So much has been in the news the last few days about teen pregnancy. Listening to all the experts on the cable news programs breaks my heart. As they claim that abstinence education doesn’t work and their solution (safe sex education) does work – how can they be more misguided?
You see, we as a people, as a country, we have had a hard time abstaining from anything lately. We are in the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression because we could not abstain from spending money we didn’t have. We bought houses that we couldn’t afford, we bought or leased cars with ridiculous monthly payments that we couldn’t afford and we ran up $20,000 and $30,000 credit card bills on dining out at restaurants and buying junk that we didn’t need and now cannot afford to pay for. Main Street was sold on a lifestyle that ultimately destroyed tens of millions of people’s financial health and has put a nation’s stability, safety and health at great risk.
Sadly, it gets worse. In the early part of this decade when we first started to really feel the harsh reality of over spending, our government and Wall Street said abstinence from spending was harmful to the economy and to prove it we are going to suppress interest rates to enable your financial bad behavior to continue. Just sign on the dotted line (with no money down) and keep living the way you have for the last decade or so. Giving out all this easy money was like handing out condoms – it didn’t work then and it will not work now.
Okay, so what does this economic theory have to do with sexual abstinence? Actually there are significant parallels. Now leaders are telling us that abstinence doesn’t work. Sadly, it’s like saying that trying to do the right thing doesn’t work. They have accepted failure for our children before our kids are even given a chance to do the right thing. Worse yet, they expect failure from our children. And where do they want to teach “safe sex”? High school - yeah teach safe sex there. Middle school – yeah have to teach it there too. Elementary school – well kids are learning about these kinds of things earlier and earlier in life so let’s teach a little safe sex there too. We know that sex at too young of an age limits a young person’s chances to build healthy relationships in life and it robs them of their childhood.
There are millions of people in this country who stand by abstinence and know that safe sex doesn’t work. Our children should be focused on school, learning, sports etc. Once they engage in sexual activities, sex takes the forefront of their thoughts. The rest of their development (learning, studying, sports, building healthy and respectful friendships) is all secondary. Our children are being set up to fail. By promoting safe sex ,they go from unhealthy relationship to unhealthy relationship, dangerous diseases spread at an alarming pace, pregnancy rates go up (not down), hearts are broken and lives are changed for the worse. Safe sex doesn’t work physically (how many teens do you know who like to do things safely?) and safe sex certainly doesn’t work emotionally.
Abstinence does work. Will everyone who makes a promise to be abstinent keep it? Not everyone will, but many will stay the course. We as adults and parents should encourage them to succeed and we must protect their childhood. Parents need to be parents (there’s a new concept – taking responsibility for your kids instead of blaming society). As stronger moral values and integrity are lifted up – watch how this next generation will follow. Kids look to parents, leaders and role models. Lead them up right and for the most part they will follow. Lead them down the wrong path – and for the most part they will follow. Being involved with like minded friends is critical. Most importantly we have to ask ourselves – what does God think? Everyone can agree that our time on this earth is finite. Eternity – now that’s forever. Maybe it’s time to stop thinking about right now and start thinking about the long term ramifications of our actions and decisions. And what about the ones who pledge to be abstinent and later don't keep that promise? They'll understand the decision that they made and they should be encouraged and supported to get back to square one and start anew.
On so many levels, ours morals as a nation have slipped into the abyss. When are we going to try to give our children the very best that we can give them? Right now all we are giving them is $10+ trillion dollars in debt (that’s about $40,000 in debt for every person in America), the end of the American Dream, an unstable world, an education system that is falling behind and a handful of condoms. Our innocent children deserve better – much better.
Today, let’s stop passing the blame and let’s together start to rebuild America for them. As a nation we are at a critical junction in history. We can go the way of the Roman Empire - losing everything due to declining moral values, or we can choose to rebuild our families, our economy, our finances, our communities and our country. Many brave souls before us died to offer us the American Dream. Cannot we live responsibly, with integrity and pass those same opportunities on to the next generation?