A Question for You, Readers!
According to this piece, the US has stopped funding an abstinence program after the ACLU sued on the grounds that it improperly implicated religion. As you'll note from reading the piece, there's no information on what was the verboten, allegedly religious element.
The program claims that it has helped 30,000 young people remain abstinent -- not a bad track record. But as far as the ACLU is concerned, better to let them become parents than to hear an impermissibly religious element in the abstinence program. And as a result, we get stories like this.
Readers, do YOU think that an abstinence program can be highly effective without a religous component? Are threats about a reduced standard of living, late night feedings and disease as effective as appeals and explications of religious faith? I'd like to know your thoughts, dear readers -- so please comment or else email me HERE.
The program claims that it has helped 30,000 young people remain abstinent -- not a bad track record. But as far as the ACLU is concerned, better to let them become parents than to hear an impermissibly religious element in the abstinence program. And as a result, we get stories like this.
Readers, do YOU think that an abstinence program can be highly effective without a religous component? Are threats about a reduced standard of living, late night feedings and disease as effective as appeals and explications of religious faith? I'd like to know your thoughts, dear readers -- so please comment or else email me HERE.
posted by LadybugUSA at 4:42 PM
3 Comments:
I'm not an atheist, but I don't talk to my daughters about sex in a religious tone........I don't think it's as effective as being a REALIST with them.
Like most, we have freinds/neighbors/family who's daughters have had children too early, STD's, drug/alchohol problems, etc.
We do not beat up on these people and their experiences, but they are excellent "how not to" examples..........We have discussed the beauty of sex and having children, but also the disaster of doing so and the consequences.
I hope and pray every day that my girls follow the path I've laid for them, and think being a realist with them has been more valuable than trying to be intrinsic and values based.
That said, we pray plenty, and feel this prayer is a good topping to the foundation we are laying.
The job of a parent is to set an example. We have to live the life we want them to live!
Kids have an unerring BS detector.
Some of the most devoutly religious ethnic groups in our country also have some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and unwed mothers. So I don't think religion is a very effective "prophylactic". For large segments of our society, especially people who come from many generations of low-income/low education families, you are almost considered abnormal if you haven't had a kid by the time you are 18. I work at a health center for low-income people and see it everyday. Many of them are very religious as well. They also don't even see it as a problem or make the connection that it keeps them locked in a cycle of poverty and other social problems (child abuse, neglect, etc.) I think the lack of abstinence is often more of a cultural and socio-economic phenomenon. Godless, immorality is an oversimplification and while I have no real issue with instilling good values, I think using religion as a tool to modify human behavior perverts what religion should be about. Religion is too important to make it into some "social service agency" but that is what the religious right seem to want to do.
Post a Comment
<< Home