(April 28, 2014 at 10:32 pm)Esquilax Wrote: First of all, that was me that told you that, and granted, it's an Australian public school, not an American one. But when I read about kids getting to get out of class for religious instruction for up to several hours, on school time and money, I have a hard time believing in all these heavy religious restrictions in your education system.

I don't know if it's this way across the board, but whenever I've seen this happening, the students went to churches or whatever for the religious instruction. It wasn't provided by the public school.

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(April 28, 2014 at 10:36 pm)Stimbo Wrote:

(April 28, 2014 at 10:13 pm)Lek Wrote: I had to take a break since I was out of breath from dodging all those arrows coming at me at once.

What, all four of us?

Yeah, but you had a lot of arrows.

(April 28, 2014 at 10:13 pm)Lek Wrote: I had to take a break since I was out of breath from dodging all those arrows coming at me at once. First of all, I'm talking about the US public school system, since that's where I live. I think it's okay to have proper sex education in schools, but I'm not one to say "they're going to do it anyway, so give em some sex ed and some condoms and hope for the best." I don't think there's a place in the public school system for sexually explicit books.

I don't know where you live, but if a teacher here tries to pray in class or even tell the class that he follows Jesus, he'll be out of there no time. This doesn't apply to the rights of the students to exercise their freedom of speech. If a kid wants to tell a classmate that he or she is a christian or an atheist or whatever, that's his or her right. Minimalist says he still has the bible they gave him in school. All I can say is if that was an American public school, it must be an awfully old bible.

Of course not, that would cut down on
teenage pregnancy and the spread of diseases.

And wait a minute, you mean the separation of church and state means authority figures in public schools can't prosthelytize to their students? The horror!

(April 28, 2014 at 10:38 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: Not to mention that these rules are there for a reason. Christians like to break the rules and then act persecuted or like religion is under attack when they get called to accountability.

But this book is largely harmless. There are no gratuitous sex scenes in it. If you think any 10th grader hasn't heard about masturbation or that learning about the harm of alcoholism or sexual abuse is too much for a 16 year old, something is wrong.

I remember being about 14 nd having to read a book aloud - each of us reading an assigned part - in English class and part of the discussion from the book was a group of boys talking about how they watched a girl across the road strip naked for a shower and how much they masturbated while they watched.

Didn't do the class any harm. The boys who were pervs were still pervs, while the ones who were reserved and shy were still reserved and shy.

(April 28, 2014 at 7:31 pm)Lek Wrote:

(April 28, 2014 at 7:23 pm)Cato Wrote: This is the problem with Christian notions of proper sex. Which do you think is more sexually charged; the tenth grader or the literature?

I know how sexually charged tenth graders are. That's even more good reason not to give them sexually charged literature.

Ah...that will stop them from thinking about sex, eh?

Are we sure this isn't some ploy of the publisher's to boost sales? After all, the best way to generate tons of interest in something is to tell people they can't have it.

Limited time offer! It won't be here for long! Better hurry up and get it before it's gone!

(April 28, 2014 at 9:37 pm)Lek Wrote:

(April 28, 2014 at 9:09 pm)Beccs Wrote: Once again, this then requires the bible to be banned in schools

The bible is banned in schools.

Fine with me, even if it were true.

(April 28, 2014 at 10:45 pm)Rampant.A.I. Wrote:

(April 28, 2014 at 10:13 pm)Lek Wrote: I had to take a break since I was out of breath from dodging all those arrows coming at me at once. First of all, I'm talking about the US public school system, since that's where I live. I think it's okay to have proper sex education in schools, but I'm not one to say "they're going to do it anyway, so give em some sex ed and some condoms and hope for the best." I don't think there's a place in the public school system for sexually explicit books.

I don't know where you live, but if a teacher here tries to pray in class or even tell the class that he follows Jesus, he'll be out of there no time. This doesn't apply to the rights of the students to exercise their freedom of speech. If a kid wants to tell a classmate that he or she is a christian or an atheist or whatever, that's his or her right. Minimalist says he still has the bible they gave him in school. All I can say is if that was an American public school, it must be an awfully old bible.

Of course not, that would cut down on
teenage pregnancy and the spread of diseases.

And wait a minute, you mean the separation of church and state means authority figures in public schools can't prosthelytize to their students? The horror!

Go ahead and give them sex ed and condoms. What people want to say is "we can't stop you, so protect yourself from disease and if you still happen to get pregnant Planned Parenthood is there to get you an abortion if you'd like." Who knows? Maybe you're right about the schools' role in all this. It's really the responsibility of the parents. I was brought up to view sex as a loving experience between a husband and wife. Now most kids are brought up to view sex as something we do just like all the other animals and it's also really scary because you can catch some terrible disease, so be careful. That's pretty much how the schools will treat it if we can't recommend abstinence or any other moral advice.

I don't see anything wrong with sex being something we, like every other animal except maybe pandas, just do because we're hardwired for it. It can create emotional attachments, but you should be made to marry just to do it. That's why you have teens marrying at 18 or so, instead of waiting. That's why teen pregancies and divorce tend to be higher in more religious areas. They don't use condoms, and they get hitched just so they can start screwing.

Besides, there are people that would like to know if they're sexually compatable with someone before getting into a presumably lifelong agreement with someone else.

(April 28, 2014 at 11:02 pm)Chad32 Wrote: Limited time offer! It won't be here for long! Better hurry up and get it before it's gone!

This is something I like about the story:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyath...tian-book/