Abstaining from Sin: 100 percent effective 100 percent of the time

American efforts at sex education are ridiculed by many for a strong emphasis on abstinence.  “We know kids are going to have sex,” the argument goes, “so we should teach them a safer way.”  Whether this curriculum “works” or not is irrelevant in my view, as it avoids the central issue.  The problem is not kids getting pregnant or getting STDs; the problem is kids going to hell.

Children who have sex should get pregnant.  They should get STDs.  Better yet, they should live in constant mortal fear of such eventualities, and as a consequence avoid sex out of wedlock like the plague.  And take that “plague” simile at face value, by the way.  Stay out of its path.  Avoid those who have already been infected.  Don’t go to places where outbreaks have been reported.  Treat warning signs seriously.

Sin, including sexual sin, has consequences.  (And fornication is sin — read Hebrews 13:4 and a host of related texts if you are interested in what the Bible says.)  These consequences are blessings from God, road blocks he places in our way to help keep us on the path of righteousness.  The last thing in the world children need is for parents to pave the path to hell for them.

I had cause to argue this point online with a sister in Christ recently.  The horrors of sin are ravaging our society, and many of our young people are getting swept up in it; there’s no doubt about that.  And I am all in favor of discussions regarding how government, schools, charities and private enterprise can support parents in their efforts to rear their children.  Most parents, frankly, need all the help they can get.  But it is decidedly not helpful when such organizations take the responsibility away from the parents entirely.  Even if the efforts of outside forces are compatible with God’s will, parents are required to do their God-given job (Ephesians 6:4; Proverbs 22:6).  When, as is often the case, these efforts ignore or even ridicule God’s plan for sex, the situation gets much, much worse.

This should be an easy call for Christians.  Line up whatever statistical analysis, market research or university study you like, or stack them all on top of one another.  I will take 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 against the lot of them, and then stack Romans 3:4 on top for good measure — “Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, ‘That You may be justified in Your words, and prevail when You are judged.”

And by the way, we don’t teach drug education like we teach sex education, do we?  “Kids are going to do drugs anyway, so let’s supply them with free, clean needles and show them how to use them.”  No, we don’t say that.  The difference is, most of us still believe doing drugs is wrong.  And although parents may disapprove in principle with their young ones having sex out of wedlock, they don’t really condemn it.  They probably practiced it in their own younger years.  Some of them have lost marriages because of it.  They have no conviction.  They have no moral authority.  They have no core values based on irrevocable Bible truth.  Essentially they are making it up as they go along.  So why shouldn’t Jack and Jill do the same? 

The worst thing in the world that can happen to a sinner is that he or she get away with it.  The best thing is that he or she avoid the sin in the first place.  Conventional sex education does the first.  Abstinence does the second.  Abstinence wins.  Case closed.