YOUTH LEARN ABOUT SEX AND RELIGION

Combining religion and sexuality may seem unorthodox, but that combination has produced two innovative youth programs in Indianapolis.

Each program takes a different approach.

Our Whole Lives (OWL) was created cooperatively by the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations and the United Church of Christ. The program's classes are faith-based but comprehensive about sexuality and relationships. Youth begin the course in kindergarten and continue with classes throughout high school.

"Through church it's a comfort. . . . This church is open and understanding and affirming. It just gives a sense that everything is fine," said Tesia West, 16, who takes classes and is active at First Congregational United Church of Christ. She noted that OWL students and teachers in the class have built a mutual trust after learning together for seven years.

The second program, A Promise to Keep (PTK), is co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and St. Vincent Hospital. PTK trains teens to lead discussions on the benefits of remaining chaste until marriage; it has chapters in many local Catholic high schools

Kristina Carson, a junior at Cardinal Ritter High School, said virginity until marriage is part of God’s plan, and that church is the natural place to reinforce its importance in life.

"It’s nice to know that God picks someone out special just for you to choose to grow up to meet,” said the 17-year-old. “If you’re not saving yourself for that person, then it’s not as special when it comes time.”

Our Whole LivesThe Our Whole Lives: Sexuality and Our Faith program gives young people the information they need to have healthy, loving relationships in hopes that they will become closer to God and contribute more to society, according to its advocates.

OWL is a comprehensive sexual education curriculum that has age-appropriate programs for students in kindergarten through adulthood and is available to churches nationwide.

Faith-based programs for youth are offered at First Congregational United Church of Christ (FCC), 7171 N. Pennsylvania St., All Souls Unitarian Church, 5805 E. 56th St., and at Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis, 615 W. 43rd St. Beth-El Zedeck Temple, 600 W. 70th St., also uses the program but has adapted it to reflect the Jewish faith.

"When you talk about sex ed being in church, people are, like, 'Whoa!' " said Jenny Meagher, an FCC member and a junior at North Central High School.

"But it can be a good spiritual and biblical connection when you talk about your body and who you are as a person," she said. "And because my church is welcoming to everyone, I think it's really good for people to understand and learn that everyone's (sexuality) is accepted there."

OWL teachers focus on the connection between sexuality and faith, partnering with parents, who they recognize as their children's primary source about sexuality. In addition to teaching the basics of sex and reproduction, the class covers the core values of faith, self-esteem, sexual health, responsibility, justice and inclusivity.

The program's philosophy centers on all people as sexual beings, beginning with birth and developing throughout life.

"We want them to have the skills to build healthy relationships so that their sexuality enhances their life and gives glory to God,” said OWL teacher Sue Ellen Braunlin, who is a physician and whose own children have been in the program. OWL teachers receive at least 20 hours of instruction to teach grades K-6 and at least 20 hours of instruction to teach grades 7-12.

In OWL, kindergarteners and first graders begin by learning the proper names of body parts.

"We want them to know about their body so they can feel good about it and understand how their body works,” said Carolyn Meagher, Jenny’s mom and a teacher in the program. As church administrative assistant, Meagher was instrumental in establishing OWL at First Congregational in 2000.

Another aspect of the class for elementary-aged children is the discussion of families, because this is how they first begin to understand loving relationships.

“A family can be just a mom.It can be just a dad.It can be divorced parents.It can be a male and a female. It can be a grandparents or guardians.It can be two men.It can be two women,” Braunlin said. “We teach that there are all different kinds of families and families are love.”

Jenny, 17, believes that the church program is more effective than other ways of teaching sexual education.

"What people teach in schools is basically abstinence, abstinence, abstinence, and I think if more information was taught, we would have fewer teens having pregnancies and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases). Abstinence is all that's taught in my school, and I know pregnant girls, and so obviously it's not working," she said.

While the OWL program repeatedly stresses that teenagers should postpone sexual activity, Meagher does not approve of abstinence-only programs because she thinks that they do not supply comprehensive information, such as education about contraceptives and STDs.

Added Braunlin: “Abstinence programs also make marriage the moral criteria for sexual intercourse. But some married relationships aren’t healthy sexual relationships.”

As the children in OWL get older, the curriculum becomes more in-depth and includes how to use a condom, how to break up with someone, media portrayals of sex, double standards, and assertiveness.

The OWL curriculum includes reading Bible scriptures and discussing how they apply to today’s society.

“The central context of both Testaments is love and justice,” noted Braunlin. “One of the great themes of the Bible is covenant, making committed promises. And it’s about human relationships and divine relationships and love, developing intimacy. And that is exactly the heart of this program.”

Yet her church and the United Church of Christ denomination doesn’t believe – or teach –that every word or message in the Bible represents a rigid truth.

“We look for the spirit of what God’s message is and we listen for God’s word in our day still. We believe God is still speaking,” she said.

For example, students learn that when the Bible was written women were viewed as property. When they married, their husbands acquired them.

“Obviously we don’t think of women as property today. There was slavery in the Bible too – there are a lot of family values in the Bible that aren’t really appropriate right now like polygamy and slavery,” Meagher said.

Both Jenny and Tesia, a 16-year-old junior at Tech High School, have become resources for their friends for accurate information on sex.

"Everything I know I've learned through this program. I mean I talk with my parents . . . about those kinds of things, but just a lot of the background knowledge and a lot of the detailed knowledge I know from this," said Tesia.

The 16-year-old believes OWL’s lessons will remain an important part of her life.

“When I get older and I go to college, I want to be able to know what I want. I think this class has really helped me develop who I am and what my values are.”

A Promise to Keep

Tom and Will O'Bryan and Michael Zimmerman have pledged that they will save sex for marriage.

And they say that they will stick to that commitment because of A Promise to Keep, a peer-mentoring program of the Catholic Church that stresses the benefits of chastity.

"In the future, I will use PTK as a backbone to making decisions when it comes to sexual activity," said Tom, 17, a senior at Chatard High School.

In the program, teens who are committed to remaining celibate until marriage act as peer mentors for middle and high school students at Catholic schools. It's not designed to be a comprehensive sexual education program, only a program that advocates chastity, emphasized Margaret Hendricks, executive director of PTK.

These peer mentors then conduct sessions on topics related to abstinence, such as "Fatherhood: A Lifelong Commitment," "Consequences" and "Love." They use videos, role-playing and skits to show the repercussions of premarital sex.

In the fatherhood sequence, the peers pass out money to students. Then, they run down the list of how expensive child rearing can be, ranging from diapers to day care. Students pretend to pay for each item, soon having little money left for concerts, movies and fast food.

A commitment to their Catholicism is an integral part of the program too.

“God created us as human beings, and I have a tough time taking anything out of that context of faith,” Hendricks said.

“Catholic teachings – marriages and families and the wholesome approach to marriage -- is so rich.”

Since its beginning in 1994, more than 6,000 students have participated as peer mentors.

PTK includes 455 peer mentors and more than 85 grade schools. The high school mentors include sophomores through seniors and come from six high schools: Bishop Chatard High School, Cathedral High School, Roncalli High School, Cardinal Ritter High School, Scecina Memorial High School and Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School.

The mentors range in age from sophomores to seniors. Eve Jackson, a former high school teacher, created PTK. It originated in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis but has collaborated with the surrounding dioceses of Fort Wayne, South Bend, Evansville and Lafayette.

Soon after PTK was established, Jackson launched a similar, secular program for public schools. It’s known as the Peers Educating and Encouraging Responsible Sexuality (PEERS) project. About 2,000 mentors a year participate, and programs are active in 30 Hoosier counties, including 50 school districts.

The key part of the Promise to Keep program – its greatest strength – is that older kids are teaching and leading younger kids, said Hendricks.

The mentors range in age from sophomores to seniors. Eve Jackson, a former high school teacher, created PTK. It originated in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis but has collaborated with the surrounding dioceses of Fort Wayne, South Bend, Evansville and Lafayette.

"As high school students, we get young kids' attention and let the consequences of premarital sex be known," said Will O'Bryan, 17, a senior at Chatard.

The sanctity of marriage is a core message of PTK.

"It has helped to confirm that I want to save myself for marriage and also will help me to remain abstinent," said Michael, 18, another senior at Chatard.

"Chastity applies to every human being," said Hendricks, beginning with abstaining from sexual intercourse as a teen.

"Because I'm married, I live my call to chastity through faithfulness in my marriage and honoring my husband and he, me. So I think that our commitment in our lives and dedication to our sexuality and chastity makes us feel better about who we are as a couple."

REPORTER: Tony Quintana, 15.

 Posted 12-16-07

Copyright 2007 Y-Press