Someone say “April fools” … please! Because what I’ve just been told must be a joke!
Even though each year one-in-four sexually active young people will contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD), the new politically correct way to educate our children on STDs is to consider them nothing more than an infection — a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Are you kidding me? We’re so afraid of not being tolerant and of making people feel bad about themselves that we’re willing to de-emphasize the abhorrent nature of an STD by downgrading it to an “infection?”
As the mother of two teenagers being educated by our public school system, I want to rush into the school’s administrative offices and scream “Are you guys crazy? Why are you once again removing the sacredness of sex by minimizing our children’s fear of contracting a disease via casual sex — a disease that could follow them for the rest of their lives?”
In a generation where more than half of all teens are sexually active by the age of 15, and nearly 1/3 (including preteens) see oral sex as “a fun, bonding thing to do,” why must we tippy-toe around our school’s psychodynamic mindset that stresses freedom, tolerance, and the discovery of our own inner self and passions? Shouldn’t educators be reminding our teens of the lifelong consequences of a licentious lifestyle, the emotional trauma of engaging in sexual actively at an early age, and the frightening medical consequences of promiscuous behavior? Instead, they have chosen to downplay the seriousness of STDs by creating the notion in children’s minds that “…it’s just an infection. … I can get medicine for an infection, right?”
While our schools are softening the repercussions of indiscriminate sex, the Bible remains clear on the subject. As a society:
- We should instruct our teenagers to “abstain from … sexual immorality,” (Acts 15:20) not lessen the consequences of sexual immorality;
- We should tell them to “Run from sexual sin! [Because] no other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does,” (1 Corinthians 6:18) instead of dulling their senses to the potential outcomes of sexual indulgence;
- We should encourage them to cleanse themselves “from everything that can defile [their] body or spirit,” and tell them to “work toward complete holiness because [they] fear God,” (2 Corinthians 7:1) not quietly abate the ramifications of having body and spirit defiled by casual, consistent sexual contact.
Don’t let the world modify your intensity. Let’s continue to fight against our school’s drive to take the sting out of promiscuity.
Julie Tate is a Concerned Women for America member, wife, mother, speaker, and Bible study teacher. Visit www.julietateministries.com to learn more. All Scripture references are from the New Living Translation.