Denominations Support Sexual Justice

I thought you’d enjoy this report from Juliana Mecera, the Religious Institute’s 2010 summer intern.

This summer I researched seventeen different Jewish and Christian denominations, exploring their policies and programs on sexuality education, reproductive rights, women’s programs, and the full-inclusion of LGBT persons—and was pleased to find that denominations are active and even vibrant in engaging and responding to sexuality concerns. As I met—over the phone and in person—with many church and synagogue leaders, I appreciated their familiarity with sexuality issues and was encouraged to learn that many had worked with the extensive resources of the Religious Institute to improve the quality of sexual information and care they provide to their congregants.

Impressively, all of these denominations (see list below) are active in at least one of these areas pertaining to sexuality! As children begin school and religious education courses start-up again, I was especially attuned to educational issues. A large majority—14 of these 17 denominations—have either developed their own sexuality education curricula or promote another denomination’s resources. Furthermore, 11 of these denominations support sexual education being taught in public schools.

Support for the full-inclusion of LGBT persons is fairly strong among this group as a whole. Ten have an official policy for full-inclusion, and of the 7 that do not, 3 have unofficial organizations that work for the full-inclusion of their LGBT members and offer them support. Unfortunately, even those denominations which formally support LGBT persons often lack an official denominational office to help congregations become welcoming and affirming. Even more striking is that 14 denominations—all but 3—have a national women’s program, and 11 denominations have an official statement that advocates for reproductive rights.

It’s truly heartening to see this amount of engagement by religious communities in sexuality-related issues. The numbers of these prominent denominations, however, indicate that there is still work to be done, particularly in advocating for LGBT inclusion. I am thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to further this work at the Religious Institute this summer.

• African Methodist Episcopal Church
• Alliance of Baptists
• American Baptist Church
• Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• Church of the Brethren
• Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
• The Episcopal Church (USA)
• The Fellowship
• Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
• Metropolitan Community Churches
• Presbyterian Church (USA)
• Reformed Church in America
• United Church of Christ
• The United Methodist Church
• Union for Reform Judaism
• United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
• Unitarian Universalist Association

Juliana M. Mecera

Adults Are The Problem With Teen Sexuality

Adults set up a fake prom in Mississippi rather than have a lesbian teen couple attend the actual prom.

A district attorney in Wisconsin threatens to charge sex educators with sex abuse if they teach condom use to teens younger than 16 in accordance with state education law.

A Vatican official on Easter Sunday suggests that the faithful avoid the "petty gossip" about sexual abuse of children and youth by priests.

These recent events reported in the news in the past few days appal me. I'm guessing they do you, too.

And what do they teach our young people? That some adults so devalue gay and lesbian youth that they shouldn't be included in important events. That some adults would rather deny young people life saving information than acknowledge that some teens engage in sexual relationships. That some adults turn their back on young people who are being sexually abused by adults.

What do I want teens (and the adults who care for them) to know? That forming a sexual identity is a developmental task of adolescents. That adults need to support the teen virgins and the teens who engage in sexual behaviors. That truth telling should be the hallmark of all of our programs. That adults will do everything they can to protect youth from abusive adults, regardless of profession. That young people have the right to ask questions and a right to have answers. That they deserve our respect and our support as they become adults.

The good news for today is that the teen birth rate went down last year, after increasing for the past two. More teens are protecting themselves, either by abstaining from PVI (penile-vaginal intercourse) or by using contraception. While the adults are fighting, they're seeking out what they need to be safe. Shouldn't we be on THEIR side?

Abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education -- It's back...

Read that title in your most ominous, scary movie tone.

Because, unbelievably, this is the program that just won't die. I think we all believed we had driven a stake through it. The Congressional evaluation found that abstinence-only sexuality education didn't help young people delay. Other studies found that it actually increased the numbers of young people having oral and anal sex, and discouraged them from using contraception when they did have sexual intercourse. President Obama deleted it from his budget. Even half the states had rejected the money.

And yet, there it is again...$250 million dollars in the health care reconciliation bill.

How did that happen? Well, I'm guessing it's about lobbying, connections, the organized right, and the huge abstinence-only-until-marriage industry that has grown up since 1997.

What it's not about is our young people. The evidence is clear -- programs that teach young people about sexuality, stress abstinence and sexual limit setting, and provide information on STD and pregnancy prevention help young people delay sexual activity and protect themselves when they do become sexually involved. Only one abstinence-only program has been shown to help young people delay -- it was at the sixth- and seventh-grade level, and it was not a fear- based program. It didn't tell them not to have sex until they were married -- but not to have sex now. Surely we all support that.

But this new program will likely continue the same lies and the same withholding of information that we've seen since the late 1990s. It's wrong.

Speak up. Join our new Faithful Voices Network at www.religiousinstitute.org and add your voice as a person of faith for sexuality education.

Sexual Justice in Faith Communities in the First Decade: A Decade of Progress

Happy New Year!

There have been lots of retrospectives about the first decade of the 21st century, from economics to arts to peace in the world. The conclusions have been decidedly mixed.

But, there is no question that the past ten years have seen remarkable progress in furthering the vision of the Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing, the seminal statement that was first published in January 2000.

Here are some of the highlights from 2000 until now:

*While women's ordination was not new in 2000, there has been notable progress in the numbers of women in denominational leadership. Women now head the Episcopal Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, and the Fellowship. Women serve as bishops in such diverse traditions as the African Methodist Episcopal Church, AME Zion, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the United Methodist Church.

*In 2000, only a handful of denominations had welcoming organizations promoting full inclusion of lesbian and gay persons in faith communities. Today, every mainline Protest denomination has an official or associated group working towards full inclusion, as well as several in Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic, and evangelical traditions. According to our colleagues at the Institute for Welcoming Resources, there are now more than 3300 welcoming congregations in the U.S., a threefold increase since 2003.

*Marriage for same sex couples was barely on the national agenda 10 years ago. Only UUA clergy were sanctioned to perform same sex unions; today at least a dozen Christian and Jewish denominations allow their clergy to perform marriage or union ceremonies, and they are legal in five states and the District of Columbia.

*It was ten years ago that the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ published all six of the curricula that make up "Our Whole Lives", the comprehensive sexuality education program for congregations that begins in early elementary school and continues through adulthood. At least a dozen denominations now have their own sexuality education curricula.

There is still so much to be done to realize the goal of sexual justice in faith communities and society at large. But, just for today, as we stand on the cusp of this new decade, it's time for us to celebrate all that has happened during the past decade. And to be thankful to all those who made it happen.

May this been a blessed year for us all.

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.

Standing Up For International Sexuality Education: It's A Moral Obligation to the World's Youth

UNESCO was about to release new international guidelines for sexuality education next week. Instead, according to this article in the NY Times and verified for me by other sources, they have been pulled back due to pressure from US groups on the right that oppose comprehensive sexuality education.

UNESCO has pulled the draft from its website and says they are being revised. The complaints as you will read in this article include that the guidelines suggest that young people need a definition of masturbation, information about contraception, and to know how to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases.

In other words, same old, same old objections. Despite more than 30 years of research that demonstrates that sexuality education can help young people delay sexual involvement and protect themselves, ultra conservatives still want to stop it. And the fact that organizations like UNFPA has now disassociated themselves from these new guidelines and UNESCO has slowed their release, shows that those voices are still winning -- and our children and teens are still the losers.

I'm taking this one a bit personally -- because as I just discovered, the guidelines part of this new work is actually based on the National Guidelines for Sexuality Education, a project I created when I was President of SIECUS, way back in 1990. Dr. Bill Yarber and I co-directed this project and developed its framework, goals, and key messages, with input from a national task force of experts. We then adapted the project for guidelines development with task forces in such countries as Brazil, India, Russia, and Nigeria.

The objections that are reported in the article are familiar, because we've heard them regularly in the past twenty years. The UNESCO document itself talks about anticipating controversy.

I'm trying to find out more about how people of faith and religious leaders can speak out about these documents, demonstrating once again that sexuality education isn't just a public health responsibility -- but a moral obligation. Stay tuned.

My Afternoon At The White House

This is going to read a little bit like that classic "what I did on my summer vacation" essay you wrote in the 8th grade.

But, I'm just back from a trip to Washington, D.C. and a meeting of progressive faith leaders with Rev. Josh DuBois and Michael Ware from the White House Faith Based Office, Jennie Yeager from Public Communication, and Lauren Dunn from the Domestic Policy staff.

The meeting was held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building -- that's the one that sort of looks like an ornate wedding cake. And we were in a room that used to be the Vice President's office in past administrations (until they moved them to the actual West Wing.) Despite prior meetings over the years, I was still excited to be there.

We began asking for this meeting shortly after the inauguration. I am indebted to Nancy Ratzen, the President of the National Council for Jewish Women (NCJW), for helping make it happen.

Our purpose for the meeting was to bring progressive religious leaders to demonstrate faith based support for sexuality education. I was joined in speaking by Rev. Ignacio Castuera, National Chaplain for Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Ann Hanson, Minister for Sexuality Education and Justice for the United Church of Christ; Rev. Carlton Veazey, President of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (all of whom serve on the Religious Institute advisory committee); Rev. Ann Tiemeyer from the National Council of Churches of Christ; Rev. Amy Stapleton from the United Methodists; Lisa Cox from Catholics for Choice; and Nina Schwartz from NCJW. Together, we estimated that we represented over 60 million people of faith in the U.S. who support comprehensive sexuality education -- and oppose teaching young people only about abstinence.

The White House staff was warm, receptive, interested, and had many questions. They seemed particularly interested in learning about the UCC/UUA's Our Whole Lives programs for difficult to reach youth, and sex abuse and violence prevention. Rev. DuBois assured us that their goal was to reduce the need for abortions not the number of abortions (a subject I have written about here many times, and it was great to hear him use that language). We were also told to expect that the President would have something to say about teenage pregnancy prevention in the next few months.

It's always hard to know at first whether such meetings accomplish much. But I think we succeeded in our mission. We brought truly progressive religious leaders to the White House to support sexuality education. Our united voice let them know that mainstream to progressive Jews, Protestants, Catholics, and Unitarian Universalists support sexuality education and have for decades. We reinforced our faiths' commitment to truth telling, to helping young people develop a freely informed conscience, and to helping them celebrate their sexuality with holiness and integrity, as adolescents now and as future adults.

I'm grateful to the people who helped make it happen, to my colleagues for traveling to be with us, and to the people at the White House who listened, really listened, to us.

“Click” reproductive services back into our healthcare (and education)!

While Rev. Haffner is vacationing this week, Religious Institute staff will be guest blogging. Today's post is by Dr. Kate Ott, Associate Director.

It makes sense that the nation’s leaders consider reproductive healthcare services an optional part of universal coverage. It makes sense because from little on, we learn that the “reproductive system” is not a significant part of our bodies functioning. In fact, we ignore its existence when talking to children for as long as we can when.

In my little East Coast town, our library was recently renovated to include a fabulous new children’s play area complete with reading corners, imaginary play resources, and of course a new kid-friendly computer section. My youngest, age 4, started playing a science game about the body’s systems on the computer. You can call up the breathing (pulmonary system), blood (cardiac system), bones (skeletal system), brains (nervous system), muscles (muscular system), stomach (digestive system), BUT you can’t pull up the reproductive system. In fact, the click-on “universal man” is so amorphously shaped he has less reproductive organs than Ken-Barbie.

As you play the game, you learn the names of the body parts including internal organs. You can double-click the heart to see if it is soft or hard. You can highlight nerves and watch them carry a message to the brain. The digestive system stops short of having click-able links that connect to any “private parts.” My 4 year old wanted to know “where the food went next” and why the body didn’t have a penis. He knows that if he drinks lots of water he will have to go to the bathroom and pee comes out his penis. At 4, he made this connection and wanted to know why that wasn’t part of the game. A natural part of life in his opinion!

I took some time to play the game as well, so I could see if my initial reaction was correct. In fact, there were no reproductive organs and no way to make basic connections between areas such as the penis, vulva, or others. Why keep this information out of the game? Yes, the player might have to choose a boy or girl at the start of the game in order to specify which reproductive organs each has. And the explanations would need to be age-appropriate, just like they were for the nervous system.

Silence through absence of a reproductive system in a computer game (or any books available in the library) for children teaches them a loud and clear message that reproductive health and “that part of our body” is not to be discussed. We have reproductive organs, folks. It isn’t optional! Let’s make them an equal part of our bodies, of what we teach children, and of our healthcare plans.

Coverage of Religious Institute's Congressional Briefing on Sex Ed

One of my favorite journalists and bloggers is Sarah Posner. We just met in person last week for the first time. She writes for the Nation, American Prospect, and other print and online journals on religion and politics. The fact that we share an alma mater is a nice connection.

She covered our briefing last week in American Prospect. I'll let you read it directly:

Pro-Sexual-Justice Religious Left Calls for End to Abstinence-Only Sex-Ed Funding.

For all his talk of "abortion reduction" as one of his centrist goals, Wallis remains committed to the idea that, in Gedeik's words to me this week, abortion is the "taking of a human life." That's theo-conservative, not theo-progressive talk. There is a religious left that emphasizes the moral agency of women to make reproductive choices, something Wallis does not.


But progressive, pro-choice religious activism is not limited to abortion. It includes a panoply of reproductive-justice issues. This week, a group of religious activists continued their push for the government to end abstinence-only sex education and fund comprehensive sex education.


The Religious Institute on Sexual Justice, Morality, and Healing, which has gathered over 900 pastoral signatures in favor of comprehensive sex education, hosted a briefing this week for congressional staff. Activists, including pastors, made a religious case for teaching medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education in the nation's public schools.


According to Bill Smith, vice president for public policy for the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, the White House has assured activists of its commitment to comprehensive sex education. "It's a new day in this town," said Smith at the briefing. Obama is "the first president in American history who supports unequivocally a comprehensive approach to sex education."


But in the end, it's not about religion but science. "If science is in," Smith said, "abstinence-only is definitely out."


But for Obama, and increasingly for Democrats, the issue is also about satisfying religious constituencies to the right of the Religious Institute. Science is in but so is religion.

Thanks, Sarah. Good to meet you.

Religious Institute to Congress: Fund Sexuality Education Now

Here's a photo from the Religious Institute briefing on reducing teenage pregnancies and STI's that we held this past week.

Joining me at the table are Ann Hanson, Rev. Ignacio Castuera, Rev. Cedric Harmon, Emily Goodstein, and Bill Smith. Over 30 national organizations and Congressional offices sent representatives to the briefing.

We'll be posting my comments at our website next week, but here's a piece from the ending. Let me know what you think.

The fact is we know how to prevent unintended teenage pregnancies. The US teenage pregnancy rate is 9 times higher than the Netherlands, four or five times higher than other European countries. Our teen gonorrhea rate is a shocking 74 time higher than France and the Netherlands. 74 times. The reason? An openness about sexuality, a clear message to young people that sexuality is a wonderful part of life but that it must be exercised wisely, sexuality education that begins at the youngest ages in the home and in schools and continues throughout their youth and early adulthood, and easily accessible free or low cost family planning services. We have forty years of research telling us there is NO silver bullet, but there are clear common sense proven strategies – we just need the political will and the funding to put them into practice.

That’s good public health practice – but it’s also the moral and ethical response. Religious institutions and religious leaders support and provide comprehensive sexuality education out of deep commitment to our theology, our sacred texts, and to our belief that they are called to serve the most vulnerable, the most marginalized among us. We must remember that the lack of sexuality education and family planning services disproportionately affects low income families in the United States: Poor and low income adolescents account for almost three quarters of all teenage pregnancies in the United States, and 83% of the births to teenagers.

Sexuality is one of life’s most precious blessings, but we need to be wise stewards of this gift. We know that our sexuality should be celebrated with joy, holiness, and integrity, but that requires understanding, respect and self discipline. We know that our young people need adult help to develop their capacity for moral discernment and a freely informed conscience.

We are at a Kairos moment. We need a federal sexuality education program that reaches all young people -- those who are heterosexual, those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning of their orientation, those who are transgender or questioning, those who are abstinent and choose to remain so, those who have had sexual relationships, and those who have experienced sexual abuse.

Last year at a similar briefing, I ended my remarks this way. “It is time – it is way past time – for the federal government to support sexuality education programs for youth and to cease funding programs that are not only ineffective but may put our children and teenagers at risk – for disease, for short changed futures, for denial of the gift of their sexuality. “

It is a Kairos moment for our young people. We pray that together those of us in this room – the members of Congress and their staffs, the organizational representatives, the religious leaders – will walk through that opening together."

May it be so.

President Obama, Abstinence-only-until-marriage education is wasteful, ineffective, and immoral

On Saturday, President Obama announced that he would ask his department and agency heads this morning for "the painstaking work of examining every program, every entitlement, every dollar of government spending, and asking ourselves: is this program really essential?" He promised that programs that are "wasteful or ineffective" will be eliminated.

So, just in case this isn't on the Acting Secretary of DHHS' list, let me suggest that the three abstinence-only-until-marriage programs be at the top. More than 1.5 billion dollars have been spent on these programs since they were first created. Congress' own study found that these programs have not helped young people abstain from sexual intercourse, and other peer reviewed studies have found that some of the funded programs have actually put young people at risk of not using contraceptive and condoms when they do become sexually involved and increasing the likelihood that they will engage in oral and anal sex. A wasteful and ineffective federal program? You bet.

But also an immoral one that denies young people life saving information, distorts the truth, and leaves the most vulnerable young people without the education and skills they need.

Not only that, but as a state senator, as a US Senator, and as a candidate, the President pledged his support for comprehensive sexuality education that includes helping young people delay getting involved in mature sexual behaviors and provides them with information about pregnancy and STD prevention

Mr. President, you already cut the program in the 2009 budget. I'm praying that as part of this cost-cutting effort you'll recognize it's time to eliminate it completely.

Immorality of Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs

That's the title of my latest Huffington Post blog:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-debra-haffner/the-immorality-of-teachin_b_173872.html

It expands on Wednesday's blog here on the 925 clergy who joined with the Religious Institute to urge the Obama administration to end federal funding for abstinence only until marriage education.

It's been a big week for news about teenage sexuality:

The 2009 budget just passed had the first decrease in abstinence only funding since the program began., but still continued all three funding programs.

It was Abstinence Day on Capitol Hill. I read that the National Abstinence Clearinghouse brought 500 teen virgins to Congress yesterday. (I couldn't help but think of the first chapters of the book of Esther that I reread this week in observance of Purim.) I can't help but wonder how many of those young people will be sexually active before they are 20 and how they will look back on this day.

And we learned late today that Bristol Palin joined the 92% of teen mothers who don't end up marrying their baby's fathers. No real surprise here.

We can and must do better for the nation's teenagers. Read more here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-debra-haffner/the-immorality-of-teachin_b_173872.html

Religious Leaders Ask Obama Administration to End Abstinence-Only Education

This morning I sent a letter to the White House, on behalf of more than 925 ordained clergy and national religious leaders, urging an end to federal funding for the three abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and calling for a new national commitment to comprehensive sexuality education.

You can read the whole letter and view the entire list of endorsements at our web site.

Here are some portions of the letter:

Dear Mr. President:

Thank you for your courageous action this week to lift the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and for the guarantee of scientific integrity in federal policy making. I am particularly grateful that your decision not only puts science before ideology, but is grounded in your beliefs as a person of faith that we must do all we can to advance human knowledge, alleviate human suffering, and enable all people to flourish.

It is with that shared conviction that I am writing to encourage your action on another issue, one that is vital to the well-being of American youth, in particular – eliminating funding for the federal abstinence-only-until-marriage sexuality education programs. Public health professionals have amply demonstrated that these programs contain medically inaccurate information and that they are not effective in reducing teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Strong public health arguments support comprehensive sexuality education.

But, we also want you to know that there are strong moral foundations for supporting sexuality education. It is with adult guidance and comprehensive information and education – education that includes abstinence, contraception and STI prevention – that young people will be prepared to make responsible decisions about their sexuality.

More than 925 clergy and national religious leaders join me today in endorsing the Religious Institute’s Open Letter to Religious Leaders about Sex Education. "Young people need to know ‘there is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,’" the Open Letter says, "but they also require the skills to make moral and healthy decisions about relationships for themselves now and in their future adult lives." As religious leaders, we hope that young people will learn about their sexuality not primarily from the entertainment media or their peers, but from their parents, faith communities and school-based programs that address the biological, psychological, cultural, ethical and spiritual dimensions of sexuality.

Read the rest of the letter here.

The religious leaders who endorsed the call for comprehensive sexuality education lead major denominations and national faith-based organizations. They serve in local congregations and communities; they teach in schools, parishes and seminaries. They represent every state and more than fifty faith traditions. Together, they affirm that "education that respects and
empowers young people has more integrity than education based on incomplete information, fear, and shame."

So far, the Obama administration has lifted the Mexico City ban, begun the process of lifting the midnight clause on health care professionals, and lifted the ban on stem cell research. With people of faith and religious leaders across the country, we are grateful for these steps for sexual and social justice. We pray that an end to programs that deny young people life saving information is not far behind.

Just Say Don't Know -- It's Time to End The Federal Abstinence Only Program

Yesterday, the Texas Freedom Network released "Just Say Don't Know," a study of sex education in public schools in Texas. In 2007, Texas spent $18 million on abstinence only until marriage programs.

You must read this study and view the videos at their web site. TFN has documented that 96% of the public schools in Texas don't teach about pregnancy and disease prevention, and 41% include inaccurate information in their programs.

The report also documented that some schools are including overtly Christian materials in their public school classes, clearly a violation of the law. Here's an excerpt:

Consider a handout used by one district entitled: “Things to look for in a mate.”

How they relate to God
A. Is Jesus their first love?
B. Trying to impress people or serve God?

Another district turned over a series of what appear to be student handouts that lay out a scriptural case for abstinence from sexual activity.

Question: “What does the Bible say about sex before marriage / premarital sex?”

Answer: Along with all other kinds of sexual immorality, sex before marriage / premarital sex is repeatedly condemned in Scripture (Acts 15:20; Romans 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13,18; 7:2; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Jude 7).

These programs are hurting the young people of Texas -- and young people throughout America. Nearly 1.5 billion federal dollars have gone to abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.

Last night, President Obama said his staff is scouring the 2009 budget to remove "wasteful and ineffective" programs. He could start with the three federal abstinence-only programs. They don't work -- and they deny young people life-saving information. That's not only wasteful, it's immoral.

Bristol Palin, Emma Willard, and What Teens Need

I was extremely moved by my time with the junior peer educators and the senior women at Emma Willard yesterday. They were smart, friendly, curious, earnest, and open. Their questions, first written on index cards anonymously but often just by raising their hands, ran the gamut. Many of the written questions asked some version of "how do I know if I'm in love" or "how do I know if I'm ready for sex". Several of the cards asked "How do I talk to my parents about my partner/sexual orientation/having sex?"



I think you would have been impressed by their maturity, their willingness to talk to and trust an adult they didn't know, and their hunger for information. It's reassuring to know, as I write in my book, What Every 21st Century Parent Needs to Know, that our future is in their hands.



I thought similarly when I watched the Fox interview with Bristol Palin. Mature, confident, she both acknowledged her bond with her new baby and that she wished that she had waited another 10 years for child bearing. She said she wants to be an advocate to prevent teen pregnancy (surely one of my colleagues is following up!) and that abstinence-only education isn't realistic. To my surprise, her mother at the end of the interview calls it "naive." She didn't call for it to be defunded, but in some ways, there couldn't be more of an indictment on how telling your teens to "just say no" without coupling it with contraception and condom information is NOT the way to go.



I gave the girls from Emma Willard a strong message that they should wait to have sex until they are ready for a mature sexual relationship -- That no sex beyond kissing should take place unless they and their partner can answer YES to all of the CUHMP criteria (for new readers, that's consensual, non exploitative, honest, mutually pleasurable and protected) and that I didn't believe that most 16 year olds could. But, I also answered their many questions about condoms and contraception honestly and directly (except for the one that asked if condom sales go up during a recession -- I said I had no idea.)



What was clear to me from yesterday -- both my time with these young women and watching Bristol Palin -- is that they (and young men) want and need adult guidance to navigate the years of their developing sexuality identities. I'll try to post the Bristol Palin video here later, but for now, you can go to YouTube and search it. For my readers who are parents, it's tonight's teachable moment with your tweens and teens.

Speak Out for Sex Education

On Tuesday night, I will be meeting with the senior girls at Emma Willard, a private school in Troy, New York. It's the third year I've been invited to have two hours with the seniors without any faculty present. I took about moral sexual decision making, and then they can ask me any questions they have about sexuality. Some do it on anonymous cards, other's raise their hands. I tell them there is nothing they can't ask, except about my own private life. The questions are usually wide ranging, from biology to relationships to theology. I'm looking forward to it.

It's so different than what most schools offer. The federal abstinence-only-until-marriage education program has spent more than $1.5 billion in federal monies for a program which "has as its exclusive purpose, teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity." It requires "teaching abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as the expected standard", "that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard or human sexual activity" and "that sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects." Note, that's all sexual activity not just intercourse.

More than a decade later, the evidence is clear. The programs don't work. Teenagers who take this program are just as likely to have sex a few years later than teens who don't -- but with an important difference. They are LESS likely to use a contraceptive method than teens who have had a more comprehensive program.

President Obama, when he was candidate Obama, spoke out against these programs and supported comprehensive sexuality education. We are hoping that he will not include the program in the federal budget. Go to the NO NEW MONEY campaign to learn how you can speak out against these ineffective and immoral programs.

And ask your clergy person, to endorse the "Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Sex Education." We need to demonstrate that religious leaders support comprehensive sexuality education in large numbers.

I'll let you know how Emma Willard goes on Wednesday.

Speak Out for Sexuality Education in Schools

The Religious Institute is launching a national campaign to obtain thousands of clergy signatures on its Open Letter to Religious Leaders About Sex Education.

Congress will be considering the nation's first federal comprehensive sexuality education in the next few months. This spring, the Religious Institute will host a congressional briefing on religious support for these public school programs. For the first time in a decade, we have the opportunity to end funding for the ineffective federal abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and to have legislation passed for the first federal comprehensive sexuality education effort. You can help make this happen!

We are seeking clergy who will join the call for medically-accurate comprehensive sexuality education. If you are a member of the clergy, please send us an email at info@religiousinstitute.org and we'll send you the link to endorse the Open Letter. If you are a member of a faith community but not ordained and you think your clergy person would add their name, please send me their email as well.

We hope to have 1000 endorsers within the next two weeks. Please help us spread the word!

A Call to the Obama Administration for Sexual Justice

The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing has sent a letter to President Obama and key members of the new administration calling for a vigorous commitment to sexual justice. The key components of a new agenda for sexual justice are:

*An end to the federal abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and a call for the first federal support for comprehensive sexuality education.

*Full access to affordable, high-quality sexual and reproductive health services, including contraception, emergency contraception, abortion, prenatal care, adoption, HIV/STI prevention and treatment, and safe and proven assisted reproductive technologies. We also urge support for a global HIV/AIDS program free of abstinence-only restrictions.

*Full equality – including marriage and adoption rights for same-sex couples and a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act – for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons and their families. We specifically ask the President to reconsider his hesitations about marriage equality, yet support his commitment to civil unions and rescinding DOMA.

You can read our letter here. Many of these issues are already part of the White House agenda; all however will need the support of all of us to assure that they become a reality. You can let the President know that you support the Religious Institute’s sexual justice priorities. Our voices, as people of faith who support sexual justice, will make a difference.

Seminaries Failing to Prepare Clergy on Sexuality Issues

I'm in Chicago at the Society for Christian Ethics annual meeting.

Later this evening, the Religious Institute will release its two year survey of 36 leading seminaries in the U.S. and how they address sexuality issues.

Our bottom line conclusion: even the most progressive seminaries are failing to prepare future clergy adequately on sexuality issues.

Here are some of the key findings:


• More than 90% of the seminaries surveyed do not require full‐semester, sexuality‐based courses for graduation.

• Two‐thirds of the seminaries do not offer a course in sexuality issues for religious professionals.
Three quarters do not offer a course in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) studies.

• Seminaries offer three times as many courses in women’s and feminist studies as they do in LGBT studies or other sexuality‐related issues.

• The next generation of scholars is not addressing sexuality issues. Sexuality‐based courses are taught by senior professors or adjunct faculty, not by upcoming faculty seeking tenured positions.

The study also noted a “stained glass ceiling” in seminaries and a lack of policies on full inclusion of women and gay, lesbian and transgender persons. Two-thirds of the seminaries surveyed have fewer than 40% women serving in faculty, senior administrative and trustee positions, in contrast to student populations that are frequently more than 50% women.

To read the full report, the press release, and the executive summary, go to our web site, www.religiousinstitute.org and click on the link for the Sex in the Seminary study.

New Huffington Post: Unearthing Common Ground

I always feel a little like I'm cheating on you, my regular readers, when I write for Huffington Post. I hope you understand....

Often, I try out an idea here...and if it feels like it deserves a large public policy audience, we expand on it for the Huffington Post (which has a much larger readership than I do here.)

So, if you were interested in my posts on the new calls for common ground on abortion, I hope you'll go read me at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-debra-haffner/unearthing-common-ground_b_147736.html

and hope that you'll add your comments and perspectives.