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What You DON'T Know CAN Hurt You...

NEW! Abstinence is the Answer

What's Wrong with Marriage in America?

Cohabitation is not Marriage

From Conflict to Communication

The Best Environment

Resources for Parents

Modesty, Abstinence, & Courage Are the Most Important Behaviors to Instill

Study: Porn Use Makes Teen Girls Five Times More Likely to Have Group Sex...

Abstinence is the Answer

A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control confirms what we already know - sex outside of marriage is not safe.

Abstinence is the only 100% effective way to prevent pregnancies and STDs and to avoid heartache and regret.

Contraceptives are not the answer.

Waiting until marriage, and finding a spouse who has also waited is the best situation for a healthy future.

Take a look at the following article to see just what a disservice to our youth we are doing by handing out condoms in schools.
[23Jan12, http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/01/23/report-reminds-us-sex-outside-of-marriage-is-never-safe/#.Tx4sXEH5Ex8.email ;  www.abstinence.net, 25Jan12]

What's Wrong with Marriage in America?

 The following links show record low numbers of Americans getting married. While the majority of Americans do state the desire to marry, numbers are on the decline.

Cohabitation and single-parent households are on the rise which shows a breakdown in the institution of marriage in our culture as compared with past generations.

These trends are something we will continue to monitor. A return to purity, valuing abstinence, and marriage preparation would certainly help.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2147/marriage-newly-weds-record-low ; posted 10 Jan 2012, www.abstinence.net]
 

Cohabitation is not Marriage

 The following article looks at world-wide trends of the rise in cohabitation. Nobody wins in cohabiting relationships; children experience damaging effects and divorce rates are much higher.

The pattern of non-commitment goes from one relationship to the next. The solution, writes article author Fr. Flynn, is greater effort to protect and strengthen marriage.   
[http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-33928?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zenit%2Fenglish+%28ZENIT+English%29 ; posted 10 Jan 2012, www.abstinence.net]

 

From Conflict to Communication

The following articles by Focus on the Family deal with conflict within marriage. All couples deal with issues and problems. Communication is key in resolving those issues and having a happy and healthy relationship.

Learning how to communicate thoughts and feelings and developing listening skills are important life lessons. We hope these tips will help; please share with others!
posted 10 Jan 2012, www.abstinence.net]
Two articles -- http://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/communication_and_conflict/learning_to_communicate/talking_about_sensitive_issues.aspx   and -- http://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/divorce_and_infidelity/when_your_marriage_needs_help.aspx
 
 

The Best Environment: Study: A Home with a Mom and a Dad Improves Boys’ Behavior in School
 
Children do best when they have in-tact moms and dads in the home to raise them in a healthy environment.

This latest study shows how important this family situation is for boys. For the best opportunity for your children, we encourage marriage preparation, abstaining from sex until marriage, and ongoing education for parenting support.

[5 Jan 2012, http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/01/05/study-a-home-with-a-mom-and-a-dad-improves-boys%E2%80%99-behavior-in-school/?tr=y&auid=10104935 ; posted 10 Jan 2012, www.abstinence.net]

 

Resources for Parents
As a parent, it can be an overwhelming job to protect your children from the culture.

Chuck Colson of Breakpoint offers some great resources in young adult fiction books for your children. Most people don't live secluded from the world, and we know how difficult your job is as a parent.

Check "Youth Reads" at www.ColsonCenter.org
[http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/18449?spMailingID=2585348&spUserID=OTQ0MjMzOTc1S0&spJobID=36155429&spReportId=MzYxNTU0MjkS1  ; posted 10 Jan 2012, www.abstinence.net]

Modesty, Abstinence, & Courage Are the Most Important Behaviors to Instill

The job of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse is to arm young people to be street smart when someone wants to run over their values. 

Their capacity to say "NO" will determine their capacity to say "Yes" to greater things.  The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live. 

Love, like virtue, is its own reward.  A person who loses their conscience has nothing left that is worth keeping.  To stay out of hot water, keep a cool head.  The actions of some young people today reveal that some parents embarked upon the sea of matrimony without a paddle.  Charles Spurgeon said, "Learn to say the word NO.  It will be more valuable to you than learning Latin."

When modesty is absent, virtue has no means of protection. 

The danger with many young women is not that their aim is too high and they miss it, but that it's too low and they reach it. 

It's not about finding the right guy, it's about being the right woman. 

The Hollywood version of the 7th commandment is:  Thou shalt not omit adultery.  Lord Byron said, "The thorns I have are of the tree I planted."  

There is a time when young people reach a fork in their road of life.  The decision they make at this crucial moment will determine an entirely new course for their lives.  The National Abstinence Clearinghouse is standing in the gap and teaching educators to raise the bar.

Everyone has the freedom to choose their actions, but they can't choose the consequences. 

Why is abstinence the most important issue? 

The consequences of promiscuity are the #1 cause of:

- abortion (55 million since 1973)
- single parenthood  
- over 1/3of children are born out of wedlock
- divorce (50% of marriages end in divorce)
- improper bonding
- broken future relationships
- welfare (we've spent $12 TRILLION on welfare since the war on poverty began and we now have more poor than when we started)
- sexually transmitted disease (65 million young people have incurable STDs) 
 
Add child molestation, sex trafficking, sexual addiction, and same-sex marriage, which are all related to an education system that does not transmit the time-tested values our nation was founded on.  These are consequences of a culture that has abandoned the principles of liberty. In essence our culture has abandoned God.  Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  

If this sensitive issue is not talked about in school, in the home, or at church, where will they learn it?  Knowledge is not inherited in their bloodstream.  It must be deliberately taught and nurtured in the hearts and minds.  Young people are bombarded by Hollywood, movies, and social networking to destroy any inhibitions they have at a time when their hormones are battling their emotions against reason and values.  The job of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse fills a tremendous void in this culture.  

The National Abstinence Clearinghouse receives no federal dollars. We survive only by donations of people who care about the future of this great nation.  Every donation helps change lives.  The National Abstinence Clearinghouse is teaching America's classrooms that our young people are our greatest resource. Our goal is to raise standards and to implore them to achieve excellence.
[21 Dec 11, National Abstinence Clearinghouse e-letter, abstinence.net]
 



Porn Use Makes Teen Girls Five Times More Likely to Have Group Sex: Study

One in 13 girls aged 14-to-20, or about 7.7 percent, who participated in a recent study from Boston University’s School of Public Health said they have engaged in “Multi-Person Sex” (MPS), reports the Daily Mail. Researchers believe imitation of pornography is a leading cause.

The study involved 328 girls from underprivileged areas of the city who had visited a neighborhood clinic for sexual health issues. However, economic status did not appear to be determinative of risky sexual behavior.

The study found more than half of the girls who had engaged in MPS had been coerced into having group sex by a boy or forced into a “gang rape,” and one-third of participants had used drugs or alcohol before the encounter. In 45 percent of MPS encounters, at least one male did not use a condom.

The average age when girls began having intercourse with multiple partners was 15.6.

Researchers said the use of pornography – by either partner – was a primary influence.

“Girls were five times more likely to engage in MPS if they or their boyfriends had watched porn,” said Emily Rothman, an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the university.

“Out of those who engaged in MPS, 50 percent did things their partners saw in porn first. Porn may be influencing the sexual behavior of these teens.”

The researchers findings give further credence to the conclusions of Canadian filmmaker Sharlene Azam, whose 2009 documentary Oral Sex is the New Goodnight Kiss documented girls as young as 11 going to sex parties and having intercourse with multiple partners. Azam attributed teenage hypersexual behavior to porn consumption.

Patrick A. Trueman, President of Morality in Media, told LifeSiteNews.com, “While the [Boston University] report is shocking, it is not altogether a surprise because…we know from scientific studies [pornography use] leads one to engage in the same activities that are viewed in the pornographic film.”

A 2005 survey found,  “Unwanted porn found its way to 17% of 10- to 11-year-old boys, 16% of girls 10 to 11 years old.”

Trueman, the former Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Justice Department, said that pornography distorts an underdeveloped part of teenagers’ brains known as the pre-frontal cortex, which is “the home of good decision-making and reasoning.”

Scientists and psychologists have concluded this has a lifelong impact on growing boys and girls.

“While masturbating to porn, the adolescent brain is being shaped around a sexual experience that is isolating, visceral, and completely void of any love or compassion,” wrote Alexandra Katehakis of Psychology Today.

“This has the potential to lead to great problems in sexual compulsivity and sex addiction throughout the adolescent boy’s life, because his brain gets shaped to expect the ‘heroin-like’ porn dopamine rush from all of his real-life sexual experiences.” This expectation will lead the teen to “seek out riskier and more visceral experiences that resonate with his early porn use.”

A 2009 CyberSentinel poll claims 13-to-16 year-olds spend almost two hours a week viewing pornography. The average age a child is first exposed to internet pornography is 11.

According to Psychology Today, a 2010 study of 73 Swedish teenagers aged 14-20 revealed that teenage boys who viewed pornography accepted the notion that “women are there solely to satisfy the men’s needs…more or less uncritically.”

[21/22 Dec 11, Ben Johnson, BOSTON,  http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/porn-use-makes-teen-girls-five-times-more-likely-to-have-group-sex-study?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a780b6b474-LifeSiteNews_com_US_Headlines12_22_2011&utm_medium=email]