There’s an old saying that in polite social circles one should never discuss religion, politics, or sex. Well, I never promised to be polite here so, since this article isn’t about politics, I guess that just leaves sex and religion, still, I’ll try to stay as “polite” as possible.
Sex and religion will always be interwoven with judgments; it’s just a fact of life, but what about the facts of life?
In India even after all tries by the various states governments to launch sex-ed at school level, sex education remained a bubble of controversy, and not only the religiously motivated groups and political parties but the school teachers opposed sex-ed on behalf of culture and religion. Irrespective of the fact that India is facing a huge trouble in the face of HIV and other STDs, and it is the nation with extreme numbers of cases of child molestation, rapes and unwanted pregnancies the people just couldn’t accept the idea of sex education. But it is not about India.
Recently in Australia where in a most odd pairing, Catholics and Muslims united to protest again explicit, forms of sex education in government schools. At present (all) children in government schools get secular sex ed.
I feel sure most people would agree that sex education of children is a sensitive but important aspect of their learning. However, let’s be clear we’re not talking simple birds and bees stuff here, it’s full on, hands on (often on quite literally) learning—everything from homosexuality to how to put on a condom correctly.
I guess the extreme Muslims’ view on sex, and more particularly sex for women is simple. A woman exists for the pleasure of her husband—that’s it, that’s pretty much all any good Muslim needs to know. I feel quite certain, too, that full sex education isn’t going to be on any Catholic school curriculum anytime soon. Although, I actually find the thought of a nun waving a piece of phallis shaped plastic around kind of kinky. It’s like an image straight from the pages of some sleazy men’s’ magazine, isn’t it? I guess nuns in full habit are often depicted as deranged and depraved sex fiends in porn. Yes, there’s something outrageously cheeky and titillating about the forbidden combination of nuns and sex, isn’t there? It’s like nuns are some kind of divine beings for whom sex and all things sexual just simply don’t exist.
Ah, but I digress…
So what exactly is sex education anyway? Well, certainly it’s about knowing the anatomy and physiology of human body; the actual act of sex; reproduction and, more relevant particularly in today’s sexualised world, it’s also about prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy.

Every week, in America alone, approximately 8,000 teenagers and children contract sexually transmitted diseases. Sexually active teen’s ages 15 to 19 have the highest STD rates of any age group, and nearly half of the 18.9 million new STD cases in 2000 were among youths ages 15 to 24. (Again in America, around 3,000 girls fall pregnant every week and the ratio is similar in Australia.) While gays and lesbians are quite simply just another (excuse this pun) fact of life. So, surely, the full scope of sex education is a good thing. It’s not as if sex education is, as some people seem to think, equivalent to giving kids some kind of inferred permission to engage in sex.
On the other hand, certainly everyone is entitled to raise their children, within the common boundary of what’s acceptable to the community, with the same morals and social values as themselves?
We live in a society where sex is everywhere. It’s used to sell everything from cars to choc milk. It’s there on everyone’s TV. It’s in every newspaper, magazine, and posted on every billboard. It’s talked about. It’s laughed about. You just can’t avoid it. So, I suppose it’s only fair and reasonable that some parents may want to make an effort to protect their children from, and at least have some control over, what they consider a deviation from their own good values and judgements.
Yes, politics, religion and sex… An atheist has the right to bring their child/children up without a belief in a god or gods. While a left winger is entitled to raise their child/children to be accepting of socialistic ways. Whether or not you agree or disagree with these things, they’re still freedoms everyone is entitled to. We tend to take them very much take for granted, so why should sex education be different?
Sex education is a health issue. I suppose, if you really wanted to, you could make it an elective course, allowing parents to opt out for their children. It may be a stupid thing for them to do (at least in my opinion) but they could do it.
As for the Church, theoretically more babies mean more followers. But how, then do you explain the marked decline in Catholics around the US, at least. And getting new priests (and, I assume, nuns) from this country is a serious problem for them.
It is my belief that better education combined with increased availability of information, through the Internet, cable TV, even cell phones, allows people to learn about other religions, or arguments against religions, and gives them more options. Unfortunately, it seems that many of those who are turning their backs on religion are placing their faith in UFO’s, Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) and lake monsters, instead.
As for my school-days, I didn’t need anything graphic forced down my throat by the state/school system to understand what sex and STD’s etc were about and I sure didn’t need to waste time on it when I did go to school taking a class specifically for it.
I know not all children have good parents that taught them anything about the basics to being alive or procreation, and personally if your an orphan or fosterchild etc and raised by the state then by all means force feed away.
I personally believe this would be a non-issue if the courses on sex ed were “parent selected” electives in all high school curriculum’s, allowing those that did not wish to be assaulted with such to educate themselves and or their own children.
Unfortunately most liberal education systems and governments believe that the “people are incapable of self responsibility and or teaching their own children and go to great lengths to keep such activities from occurring.
Churches and protestors of such things have no business disrupting schools with demonstrations when it’s the government that’s responsible. Their time would be better spent attempting to buy off the politicians responsible for backing the legislation. After all that’s how the offending courses got put into the schools to begin with, (someone convinced or paid off a politician).
I know this sounds like I am against sex education…I am not, what I am against is the “State” forcing sex education on children whose parents don’t want them to receive the “States” version of it.
Once again about the Muslim’s views on sex, People tend to hate and fear that which they don’t understand. They also tend to hate those who are markedly (and sometimes even just barely) different from themselves. They tend to forget that those others will view them with the same fear and hatred, and for the same reasons: they are different.
In the US, and in much of western Europe as well, people tend to think of themselves as enlightened, modern, civilized people, and we tend to think of the followers of Islam as barbaric, medieval brutes. They, on the other hand, think of themselves as devout, civilized and enlightened, and think of US citizen as despotic, hedonistic, heretics.
Who’s right?
Sexuality in any culture or religion which is male dominated is going to be biased against women, simply because those men will have, to one degree or another, taken the reins of power into their own hands, yet cannot help but view the sexual attraction of women as a threat to that power. As women gain more real power, like they have in the West, men tend to lose that fear of their sexuality, seeing them more and more as equals, in the boardroom and the bedroom. Admittedly, even in US, people are not quite at that point yet, but they are much farther along than most Muslim countries. And part of the reason that Muslim and Catholic leaders protest against sex education is that it demystifies female sexuality to some degree, allowing the young to see women more as equals and less as property.
This de-mystification can also all to easily lead to emasculation of a society and a trans-valuation away from natural bio-ethical truths.
Religious fundamentalism is all too often close minded.
The Islamic and the Christians both suffer from overt “fundamentalist” idealism and un-yielding dogmas that lead to direct confrontation.
The problem is not in the cultural identity of the individual. It is in the individual religious zealot’s resolution to continue along a chosen path without regard to logical observation that is the real culprit. Both east and west has too many examples to list.
It is a short sighted mistake to assume that a patriarchal society is also by default a misogynist one. Well established gender roles give structure to a chaotic environment and are often a necessity in economically poorer regions for survival.
Every culture in history that has lost touch with its biological orientation gender identity has fallen into decadence and decline.