Questions From Students

Are you telling us that sex is bad?

No, sexual love is something too good to be spoiled by misuse. Marriage is the only relationship that can secure its meaning. I’m talking about love, not uncommitted sexual activity. Sex is a privilege, not a right. If we misuse it by treating it as our right, in premarital or even extramarital relationships, we then suffer terrible costs–physical, emotional and psychological damage.

How can you expect kids to wait if they’re not getting married in the near future?

No one has ever died from sexual abstinence. The SEX RESPECT program explains the difference between repression and integration. It’s healthy to recognize the sex drive and then re-channel that energy to other constructive activities. That’s very different from refusing to admit we have sexual feelings and trying to hide from them. Many students have responded with gratitude because the SEX RESPECT program gave them a new understanding of all the good reasons there are to say “NO” to sex. They were glad to learn that teens can wait, and that waiting is worth it.

What are some of the side effects of premarital sex besides pregnancy?

Premarital sex breaks up couples or pushes them into bad marriages. It fools people into marrying the wrong person. It leads to unhappiness, divorce, extramarital affairs, and dissatisfaction. It denies the couples bonding experience.

The anxiety of getting pregnant or catching a sexual transmitted disease can lead to depression. Some 400,000 teens annually have abortions, a source of depression, even suicide. Teens who marry because of pregnancy are three times more likely to divorce than women who wait until their twenties to conceive. Pregnant girls are likely to drop out of school. Teen moms earn half of those who wait. Sixty-seven percent of pregnant teens are poor.

One in four sexually active teens become infected with a sexually transmitted disease every year. Many STDs are incurable. Some are painful or deadly. STDs increase the chance of contracting HIV. It’s worse when youths take many partners. One in five full-blown AIDS cases is diagnosed among people in their 20s. Most of these victims were adolescents when they were infected. STDs include gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes, venereal warts, chlamydia, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The most common STD, chlamydia, causes a genital discharge and a burning sensation when urinating. More than 4 million Americans get chlamydia each year and there is a huge pool of undiagnosed cases in the United States. Chlamydia has infected 22% of sexually active girls and 10% of sexually active boys. For the first time ever, teen girls have the highest gonorrhea rates in the nation. Teenage boys rank second.

Is your chastity message some church-related or religious drive?

This program has been used in both public and parochial schools. Ms. Jo Jean Morris, a principal, observed that she “could find nothing in the SEX RESPECT program that any parent, depending on their own choice of lifestyle, would be offended by. “I don’t see how anyone could object to it.” This program has been carefully developed to reflect a public health perspective and to show that sexual self-control can bring freedom, maturity, confidence, and good health. That sounds like good sense, not “religious drive.”

You will find answers to and information for the following questions and topics in your Student Workbook:

SEX RESPECT®: The Option of True Sexual Freedom
by: Coleen Kelly Mast–Respect Incorporated, Bradley, IL

Questions & Topics: Page Number:

• Aren’t I mature enough to handle it? 3, 16
• Why take sex so seriously? 4
• What’s wrong with passion if we don’t plan to go all the way? 7
• Isn’t sex just an instinct? 12
• Why not just follow your feelings? 14, 15, 18
• I’m free to do what I want. 19, 20
• But I need love! 22, 23
• I’m not influenced by anyone, I want to do it. 28, 29
• How far can you go? 30
• So what’s wrong with our music? 33
• It’s not hurting anyone else. 35, 36, 37
• Is it OK as long as I don’t get (her) pregnant? 36, 37
• I’ll never catch a sexually transmitted disease 39, 40, 41
• I’ll never get AIDS. 51
• What is truly SAFE SEX? 55
• I know someone with AIDS 58
• Why wait until marriage? 61
• Don’t I need some experience??How will waiting help my marriage later on? 63, 64
• If you aren’t suppose to drink or have sex, why date? 71, 72
• How do I know if I’m in love? 74
• How do you say no? 81-92
• What if I’ve already gone too far? 88, 89
• How do I know when I’m ready to have sex? 93
• What if I’m already pregnant? 95-98
• Isn’t it just a blob of cells? 107

Poems and Quotes to Discuss:

• The Gift 34
• Sex Tips for a Safe Date 30
• To my Son 62

YES, I would like to order the Student Workbook.

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