Baylor Prez Explains His Support for Planned Parenthood Sex-Ed Program
by Jim Brown
May 9, 2005
(AgapePress) - The new interim president of Baylor University is defending his decision to financially support one of Planned Parenthood's summer youth sex-education programs in Waco, Texas, where the Southern Baptist-affiliated school is located.Conservatives have accused the "Nobody's Fool" program of being a graphic, offensive sex-education program that promotes sexual promiscuity to young people entering the fifth through ninth grade. However, interim Baylor University president Bill Underwood has no problem sending his 16-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son to the Planned Parenthood program.
Underwood, an outspoken pro-lifer and advocate of abstinence education, says while the Nobody's Fool program does not study sexuality from an overtly Christian perspective, he and his wife concluded that there was some benefit to their children attending the program.
"For example, they were taught to wait to have sex," Underwood explains, "and my daughter was taught about the dangers of dating older men, something my wife and I have talked to her about." He adds that his daughter was taught strategies to avoid peer pressure on sexual matters as well.
"My son, who's a good bit younger than my daughter, was taught about 'good touch' and 'bad touch' -- and I want my children to know about those things," the recently appointed president says.
Underwood says he while he does not agree with everything that is conveyed through the Nobody's Fool program, the topics with which he disagrees provide his family an opportunity for discussion. For example, he acknowledges that Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest provider of abortions and often encourages condom use among teens. But he maintains sending his children to the PP program has been the right thing to do.
"Fortunately there's no discussion of abortion in the programs I've sent my children to -- and if there had been a discussion of it, we would have talked about that in my home when we returned," the administrator states. "In terms of condom use, the program that my children attended explained the dangers of condom use and why condom use was not acceptable."
The interim Baylor president says all Christians should pray that their children will remain sexually pure until marriage. He says he would be heartbroken if that was not the case for one of his children.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.© 2005 AgapePress all rights reserved.
