Archive for the 'Sexuality' Category

Last week, the Indianapolis Star reported:

Two sixth-grade students who engaged in sexual activity during an industrial technology class have been expelled from Raymond Park Middle School, Warren Township Schools Superintendent Peggy Hinckley said Tuesday.

This is another one of those stories where I hardly know where to begin. I guess I’ll start with some general thoughts:

We live in a culture that assumes teaching abstinence is unrealistic.

If that’s true — that is, if it’s true that it’s unrealistic to expect that kids will abstain, that means it’s always unrealistic to expect that kids will abstain. (more…)

Wendy Shalit at Modestly Yours has an eye-opening post about a “comprehensive” sex-ed class at a middle school in Thornton, IL.

Here are the details: (more…)

In a comment on John’s post, Bad Ideas and Good Ideas, Michael-2 gave a link to an article on a study done in Germany about Natural Family Planning. I think it’s worth posting about. You gotta love hearing positive things about NFP in the news. Although the article focuses on the effectiveness of NFP as a contraceptive, it’s a step in the right direction. When a couple uses NFP, they can’t help but begin to view the body differently.

On a side note, though I realize for Catholics NFP has a moral base to it, I marvel at how well the Catholic Church takes care of her children spiritually and physically. Not only is NFP good for the soul (and relationships), but it’s healthy for the body. When practicing NFP, a woman’s body is not poisoned with chemicals and there is no need for self mutilation for either partner, which by the way may cause dementia in men! And if you need to avoid pregnancy for some good reason - it’s effective!

And its grade is a big fat F:

CWA: Morning-After Pill Fails Tests

Journal reports that no study found a decrease in pregnancy or abortion rates, even with increased use

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 /Christian Newswire/ — Well-known advocates for the morning-after pill have admitted that “increased access to emergency contraception pills enhance use but has not been shown to reduce unintended pregnancy rates” in a meta-analysis of studies conducted in 10 countries published this month in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. They also state the drug’s effectiveness may be “substantially … overstated.”

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I enjoyed this post on Modestly Yours. I have taken to calling Victoria’s Secrect, Victoria’s Brothel. I really liked the final comment (at least it was the final comment last I looked). It nicely summed it all up.

While many will unfortunately use today as an opportunity to sing the praises of the Almighty Condom as the way to fight AIDS, we would all do well to give serious consideration to the sensible message issued by the Vatican in conjunction with this day two years ago.

At their annual fall meeting held this past week, one of the major documents the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was titled “Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care” [PDF]

The blogger CourageMan has written two excellent posts this week relating to the document. (CourageMan’s nom de plume derives from Courage, an apostolate that the bishops specifically endorsed in this document as one that offers guidance to individuals with same-sex attraction in their efforts to live chastely in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church.)

The bishops’ document notes:

It is crucially important to understand that saying a person has a particular inclination that is disordered is not to say that the person as a whole is disordered. Nor does it mean that one has been rejected by God or the Church. Sometimes the Church is misinterpreted or misrepresented as teaching that persons with homosexual inclinations are objectively disordered, as if everything about them were disordered or rendered morally defective by this inclination. Rather, the disorder is in that particular inclination, which is not ordered toward the fulfillment of the natural ends of human sexuality. Because of this, acting in accord with such an inclination simply cannot contribute to the true good of the human person. Nevertheless, while the particular inclination to homosexual acts is disordered, the person retains his or her intrinsic human dignity and value.

CourageMan comments:

I can’t tell you how annoying it is to listen to pro-gay folks ignorantly (on this subject, that’s an objective fact) saying “the church says I am intrinsically evil” or “I’m not objectively disordered,” etc. No. It. Doesn’t. The distinction is right there. Reject it if you like, but don’t lie about what the Church teaches in order to boost up your Right-to-a-Hissy-Fit quotient.

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I was really annoyed with a particular article from last Sunday’s Chicago Tribune. I have to wonder if Ross Werland is stuck in the 60’s? Doesn’t he realize that there are dozens of STDs because people choose to sleep around? And that most of these STDs wreak havoc on women – possibly rendering them infertile? But why should he care about that? He’s more concerned about whether or not people think he’s a freak.

As an aside, I happened to really like being part of a “small crowd” and so do most people I know from large families.

I suggest you write to our dear friend and enlighten the poor soul: (rwerland@tribune.com).

So says Elton John in a recent interview.

His remarks came in this context:

We should all be together. I’ve got this really naive idea of what life should be like - it’s an idealistic idea but it’s completely integrated. We can’t keep thinking of gay people as being ostracised; we can’t keep thinking of Muslim people as being [ostracised] because of the fundamentalism that occurs in Islam. Muslim people have to do something about speaking up about it. We can’t judge a book by its cover.

From my point of view I would ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it.

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Reason #4832938273 why saving sex for marriage is a good idea:

Sex on Campus: Not as Fulfilling as you Think

By John Bambenek

A recent study in the Journal of Sex Research links depression in women to casual sex. This flies in direct contrast to a campus culture that tries to celebrate “uncommitted sex.” The problem is it flies in the face of our internal nature, and is the case in most emotional matters, comes down hardest on women.

Like most campuses, the University of Illinois hosts an annual celebration of uncommitted sex called “Sex Out Loud.” It presents a generally one-sided account of sex which doesn’t represent reality. Sex has consequences and those consequences are felt mostly by women.

One interesting feature of the study shows that it is more typical for uncommitted sexual encounters to take place between friends instead of strangers. What this indicates to me is that women and men have a hard time in this society relating to each other in non-sexual ways. “Friends with benefits” used to be a joke a decade ago when I was an undergrad, now it’s a sad reality.

The study shows what many on the right (particularly religious) have always known, that sex has meaning beyond the physical. People long to be in an intimate relationship and meaningless sex does nothing but break down those relationships. Women begin to feel like little more than objects instead of people to who deserve to be cherished.

Likely this story will be ignored on campus and the general media but it’s another statement that the sexual revolution got it wrong. [Source]

HT: Pro-Life Blogs

…comes “Chastity Rome-Chick Blues”!

An excerpt from Dawn’s forthcoming book, The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On, is available here.

Watching this video, I couldn’t help but make the connection with the abstinence educators’ symposium I attended yesterday. The symposium included an excellent talk on the importance of effective communication of the abstinence message by David Mahan — probably the most dynamic abstinence speaker I’ve ever heard — of Frontline Communications as well as a performance by a group of high school and college kids from the Chicago chapter of BreakDown.

The kids in BreakDown, David Mahan, Dawn Eden — none of them is anything like the tired old stereotype of the abstinence movement: the homely, puritanical, sex-hating, finger-wagging, “You’re going to hell if you have sex!”-preaching old biddy.

The new pro-life, pro-chastity generation is here. And it’s here to stay.

I suppose we should have posted this at the beginning of the week. Still, any time is a good time to promote awareness of the dangers of pornography.

From LifeSite:

Pornography Awareness Week - Oct 29 to Nov 5

Largest group of Internet porn viewers are children between ages of 12 and 17

By Meg Jalsevac

BALTIMORE – Cardinal William Keeler is encouraging all parishes in his diocese to prayerfully and actively take part in Pornography Awareness Week (PAW) from October 29 to November 5. Among other things, participants are asked to wear a white ribbon to symbolize their commitment to purity and their public protest against “the increase of obscenity” in today’s culture.

PAW is a national effort to raise awareness of the detrimental effects of pornography to individuals, families and society as a whole. Thousands of people are participating across the country.

In his message, Keeler explained that “the idea that pornography does not cause serious problems is a myth.” He went on to explain that it denigrates the dignity of the person, usually women and children, to the point that they become looked on as mere sexual toys. Pornography frequently leads to more aggressive sexual behavior again most frequently targeting women and children as victims.

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Yesterday, the aptly named Project Reality announced the following:

Congressional Committee on Government Reform Finds Rep. Henry Waxman’s Report on Abstinence Education Inaccurate and Misleading

Glenview, IL - An official Congressional Report, released this October 27th by the Committee on Government Reform, has found that a Democratic Staff Report released in December, 2004, entitled “The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs” is inaccurate and misrepresentative of abstinence education programs nationwide.

The 2004 report, commonly referred to as “The Waxman Report,” was widely and misleadingly critical of federally funded abstinence education programs. It was prepared by partisan staff and released by Rep. Henry Waxman, the Minority Chair of the Committee on Government Reform. This report received widespread and favorable media coverage and was hailed as a “Congressional Report” despite the fact that it was prepared by Minority Staff and never reviewed by the full committee. It referred to abstinence education programs as “inaccurate” and “dangerous” and called for more funding for so-called “comprehensive” sex education programs. Since its release, The Waxman Report has been used by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Planned Parenthood and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) to perpetuate national campaigns against abstinence education programs and funding.

The new report “Abstinence and Its Critics” released on Friday by Rep. Souder, reveals that The Waxman Report itself was misleading and dangerous in that it failed to examine any content of the sex education programs it recommended and contained errors and half-truths in its analysis of abstinence education programs.

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A friend of mine from college, Father Robert Zwilling, stopped by our office recently to celebrate Mass in the Pro-Life Action League’s St. Joseph Chapel.

Since then, I have had the good fortune to be able to read his Sunday homilies, which he sends to an e-mail list, along with a reflection, a “Catholic term of the week,” a bit of humor, and some suggestions for further reading on the topic(s) addressed in the homily.

Last week, Father Robert preached on contraception.

I was very impressed — first, simply by the fact that he preached on what many consider to be the unpreachable. (Unfortunately, it seems that a homily on contraception is about as rare as a Honus Wagner cigarette card.)

Most people assume it’s foolish for a priest to preach against contraception:

Most of the parishioners are using contraception themselves, so many of them will be offended, and they’ll stop coming to Mass — which means they’ll stop giving to the church.

Or so the argument goes.

Thankfully, there are still holy priests who care more about souls than money — priests who are serious about shepherding their flocks, and are courageous enough to proclaim the truth about human sexuality from the pulpit, knowing full well that many in their congregations may have never heard these teachings before.

I especially liked Father Robert’s use of an analogy I’d never heard before to distinguish between contraception and NFP: (more…)

There’s a story—actually several months old at this point—that’s lately been making the rounds at various radical feminist and other leftist websites and even the mainstream media. It’s about the alleged abject failure of abstinence only programs at one Timken High School in Canton, OH, resulting in an epidemic of teen pregnancies, and how the school administration jettisoned such programs in favor of “comprehensive” programs that include birth control instruction.

Tim at Random Observations looked into this report and offers a thorough debunking. The most outrageous bit is the case of one Timken student whose parents claimed to have talk to her “45 times a week” about sex, and yet—somehow—blame the school for their daughter’s pregnancy! As Tim concludes: “In short, we appear to have been conned yet again.”

Read the whole thing.