Some Sex-Ed Guides Offer Teens Bad Information, Abstinence Advocate Warns
by Mary Rettig
July 3, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Abstinence Clearinghouse president Leslee Unruh says some guides to puberty that the American Medical Association (AMA) is promoting are too graphic for their intended audiences.
For instance, the book titled Girl's Guide to Becoming a Teen and the corresponding Boys Guide give information on the transition into adolescence; however, Unruh says there's no reason for these books to include explicit discussions of oral sex or language that "normalizes" homosexuality.
"We look at the guides and say parents need to, first of all, be the primary sex educators of their children," the Abstinence Clearinghouse spokeswoman notes. "And we don't believe that graphic imagery, with all the new data that has been given with the brain research, is a healthy way of looking at your child's sexuality," she adds.
Also, Unruh emphasizes, "we believe it's really important that abstinence until marriage be first and foremost." But she says what the Girl's Guide and Boy's Guide books offer is poor advice about sexuality, inappropriate discussions and illustrations, and language suggesting to young people that there is nothing unusual or abnormal about being attracted to someone of the same gender.
"With all the information," the abstinence education advocate asserts, "it is almost alluding to the fact that this is a normal behavior and making kids know more about this than they need to know." Meanwhile, she says, they fail to address the kind of information young people need most.
"We really need to start raising the bar, if you would, in talking to kids about real intimacy and love versus lust and explaining what lust is all about," Unruh contends. She says the type of information to be found in many of the books the AMA is promoting should further encourage parents to be the primary sex educator for their own teen and preteen children.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
