The Suppression Of Virtue

An editorial of Heartbeat Of The Ministry, the newsletter of CareNet, providing pregnancy and family services to Pierce County, Washington.

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Last September the Washington State Healthy Youth Act (HYA) was enacted and many Abstinence-Until-Marriage sexual health and relationship programs were no longer allowed to present in the public schools.  The State appointed two people, one from the Department of health (DOH) and one fromthe Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to critique all of the sex education programs and judge, using a rubric, which ones were "acceptable".  Of the sixty abstinence-until-marriage programs that went through that particular process for being allowed in the schools, zero passed.  The reasons given were along the line of "too much ideology" and "not enough medical and scientific accuracy."

Programs that passed do not have marriage mentioned in the curriculum, and the definition of abstinence is greatly distorted - meaning, waiting two weeks to have sex is being "abstinent".  Programs accepted into the schools mention birth control methods, but do not mention the risks of using these methods or which methods are ineffective.

Having observed the outcome of true sexual health programs that are based on abstinence-until-marriage in the DOH/OSPI process, we decided to follow another option stated in the HYA law instead of risking being denied access to the many schools in which we currently give presentations.  We enlisted the help of five physicians in the Seattle/Tacoma area, four OB/GYNs and one Family Practice physician, to review the curriculum that we use.  Prior to the review, we updated the curriculum and used statistics and information that is verified by research in compliance with scientific methods, is published in peer reviewed journals, and is recognized as accurate by objective professional organizations and agencies with expertise in the field of sexual health, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Washington State Department of Health, and the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The five physicians each reviewed the curriculum and information citings and wrote leters of approval for our use.  They each also signed an affidavit as to the accurancy, medically and scientifically, of the curriculum.  As of April 1, 2009, we are once again able to offer "Smart Love" in the schools and have had several schools sign up for the spring semester presentations.

One other aspect of this process that has made us aware of a great need is that parents are unaware of what is being taught for "sex education" in the schools.  It has been mentioned in articles previously, but deserves to be mentioned again: parents have to voice their concern for the "comprehensive" sex education curriculum that many schools are now presenting to their children that encourages risky behavior and does not give complete information about the ineffectiveness of some methods of birth control in preventing STDs.

CareNet of Pierce County is in the process of developing a new curriculum to be shared with parents in order to educate and assist them in speaking to their children about sexual relationships and health.  Our "Smart Love/Smart Home" staff was selected to attend a special training in Dallas, Texas at the end of last month, sponsored by World Vision and the Medical Institute of Sexual Health.  The training workshop was titled, "Building Family Connections" and has ten modules for teaching parents.

The modules are:

1) Great Parenting

2) Effective Communication

3) Decision-Making Process

4) Adolescent Development

5) Teenage Pregnancy

6) Contraception

7) STI-HIV/AIDS

8) Healthy & Unhealthy Relationships

9) Abstinence

10) Tough Questions Kids Ask

After presenting this material to our volunteers and staff, our "Smart Home" staff will revise the modules to include the Biblical background and support for the topics and then be able to offer this program as "Smart Home" to parents throughout our area.  This can be offered in Sunday schools, small groups, home groups, and community group settings.  We are pleased to be able to expand our scope of programming for families utilitizing abstinence and marriage as God's plan for sexual health and purity.