking and asking these 2 earth shattering questions, which are:
  1. Why should there even be any kind of sex ed class being taught?
  2. Why are there even public schools? Why not just have all private schools, in which case the schools can then decide individually what policies to do as far as sex ed, which then gives you a choice in what school to send your kids to or just home school yourselves.
See what I am trying to get at? Our government plays these mind games with us, they get us to ask the wrong questions so we avoid the bigger issues. As an example, back in Germany in the 30’s people were basically beginning to believe that they could only elect 2 types of parties… communist or fascist. It never occurred to them that both were really just the same thing and that they could choose a 3rd option if they so wished.

Think of it this way: A man walks up to you and offers you 2 pills, each of them is a different way of killing you. Most people today would try and choose one or the other, fighting on talk radio, lobbying the govt. to choose one pill over the other, holding rally’s and such, but don’t be like the masses… say to yourself “hold on… what if I don’t even want either pill or want to die?”
 
jman507 said:
I guess this issue may be revisited after antibiotic resistant STDs become more common. Things might just have to get worse before they get better.
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A large portion of STDs are caused by viruses, and thus not really susceptible to antibiotics. Gonorrhea is the only bacterial STD where I’ve heard of antibiotic-resistant strains becoming a problem. But since we already have antibiotic-resistant HIV, and Herpes, and HPV, I don’t think one more in the mix is going to make any difference in attitudes or behavior.
 
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