The Illogic of Comprehensive Sex Education, Part 1

If you have any questions, comments or criticisms on this or any other topic, please feel free to let me know. It is easier for me to pick topics if I have your feedback. Thanks again for reading. I hope that you find a blessing here, and may the Lord be with you.

I was in a Facebook conversation about sex education with some people. The conversation started because one of them posted an article that said that a comprehensive sex education program with a non-religious abstinence component was somewhat effective in deterring children from having sex. I responded I would not recommend putting a child in a comprehensive sex education program, regardless of the philosophy of the program. The others argued that comprehensive sex education programs prepared their children for life in the real world in which sex was something that the children were doing.

One of the people recounted their own story of having sex as a teen against her parent’s instructions, and said that had she been involved in a comprehensive sex education program, she probably would not have done so. She gave the example of a couple that brought virginity to the marriage bed, and implied that the reason that they did so was because they had comprehensive sex education classes.

The other person made the point that putting his son in sex education was preparing his son for life. He analogized the sex education program to a martial arts program in which he put his son so that his son could defend himself. I posted the following to show the illogic in both of their arguments defending comprehensive sex education: 

You are both missing the point because you’re trying to defend your past decisions. If your parents tell you not to do something, and you do it, you did it because you have chosen to be disobedient. Having more information about how to do it would not make you more obedient. You knew having intercourse was wrong when you chose to have it and you obviously knew how to have intercourse because you did it, so having more information about how to have intercourse would not have made you more obedient, because your choice was to be disobedient.

The couple that you mentioned did not bring virginity to their marriage bed because they knew more about sex than you; they brought virginity to the marriage bed because they chose to obey their parents. There were some children in the same class that they were in that did not remain virgins, so the class was not the determinative factor; it was their obedience to their parents.

The entire argument that if you tell your children how to do something they will be less likely to do it is nonsense. Apply it to drug use. Should we have comprehensive classes on how to roll a joint in hopes that our children won’t smoke marijuana?

And to how many martial arts classes did you send your son in hopes that he wouldn’t fight? You sent your son to marital arts class because you want him to fight when appropriate. So, logically, you send your daughter to sex education class because you want her to have sex when appropriate. And when will it be appropriate for your daughter to have sex? If you can avoid your defensiveness and just think, you will see the point that I am trying to make. You can’t see it because you’re not looking; you’re trying to defend your past decisions.

The message of sex education to our children is: “We know your parents told you not to have sex, and we agree. But, if you decide to have sex, this is how you do it. Use a condom, and etc.” Imagine having a class for your children that says, “We know your parents told you not to steal, and we agree. But if you decide to steal, here are the locations of the cameras in the store. Try not to get caught.”

The message of sex education to our children is: “This is how you can have sex and not get caught, get pregnant or get a sexually transmitted disease.” That might be a good plan if your child could actually avoid getting pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease, but the techniques that they teach your children are designed for married people who are supposed to be having sex and are at leisure to take the proper precautions. American teenage girls have the highest rate of abortions and sexually transmitted diseases in the world according to the CDC, based upon an article that I read that came out on January 7, 2010. This is true because contraceptive use requires more discipline and foresight than most teenagers have, and there is no effective preventative against sexually transmitted diseases. If a teenager has sex with someone that has a disease, the likelihood is overwhelming that the second teenager will get it from the first, regardless of precautions, assuming that the first teenager tells the second that they have the disease so that the second can take precautions.

In many jurisdictions, the people running the sex education curriculum actually work for an abortion provider. I have an audio tape from Focus on the Family in which an abortion provider confessed that she ran the sex education program for the school district in her area with an ulterior motive. Her marketing plan was that each of the girls in the sex education program have three abortions between the ages of 15 and 19 since the clinic needed customers to pay her and the older women in the area were not having enough abortions to keep the clinic going. So, comprehensive sex education classes are not necessarily benevolent.

The reason that parents want to delegate sex education to the schools is that they have a hard time giving their children the details about sex. Parents are not supposed to give their children the details about sex. God’s design is that we learn about sex from and with our spouses. A person about to get married might need comprehensive sex education because they are about to engage in sex. A fifth through ninth grader has no need for the information or the encouragement to participate in sex.

So, don’t be defensive. If you have sinned sexually, confess your sin to the Lord, repent and be restored, but don’t try to say that if your parents or the school system had done something differently you wouldn’t have sinned. You sinned because you wanted to; the night(s) that you sinned you knew it was wrong; you had all the information that you needed, and you chose to sin anyway. You didn’t sin because of the way your parents raised you; you sinned because you wanted to.

But, giving you directions on how to sin would not have made you want to sin less. That idea just doesn’t make sense.

If you have the option, don’t put your children in a comprehensive sex education class, regardless of the philosophy of the class. To do so is to tell your children that although it is not your first choice that they have sex, they can do so if that want to, and that is not a good message to give children.

Abortion, Obedience, Sex Education, Sexual Sin, Virginity