Mistaken identity of “sexual from birth” puts children at greater risk.
On May 29, 2014, Todd Wilken helped his listeners learn more about the new book entitled The Failure of Sex Education in the Church: Mistaken Identity, Compromised Purity. The book is available on Amazon.
Please listen to the interview (following a brief commercial) by clicking Sex Education in the Church
“Sexuality” appears to be the one “right” above all others. It dictates how things are done in the marketplace, classroom, court of law, and military. It even threatens to re-define marriage.
How did this come to be? I think it’s because we stayed too long at the animal circus.
At the animal circus, children are wrongly identified. They are not seen as their Heavenly Father sees them, but as people of a different faith want to see them. “Children,” said Alfred Kinsey, “are sexual from birth.” Kinsey didn’t mean that children are either a boy or a girl. He meant that children can enjoy and benefit from early sexual activity.
Something smelled foul in the circus tent but those who wanted to hear that even children are defined by their “sexuality” — indeed, their sexual desires and inclinations, were ecstatic. Others, including many Christians, were troubled but decided to accept the data of this “social scientist” and examine human sexuality in light of his “new information”. Kinsey made a mockery of science. Nevertheless, he and other humanists such as John Money, Mary Calderone and Lester Kirkendall set in place a social movement that changed the way we see our children and each other. Children were sexualized and imagined as little more than animal-like beings captive to urges and desires.
The “progressive” folk among us already knew they were “animal-like.” Charles Darwin said so and many believed him. All who resisted the God who creates life and, therefore, has authority over that life determined that now they had “license” to do as they pleased. Piggy-backing (how animal-like!) on the theory of Darwin, Kinsey plunged into “scientific” study with the goal of breaking down all sexual inhibitions. Kinsey’s “scientific” study has been exposed as fraudulent and criminal. (See resources below.) Yet the distorted truth of a psychologically twisted and sexually deviant Kinsey seems to have more influence on our present culture than God’s Word. Kinsey and other secular humanists lured parents, pastors and teachers away from guarding purity, modesty, and the innocence of children. The animal circus of sex education went on the road.
“Get your tickets here!” cried Kinsey. “Come one, come all!” cried Mary Calderone of SIECUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S.). Four generations have been trained to believe that “sexuality is our entire selves, influences us in every way, and encompasses everything” but left clueless about what it means to be male or female. Sex education has equipped boys and girls to be sexual, not relational; all about me, rarely about others; less inhibited, but more at risk; and far more hopeless than hopeful.
We’ve been too long at the animal circus. What is the evidence?
The Church stands guilty. Fearful and not wanting to be irrelevant, Christians filed God’s Word on sexual purity under “Unrealistic.” Willingly or unwilling, they adapted the ways of circus trainers to keep pace with the world. Too many Christians assumed that as long as Jesus was part of sex education, their children would be all right. But they are not all right. Children pay the price every time we try to wrap Jesus around the foolishness of the world.
Nowhere in Scripture does God identify male and female as “sexual beings”. He does not call male and female to be “sexual” but to be “holy” (1 Peter 1:14-16). God created male and female to be so much more than our urges, desires and perceived “needs”. We are, by His design, persons of great significance with bodies, minds and souls. We are male or female and, no matter if we are young or old, single or married, we can live in relationship to our brothers, sisters and neighbors. We can work and play side by side without any hint of sexual intimations.
Is there hope? Yes… away from the animal circus.
Away from the animal circus, we are better able to see children as God sees them. Each child is God’s own (Isaiah 64:8) and called by name (43:1) to be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work (2 Timothy 2:21).
Followers of Christ Jesus need to abandon the animal circus. The structure is unsound and the tent began to collapse long ago.
Resources:
The Failure of Sex Education in the Church: Mistaken Identity, Compromised Purity
by Linda Bartlett (Amazon)
Stolen Honor, Stolen Innocence by Judith Reisman, Ph.D.
(Original title Kinsey: Crimes and Consequences)
The Children of Table 34 (google for Youtube video)
The Kinsey Syndrome (DVD)
This post was first written 3-23-2011 and posted by Ezerwoman
Does clothing speak? Does how we dress say something about who we think we are?
With eyes open, it appears that clothing even for Christians is a thing indifferent. Younger (and older) women too often approach the Lord’s Table clothed in eye-catching attire not dissimilar from the women one might see working the corner of Hollywood and Vine. From time to time, I ask teen girls and their moms if they would be comfortable wearing their lingerie or bra and panties out in the front yard or going shopping. “Of course not,” they proclaim, “no way!” But how is their bikini any different?
As a wife and mom, I strive to see the world through the eyes of my husband, sons and grandsons. They are sorely put to the test. For example, there was the time when a beautiful and well-endowed woman waited on the table of my family. The cross the server was wearing hung low and visible between her breasts, but where were the eyes of my husband and sons invited to focus: upon the cross or somewhere else?
Sex education turns the eyes of boys to the bodies of girls. It turns the eyes of girls to the bodies of boys. Sex education teaches that there is no shame in the human body. After all, as this thinking goes, God made our wondrous bodies. But this thinking ignores the fact that sin has corrupted our desires. This thinking may unconsciously encourage girls to become temptresses. Sometimes a young woman is completely unaware that she is being a temptress. She is, perhaps, uneducated in godly womanhood, dressing “like everyone else” or unaware that immodest clothing draws a man’s attention. There are other women who know full well that sensual clothing invites attention and this is how they exercise power over men.
We may hear people claim that clothing is a matter of “Christian liberty;” it is simply a personal choice. “Sexy,” they say, is just part of being female. It is, as I have been told, “showing my best assets.” But showing them to whom and for what reason? To believe it is a “liberty” to wear clothes designed to highlight certain parts of the body is to be fooled. Foolishness puts us at risk.
For the sake of young women and men, let’s be honest. There is a reason why the marketing industry uses scantily-clad women to sell products. There is a reason why the procurers of prostitutes want their “working girls” to dress the way they do. That reason is sin. It is sin when one person uses another person to gain power or financial profit. Young women need to know that they are more—far more—than objects of pleasure for display. Failing to speak about clothing as God’s protective covering for their bodies puts them at risk of being identified not as He created them, but as the world sees them. It removes respect. It places them in conflict with themselves and compromises their true identity. It sets young men up for temptation, frustration, and trouble. A young Christian woman in college told me that she never gave much thought to the way she dressed until the day her boyfriend blurted out, “Do you know what you’re doing to me?”
A classroom educator might try to explain to a young woman that a man’s eyes rest easily on a woman’s body. It is, however, far more appropriate and protective when a father explains the virtue of modesty to his daughter. He can explain to her that before sin Adam could gaze upon Eve’s body in appreciation for what God had made, but that after sin his eyes would distort that appreciation. It is also the father who best explains to his son how to avoid the temptress. The father’s warning away from the temptress in Proverbs 7 is wisdom to his son:
At the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have . . . perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. she is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home . . . let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths. (Prov. 7:6-11; 25)
The father in Proverbs 7 wanted his son to know that identity matters. Even what we choose to wear says something about who we think we are.
From Chapter 14, Question 84
The Failure of Sex Education in the Church: Mistaken Identity, Compromise Purity
by Linda Bartlett ~ Copyright 2014 Titus 2 for Life
Our Identity Matters
Christina Hoff Sommers is the author of The War Against Boys. The Ph.D. scholar cites one example after another of how America’s academic, political, and cultural “elite” have maligned and tried to re-define masculinity.
Speaking on behalf of those cultural “elites,” Gloria Steinem said, “We need to raise boys like we raise girls.” Bear in mind that such convoluted thinking followed the so-called “girlhood project” of the 70s: Raise girls like boys. Giving birth to a daughter instead of a son was, for some parents, somewhat of an embarrassment.
On campus and off, workshops, seminars, and projects exist with a sole focus of “transforming” boys. A “boy’s masculinity” is seen by cultural “elites” as a “problem.” Despising patriarchy, off-track feminists work feverishly to construct a new version of manhood.
Sommers asks, “How well do [these people] understand and like boys? Who has authorized their mission?”
David Kupelian is the author of How Evil Works. He asks, “Why would our culture so denigrate masculinity? And why — this is the flip side of the same question — are we becoming so increasingly feminized as a society?” He continues, “Today’s high level of gender confusion and role reversal, manifested most obviously in the dramatic upswing — and near celebration — of homosexuality, is one of the great cultural mysteries of our time. The bending and sometimes breaking of traditional gender roles permeates our society in obvious and subtle ways.”
Sexual confusion abounds — in clothing, college dorms, and the workplace. There is sexual confusion when girls “try out” lesbianism or bisexuality because it’s “chic.” There is sexual confusion when girls wrestle boys and women are put on the front lines of war.
George Gilder is the author of Men and Marriage. He writes, “To the sexual liberal, gender is a cage. Behind cruel bars of custom and tradition, men and women for centuries have looked lovingly across forbidden spaces at one another and yearned to be free of sexual roles.” Hmm. Reminds me of a beautiful garden where a woman was tempted to reach for something that was not good for her to have.
When my sons were born, I didn’t argue with God or tell Him He’d made a mistake. I needed to let them respond to life in their boyish ways, drive go-carts at high speeds, climb a 40-foot windmill, blaze a Yellowstone trail, and choose science fiction hands down over chick flicks. I wanted my sons to be aware of how girls think and like to be treated, but not to become one of them.
I wonder. Where would this country be if mothers raised sons to be “in touch with their feminine side?” What if young men had stayed home and tens upon thousands of young women stormed the beaches of Normandy, Omaha, and Iwo Jima?
There is nothing wrong with boys. Just because a boy fidgets doesn’t mean he needs some sort of drug. There is nothing wrong with boys who want to roughhouse or jump in a muddy stream, but balk at the suggestion of shopping. Instead of disfiguring, distorting, or denying boyishness, why don’t we stand in awe of God who was pleased to create male and female so compatibly different? Why don’t we appreciate the way each has a different perspective on things of life and be better for it?
A war against boys hurts girls, too. Eventually, it weakens society. Messing with creation is nasty business with hopeless consequences.
So that’s why I smile when I watch boys put frogs in homemade rockets or blow up plastic pop bottles with Drano and aluminum foil or dig a big hole, fill it with water and take the plunge. But I do something else.
I also try to say “thank you” whenever I see a dad raising his son to be gentlemen. I applaud dads and moms who mentor sons to respect girls and never take advantage of them. Biblical manhood is confident in its masculinity which, when put into right practice, makes the world a better place for us all.
Here are more pearls from my grandmother’s book. (Once again, truth has a way of deflating the progressive thinker’s much inflated balloon.)
In What a Young Woman Ought to Know, Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, M.D., writes that we are not only body and mind, but spirit (or soul). Whether we’ve thought about this or not, the fact remains. “No failure to recognize God as your Father changes His relationship to you. No conduct of yours can make you any less His child.”
“Well,” you may say, “if that is so, what does it matter, then, what I do? If disobedience or sin cannot make me less God’s child, why should I be good and obedient?” Because… “your conduct changes your attitude toward Him.”
“The most worthy and dignified thing we can do,” wrote Dr. Wood-Allen, “is to recognize ourselves as God’s children and be obedient. It is a wonderful glory to be a child of God . . . even the most ignorant or degraded have . . . divine possibilities.”
My grandmother’s choices and behavior evidenced that she was in a merciful relationship with her Heavenly Father. And, no matter what anyone else thought of her, she knew she had “divine possibilities” because she was a child of God.
This woman physician from the late 1800s continues, “Being children of God puts on us certain obligations towards Him, but it also puts on God certain obligations towards us. ‘What!’ you say: ‘God the Infinite under obligations to man, the finite? The Creator under obligations to the created?’ Oh, yes.”
Human parents are under obligation to care for, protect, educate and give opportunities to their children. In a similar way, God is obligated to do the same for His children. The difference is, He fulfills these obligations perfectly. All our earthly blessings are from Him. Every good thing we have is a gift of love from our Creator and Heavenly Father.
Our life matters to God. And, why wouldn’t it? He created it! He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for it! And, as Dr. Mary Wood-Allen observes, “God takes such minute care of us that if for one second of time He would forget us, we should be annihilated.” What does that say to you? I know what it says to me. And it pulls me down on my knees in humble, speechless gratitude.
But, if God is truly taking care of us, why does He allow failures, hardships and worries? Sometimes, the things we call hard and cruel are actually little tumbles on our way to learning to walk. A trial or difficulty in the school of life may be God’s way of opening our eyes to see that we need Him and can trust Him.
Our choices affect our attitude toward God. The most dignified thing we can do is to recognize ourselves as God’s children and try to do those things that bring glory to Him.
It is a wondrous thing to be called a child of God. It means we are heirs of God’s wisdom, strength, and glory. It means that when we fail to trust and obey Him, we are still God’s child because of what Jesus did for us (Galatians 4:4-7). Only a personal question remains:
As a child of God, how shall I choose to live?
First posted 2-9-2011 in Ezerwoman
Your body, wrote Mary Wood-Allen, M.D., is not you. It is your dwelling, but not you. It does, however, express you.
She explains: A man builds a house and, through it, expresses himself. As someone else looks at the house and then walks through it, they will learn a great deal about the man. The outside will give evidence of neatness, orderliness, and artistry or it may show that he cares nothing for elements of beauty and neatness. His library will reveal the character of his mind. Care of his house — preservation of its health — speaks of respect and value.
The author of the book found among my grandmother’s treasures notes that many young people just want to have a “good time.” Dr. Allen wrote that she heard many young people remark that it’s o.k. for the “old folks” to take care of their bodies and health, but “I don’t want to be so fussy . . . I’d rather die ten years sooner and have some fun while I do live.”
But, what serious pianist would neglect the care of his piano because it’s too “fussy” and then add, “I’ll treat it more kindly when it’s old”? Dr. Allen observed that, too often, we prize the body far more after its use for us is at an end than while it is ours to use. We don’t neglect the dead; we dress them in beautiful garments, we adorn them with flowers, we follow them to the grave with religious ceremonies, we build costly monuments to place over their graves, and then we go to weep over their last resting-place.” I wonder: Do we treat our living, breathing bodies with such respect? Do we treat the living, breathing bodies of others with such care?
There are those among us who consider themselves “progressive.” A “progressive” would find no value in “going back” to a book from their grandmother’s collection. But, in reading What A Young Woman Ought to Know by a woman physician published in 1898, I am more deeply committed to the Titus 2 style of mentoring. Yes, there are trends. There are new styles. Technology changes, even improves. But, care of our bodies is a truth that does not change with time. What we do to and with our bodies, what we put in them, how we dress them, what environment we allow them to be in, and how we expect others to treat them matters today as much as it did yesterday.
Does it matter how we treat our bodies? The answer to that question depends on what we believe about our origin. Are we here by chance, just accidents of nature? Or, are we “knit together in our mother’s wombs” by God Himself (Psalm 139)? Is the value of our bodies determined by how we or others see them, or by the price that Jesus Christ paid for them?
Dr. Allen asks:
Is it not life that we should value? Life here and hereafter, not death, is the real thing for which we should prepare . . . Life should increase in beauty and usefulness, in ability and joyousness, as the years bring us a wider experience, and this will be the case if we in youth have been wise enough to lay the foundation of health by a wise, thoughtful, prudent care of our bodies and our minds.
First posted 1-24-2011 in Ezerwoman
When did God say, “Educate children in sex”? I challenge you to find this passage in Scripture. While you’re looking, you will find an opposing thought. Parents are to train their children in purity. The theme of purity is woven throughout Old Testament and New.
When our sons were in elementary school, I purchased a series of “sex education” books from a Christian publisher. Something about them troubled me, so I put them on the shelf. I found a better substitute — chivalry and more about biology than “sexuality”. Of course, there was no substitute for the Bible. I was amazed to see how much God had to say about training in purity. I began to contrast God’s Word with “sex ed” textbooks and resources. The teachings were world’s apart.
The question for me was this: Which worldview was best for children? Some years later, speaking nationwide to teens and their parents, I realized why I had been uncomfortable with Christian-wrapped “sex ed” material. Jesus does not wrap Himself around worldly ideas.
“Sex education” is not a Biblical teaching. It is the idea of Alfred Kinsey who coined the phrase “children are sexual from birth.” Too late, his criminal and fradulous research was exposed. Opinions had been shaped — in education, media, and even courts of law. If we define ourselves as “sexual” (with “needs” to be met), or “sexy” (“it’s our right”), then that’s how we’ll live. Our Creator God defines us differently (Genesis 1:27):
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
The first man and woman were made in God’s perfect image. God defines Himself as “Holy.” Therefore, God called the bearers of His image not to a “sexy” life, but to a holy life. We all fell from perfection when sin corrupted God’s perfect image-bearers, but His original design for male and female did not change. We are called and equipped by God to be holy (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5). Unlike animals, we are not captive to our sexual desires. Our bodies (knitted together by God) and our lives (held in His arms) are not our own. They were “bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20). That price is the blood of Jesus Christ. In Jesus, we are forgiven and set free to pursue what is good, right, and holy.
God created male and female, not to bring glory to themselves, but to Him. We do this best when we realize that God does not define us as “sexy” or instruct us to call attention to ourselves; rather, He defines us as “holy” people who help our neighbors see God.
God’s Word says,
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. To this end we toil and strive . . .
This passage from 1 Timothy 4: 7-10a tells me that Jesus can’t be wrapped around unholy and “silly myths.” It is impossible for Truth to wrap Himself around foolish and destructive philosophy and practice. Certainly, as the passage above notes, we have to “toil and strive” because disconnecting ourselves from worldly influence is extremely difficult. It threatens to sap the energy right out of the most persistent Christian. Still, every father, mother, grandparent, pastor, teacher, and mentor is obligated by God’s Word to train children in purity. To do otherwise is to remove the protective boundaries of modesty and send vulnerable children to wolves — big and bold or dressed in sheep’s clothing.
Jesus doesn’t wrap around modern sex education. He can’t. He is the Word of purity, modesty and humility. For this reason, His Word tells elder brothers that they have the responsibility to guard the purity of their younger sisters (Song of Solomon 8:8-9). If the little sister is a wall (virtuous), they are to help protect her chastity. If she has fallen into sin and is like a door (swaying open to promiscuity and harmful choices), then they are to do what they can to rescue her, call her to repentance, and put a stop to her sinful behavior.
Jesus contrasts the world. He is Light; the world is dark. He is Truth; the world is myth and changing opinion. Jesus, the Word, tells us: Do “not stir up or awaken love until it pleases” (Song of Solomon 3:5b). We must not disregard the order that pleases God. It is His design — for the good of all — that love be stirred, awakened, and fulfilled only in marriage between one man and one woman.
So, I challenge you to answer one question: Which practice is compatible with Jesus?
Jesus is Truth. Truth cannot wrap Himself around unholy and “silly myths.” To protect children from wolves (big and bold or dressed as sheep), Jesus guards walls of virtue. He rescues the hurt and repentant after doors have swung open. He tells me to do the same.
This is the love of Him who holds young ones in such high esteem.
First posted 10-1-2010 in Ezerwoman
In today’s world, we are all at risk of having our identity stolen. We call this crime “identity theft”.
But do we realize that identity theft begins at birth? Alfred Kinsey and other humanists attempted to steal away our true identity when they theorized that “children are sexual from birth”. But children are not sexual from birth, not in the way that Kinsey meant. It is not normal or beneficial for a child to engage in sexual activity. While it is true that a boy or girl will, with maturity, develop sexual desires and have sexual inclinations, it is hardly true that a boy or girl should be defined by those desires or inclinations. We are not, first and foremost, “sexual beings”. We are male or female persons called by God’s name and created for His purpose. We are not primarily “sexual beings” but spiritual beings with body, mind and soul. Our identity and how we live based on that identity has eternal ramifications.
We humans are not the first to have our identity challenged.
Not long after His Baptism, the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Satan literally challenged Jesus’ identity as the Son of God.
How did Jesus respond? “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Matthew 4:7).
When Satan persisted in challenging Jesus’ identity, the Son of God replied, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’” (v.10).
In today’s world, there is the very real risk of “identity theft”. It happens when our credit card or personal information is stolen. It is a crime.
But the subtle and far more dangerous identity theft that is practiced by the culture and in sex education classrooms should be recognized and resisted by every believer in Jesus Christ. When children are sexualized, we can respond, “Be gone, Satan!”
Let us not put the Lord God our Creator and Redeemer to the test. He has made male and female for His glory and purpose, not our own.
He has called us by name. We are His.
Please visit Our Identity Matters.
Without fanfare or ceremony, the deed is done! I have just completed nearly two years of writing a book.
On May 2, 2014, it was officially published and made available on Amazon. There is enough left in my well of words to say “thank you” to an extraordinarily patient and helpful support team. You know who you are.
The title of the book is The Failure of Sex Education in the Church: Mistaken Identity, Compromised Purity. It is not the book I dreamed of writing. It is the book I was compelled to write after thirty years of working with and listening to parents and the children they care about.
The book is 250 pages with over 230 footnotes. No, I’m not in graduate school, but yes, this is my thesis. It is a dissertation that covers more than the controversial subject of sex education. It explains how humanists bestowed a mistaken identity upon our children and why, nearly a half century later, Christians still nod their approval. Yet, everywhere I go, I hear people ask, “Why are children sexualized?” The fact that a book like this hasn’t already been written tells me that too many of us have been deceived about our identity.
Christians live in a foreign land. We are called to be uncommon, but have accepted the common ways of our neighbors. We have let the unbelievers identify us.
The Failure of Sex Education in the Church: Mistaken Identity, Compromised Purity is a “catechism” for parents, pastors, teachers, those struggling with sexual temptations, and everyone who is concerned about the sexualization of children.
For fifty years, Christians and non-Christians alike have been taught to believe that “children are sexual from birth”. Nowhere in Scripture does God describe children this way. The phrase was coined by a humanist named Alfred Kinsey who believed infants and children can enjoy and benefit from early sexual activity. His social science was wrong, but his research was widely accepted. Our nation and even the Church were set on a dangerous course. By accepting Kinsey’s data and the expertise of other like-minded humanists, the Church played a role in bestowing a mistaken identity, compromising purity for multiple generations, and ultimately putting human lives at risk.
A false identity has both temporal and eternal ramifications. With painstaking care, I have attempted to explain why the Church can no longer participate in a tragically flawed social experiment and going beyond diagnosis, I propose a hopeful, radical and thoroughly biblical remedy.
There is no personal delight in pointing out error. I have persevered with this project because I am motivated by love for my own children and grandchildren and by love for God’s Word. For the sake of all children, I believe that Christians need to know the origin of sex education, then ask:
For the sake of generational holiness and purity, it is my prayer that we encourage honest and kind dialogue. The 107 questions and answers I offer in my book are a good place to start.
Curious? Please visit Our Identity Matters to learn more.
The book may be ordered from Amazon.
The Case of Mistaken Identity 