Letters

Sex education in SA (letter)

Kevin McBride

Contents - Aug 2003 - Buy a copy now Editorial: 'Do this in memory of Me' - Peter Westmore Documents: Ecclesia in Europa - Pope challenges Christians to re-evangelise Europe - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World - AD2000 Bioethics: End-of-life decisions: the moral issues at stake - David Perrin US research survey: younger priests are generally more orthodox - AD2000 Catalyst for Renewal Address: The legacy of Vatican II - Archbishop George Pell Church architecture: overcoming iconoclasts and cult of ugliness - Larry Henderson Is Pope John Paul II canonising too many saints? - Michael Casanova Priesthood: Clerical celibacy 'for the sake of God's Kingdom': the Church's teaching - John Young Letters: Catholic hymns (letter) - Noel Decker Letters: Beautiful hymn (letter) - Therese F. Sellick Letters: Confession (letter) - Joe Slowiak Letters: Papal infallibility (letter) - Fr Brian Harrison OS Letters: Sex education in SA (letter) - Kevin McBride Letters: Martyrdom ignored - Tom King Letters: Orthodoxy? (letter) - Brian Dethridge Letters: Pantheism (letter) - Fr G.H. Duggan Letters: New Mass (letter) - Kevin Beck Letters: Lourdes appeal (letter) - Jenny Davies Books: Will Catholics be Left Behind, by Carl Olson - Envoy Magazine (reviewer) Books: The Divine Primacy: The Bishop of Rome and Modern Eastern Orthodoxy - Fr Peter Knowles OP (reviewer) JESUS: According to the Gospel of Luke (CD-ROM and Book) - Roberta Wilson (reviewer) Priests 24/7 : A video documentary - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: Great books at the best prices! Reflection: The Apocalypse: proclaiming the final victory of Christ and His Church - Fr G.H. Duggan SM

Are South Australian parents happy about the new State sex education program - even with a friendly caring teacher instructing our children in this very private moral area?

What is its supposed benefit or objective?

Do normal human beings - adult or children - actually need educating about sex?

Sex is a wholly natural activity, not far removed from many other normal human activities - eating, sleeping, drinking, loving, walking, none of which loom large as aspects requiring special study and instruction at school. Why then focus on sex? Is there some hidden agenda?

Is there a desire to create a new category of "clever" humans who can learn quickly how to thwart or outwit the normal processes of nature, e.g., unplanned, unwanted babies?

Sex is encased in a very private moral condition and the parameters are very wide and utterly dependent upon the individual moral values of the instructing parent or teacher .

Wide areas encompassed include considerations of unbridled and irresponsible sex, sex as an outlet for lust and passion, or sex as a loving chaste union of wholly committed humans.

Should we know more about the qualifications of those who will teach "sex" to our children - with possible security checks? As parents, do we really want this subject in our schools? If not, what are we doing about it? Do we feel impotent, too hesitant to mount a protest within our own social circle, or areas of authority - our Member of Parliament? But our MP will only act if he/she receives some pressure from the electors.

Can we convince ourselves we have no personal responsibility to do something about this develoment? Time is fast running out for any action we may feel is required of us.

KEVIN McBRIDE
Aberfoyle Park, SA

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 16 No 7 (August 2003), p. 15