We hear it all the time, don’t we. We preach morality and are vocal about our belief’s; basically, we do the same thing the secularists do but we don’t agree that all lifestyles are okay so this means we are the one’s that are wrong. Therefore we are the racists and they are the “tolerant” ones. But I digress…..
This weekend one of the Catholic schools around here hosted a Christian retreat called “Destination Jesus” or “DJ” as it is known to the teens. I had the opportunity to be a part of DJ for a couple hours by helping out Indianapolis Right to Life with their educational booth. I had a blast. The teens were great and it gave me some renewed hope for the future.
What surprised me is that the teens wanted to talk about abstinence and they wanted information on STD’s. They also wanted information on teenage pregnancy but that was more of an afterthought. Well, you all know me – I was prepared with my knowledge from the Center for Disease Control and the Guttmacher Institute. Most of them were in shock, especially the kids from the public schools. (Yes, I asked) They never thought about the difference in the words ‘protect’ and ‘prevent’. ‘Protecting’ means you reduce the risk of something, it does not mean you ‘prevent’ the risk. None of them seemed to know that condoms don’t really protect you against STD’s. None of them had ever heard the phrase “reduce the risk” in correlation with condom use.
When it came to talking about sex and abstinence, they were fine. When it came to talking about teenage pregnancy, they were fine. Some of them were fine telling me that they were not virgins. But when it came to discussing STD’s they were nervous, wouldn’t look me in eye and blushed while giggling – even the boys. So I asked in my not around the bush way and found out that no one had really talked to them about STD’s. Almost all of them had some sort of sex education in school, but none got much info on the diseases that could physically affect their entire lives. How sad.
I also heard from the abstinence crowd that they were consistently ridiculed by other teens. They heard about how all teens have sex so abstinence is obsolete and they are idiots. One girl proudly wears an abstinence ring and is consistently harassed and told she will not be a virgin when she marries. I guess tolerance doesn’t include the virgins of the world.
Something else I saw amazed me and broke my heart. There was a boy who was smiling from ear to ear. He laughed and participated in the group of friends he was with. There was something about him that caught my eye. When he spoke, his friends got quiet and waited…and waited…and waited. It was difficult for him to speak and when talking to him I was reminded of my daughter and how she used to talk – painfully slow and not able to say words that she knows. I talked to him for a bit and found out that he is home schooled. He went to public school for awhile, but he was beat up everyday so his parents took him out. He was beat up because the kids were too impatient to wait for him to speak and found it fun to pick on the “crip” which was his nickname. The teachers at the school he attended were the ones who encouraged his parents to home school. With tears in his eyes he told me that he never knew he could make friends. He went to DJ alone and left with friends. I guess tolerance doesn’t include handicapped people. 
If you think about it – the “tolerant” crowd wants everyone to accept people as long as those people make the choices they want people to make and are perfect. Choose an “alternative” lifestyle and you are okay but choose abstinence and get ridiculed. They don’t care that babies with Down Syndrome are being aborted left and right – heck, they want them aborted. The attacks on Trig Palin proved that. They don’t care when any baby is aborted because s/he isn’t perfect. Some almost encourage that abortion. They don’t want imperfection to be around them, and they are the only ones who define perfect.
It’s amazing. We are the ones who are the racists and intolerant but we are the ones who say everyone is wanted because we are all God’s children and they are the ones who place worth on human lives. We are the ones who say sacrificing something for someone else is good and they are the ones who say a woman cannot possibly give up less than 0.1% of their lives so another human being can live.
I saw a “Coexist” bumper sticker in the parking lot of the school that hosted DJ and laughed. Coexist only with the people they believe should exist is more like it.
Excellent post Val.
“He went to public school for awhile, but he was beat up everyday so his parents took him out. He was beat up because the kids were too impatient to wait for him to speak and found it fun to pick on the “crip” which was his nickname. The teachers at the school he attended were the ones who encouraged his parents to home school. ”
If I was Principle of that school, that would’ve been the last time those punks beat somebody up. I’d make them an offer they couldn’t refuse
I was picked on constantly in school. My teachers thought I must be mentally ill because I was ‘unhappy’. Years later I found out that I had an autism spectrum disorder (Asperger’s syndrome).
I read a story about an Asperger’s syndrome kid in school today who gets picked on by kids telling him he was a ‘mistake’. The abort-the-disabled mentality goes all the way down to schoolyard bullies.
At least my bullies didn’t object to me being alive….
Nissa amas katoj –
It is sad isn’t it?
I have a very good friend who I am convinced has Asperger’s. A couple years ago the docs thought that my son might be on the Autism spectrum so I researched autism. (He’s severe ADHD which is what made him have autistic behaviors.) As I was reading up on Aspergers I noticed that my friend has almost all the characteristics. He was picked on in school, but nothing too bad as far as his sister saw…..but he was/is a computer wiz (in the 1980′s when no one knew a thing about computers) so he had that element of a “coolness yet geek” to him. There were kids that accepted his ‘odd’ behavior. In college there were people who were ‘embarrassed’ to be friends with him. Ticked me off. I always figured it was their loss and my gain.