As we emerge from the Christmas season, sacred to many because it marks the birth of the Son of God to a virgin mother, this paper carries a troubling story of casual sexual activity among adolescents and older teens. It could be set in any part of the country. One teen noted that today, virgins are looked down on. With these attitudes, what possible sense can our country's future parents and leaders make of Christmas? Of modesty? Of sacrificial love?
In the story, one mother exclaims, "I never taught them that was right." Where did they learn that it was? They have many teachers.
Among them, the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child. It gives children of all ages many open-ended freedoms and "rights," including the following:
the government should encourage the media (!) to be involved in promoting the child's social, spiritual and moral well being (Article 17)
This document, accepted by Canada in 1990, is strongly promoted in most classrooms.
Over 20 years ago, British teens were being encouraged to turn to "outercourse" - every form of sexual pleasure other than actual intercourse. The "benefits" given were identical to those listed by the P.E.I. teens. They would be familiar to teens across the country, for similar information is part of today's "sex ed" programs. Some of these programs list oral sex as a low-risk behaviour, which some young people may see as a form of abstinence.
In the schools, sex education courses are "value-free." Instructors are required to teach the material without imparting their own values and opinions. There is no place for mention of spiritual or moral values, unless the students bring them up. But since the programs stress that there are no right and wrong answers to anything, these become mere student opinions, no more valid than any others.
Yet, the assumption is that sexual knowledge will help teens make more responsible decisions. If that worked, we adults would have overwhelmingly chosen to quit smoking, improve our diets and become more active.
Today, knowledge is valued for its own sake. But it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It can precipitate behaviour, generate longings and affect relationships. Inappropriate knowledge can be a heavy burden, such as the premature knowledge of sexual behaviour. Like the Knowledge of Good and Evil (from the Book of Genesis), it can have immeasurably painful consequences.
There was a time when people understood that knowledge does not necessarily generate wisdom, good judgement, virtue, self control or self discipline. There was a time when people of all ages actually practised self-discipline and self-denial - during Lent, for example. There was a time when adults were more careful about their speech and their jokes in the presence of the young and the unmarried. When modesty was encouraged. When everyone was taught to "guard their senses," to be careful about what they looked at and listened to. These practices are no longer common. Are we freer?
Everyone seems to agree that 12 is too young for involvement in oral sex (as if the legal age, 14, is so much more mature). But not that long ago, there was a strong movement to completely remove all age restrictions. The major players are still on the political scene. The time may yet come when 12 will be legally acceptable. Or 10. Or two.
Once upon a time, powerful regents of an ancient kingdom concocted a plan to keep power in their own hands. From the earliest possible age, they provided the boy king with a constant diet of sexual activity in all its possible permutations. Eventually, satisfying his appetites became more important to him than good governance. Are our infinitely precious young people being similarly entrapped?
