Bible Babies

Mississippi. Just the name conjures up images of swamps, slavery, poverty, and ignorance. At least for those of us who have never been there. All we have is movie images and the state's own history to guide us.  Actually it is a leader in a couple of dubious areas. It leads the nation in teen pregnancies, not really an honor. Estimates are that 70% of Mississippi teens have sex before they graduate from high school. Mississippi is also our most religious state counting active church membership and affiliations. Looking at the effect of religious beliefs around the world, that is also a questionable distinction.

At first glance one may think these are not related. One would be wrong. Not long ago  Mississippi finally passed some legislation requiring sex education in high schools.  Signed parental consent forms must be turned in for every student participating. Schools have a choice of two curricula: abstinence and abstinence +. Abstinence + means that contraception is mentioned and condoms are demonstrated, well almost.

Problems have dogged the program from the beginning.  Some schools don't bother to send out consent forms. Some ignore the law. Students have been told that condoms don't work and you'll get AIDS and die if you have sex so abstinence is the only way. Sexually transmitted diseases are omitted from the curriculum. So despite the fact that 70% of teens are having sex, Mississippi legislators, educators, and parents choose to rely on religious tenets.

The Bible, always a great method of contraception, preaches abstinence. Makes sense since way back in biblical times that was the only failsafe way to avoid making a baby. Condoms were in use but were certainly not as comfortable or reliable as they are today. Believers today in Mississippi churches are advised not to have sex before or outside of marriage because of moral issues but really when there was no contraceptive devices those rules were meant to stabilize society ensuring support for women and children.

Here's the question the good people of Mississippi ought to be asking themselves: How is this Bible/abstinence thing working for us? Umm, not so much. Here, in the deep south, religion is actually perpetuating the behavior it condemns. Refusing to educate their children about sex on religious grounds is producing the exact results one might expect. Ignorance is certainly not bliss, in Mississippi it's babies.