Sex Education without Moral Direction Can Unintentionally Promote Unhealthy Sex

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By the Rev. Dr. Joe Renfro

Sex education without moral direction can help to open the doors to sexual exploitation, sexual perversion, and sexual obsession, as it can subdue restrains that should be developed in respect to it. In actual practice sex education classes can be instructional areas that teach far more than what is de facto being taught!  Even the questions in the class that are asked can have in them educational important beyond the immediate context, whether it be negative or positive. 

It is possible to desensitize the thinking of students, so much that they become incapable to discerning between  good and bad, right and wrong, disciplined commitment or the possible negative indulgence to one’s passions.  Imagination can be a vital part of learning, and it can be used rightly in creative thinking, but as well it can be stimulated wrongly, even in very subtle ways.

There is a case in point, which as Florida dad was outraged by sexually explicit question on teen’s homework assignment.  Whether this class was a product of the Common Core, I don’t know, but I feel it most likely was.  Whether it was or was not is irrelevant. There was a multiple choice question on a practice test given to the man’s teen daughter was: The multiple choice question reportedly read, “Ursula was devastated when her boyfriend broke up with her after having sex. To get revenge, she had sex with his best friend the next day. Ursula had a beautiful baby girl nine months later. Ursula has type O blood, her ex-boyfriend has AB blood and his best friend is type A blood. If her baby daddy is her ex-boyfriend what could the possible blood type(s) of her baby NOT be.”

Now a man with type AB blood cannot be the father of a child with type O blood.  It could be neither A nor B.  A child with type O blood would have to get the O allele or variations of genes from both its father and mother.  So neither of the boys were the father of the child. The question looks like a good question involving the knowledge of the subject, but beyond it, it certainly gives a nod to dishonesty and to immorality. So the father was right to be upset! It was a way of desensitizing the students to morality the father felt.

Duval County Public Schools in Florida got the statement and agreed that the question was very much inappropriate.  The school was very responsive after being made aware of this matter, and they took action of remove this and other such questions.  They wrote all the parents in their district that “We encourage parents to contact their school leaders directly if they ever have any concerns about their child’s school and instructional experience so that we can immediately work to problem-solve.”  It was an appropriate response.

The imagination, however, can be realized appropriately and inappropriately.  Mark Twain, certainly not friend to Christian sexual morality, in the work, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, said “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus,” which was a wise statement.  Imaginations pick up more than and often expand the substance of any lesson.  Proverbs 4:23 looks at imagination this way, as it says, to ”Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.”  Then 2 Corinthians 10:5 states a wise directive, as it says that in following Christ, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”  Imaginations can and often do work beyond our conscious understanding of what is take place.  Sex education classes that neglect moral foundations can easily end up promoting immorality!

The Common Core Curriculum, which is dominant all over this nation in the public schools is not only concerned about the development of national standards for math, English, biology, and science it also includes teaching shocking sexual education courses for students in grades, kindergarten thru 12.  It can stimulate the wrong use of the imagination.  The material being taught in the Common Core includes teaching that many parents, particularly Christian parents see as inappropriate, teaching sexuality skills, that shouldn’t even be taught in college, much less in primary, elementary, or secondary school.

It has been observed by Dr. Duke Pesta that “According to child psychologists, the children are not mentally equipped to understand the detailed sexual indoctrination starting in kindergarten, but they are indoctrinated in sexual practices that they should never be exposed to.  Students are tested on their understanding of sex issues every year for the 12 years they are school, and the views for each student on sex issues are being tested, recorded, and retained by Washington bureaucrats.” (The Shocking K-12 Common Core Sexual Education Standards-by Dr. Duke Pesta, June 22, 2014)  

Dr. Pesta in his excellent article as well observes that “The Core Curriculum states the students must be taught cooperative and active sex, working together in lab sessions with each other. Students can’t opt out on their own, because sex crosses into all the Common Core courses and all the testing—if they opt out they would fail the testing.  They are being taught by specially sex skilled teachers, and the students are tested on sexual skills and concepts being taught.  Every imaginable inappropriate sexual skill is being taught to students in kindergarten thru grade 12.  These inappropriate sexual skills are being driven into the Common Core curriculum and are being tested by the Department of Health Education and Welfare.”  But sad to say, it is not realized that these courses can often desensitize to the dangers in sexual activities.

The doctor goes on to observe that “There is a heavy socio political content of sex throughout Common Core curriculum being taught in every grade and in every subject, the student is taught that there is a sameness of gender, there is no longer simply boys and girls according to Common Core.  The sexual content of Common Core crosses into every curriculum taught, from teaching sexuality skills in sex education courses by specially skilled and trained sex education teachers.  Sexual activities and content in included in every subject taught.  Sex is taught in the English curriculum, is included in the language curriculum, sex is woven into the science curriculum, in the math curriculum, in the social studies curriculum, and of course in biology.’ The material that is taught is on the surface is supposedly objective, but underneath it desensitizes the dangers involved in sexual promiscuity.

Pesta observed that “Since sex practices are included in every subject taught, parents will no longer be able to opt out of sex education being taught to their children in city schools, and by opting out assuming that only they would be able to teach their children sex education at home, and in accordance with their personal and religious beliefs.  Children are taught holding hands, hugging, kissing, is the same as every other deviate sex acts—they are taught there is a sameness to “all” sex—there is no such thing as normal sex in Common Core, wide open sex of every weird type is taught to be acceptable in Common Core.” 

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and children can think that since they have had the sex education in school, they are experts on the issue, which is a great mistake.

In my article in the Christian Observer from August 1, 2014 I observe that: The Common Core Curriculum is inescapably anti-Christian, and the inevitable results are most evident in the moral relativism (no fixed standards), academic dumbing down, far-left programs, near absence of discipline, and the persistent but pitiable rationalizations offered by government education professionals.

I noted  “It was observed by Jane Robbins in the April 16, 2013 Nation Association of Scholars that ‘The worldview of Common Core will impose a radically different education on American students, from kindergarten through college. Even English classes will be transformed by utilitarian drilling and potential indoctrination. This new approach undercuts a pillar of American culture, the idea that every citizen should be able to engage in public discourse, equipped to fully exercise his liberties, and capable of stepping forward as a citizen-leader. Whether or not this approach results in better, more politically correct workers for the economy, for it almost certainly will not—cannot—result in better citizens and better people.’”

The core of the Common Core Curriculum, it can be argued seeks to destroy the core of our culture, the Christian world view that once was basic to learning in the American heritage.  This curriculum is really a tool for the cultivation of division in our society (division into categories of racial and ethnic discrimination, religion discrimination, economic discrimination, sexual discrimination, etc.), as it parades under the covering of developing unity—with the underlying purpose—yes, to divide and conquer.”  You can have so much of everything that ultimately you have nothing.  The core of our Judeo-Christian foundation is being removed by it, I observed.

The debates about sex education in our public schools have been going on for years, particularly since the so-called “sexual revolution of the sixties.”   There are the “traditionalist” on the one side and the “progressives” on the other side. There are those who respect and see the wisdom of the guidance from Scripture on the religious side, and the other side feels the past hang ups on sex are outdated, and the goal is to freely indulge in whatever sexual participation supposedly brings fulfillment.    

The Center for American Progress is very much against teach abstinence before marriage as the best solution as the means to overcome the problems that often come in context of sex and sex education.

In an article in this publication by Sarah Shapiro and Catherine Brown (The Center of American Progress, May 9, 2018) they state that: “While the American public is demanding ways to tackle teen pregnancy and other issues such as unhealthy relationships, the federal government is reducing access to critical intervention tools—an important one being comprehensive sex education.  Sex education across the country is being underutilized and even misused.” In the past year much of the sex education has been altered, and many liberal thinkers are upset about this.

Shapiro and Brown went on to says, “And as the sources of sex education become even more diverse and are presented in ways that may be misleading, educators must align messaging to help young people determine how best to engage in positive, healthy relationships.”  What they mean by “being underutilized and even misused” is the teaching of “abstinence” before marriage as the wisest directive for students to understand and handle sexuality.      

Speaking from their liberal prospective Shapiro and Brown state that “State sex education standards in public schools vary widely. According to state laws and education standards, only 10 states and the District of Columbia mention the terms “healthy relationships,” “sexual assault,” or “consent” in their sex education programs. This means that the majority of U.S. public school students do not receive instruction through their state’s sex education program on how to identify healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors”. What they mean is that these states and the District of Columbia do not teach abstinence is a means to the healthy handling of sexual desires, which they see as good. To them teaching abstinence creates fear and guilt, which they categorize as harmful. Other states than these 10 and the District of Columbia allow the teaching of abstinence, which to them is bad.

In an article, “Ten Good Reasons to Oppose Public School Sex Education” by Catholic Parents On Line, May 22, 2016, one observation was that “When proponents of public school sex ed say kids need to know more, what they really mean is they want to teach our kids to use condoms, the pill, and the IUD, and if they fail, where to get an abortion. These people just don’t want any more babies. They never talk about reducing fornication or meeting the spiritual needs of our children. They focus on bodies when the real concern is souls.”

There is a verse in the Bible, I Corinthians 6:18, that says, “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”  The mental, spiritual, and physical are unite in the body.  This is an all-encompassing area to speak of  “his own body”—the mind,  spiritually, and physically all  of which relate to one’s body– and it should suggest a call to attend to it properly in the context of sex education.  We are sexual creatures, and learning God’s discipline in this context should be part of education, and even if the students are non-religious they should be taught that irresponsible sexual indulgence is detrimental.

Moral direction is essential in learning how to relate to sex, and to try to subtract this from sex education in the schools is certainly not wise.   Damage done by immoral sexual activities is more than just the threats of illness from disease, unwanted pregnancy, broken relationships, etc., but it is very much concerned with the spiritual areas relating to it. Sex is an encompassing area, and to discount the guidance given the Scriptures can be most harmful, although to the liberal, progressive minds this one area, “sex,” is one of the basic reason they reject Christianity, calling it outdated!