OMG: Sex Education Matters!

From today's latest headline news, e.g., Bristol Palin's pregnancy (and I didn't know who or where she lived until Friday of this past week!), along with the ups and downs of HIV rates among LGTBQ people, I want to get on the top of my soap box a minute and say that sex ed. matters...or education about sex, sexuality and sensuality matters in today's world. I am not for "abstinence only" approach because of the very truth that we are human, in which the only thing we can predict about ourselves is that we are unpredictable (thanks Alisdair MacIntyre for that little bit that has remained firmly entrenched in my academic psyche). I'm for full-throttled, tell-all, tell-everything, leave no details undescribed, with lots of moral, theological, and anatomical and biological discussions and talking points peppering the conversation.

Whether one is heterosexual or homosexual (bisexual, transgender, and the list goes on according to Kinsey), knowing how and what sex is, what those impulses (hormonal and intellectual), desires and drives are from the "get go," e.g., early on, is important for the health and well-being not only of the individual, but for us as members of the body of Christ, and the greater good of this society.

Imagine living in a world, a church, a community of faith, a family, a school, in which sexual education is not a laughable topic of discussion but is of great importance, in which we talk openly and honestly! Imagine!

Imagine a world in which people have the knowledge at hand to know what they can choose to do in order for their own well-being and the well-being of the one they are engaged in a sexual act with at the time! Imagine that people understand the difference of intimacy and sex and love!

When did we start teaching our children about sex? In the crib! "This is your leg, your nipple, your..." you get the point. Education about our bodies, our drives, our desires, our hormones, what makes us tick-tock, is best done at the earliest of ages.

I don't like STDs, HIV, AIDS, which both heterosexuals and homosexuals can spread and contract. Don't like them at all. I want a world in which they simply did not exist.

But that's not this world.

Let's deal with it for the good of all.

Sex Ed. Matters!

Pace, B