Sex education and spiritual wisdom
Traditional Judeo-Christian views of morality are being challenged by the proponents of "sexual freedom." At the same time reports of increased incidence of venereal disease and teen-age pregnancy are causing concerned parents to seek solutions. Educational programs are one avenue that some parents have advocated in this search.
One evening I sat with a group of other parents at our children's school as a sex education program was being described and discussed. It occurred to me that what we were being asked to believe was that a moral revolution had taken place—was here to stay—and that our children were in danger. What was proposed as the best protection for our children was a preponderance of clinical information, including detailed instruction in birth control. Value judgments were not to be included in the program.
To me this approach, however well meaning, was like putting a finger to the crack in the dike; the underlying need is not so much for more material education as for a universal awakening to the spiritual reality of the Christ-man, his purity and dominion.
Christian Science brings to this issue a fresh light based on spiritual insight and understanding. In the Scriptures Paul cautions, "I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." II Cor. 11:3 . We can't afford to neglect the simplicity of Christlike morality, with its inherent values found in the inspired message of the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments. It is difficult to conceive of any stabilizing of human behavior, permanently achieved, without such demonstrably stable, time-tested, moral guidelines.
Most parents are genuinely dedicated to their children's welfare and wish to arm them against temptation so that their decisions may be wise. Many parents feel that some measure of sexual information in the educational process, whether at home or at school, is to be expected. Practical wisdom on the subject of sex education lies not in extremes of reaction in either direction—too much knowledge or too little—but in the nature of the emphasis. The need is for stress on the foundational spiritual nature of man.
Mrs. Eddy uncovers animal magnetism's, evil's, would-be deception when she writes, "The argument of the serpent in the allegory, 'Ye shall be as gods,' urges through every avenue the belief that Soul is in body, and that infinite Spirit, and Life, is in finite forms." Science and Health, p. 280 .
What is required, then, is not preoccupation with clinical information about the body, but rather, greater stress on moral obedience and the spiritual understanding that strengthens such obedience. Hiding from temptation will not make it disappear. The scientific Christian method is to vehemently refute the reality of evil, uncover its lies, and understand their nothingness in light of God's totally good creation—the ever-presence of the allness of good. The application of Christian metaphysics doesn't force demonstration by demanding the immediate destruction of all belief in human sexuality, but it does challenge the mesmerism of sexuality and elevate human concepts. God is Father-Mother, but He is not sexual. Consequently, man, in His absolute likeness, cannot be. God is Spirit, man is spiritual; and sexuality is not a spiritual condition.
As the human consciousness ascends, we demonstrate only what we understand. In marriage, for example, it would be unwise, unrealistic, and unloving for one partner to attempt to impose his degree of demonstration on the other. But neither do we need to swing with the pendulum to the other extreme, where material knowledge and self-indulgence become substitutes for obedience to the commandments and spiritual growth.
In absolute truth, man as the image and likeness of Spirit is not a collection of glands, organs, and undisciplined, immature impulses. He is the spiritual embodiment of God-derived qualities: not lust, but tenderness; not self-gratification, but unselfed cherishing; not animal instinct, but divine intelligence. We can know and prove that we and our young people are not sieves through which fear, ignorance, and unwholesomeness are filtered. Nor are young people receptacles for ever-changing secular opinions. What they are—and we are—is the immediate effect of Love: lovable, loving, and pure. Our very being includes every right impulse and purpose. Helpful parental wisdom nourishes every God-given condition.
"Well, then," it may be asked, "if protection does not lie in a more expansive view of biology (matter), where does it lie?" Science and Health states, "We know no more of man as the true divine image and likeness, than we know of God." Ibid., p. 258 . Self-knowledge through understanding God is needed to clothe us with the armor of good.
When the issue of sex education was under active consideration in our children's school, I was helped by prayerfully dwelling on the synonyms for God as given in Science and Health. Purity, the natural expression of Soul, is not boring or outdated. Those torn by peer pressure or false appetite can turn to the higher example of the Master, who demonstrated the Christ, the true identity of man reflecting God. This fact can be steadfastly held in thought by every parent regardless of any seeming evidence to the contrary. There is no real self-gratification in matter; it is the peace and joy of Soul that satisfies. Matter's so-called attractions pale into insignificance in the presence of spiritual bliss.
As we resolutely identify ourselves and others as actually within the oneness of Mind, we find good judgment to be the result. Dominion and inner peace come with a consciousness of Mind's omnipresence.
Love's manifestation is never found in self-seeking, but rather in the impulse to bless. When we love God as All and encourage our children to do so, we are less apt to mistake lust for genuine love.
Spirit motivates and stimulates right activity, and at the same time neutralizes relentless preoccupation with the physical. As we begin to see man not as personal and vulnerable but as the divine idea tributary to Principle—as expressing individually the very orderliness of order—we clothe him in the armor of God-given dominion.
In one of his letters to a young man, the writer of I Timothy reassures, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." I Tim. 2:5 . Guilt, fear, sensationalism, secular influence, disinterest—these must progressively yield to heavenly aspiration.
These ideas helped me through a meeting at our children's school that ended cordially, and I knew others were praying as well. It became ever more clear to me that true education is not material but spiritual. Several days after this parents' meeting, at which some were advocating greatly increased clinical information as well as instruction in birth control methods in the high school, a compromise was reached. This included the removal of the portions of the program that had seemed overly explicit, and the addition of a new section dealing with self-esteem.
Material education is never a replacement for receptivity to the Christ. As we begin to know ourselves and others not as sexual objects but as beloved ideas of the one Mind, embodying not matter but God's male-and-female qualities, we will find a right balance. And we will be able in increasing degree to provide wise guidance to our children.
The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me:
thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever.
Psalms 138:8
