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Showing posts from March, 2010

Abstinence-only Sex Ed, part 1

The post that follows is a piece written as an Op-Ed sort of assignment for my Community Health Development class. There are some (many?) health issues on which my position is rather different than that of the Religious Right/Evangelical crowd in which I grew up. It's intriguing that my own deeply held Christian faith drives me in radically different directions than what is typically considered "orthodox" by the loudest Christian voices out there. This is something I'll be exploring in this space for a while. It is nearly universally agreed that some sort of sex education is necessary for teens. According to a poll by the Guttmacher Institute, 90% of parents of middle and high school students believe that sex education should be taught in school. The ongoing conversation revolves around what sort of education is appropriate, what topics should be included, and how it should be carried out. Not all sex education programs are equally effective. Ideally, sex educati

a word from Thomas (Aquinas)

While I haven't read terribly much written by the good church father, he has influenced a huge chunk of what I've read both on natural law + ethics and the sacrament of Communion. I'm not entirely sure about this natural law thing and all the stuff about reason....but I do wholeheartedly agree with his sentiments about Communion. And several of my favorite hymns are translations of his work- including one we sang in church yesterday. Now, my tongue, the mystery telling of the glorious Body sing, and the Blood, all price excelling, which the gentiles' Lord and King, in a Virgin's womb once dwelling, shed for this world's ransoming. Given for us, and condescending, to be born for us below, he, with men in converse blending, dwelt the seed of truth to sow, till he closed with wondrous ending his most patient life of woe. That last night, at supper lying, 'mid the twelve, his chosen band, Jesus, with the law complying, keeps the feast its rit