What do you think? Should we be teaching kids about sex, and making contraception available to them, or should we leave it to the parents, ignore the hell out of it, and encourage school prayer?
Behold the map, based on 2006 statistics. Where is the Bible Belt, again?
Hotbed of liberalism - California, or New England. Among the lowest teen pregnancy rates.
Foundation of Christian Conservatism - Texas through Florida, with Mississippi and Alabama as the "buckle" on that Bible belt. Highest teen pregnancy rates.
So what is working better? Contraception, or abstinence?
There are so many fallacies in this argument. That teaching kids the facts about sex and safety will make them more promiscuous (maybe, but they'll be SMART and promiscuous). That prayers and loving God are enough to make kids fight a genetic imperative that is hard-wired into their bodies, and has been a rite of passage for millenia, something that's empowering and pleasurable, and is driven forward by hormones and drives and emotions that are powerful, that kids have little-to-no experience with. That's like saying, "Don't give people parachutes; if the plane goes down, it's God's will. Or, God will save them if it's His will." Just wear the damned parachute!
Sarah Palin, "hope of the new Republican Party," and dedicated Christian, had a teen pregnancy
In
Her
Own
FAMILY.
Okay? Do you know how many people I know, stout Christians, who have had unwanted teen pregnancy in their families? More than a few. God doesn't magically prevent pregnancy, or teen sex. (Or maybe He does; the rate could be ten times higher without his influence, who can say?) Anyway, a prayer and a condom work better than prayer alone, most times. Prayer and a good surgeon do more for cancer than prayer alone. God doesn't mind us being smart; if you believe that way, God MADE us smart, in the first place. He wants us to use those brains. And that map just says it all.
Knowledge is not the enemy - ignorance is. Look at the damned map.
