Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Just Say Know: New Guide for Religious Leaders on Sexuality Education

Millions of young people started back to school today, including my 11th grader.

I'm hoping that most of them were able to listen to President Obama's speech.

The President steered clear of anything that might be controversial today, but I'm proud of his long standing commitment to comprehensive sexuality education and his administration's decision to end the abstinence-only-until-marriage program.

That doesn't mean, though, that community controversies about sexuality education will go away this year. In fact, there may be an increase in efforts to deny young people life-saving information.

That's where religious leaders and people of faith can play an important role -- in providing a faith-based voice for sexuality education and helping communities understand that providing sexuality education isn't just a public health issue, it's a moral responsibility. More than a dozen denominations and religious institutions are already involved, and a majority of people of faith from every denomination support sexuality education in school.

The Religious Institute has just made it easier for you to become involved. This morning, we published Just Say Know: A Faith Based Advocacy Guide for Sexuality Education. Just Say Know is an online guide to help clergy and religious leaders advocate for comprehensive sexuality education in public schools.

This guide provides background on comprehensive sexuality education, theological and spiritual grounding for advocacy, suggestions for involvement on the congregational, local, state and national levels, worship ideas, fact sheets, bibliographies and more. It will help you advocate for school based education in your community, state and nationwide, and includes resources for worship and social action in your congregation.

Check it out, become involved, and let us know what you think.

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