Sex Education - A Christian "Sin"
Sexual crimes, unwanted pregnancies, teenage pregnancies
and sexually transmitted diseases are common today. To remedy this, many
governments have proposed that sex education be provided to even very young
children at school.
The purpose is to protect children from sexual predators
and sexually transmitted diseases.
Christianity has to oppose sex education because it fears
that the powers of original sin, the sin we were born with that makes us prefer
to ignore God, will kick in and so the child will corrupt herself or himself
through the education. Sex education puts unholy ideas and unholy desires in the
child. The Church feels the child may not be able to handle the unruly passions
when they start because the seed of corruption has been sown. Sex education
tends to assume that human beings can overcome weakness without the sacramental
powers of the Church and without the power of prayer. The Church holds that
ignorance of sex is not the reason for sexual immorality so much as the weakness
of the will. So it thinks sex education will not do much good for it seeks to
have children protect themselves through information.
The other problem is that sex education is really sex and
relationship education which means children are going to learn about lifestyles
that the Church forbids. They are going to learn about how LGBT people live and
will be offered advice and support should they identify as LGBT.
The Church worries how sex education shows children and
young adults how to use condoms. If using condoms is a sin as the Church says,
it must be unnecessary to know how to use them. Wanting to know would suggest
that you have a reason for wanting to know and it's not curiosity.
The Church believes that sex education in schools treats
sex as a means in itself. For example, you have sex for the fun of it. You don't
have it with a view to procreation. This is against Catholicism which requires
that sex be open to life. The Church feels sex education is actually encouraging
sex by emphasising the fun and not the making of babies and by not making it
clear that sex is for procreation.
The Church recommends that when necessary the parents
should take a child aside and explain sex. The Church feels that teaching
children sex education as a group can lead to sexual arousal.
The hostility of the Church to sex education shows more
concern for being consistent with Church teaching than the welfare of the
children. They want to treat the children as if the doctrine of original sin
were true. They tar all children with the same brush. They want to believe that
Satan is waiting to use the sex education to tempt the children. Many children
might not be corrupted as a result of the sex education. And any that are
corrupted corrupted themselves because of the sex education. It was not the sex
education that corrupted them. It was themselves. It does not bother the church
that children need sex education so that they can protect themselves from
paedophiles. Protecting the child from these monsters is far more important than
stopping unwanted pregnancies and teen mums and preventing sexually transmitted
diseases. The damage done by paedophiles is so extreme.
The ban on sex education enabled paedophile priests and
bishops to prey on children and make them feel so dirty that they could never
tell. A molested child that has no understanding of what happened and any
feelings they had during the experience will feel he or she is evil and dirty
and damaged goods for life.
The Church would surreptitiously encourage one to think, "If I was sexually abused I cannot judge my abuser for he might have been under compulsion. But I can judge the sexual abuse of myself through masturbation and having sexual thoughts deliberately. I am worse than the abuser for I know I abused myself. I put myself in danger of Hell and he didn't put me in danger of Hell. I should feel greater anger and disgust at my self-abuse than the abuse he inflicted. My Saviour told me that I must hate sin so much I would do anything to avoid it and should wish I could lose an eye rather than use it to commit lust with." This advice proceeds logically from Christian teaching. The Church cannot however explicitly teach it for it would be torn to pieces.
Another reason the Church cannot approve of sex education stems from the Church's belief how Mary the mother of Jesus would have been 12 or 13 and no sex education would have been provided to her and yet God asked her to have a baby for him. Also the Bible uses euphemisms all the time when talking to adults and recording conversations between adults on adult matters as if sex should not be spoken about explicitly. The Song of Solomon speaks of sexual and romantic pleasure but it avoids doing so in a stimulating way.
Christianity believes that it is wholesome to threaten children with nasty
doctrines such as the everlasting torment of Hell and sow mistrust by making out
that a supernatural force called original sin makes you prefer disobedience to
God than obedience. And sex education is unwholesome and the Church pretends it
is banned for the love of the child. Rubbish!
A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Catholic Truth Society, Westminster, 1985
Believing in God, PJ McGrath, Wolfhound Press, Dublin, 1995
Biblical Dictionary and Concordance of the New American Bible, Confraternity of
Christian Doctrine, Washington DC, 1971
Divorce, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, 1946
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, Uta Ranke Heinmann, Penguin, London, 1991
Moral Questions, Bishops Conference, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1971
New Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic University of America and the
McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., Washington, District of Columbia, 1967
Preparing for a Mixed Marriage, Irish Episcopal Conference, Veritas, Dublin,
1984
Rome has Spoken, A Guide to Forgotten Papal Statements and How They Have Changed
Through the Centuries, Maureen Fiedler and Linda Rabben (Editors), Crossroad
Publishing, New York, 1998
Shattered Vows, Exodus From the Priesthood, David Rice, Blackstaff Press,
Belfast, 1990
Sex & Marriage A Catholic Perspective, John M Hamrogue C SS R, Liguori,
Illinois, 1987
The Emancipation of a Freethinker, Herbert Ellsworth Cory, The Bruce Publishing
Company, Milwaukee, 1947
“The Lord Hateth Putting Away!” and Reflections on Marriage and Divorce The
Committee of the Christadelphian, Birmingham, 1985