Comments on: Sponsoring a government religion without calling it government-sponsored religion

By: Erika Price

Erika Price — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 04:30:30 +0000

Somehow I suspect that these evangelical abstinence-only “educators” use much the same methods as the ineffective US public school abstinence-only “educators”- namely, they remain in large part entirely mum on the specifics of sex and sexuality. Many abstinence-only programs in the US consist of a hearty, “Don’t have sex before marriage or terrible things will happen”, with no description of contraceptives, the way that STIs spread, or the way that conception actually takes place.

Considering the rampant misunderstanding of AIDS and how it spreads by the people of Africa- many believe as per myth or gossip that one can cure the condition by having sex with a virgin- education programs must involve full, candid access to information that Africans don’t generally have.

By: grumpypilgrim

grumpypilgrim — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 20:15:34 +0000

Indeed, the PBS story I mentioned in my post reported that the abstinence-only programs in Africa either don’t mention contraceptives at all or, if they do mention them, it is only to provide negative information about them — i.e., to make them appear ineffective. People who live in the communities where such programs exist even have difficulty obtaining condoms. A film clip of one of one abstinence-only program also showed people singing a song to Jesus, so it was obvious that evangelical Christians were running the operation.

Of course, this is just one part of Bush’s so-called “faith-based initiatives,” which is his euphemism for “government sponsorship of evangelical Christians.” This is not to say that evangelical Christianity is the only religious sect receiving federal money under Bush, but it is apparently receiving a vast majority of the money. Whenever new government money becomes available, evengalicals working inside the Whitehouse make sure to notify evangelical groups in the private sector and help them with the application process, so they are assured of getting a big slice of the pie.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:16:46 +0000

But maybe those abstinence-only programs are effective–well, actually not. It is widely reported that abstinence-only programs used in schools:

violate students’ free speech rights by censoring student publications of articles referring to sexuality. Abstinence-only programs often promote alarmist misinformation about sexual health and force-feed students religious ideology that condemns homosexuality, masturbation, abortion, and contraception.

Where is any credible evidence that abstinence-only programs result in abstinence? I don’t see that evidence. Rather, I see thousands of years of evidence that telling people not to have sex only works sometimes, with some people. Ergo, we’re pouring money into African AIDS programs that haven’t been shown to be effective. See also, http://thinkprogress.org/?tag=AIDS