Ryan ChartrandWhat Caitlin Page’s view of the world lacks in reality, it makes up for in colorful descriptions.
Unfortunately, the fact is that teenagers do have premarital sex. Adults and cohabitating couples have premarital sex as well! Instead of pretending sex does not happen, we need to give future generations the tools for protecting themselves, including condoms, birth control, and other methods as well.
Teaching abstinence-only education sets teenagers up for misfortunes of great magnitude, including, but not limited to, unwanted pregnancy, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections.
If Page were to truly explore reality, she would see that the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of all industrialized nations. Given our position as a leading power, it is odd we can not even handle social problems as well. The U.S. also has the highest rate of religiosity in all industrialized nations. Correlation, anyone?
Although the claim was made that churches do not just make up rules, I would strongly argue for the position that religion is subjective. Throughout history, we have seen time and time again that religious books were edited to support the message popular at the time. In addition, the incredible number of translations religious texts go through should support the idea that what was originally given to humans has been altered throughout history.
Perhaps God will or will not change his (or her) opinion of birth control, but here on earth we can certainly adopt a more realistic way to protect future generations.
Julie Kunz
Psychology junior