Perhaps we should teach something other than abstinence only...

Perhaps abstinence only does not work. Perhaps we need to teach children that they have alternatives. It is unfortunate, however, it is a reality of the hyper-sexualized times that we live in. Children need to learn that waiting is the right thing to do because the result can be unwanted pregnancy. Or it could be something much more devastating, like HIV.

I am a Christian and as a Christian, I think that God not only promotes abstinence, but also is an advocate of virginity. By that I mean maybe He wants us to be virgins when we enter our marriage bed. But, Christians sometimes fail. Sometimes we fail horribly. It a result of that pesky free choice of will thing that God decided to give the frail humans that He created. So because we have that free choice of will, we need to be responsible and part of responsibility means protecting ourselves and our families.

Abstinence is supposed to be “the voluntary self-denial of food, drink, or sex…abstinence is commonly taken to mean no sexual activity” (www.medicinenet.com). So, I swear I do not understand how someone who has preached abstinence and refused to pay for sexual education in the public schools now has a daughter who is knocked up. And, then to add to this morass, they issue a PRESS RELEASE that her CHILD who has not begun her senior year in high school is going to marry her boyfriend and I stress BOY. Perhaps I should use another colloquialism -- her “baby’s daddy.”

I advocate and appreciate that the children of politicians and their lives should be off limits. I think it is something we should all strive to because while the politician has chosen to have their lives on blast, their children have not made that decision. My only issue with that when you have a politician that advocates making decisions for other people’s children, somethings need to be examined and checked. Or perhaps someone should have not worried about putting press releases out about their children's mis-steps and focused more on the turmoil that comes with having a parent through not only themselves onto the national stage, but their entire family under the media's microscope.

Perhaps some parents have already gotten down on their knees and thanked God that the only thing that their children are not battling an incurable disease and that sometimes the only thing that comes out of unprotected sex and subsequent pregnancy is a press release. Hoever, now that it is done, perhaps some people will come to the realization that abstinence only does not work. Perhaps children need to be taught that if they are going to act like adults, they need to know the adult alternatives in order to protect themselves and their health. Perhaps we should get back to the fundamentals and teach our children that with free choice of will comes a responsibility to protect oneself. And, protection is what I am an advocate of...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/palin.evangelicals/index.html