The two sides of nation's culture war
There is a culture war under way in this nation.
It is a clash between the Biblical worldview and the secular-humanist worldview.
The B perspective believes God created us and accordingly wrote the "instruction manual" on how we are to live our lives.
God, much like loving parents, does this not want to inhibit us but rather to protect us from unwise choices.
The S-H perspective takes the pragmatic approach, which is based on the philosophy that there are no absolute rights or wrongs, only expedient solutions.
An issue that clearly defines the difference in these two views is sex education.
The following two examples dramatically illustrate which approach has proved to be the most successful.
In the first case, Joycelyn Elders, President Clinton's first surgeon general, was a leading advocate of safe sex approach to reducing teen pregnancy.
As such, she introduced the "safe sex" program on an experimental basis in 11 counties in Arkansas prior to her appointment. The Wall Street Journal, in covering this experiment, reported that teen pregnancy in the 11 counties increased by an average 12 percent in the following year.
The second case is even more revealing. Human Life International compared the approach of Thailand with that of the Philippines when both countries saw their first cases of AIDS appear in 1984.
Thailand pursed the king condom approach while the Philippine government stressed the importance of chastity, fidelity in marriage and abstinence outside of marriage.
The results after 23 years is as follows: Thailand has an AIDS infection rate of 1 in 90 people. The Philippines ranks near the bottom of all countries with an infection rate of less than 1 in 1000 people.
In the United States the infection rate is 1 in 200. Furthermore, since the early 1960s when the safe sex approach was first introduced in our public school system, teen pregnancy has increased 300 percent.
Currently one third of all births in this country are to unwed mothers and medical authorities report that the increase in sexually transmitted diseases is reaching epidemic proportions.
This coupled with the first two examples would suggest that "safe sex" is not working. Perhaps God is right.
Richard Kaiser
Elk Grove Village