Sex Education: It’s Time For The Church To
Step Up!
Even though the primary role of
educating children about sexuality
has been relegated to school teachers,
there is no doubt that it belongs to
parents. The challenge is that parents
simply do not know how to talk
to their children about sex, largely
because their parents did not talk
to them about it either, since they
strongly held the traditional beliefs
that it was taboo.
JULY 2015. CM. Page 36
That said,
the church is
therefore left
with the moral
obligation
of training
parents to be
the primary
sex educators.
According to
Ministry Today
this can be accomplished by
offering parents
an elective
in the adult
curriculum
of Christian
education
programs
where they can
be taught by
godly, qualified
instructors how
to open up to
their children about sexuality from a
biblical point of view.
Of course this manoeuvre will
not be void of challenges as some
congregants and religious ministers
might find the sex education class
controversial and even offensive,
hence the need to ensure it is an elective. The subject of sexuality in the
church has always been touchy, but
discerning Christians have to realize
that taking charge of sexual education is far less controversial than
leaving it to children’s peers, social
media and pornographers.
Who will teach this class? Well,
anyone with educational psychology
background to accurately explain
sexual physiology to parents such as
a teacher, nurse or a doctor would
be suitable. In order to administer
sex education, the church must have
confidence in the chosen instructor’s spiritual commitment so as
to help parents make young people
stewards of their own sexuality.
The most obvious misconception is
that, sex education is just about sex,
period. Sex is the central theme, but
there’s a lot more. At church, sex
education should include imparting
biblical sexual moral values and attitudes and not potray sex as merely
dirty, but as a normal human act
which has a noble cause.
It is therefore time for the church
to up the ante on the proactive role
of sex education by training parents
to be the primary sexuality guides
as much as it has stepped up to the
reactive role of warning youth and
adults against the evils of sexual sins.
by Tafadzwa Tam’sanqa
Mhepoh |@mhepoh
O
ur society abounds with
promiscuity and its resulting
ills - baby dumping, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases
and more recently crimes of passion.
These phenomena indicate that society is sexually uncultured and badly
needs sex education. Undoubtedly,
sex saturation in the media is fuelling
these ills and the moral deterioration
in our society.
Surely, the world is in a crisis as secularization of sex as a form of adult
entertainment is at its peak, whilst
divorce rates are rising rapidly due to
infidelity issues.
Zimbabwe too has not been spared.
According to the Demographics
and Health Surveys Youth indicator of 2006, the average age at first
intercourse was 18 for both men
and women, but many may begin
experimentation quite earlier. The
My-Zimbabwe headline of 13 February 2015 reading: “Grade 2 Pupils
Caught Having Sex At Break Time” is
a case in point.
With the church symbolized as the
moral campus of our country, granted that 84 percent of Zimbabweans
are Christians, (Evangelical Fellowship in Zimbabwe -2004) it is crucial
that it plays a more proactive role in
ameliorating the crisis by educating
congregants about sexuality. Historically, the church is responsible for
imposing much, if not most, of the
shame, stigma and embarrassment
attached to sexuality that makes it so
difficult to talk about it.