Preaching teen pregnancy
By Dr. Sonjia Keyna – Posted Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Does going to church increase the chances of teenage sex? Does atheism
promote abstinence? According to teen studies published in the
Journal of Religion
and Society – absolutely.
“Increasing adolescent abortion rates show positive correlation with
increasing belief and worship of a creator, and negative correlation
with increasing non-theism and acceptance of evolution,†states
Gregory S. Paul in his article, Cross-National Correlations of
Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism
in the Prosperous Democracies.
Paul analyzed countries around the globe and found the least religious
societies also had the lowest rates of teen abortions and births.
Among all developed nations, Japan ranked #1 in both atheism and
lowest rates of teen pregnancy. Over a hundred million people
reside in Japan, most don’t believe in God and most teens forgo
pregnancy in favor of college.
So, remind me again why we think that sending Cayman teenagers to
church will discourage them from having sex!
Instead of preaching abstinence until marriage as “the Caymanian wayâ€Â,
perhaps we should teach intelligence as the only way. When
visiting a local morning radio show a few months back, every single
caller who didn’t believe in educating teens about safe sex also said
they got married after finding out they (or their partner) became
pregnant.
Although the Cayman government will send just about any qualified teen
to college, why don’t more go? Perhaps they are spending too
much time listening to adultrole models, many of whom got married
only after having unprotected premarital sex, and then become
young parents without the time to go to college. Knowledge is power –
in this case the power to follow the path of education or a better
career rather than struggle as a young parent.
Most will agree that God is good. Most will also agree that
President’s Bush’s decision to go to war after praying to God
was not good. It was dumb. Rather than change the world for the
better, his decision not to separate religion from national policies
was dumb and kids are dying every day as a result. Death, of
course, is worse than pregnancy but the point prevails: mixing
religion with policy decisions is not smart and has a bad influence on
society as a whole.
Cayman youth have an opportunity to change the world by honing their
intellect through utilizing the amazing financial resources the
government allocates to advanced educational opportunities. Kids
in Japan don’t have the same benefits, don’t go to church, and don’t
get pregnant. They get degrees.
Rather than preach to our teens about not having sex before marriage,
how about going to school to learn about not getting pregnant before
earning a bachelor’s degree?
Category: Viewpoint
