TMI for teens, IMO

A recent "news" report tells of a study that teen pregnancies are higher among girls who watch shows which portray sexual conduct. Another recent article describes statistics about teen sexual behavior which are saddening to those who would give young people a chance to learn what love is, before engaging in actions which are appropriate only in the context of marriage. Dr. Elizabeth Schroeder, executive director of Answer, a teen sex education program based at Rutgers University, is quoted as saying,

“This so clearly points to the need for comprehensive sexual education for kids,” Schroeder said. “An adolescent … is supposed to be making poor decisions. Developmentally this is the way they’re supposed to be behaving. They need help ...."

There is another way: spirituality instead of physicality. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "Children should be allowed to remain children in knowledge, and should become men and women only through growth in the understanding of man's higher nature." Jesus was more direct: "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

In the second article linked above, Dr. Schroeder is quoted as saying, “Parents need help talking with their kids about sexuality, and schools need to be talking to kids about sexuality.” While some specific information is of course appropriate as part of a normal education, all of us, whether parents or not, can best support children by living pure and honorable lives ourselves, discerning and demonstrating the difference between affection and mere sensuality, and joyfully reflecting God, good, in every aspect of our lives.