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(To disclosure: I am an atheist. More disclosure: Being an atheist in no fashion necessitates the least genuine admiration for the precepts of love espoused by Jesus of Nazareth, and to, from time to time, trying to follow them. The world might be better served is more “Christians” dumped their doctrine and composed their lives along similar lines.)
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But am I endorsing wildly abandoned teenage sexual promiscuity? Do not attribute words or sentiments to me that are not there.
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There are highly legitimate reasons for a person to not have sex. First among them is the personal desire not to fall prey to pressurized overtures to have it, and that has nothing to do with either the age or marital status of the individual. If it’s not what you want, don’t do it. Regardless what your age or relationship status may be, you’re an individual first, with all the intrinsic dignity that definition includes.
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Of course, there’s the pregnancy thing. Unprotected sex, in or out of marriage, leads to it and to decades of financial and emotional obligations that ensue, or should. Honest, the world does not need one more baby. The 6-plus billion and counting fast to seven that we can’t feed and clothe and house and educate are plenty. And honest, unless one presently has his or her career and fiscal house in order, a child, statistically speaking, will destroy the prospects of ever securing them; not may — statistically will.
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Certainly there’s the problem of sexually transmitted diseases. But again, those risks are not confined to the teen demographic. Those heavy risks apply to everyone, of every age who is capable of and interested in and a participant in promiscuous sexual activity. And “protected” there is hardly a guarantee of full protection. For very graphic evidence check out the HPV (human papilloma virus; genital warts) photos and facts at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hARDIN/MD/dermnet/genwarts2.html, or http://www.mediscan.co.uk/cfm/resultssearch.cfm?actiontype=return_results&nextrow=1&endrow=14&box=PAPILLOMAVIRUS&mediatype=Image&pageno=1&log=nk, or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genital_warts.
_This discussion is neither in support of nor opposition to teenage sexual activity. It’s a diatribe against propagandistic efforts by any group on behalf of any cause. In this case, it’s against all who stupidly propound that what they are to is anything short of the most absurd stupidity. Kids get it! They always have! Whether it’s a moral argument that contends marijuana leads inextricably to heroin addiction or that sex sans marriage is by necessity a one-way route to a life of hell, and that the only way to avoid either of the cited consequences is to absolutely avoid either, teens know they’re being conned; lied to; disingenuously disrespected. That, more than anything else will turn off any and all receptors to whatever benefits might inhere in legitimate, truthful discussions of those and other topics.
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It’s not merely that such adult efforts are ineffective, which they are. It’s so much worse. It’s where the effort rightfully produces disrespect by the teen for his or her parents and that disrespect taints everything else the parents might proffer. They — the teens targeted — rightfully conclude they’re being intentionally lied to, or that those doing the preaching haven’t a clue what they’re talking about.
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Look, other than instill some horribly neurotic phobia, there is not one thing any society can do to diminish a child’s interest in sex. As every pediatrician will attest, many males leave the birth canal with an erection, and will spontaneously achieve one through toddlerhood, all the way into full adulthood. At the earliest ages children explore their bodies, touching themselves, because those touches and explorations produce considerable physical pleasure. It’s nothing short of life calling on itself. Suggesting that somehow it’s the merest part “wrong” will do more serious damage than those pushing abstinence, under the guise of not wanting to advance teen interest in sex, will, or can, admit. Furthermore, leaving teens no alternative but to abstinence absolutely leads to more unwanted pregnancies than any other single contributing factor.
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