Abstinence Education WOO!!

A link to Miss Molly Redden's (class of 2011, Georgetown University) article on how abstinence education "screws" (her language, not mine!) students.



http://www.georgetownvoice.com/2008-03-27/voices/promoting-abstinence-while-screwing-students

AND... my response:

Molly Redden’s recent article on abstinence education is a prime example of how many use emotion and personal feeling, rather than logic, to make their case when it comes to premarital sex. I did not personally attend Miss Redden’s high school (incidentally, my high school did not teach abstinence) and so I cannot vouch for the truth of what her educators taught her. I do however, spend all of my time at my Heritage Foundation internship collecting the research on family and marriage from peer reviewed journals. The research is decidedly not on Miss Redden’s side.

Virtually all studies on the subject find that premarital sex unequivocally increases chances for divorce. In fact, the probability of divorce actually increases with the number of sexual partners that one has had. (Georgetown offers its students free access to the Journal of Family and Marriage and other related journals through Jstor, so feel free to fact-check me on this one).

Redden also makes much of the fact that lecturers told her that condoms are ineffective at preventing pregnancy. She is correct that this is empirically false (perfect condom use will result in pregnancy 3% of the time; typical use will result in pregnancy 14% of the time – these statistics are required to be displayed on condom packaging), yet neglects the far more troubling fact that condoms are significantly less efficacious at preventing STDs. The data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is that condoms are when used with perfect accuracy are 85% effective against AIDs. No clinical study has of yet been able to prove that condoms effectively prevent other STDs, but to give condoms the benefits of the doubt, lets say that they are also 85% effective when used with perfect accuracy (read: in laboratory conditions virtually impossible to replicate). Given that STDs are currently the most common diseases in America next to the cold and the flu and are particularly rampant amongst college-age Americans, a 15% failure rate should not make anyone feel safe, especially considering that the STDs out there can lead to unsightly and uncomfortable rashes at the least and permanent damage to the reproductive system or even death in the worst cases.

Redden also claims that “insinuating to a high school student that he or she won’t be mentally sophisticated until marriage is cruel.” Yet when we consider that the median age for marriage is 26.9 for men and 25.3 for women and a 2005 NIH study found that the decision-making capacity of the brain is not fully developed until age 25, this is less a cruel lie than, well, a fact. In high school and college we readily assent to having, indeed rely upon, advisors to help us navigate everything from class schedules to where to apply to school to how to deal with frustrating landlords. We accept without argument advisors in so many areas of our lives, why can we not accept them in the arguably more important field of sex and romance?

Miss Redden’s overall argument eventually boils down to: “Abstinence education is wrong because it made me feel bad.” But this is not a solid argument by any standards of logic. Many things we learn, and which nevertheless have great value, make us ‘feel bad.’ Learning about slavery, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War and genocide in Sudan are a few examples that quickly spring to mind, yet no student in her right mind would suggest that these subjects should be nixed from curricula simply because they leave us feeling profoundly unsettled and pessimistic about humanity. Abstinence educators may tell students things they don’t want to hear, but this does not make them liars any more than teaching students about the Cambodian killing fields would.

You know you're a Catholic nerd...

... when your desk decorations include almost as many pictures of popes and Saints as of friends.

... when you decide that spending 7 weeks living with 2 nuns in the middle of nowhere Kentucky sounds like "a lot of fun."

... when the only stuffed animal you have at school is an Augustinian Canon teddy bear.

... when you play Catholic charades.

... when you procrastinate by searching for downloadable Gregorian chant and listening to Theogical debates online.

... when you spend a 10 hour drive listening to homilies on your I-Pod.

... when your friend not only knows what Quietism is, but actually accuses other friends of it.

... when you think every song you hear is secretly about Jesus, even tacky pop songs.

I'm Famous...

My guest post on Dawn Eden's blog:

http://dawneden.blogspot.com/2008/03/guest-post-georgetown-pays-for.html

You know you are a Catholic nerd when...

You become addicted to the computer game Alchemy and are told by two different people that, as a Catholic, you shouldn't practice Alchemy.
'
Despite having a half day at work for Good Friday, you still have to leave an extra hour early so that you can make it to the 'best' Good Friday Mass in the DC area, which happens to be about 45 minutes away.

You are watching the Passion of the Christ and are distressed by the fact that Jesus falls six times because you and your father are trying to do the Stations in your heads.

The toes of your shoes are always dusty from kneeling during Mass.

You say, "Oh yea! That's just like something Jose Maria Escriva said," and your friend responds, "That's just what I was thinking!!"

Your most convincing argument to get somebody to do something is, "That could be a corporal act of mercy!"

You attend not one, but two Tridentine Rite Masses on Easter Sunday right in a row.

Your mother compares your church-going habits to the concert-going habits of groupies (AKA you will travel whatever distance it takes to find the 'best' Mass you can - Silver Spring, Baltimore, New Jersey...)

You consider showing up at the doors of "really awesome" priests with freshly baked pies.

Newman Distilled

Ever wanted to read Cardinal Newman's sermons and didn't have the time? Well here are three sermons in just three paragraphs - composed by yours truly.

Sermon VII: The Cross of Christ the Measure of the World
Newman’s thesis in this sermon is that the Crucifixion – the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross – is not only the central tenet of Christianity, but the way in which we Christians make sense of our experience in the world. The world, Newman asserts, is “a maze and a perplexity.” The Cross, however, makes the inharmonious and perplexing world consistent. Yet the Cross also seems to present a problem. At first blush, the world seems made for us to enjoy: man “has the capacity of enjoyment, and the world supplies the means.” The doctrine of the Cross, “a sad and sorrowful sight,” mars this pleasant vision of the world. Newman reminds us that this superficial view of the world, no matter how pleasant, is yet untrue. Despite the world’s gay appearance, “evil and misery lie concealed within.” The Cross simply reminds us of the truth. It teaches us to grieve for our sins because if we fail to heed the warning of the Cross, we will find ourselves grieving nonetheless when we are punished for those sins. The Cross, then, reveals the veiled and hidden truth of the world: that while the world is at first pleasing, the pleasure it affords is ephemeral and leads only to misery. Just as the doctrine of the Cross is a hidden truth, the Christian is called to have a hidden interior life, and not make a Pharisaical display of his piety. Finally, Newman reminds us that though the doctrine of the Cross is sorrowful, Christianity is not a sorrowful religion. It is through the sorrow of the Cross that we are comforted and redeemed, and only those who first know sorrow and misery can know true joy.

Sermon XI: The Nature of Faith in Relation to Reason
This sermon asks the question whether the exercise of Reason precedes Faith. Newman contends that it does. Further, he shows that Faith is not the only exercise of Reason that seems unreasonable and yet is not. To prove his basic thesis, Newman offers several examples. He demonstrates that when we make an act of Faith, it is an “acceptance of things as real … upon previous grounds.” Thus Faith is an exercise of Reason insofar as Reason is the faculty whereby the mind moves from the known, or the perceived, to the unknown. Newman argues his second thesis by pointing out that though the vast majority of men in the world are, though they make use of their reason, by necessity incorrect (because the truth is one and opinions are many), this does not mean that their reason itself is at fault, for if it were, each man would reason uniquely, but in reality men form “schools” of thought. Faith, too, though based on insufficient evidence, is not based on weak or imperfect reasoning. Furthermore, every argument is at its roots based on something taken for granted. We assume that our senses do not deceive us (though they often do); we assume our reason does not lead us astray, though we believe the reason of other men has led them astray. “We must assume something to prove anything.” Next Newman asks why this is the case. Why, he wonders, is our evidence for faith deficient? His answer is that by giving us defective evidence, God “is trying our love of its matter.” The greater the height of the knowledge to which we proceed, the more obscure are our means of getting there. Our knowledge of the physical world is by means of the senses, which are quite certain; our knowledge of higher things through the Reason, which is more prone to uncertainty. Our knowledge of God, who is the Most High, is by the most obscure means: it is by Faith.

Sermon VIII: Truth Hidden When Not Sought After
This Sermon is primarily about the difference between the gifts that allow us to excel in this world, and the gifts that allow us to know God and about the necessity for us to earnestly strive to know God. Newman commences by reminding us that, based on 2 Tm 4:4, there is …religious truth, and therefore …religious error, “religious truth is one,” and that when professed Christians forget this, they turn from the one Truth and believe in “fables.” From this Newman gleans that “the multitude of men…are wrong even in the greater matters of religion.” Yet it is not only the ignorant and weak-minded that turn from the Truth, but also men of ability. This is because spiritual excellence differs in kind from ability. Newman proceeds to claim, “earnestness is necessary for gaining religious Truth,” or, in other words, God reveals Himself only to those who seek him with fervor. Yet most men do not acknowledge this; they rather think, “Religious Truth is simple and easily acquired.” Newman draws these two points – that our religious opinions are dissonant and that we are negligent in seeking God – together. Our negligence, he claims, is the reason for our differing opinions. If we all strove with great zeal to know God, our opinions would begin to grow nearer and nearer together.