The Abstinence Clearinghouse Blog

By Dr. Allen Unruh

 

Nothing threatens the future of the next generation more than defunding abstinence education.

 

The most deadly disease among young people is the disease of “immediate gratification.”

 

I want what I want,  when I want it,  and I want it NOW!

 

Public policy should always encourage moral restraint and responsibility.   It’s the foundation of freedom.

 

Too many young people have bought the lie that ecstasy and utopia are only found in temporary emotional highs.   When the low comes back they search for another fix.  

 

The principles of teaching abstinence are the only proven and tested ways to promote a life of success,  health and happiness.  

 

Where is the evidence that young people can play Russian Roulette with their lives and hope for the best.   Are the odds in their favor.

 

Let’s look at the slippery slope.

 

A kid believes the “resist the establishment lie” and starts smoking,   his friends say,  Let’s go to marijuana,  how about crack cocaine?  The highs are higher and last longer,   They can’t go to a party without booze,  and the faster they drink they may win a contest.   Their inhibitions are now weak and why not engage in promiscuous sex,  or go along with the craze of “Hooking up.”    After all,  it’s all fun.   “Man is motivated by pleasure,” said Freud and the only purpose of life is “sexual gratification.”   “If it feels good do it,”  becomes their worldview.    But loose women usually fall apart.   Deep down they’re pretty shallow.      

 

Nowadays we have GPS on phones,  and in all our cars that give us direction to reach our proper destination.

 

I think of abstinence as a GPS for their lives.   Without a GPS,  teaching them their decisions they make at a whim can affect them the rest of their lives, they will end up in ruin.    We are sending young people today on the stormiest sea of life with no fixed stars to steer by,  no compass,  no anchor,  and no rudder.   And we wonder why their lives often end up shipwrecked on the sea shore of life..  

 

If immediate gratification,  shallow decisions worked and are responsible for successful and productive lives,  why is it that we have:

 

1. 65 million young people with INCURABLE  sexually transmitted disease?
2. A 50% divorce rate,  but among teenagers that get married it’s about 75%.
3. Drug addiction is epidemic and out of control in every state.
4. 1/3^rd of pregnancies once again end up in abortion and it does have consequences emotionally and physically as up to 60% are coerced.
5. Why is suicide the 3^rd leading cause of death among young people when they can be entertained with any kind of music,  and get anything they want, anytime?
6. Depression among young people is epidemic.
7. Violence in schools has reached an all time high..
8. Gangs are becoming epidemic as young people search for some sense of belonging or purpose to life.
9. Over 25% of young people are victims of sexual abuse as kids.  

 

We have a war against kids in America.  

 

1. 1/3^rd don’t even get out of their mother’s womb and die for the crime of being inconvenient.
2. 1/3^rd are born in a single parent family with a 90% increase in chances of living in poverty,  and increased sexual abuse,  drug addiction,  alcoholism and crime.   (A high percent of prisons are there with sex crimes.)   Our country has spent $10 TRILLION on poverty programs since the war on poverty and poverty has increased dramatically.    We have to get the slums out of the people,  not the people out of the slums.  
3. over 60% are raised in a single parent home before they are 15 years old leaving them with a skewed view of relationships and emotional depression.
4. The percent of kids that learn principles that can ensure a healthy and happy life are dwindling rapidly.

 

Abstinence educators offer them hope,    we offer them freedom,  we offer them a future,  we offer them reality and are the only source of warning from our vast resources of research and testimonies of what improves their lives in countless ways.  

 

Abstinence educators are standing in the gap for millions of young people at pivotal times in their lives.   We believe in them.    Every day is a new beginning.   We can’t’ erase the past,  but we can chart a new course.   They don’t have to continue traveling down the path of self destruction.   They are not dogs in heat.  They are human beings.   They can make healthy decisions,  but need to learn how.

 

We simply can’t leave the subject of sex only to:

 

1. Playboy philosophers,  pornographers,  pedophiles,  perverts,  and political pundits.
2. It’s time they learn more from parents,   and preachers,  and people of principle that there is a better way.  

 

Sex today is BIG BUSINESS.    Hollywood makes billions off young people who are most vulnerable when their hormones are racing 900 mph.   They appeal to their baser instincts.   But not only does it threaten their future,  it undermines the very foundation of what America great.

 

As Alexes DeToquiville said,  “America is great because America is good,  if America ever ceases to be good,  she will cease to be great.”    He said that not after he saw America’s vast resources,  and industries.   He concluded that after visiting America’s churches,  and farm homes and witnessed the values that America was built on seeing families pray and thanking God for their many blessings prior to a meal.   

 

Abstinence is hope.   It’s the future,   It’s health and happiness.   It’s the right thing to do.   It protects young people from the glamorization of pleasure. The economic self interest of Hollywood should must have a counterpart to teach the truth.       Abstinence education teaches the foundations of love.   Love is a decision,  not a feeling. Abstinence provides young people with the resources to learn purity and sexual integrity.

 

In an age where environmentalists are passing countless laws to eliminate all pollution of the air and water,   why is it that pollution of the mind is epidemic and not a concern?    How much arsenic in a glass of water is too much?     Would you drink a glass of water if someone spit in it first.   Why is it that deadly diseases are not a deterent?

 

Abstinence is the ONLY sure fire way to prevent sexually transmitted disease not counting the emotional roller coaster young people are subject to in promiscuity.   Adolescents that engage in intimate activity are permanently scared mentally.    If you can’t control your sex life,  you can’t control any other area of your life.

 

We live in a time where governors and presidents can’t govern their sex life.   Politics is giving sex a bad name.

 

Telling young people that abstinence is OK,  but we don’t expect you to listen to that,  so here’s a condom.   When you give a mixed message and lower the expectations,   young people will follow the cue of lower expectations at a much higher percentage.    If the adult world lowers the standards,   why would a young person raise the standards on their own?  

 

The evidence is overwhelming that ABSTINENCE WORKS EVERY TIMES IT’S TRIED.     To abandon abstinence because some kids succumb to peer pressure is like saying,    why tell kids not to smoke,  when some will anyway.   Why not give them Safer cigarettes with longer filters?

 

One cigarette won’t kill you.   One wrong sex act can, and if it doesn’t kill you physically,  it can still ruin your life in countless ways.   

 

Abstinence is the only solution that should be taught in our high schools and grade schools throughout America.    It’s just as important as teaching honesty,  and not to cheat in school is in character education.

 

The strength of a nation is in the character and productivity of its people.   Public policy should encourage teaching the value of both.