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S-E-X Talk
By Jeremy | December 7, 2007
Interesting conversation by a Chi-town youth pastor about how Evangelicals teach abstinence to teens.
I have been thinking lately, though, about the typical Evangelical approach to “abstinence education†(including our approach here), and Josh McDowell brought the issue back to the forefront of my thinking. His approach typifies what you will hear and see among Christians when it comes to talking to teenagers about sex. We talk about the consequences of getting it wrong. To be fair, that’s not a bad idea. To be fair, we also talk about purity, sensible dating, making wise choices, and honoring God. But mostly, we quote statistics and tell horror stories and give grave warnings… almost like one would expect to find in a secular abstinence presentation. Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly a place for all of that in our teaching Christian kids about sex. But is that the best approach? Is that the most elevated discussion we can have about sex with Christian kids?
Topics: abstinence, evangelical, josh mcdowell, purity, sex, sxuality, youth ministry | 1 Comment »
December 8th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
I think the idea of abstinence only teaching needs to be rethought. I think it should be ONE of the things taught, but not the ONLY one. We need to teach kids to THINK! As a parent of three teenagers, I know how tempting it is to present only ONE option so that it will be the option they choose, but does that really work? It certainly didn’t for me. You can read some of my story at http://www.talktaboo.blogspot.com