| Sex Education in Church? According to an article by Religion News Service correspondent, Louise Palmer, churches and synagogues all across American are offering "faith-based" sex education to their members. "Faith-based sex education is taking off across the nation, with the principle that sexuality is God- given, an integral part of being human, at its core. Rather than offering a litany of do's and don'ts, religious leaders are increasingly interested in helping adolescents see their physicality in spiritual terms." As readers of this column will probably realize, I find this to be good news. However, I am not sure that Palmer comes up with much more than anecdotal evidence to support her headliner. She opens with a colorful conversation taking place inside a 200-year-old New England church. There a guessing game is taking place: "Am I an ovary?" shouts out one seventh-grader. "Am I a sperm?" blurts another, followed by peals of laughter. This exchange of words seldom heard inside a Sunday School classroom is part of an exercise suggested by the Unitarian Universalist sex education curriculum. Perhaps not so surprising when you consider that this is one of America's smallest and most liberal denominations. The UUs, as they are informally referred to, have for several years, offered a curriculum designed to help teen-agers learn to use such words without embarrassment or shame, as well as to under- stand that sex is a legitimate source of pleasure as well as a mechanism of reproduction. In the course of writing her article, Palmer interviewed Rabbi Jonathan Stein, of Congregation Beth Israel in San Diego, Calif. "You can put sexuality into perspective for (young people) if you teach through Jewish eyes, with Jewish texts and values, or those of any tradition. It helps them integrate their own sexuality in terms of how they fit into the world and how they interact with others," said the Rabbi. "We believe a person's sexuality is part of their whole person, so the question we ask is, how do you use that gift, do you use it in a devastating way or do you use it wisely?" explained the Rev. Carlton W. Veazey, founder of the interfaith Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice's Black Church Initiative, which is working to bring sexuality education into African-American denominations. "We teach that we must be responsible stewards of all of our God-given gifts," Veazey said. "This takes sexuality out of the 'do and don't school,' which doesn't work, and makes it a spiritual principle." Those who are involved in such programs frequently encoun- ter opposition from church members who believe that merely discussing human sexuality in such a frank, free, and explicit manner in some subtle ways encourages promiscuity. Not so, say the religious leaders who have shaped such programs. Their strong conviction is that when young people see their sexuality as being a gift from God rather than something for- bidden or sinful, they are less likely to abuse it. Bringing sex- uality and spirituality together can result in teenagers taking a greater sense of responsibility for both. According to a 1997 United Nations study that examined 22 HIV/AIDS and sexuality education programs, far from pro- moting promiscuity, such programs did one or more of the following:
Still, for the vast majority of Christians in a predominant number of
churches, such conclusions seem to defy common sense. For many, the safer, simpler approach involves some variation of the
"Just Say No" approach. Not only that, I can tell you on the basis of some twenty-five years as a parish minister, that those
responsible for the educational program in most churches simply do not want to face the conflict
involved in raising a potentially divisive subject. Even within a relatively homogeneous
congregation, different sets of parents will have radically different views on what
information is age appropriate for their children. Hence the more general practice within Christian congregations
seems to be "Just Say Nothing." |
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