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Whose Moral Compass To Follow When It Comes To Sex-Ed?

What Paula Simons doesn't appear to understand is that there is more chance of teaching kids, with enthusiasm, that sex is best saved for marriage so that as much as possible, children can be conceived in a loving home environment, from a Christian-based organization than from a Planned Parenthood-based organization.
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There was a lot of fun discussion in the media last week about former Prime Minister Kim Campbell and author Margaret Atwood's call to change the national anthem from, "in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command." And I suspect that a lot of the "groans" from a lot of average Canadians, was not about the anthem change, but about being hit over the head yet again, by the broken moral compass of the radical feminists, over petty issues, when there are many more important issues for us as Canadians to be concerned about.

One of these important issues was brought up by Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons, in her recent article, "Let's wait on Christian-based sex ed."

Simons writes: "Yet while almost 60 Edmonton Public Schools hosted the Pregnancy Care Centre last year, the pro-choice organization formerly known as Planned Parenthood, now called Options, was invited to just 18. That suggests students aren't hearing balanced perspectives.

"We do talk about abstinence as one option," says Options' executive director Toby Rabinovitz. "But students also hear that this is your choice to make, whatever your culture. They can only make intelligent decisions if they have all the options in front of them. We need to have this conversation with kids in a very safe, respectful manner. They're so vulnerable. They're just exploring their own sexuality. If they ask questions, they need answers that aren't based on a faith approach."

And Simons concludes: "Absolutely, we need sensitive abstinence education in schools. But students have the right to understand the Pregnancy Care Centre's complete political and religious background -- and to hear guest speakers with alternate points of view."

What Paula Simons doesn't appear to understand is that there is more chance of teaching kids, with enthusiasm, that sex is best saved for marriage so that as much as possible, children can be conceived in a loving home environment, from a Christian-based organization than from a Planned Parenthood-based organization.

Our broad based Canadian moral compass includes celebrating strong marriages, and many of our Canadian writers, and writers of great world literature have portrayed this for us for all to enjoy.

This celebration of marriage in world literature goes back not only hundreds of years but even thousands of years to even before the time of Christ.

I mention "even before the time of Christ", because this celebration of marriage is not just a Christian theme as Paula Simons presupposes.

The classic go-to example for this is the Greek epic poem, "The Odyssey," where the hero Odysseus, returns after 20 years of his adventures, to his wife Penelope, to find that she was so devoted and good that she was as much a hero in the story as Odysseus was. The point is, the Greek author Homer, was celebrating strong marriages long before the birth of Christ, just like many of our finest authors today, both religious and secular alike.

And I suspect that in the celebration of strong marriages in our literature, movies and schools, we will find a broad based moral compass, pointing us in the right direction, for many generations of Canadians to come.

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