Don’t get me wrong. I strongly support abstinence for teenagers. I feel that sexual activity ought to be delayed until one is capable of taking care of oneself. I also support sex education, giving teenagers the facts. I’d much rather see teens practicing safe sex than to get diseased or be trapped in a life of poverty because they were too busy FUCKING to learn useful life skills. No, not everyone is poor because they chose to be, but there are choices that do lead to poverty, and we need to stop pretending we don’t know what they are. If a teenager graduates from high school not knowing how to read or write coherently but knows how to use a condom that’s not exactly a screaming success in my book.

But then, I am asexual and have never been subject to the so-called raging hormones that these kids supposedly have. So I guess I really don’t know what I am talking about.

I hereby declare that your parents wear the same rose-colored glasses as mine.

Sheesh! “I know my daughter is screwing around, but I’m SURE her Christian morals will kick in any time now.” Lawdy!

Here’s one from my mom that shows her rose-colored idiocy. My sister left her husband to shack up with his best friend (Al), who left his wife to shack up with sis. They’d been “cheating” for some time. My mom’s idiotic worry….. “But Al isn’t even a Christian!”

I agree on leaving the politics to another place. If anyone wants to open a thread on the forum site, I may pipe in. I won’t bother opening a thread myself since I don’t care about converting anyone to my political position anymore that I care about converting anyone to my religious position.

Still I can enjoy exchanging views and information.

Agreed. Unfortunately what I hear too much of is “be irresponsible and don’t worry about consequences”.

give our teens as much information about how to protect themselves as possible. If the only message we give them is “don’t” then they will be ill-equipped for dealing with the reality

Mucho agreed.

don’t be too sure. According to the gospels, even “abstinence” failed once!

LOL! Or maybe Mary just came up with the greatest cover story of all time.

I was assuming you meant biological functions can not be consciously controlled. Did you mean something else?

We need to teach responsibility and consequences, and give our teens as much information about how to protect themselves as possible.

I absolutely agree with that. Educate and inform all you can, just don’t throw your hands up and say, “teenagers will have sex, what can you do?” Educate them and teach them how to evaluate their choices. Sex is not inevitable, nor is it shameful. Neither are education and self-control. Healthy balances need to be found.

As far goes your self control, as far goes your freedom.

I wouldn’t say they were clueless, but they were indeed idealistic. They trusted my Christian values would get me through. And who knows, maybe they would have if I would have stayed a Christian, although I doubt it. But I wasn’t a Christian at that point. I was 18 and in a serious relationship, so I made the decision that taking it “to the next level” was okay.

My parents trusted me to make the right decision. I make the decision I thought was right, regardless of the fact that it went against their moral values.

Interesting, when my younger sister reached dating age there was a breech of privacy and my mom found out that she had been messing around with her boyfriend. She asked me if she thought it would be a good idea to put her on birth control. I said yes, considering the fact that my sister had done things at 15 that I hadn’t done until I was nearly 18, and also considering the fact that she wasn’t likely to break up with her boyfriend any time soon. My mom debated it, and decided to “leave it in the hands of God” and trust that her Christian morals would prevail. Now that is something else, something coming near to willful ignorance. She knew my sister was having trouble “staying pure” and had already had a pregnancy scare, and she decided that instead of talking to her about it and taking preventative measures she would just hope that all of that “save sex for marriage” stuff would have an affect, that morals would trump biology.

You seem like a happy camper……………………..