Dateline Sacramento (11/12/2009)

Dateline Sacramento
News with a View from the California Capitol
November 12, 2009

Abstinence is the Best Policy

A May 2007 Zogby Poll determined that parents by a 2-1 margin prefer that their teens be taught abstinence instead of a “safe-sex” comprehensive sex education.  Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA), commented at the time, “These results confirm broad-based support for abstinence education, including teaching teens about developing healthy relationships and increasing self worth and self control.” 

For a decade or more, a policy tug-of-war over the messages of sex education has denied children the truth about sexual education.  In the safe-sex message promoted by “sex experts,” children hear about the glitz and glamour of premature sexual activity and learn from sex-education educators who indoctrinate them into the myth of “safe” sexual experimentation. Yet one in four girls now suffers from a sexually transmitted disease (STD). 
 

Miriam Grossman, M.D., a physician who has spent countless hours treating infected girls, cautions, “Sexually transmitted infections are 100% avoidable. Your sexual behavior, including your partner choice, will determine the risk to your health. The following factors place you at high risk for HPV, even with 100% condom use:

-Being a sexually active teen girl, or any male who has sex with other males,
-Initiating sexual behavior at a young age,
-Having multiple partners,
-Having sex with someone who has had multiple partners.”  (See “Way to Go, Planned Parenthood.”) 

Yet that is not the message teens hear on the Internet, on television, from their peers, and even from health and sex education classes.  Policymakers have waged a war over scarce sex-education dollars, and the Obama administration has removed abstinence funding and replaced it with contraceptive-funding sex education. 

Last week, a skewed report from the Centers for Disease Control panned abstinence education and promoted the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education.  The Task Force on Community Preventive Services, a 15-member panel that issues health recommendations, reviewed 83 studies of sexual-education programs conducted from 1980 to 2007.  Huber of the NAEA told CitizenLink that the panel was heavily stacked in favor of comprehensive sex education proponents.

The official findings of the committee determined that comprehensive sex-education programs “cut risky sexual behavior, increase condom use and lower the chances of getting the AIDS virus and other infections.”  The panel found “insufficient evidence” to establish if abstinence-based programs “are effective.”  (The Washington Post, November 7, 2009)

Two members of the panel, however, issued a dissenting report, saying, “the study recommendations may mislead policymakers by presenting conclusions that don’t match key study findings.”  Panel members Irene Ericksen and Danielle Ruedt questioned methodological issues and unsupported conclusions.  Ericksen and Ruedt said conclusions about the effectiveness of comprehensive-based sex education in reducing STDs appeared in only two programs in community health clinics – not schools, and that findings of significant reduction by abstinence programs were discounted, “based on a misplaced deference to certain RCT [randomized control trial] studies that showed no effects, but had important design problems.” 

Comprehensive sex education – and the educators who embrace it – is doing a huge injustice to the teens and youth who are buying the false messages that “everyone is doing it,” and the exaggerated claims of condom protection.  Many are the heartaches of these disastrous messages.  Lives are ruined and scarred not only by contracting disease, but the emotional turmoil of teenage pregnancy and premarital sex.  Abstinence outside of marriage is the only foolproof method of avoiding these pitfalls, yet millions of teens fall victim to the false promises of the proponents of sexual freedom.

Parents Matter
“If you want your child to walk the righteous path, do not merely point the way – lead the way. ~ J.A. Rosenkranz, PhD.

Two recent research briefs published by Child Trends – a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center that studies children at all stages of development – takes a look at teens’ perspectives on romantic relationships and decisions about sex.  Most parents believe that adolescents are primarily influenced by today’s culture – television, friends, movies, books, blogs and social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook.  While each of these factors play a role in shaping adolescents’ thoughts regarding relationships and sex, parental influence and modeling (or the lack of models) remains a teen’s primary influence.

Telling It Like It Is: Teen Perspectives on Romantic Relationships

In Child Trends’ research brief, “Telling It Like It Is: Teen Perspectives on Romantic Relationships,” researchers conducted focus groups with teens in the Washington, DC area regarding their thoughts on romantic relationships.  According to the study, four primary themes were identified:

1. Teens have developed their own ways to describe their relationships;
2. Teens have a clear understanding of what a healthy relationship looks like;
3. Teens have low expectations of experiencing a healthy relationship; and
4. Teens see similarities between the way they view romantic relationships and the way adults define their own relationships.

As the brief points out, the research findings were encouraging regarding adolescents’ understanding of healthy relationships, but adolescents settling for less raises concerns for parents and society alike.  While teens appear to understand the healthy components of romantic relationships, which include qualities such as respect, trust, honesty, fidelity and good communication, they do not expect to achieve them.  One of the causes for the low expectation of teens is that they have very few examples of healthy relationships or marriages.  Not surprising, “some teen girls specifically referred to the absence of fathers as a primary example of the lack of positive models.”

Parents Matter: The Role of Parents in Teens’ Decisions About Sex

The need for healthy parenting models is further illuminated in Child Trends’ research brief, “Parents Matter: The Role of Parents in Teens’ Decisions About Sex.”  This brief confirms that parents remain the primary influencers on adolescents’ decisions about relationships and sexual activity.  Despite many parents’ belief that non-family factors have a greater influence on their children, 47 percent of 12-19-year-olds surveyed reported that their parents had the most influence on their decisions about relationships and sex.  Further, 34 percent of those surveyed reported their parents were the most influential.

Additionally, research found that a household with high parent-teen relationship quality increases a parent’s influence on their teen children.  While the research notes that there are differences between parental relationships with daughters and sons – girls having better relationships with their mothers and boys with their fathers – higher levels of parent-adolescent relationship quality positively correlate with reduced levels of early sexual activity.  In two-parent homes, children who reported high relationship quality with both parents were even less likely to become sexually active at an early age.

The study also found that parental awareness and monitoring not only increased parent-adolescent relationship quality, but also helped prevent “risky” teen behavior.  The simple act of creating consistent family dinners positively influences adolescent behavior.  The study confirms that parental involvement is imperative to the healthy development of a child’s relationship to his parents, and to an adolescent’s sexual behavior. 

Parents Opportunity

However, while parental involvement, communication, monitoring and awareness are critical to raising a child, raising Christ-centered children is a greater challenge.  On Saturday, November 14, 2009, you can join thousands of parents across the country as Focus on Parenting hosts a simulcast conference looking at parenting through the eyes of God and the benefits of God’s design for your family.  Learn how to help your children and families thrive.  For more information and locations please visit their website.

Polls Find Californians Weary of Homosexual Marriage Ballot Measure

Having just marked the one year anniversary of the passage of Proposition 8, a new poll finds that Californians are weary of the issue and do not want to see it return to the ballot.  A joint study by the LA Times and the University of Southern California claims that although a slim majority of 51% of Californians approve of homosexual marriage, a strong 60% of those polled oppose a ballot measure on marriage returning next year.

Just last week, the people of Maine voted to protect the institution of marriage as only between a man and a woman, marking the 31st state – out of 31 attempts – to strengthen historic marriage laws.

The survey results mirror the current tensions in the same-sex marriage camp, as individuals and major groups disagree over the timeline to bring the subject of marriage’s definition back to the people of California.  Representing the more aggressive wing of the same-sex marriage proponents, the leadership of the “Courage Campaign” believes the subject must be placed on the ballot in 2010, while other groups believe that 2012, or even later, may allow the culture to become more approving, gaining the necessary votes to overturn Proposition 8.

A summary of multiple and recent state and national surveys shows a willingness by the people to provide protections to homosexual couples through domestic partnership or civil union registrations.  At the same time, polls do not suggest that people are any more willing to redefine marriage to include any two people. 

“As people become more informed of the benefits that the institution of marriage continues to provide to children and society, they are bolstered in their support of man-woman marriage," said Ron Prentice, CEO of California Family Council.  “Because traditional marriage has been commonplace, until recently people have not been reminded of marriage’s purpose.  But redefining marriage wrongly downplays a child’s need for both a mother and father, and creates discrimination against any who disagree with same-sex marriage.  As voters have displayed across the country, the American conscience rejects homosexual marriage.”

The LA Times/USC poll also showed a diversity of perspectives between political parties, with 66% of Democrat respondents favoring gay marriage, 71% of Republicans opposing it, and 59% of “non-partisan” voters also in favor.

Local Links

PITTSBURG – Members of a Pittsburg church are suing their pastor and his appointed leaders, saying they improperly spent church money and refused to follow bylaws.  The lawsuit by 31 longtime members of Solomon Temple Missionary Baptist Church seeks about $200,000 in damages from the Rev. Victor Brice and other leaders.  Read more in the Sacramento Bee.

SAN DIEGO – California’s non-discrimination law creates problems at Lindbergh Field, as a transgender worker – who was born a man, but lives as a woman—has caused great concern among female employees.  Read more at News10.com.

SANTA ANA – A federal judge has tentatively denied awarding $378,519 in attorneys' fees to the defense team for high school teacher James Corbett, sued by a student two years ago for his anti-Christian classroom rhetoric.  Read more in the Orange County Register.

Truth Project Opportunities

RIVERSIDE – California Family Council continues to expand its offerings of the acclaimed Truth Project group leader training seminars.  Training in biblical worldview is a prerequisite to living out authentic Christianity in today’s postmodern culture, with its subjective claims of truth. 

The next Truth Project group leader training seminar:

Saturday, November 14, 2009
8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Host Church: Neighborhood Church of Anderson and Cottonwood (Shasta County)
4684 Rhonda Rd., Anderson, CA 96007

Saturday, November 21, 2009
8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Host Church: Calvary Chapel, Paso Robles (Central Coast)
1615 Commerce Way #A, Paso Robles, 93446-3614

For more information on attending or hosting a seminar, call the California Family Council at 951.354.8362 and ask for Trudy.  Register online for seminars at: www.californiafamily.org.