Posts with the tag abstinence
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I'm not going to discuss Palin parenthood skills and any specific question about her family. I want to focus on the question of the effectiveness of abstinence only sex education in schools. Palin is a great supporter of this idea, whose failure is brought to the attention of many more people now with her family's story.

In fact this is actually a really good example that even with the "perfect family settings" teenagers have sex and will continue to have sex. Can we extract that fact for discussing the messages that teenagers get? If we would be able to do just that with the public exposure to the issue that Palin enables there can be a lesson that it can be delivered.

It is not a question of religion or if having sex in high school is a good or bad thing. It is a question of saying sure you should wait with sex as much as you can but if you start having sex do what needed to avoid pregnancy and STDs.

I found Obama's response to the personal Palin situation respectable. There is nothing easier than to drag your opponents through the mud much as they try to do for him. Setting the public debate at an higher level would serve us all as in the end we live, work and interact in the same society. Still it is important to discuss the principal issues for the political debate. For more posts check my other blog here 

When JFK ran for President in 1960, one of the "big problems" for a large number of voters was his church. The allegation was that JFK would be more loyal to his church than to his country. Kennedy's response at the time was to remind people that we have a little tradition in this country called "separation of church and state." This tradition came from our founding fathers who turned their backs on royal absolutism from Europe which was typically supported by the church. They realized that religion can be a toxic element if allowed to dominate the public square, since religion is intrinsically divisive. Most religions not not content themselves as simply promoting righteousness but rather proclaim themselves to be the unique path to eternal salvation. This type of dogmatism, tolerable in one's personal life, is clearly not the way one can forge a consensus among a diverse people.

So wisely, our founding fathers did two things regarding religion:   Read More »
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