Annotated+Bibliography+for+Sexual+Education+and+Religion

Eric Youncofski


 * Waite, L., & Leher, E. (2009). Retrieved from website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2614329/ **

As my scholarly article, “The Benefits from Marriage and Religion in the United States: A Comparative Analysis” it talked a lot about how children who grow up by their own married parents tend to do better in many areas. Along with that, those children whose parents are religious and often practice faith have a huge impact on their children. These children are more likely to complete more years of schooling and less likely to have children as an unmarried teenager. These parents place a greater emphasis on obedience, but avoid yelling at their children. Children tend to respond better that way and the children that participate in religious involvement have a lower level of depression, substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, and delayed sexual debut.

Not every person believes in Christianity, but those who have strong faith will continue to practice the rule of no sex before marriage. That clearly helps lower the rate of teen pregnancy and is the safest way to do it. Clearly not everyone in the state Rhode Island is going to wait until his or her wedding night to have sex, but those children who are raised by Catholic parents have a better chance in doing so. That is the safest way to avoid an STD or teen pregnancy.


 * Filipovic, J. (24 S). // The guardian // . Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/24/moral-case-for-sex-before-marriage **

The article, “The Moral Case for Sex before Marriage” in the Guardian newspaper focuses on how much abstinence is preached, but tough to be realistic. Many schools teach abstinence only around the country and there are so many pop stars improving their image like Britney Spears, the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and Jessica Simpson who have talked about waiting until marriage to have sex. There is even jewelry to prove purity amongst people. But this article argues that waiting until marriage often means early marriage, and unfortunately many early marriages have the potential to lead to divorce.

I found this source extremely useful; it showed a perspective that didn’t necessarily agree with letting your religion dictate with or not you can have sex before marriage. But the article also states that 95% of Americans do not wait until their wedding night to have sex, and it also states the United States has one of the highest unintended pregnancy rates along with the one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections rates. Therefore, it's pretty clear if you practice abstinence you have the safest chance of avoiding unwanted and harmful results.


 * PhilliPS, A. (2011, April 10). New york archdiocese criticizes sex-ed mandate. . Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/nyregion/new-york-archdiocese-criticizes-sex-education- **

This article "New York Archdiocese Criticizes Sex-Ed Mandate" from The New York Times focuses on the Catholic point of view when it comes to sex education. Priest and religious parents are fuming at the mandatory sex education being offered in New York schools. Churches and priest are asking parents to opt their children out of the class because it teaches methods of contraception rather than completely telling the children to avoid sex and practice abstinence.

This are was very helpful to see the exact religion point of view on this entire situation. Religious people do not want their children hearing all these ways that pregnancy can be preventing and having people almost promote sex talking about hot it can be safe. Christian parents want their children to practice abstinence and continuing following the rules of their faith. These people are very passionate about the situation and they have the absolute right to.


 * Friedman, J. (2005, Sept 16). // Cq researcher // . Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2005091600&type=hitlist&num=0 **

At Union Grove High School in McDonough, Georgia a very reliable website talks about it's sex education curriculum that promotes abstinence for teens, which is backed by the 14% failure right of condoms. Not everyone from this high school agrees with the curriculum, but it's like that in many places. This website talks about a variety of things under the topic of sex education, including the fact that a great way to avoid AIDS is through the practice of abstinence. This is great for the students who are religion and believe that, but this also helps those students who are not so religion. This can really opens their eyes and see how dangerous sex can potentially be and how much it can affect your entire life, especially becoming pregnant at such a young age.

This website was not the most helpful, but it opened my eyes to areas that do teach the practice of abstinence. I think it's great that areas do that, and show children how no matter how safe you think you are being, you can never be 100% sure of what is going to be the outcome. On the other hand, it is unrealistic for every student to actually practice abstinence so it would most likely be much more beneficial if teachers taught the method of contraception, not saying that I agree or disagree with that method but if you take a vote within a sexual education coure in high school I'm sure much more students are already sexually active or at least plan to be sometime soon.


 * Merriam, J. (n.d.). Why don't more public schools teach sex education? a constitutional explanation and critique. Retrieved from http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? **

While reading another scholarly articles titled, "Why Don't More Public Schools Teach Sex Education?: A Constitutional Explanation and Critique" it explained how according to the Centers for Disease Control only 15.2% of public high schools and 30.9% of public junior high schools do not require any STD prevention education. Some students can go through school without learning a thing about sexual education, and that is not okay considering no one knows what is going on at home. So who knows if what these students are being taught, if anything at all, by their parents. This articles also talks about how its a culture war because the religion outlook on sex education prevents pregnancy and STDs, while the other side explains most young people do have sex regardless of what a school teacher is going to tell them. This brings many public schools to the idea of teaching safe sex.

I'm very surprised that some schools are not teaching sexual education, because it is so important for a teenage to learn all about that because most of them encounter the temptation throughout a point in high school. Looking at the religious point that they made in the article is very true, it prevents all of the negative things that can come along with sex happening to you. But not enough people practice abstinence so these schools feel obligated to teach these kids to be safe rather then continuing to have sex without knowing ways to potential ruin their future, not everything STD is curable.