The documentary Let’s Talk About Sex is generating considerable discussion. It aired on TLC last weekend and the DVD was released a few days later. Directed by James Houston, an Australian fashion photographer currently based in New York, the 62 minute offering shows how very different sexuality is when comparing American teens to teens from other nations. While American teens and European teens become sexually active at about the same age the results are very different. Houston’s argument is that the undesirable American results occur primarily because talk of sex here is still taboo while it is not in the other nations. He asks then answers a question: “If sex is everywhere in America but is taboo to talk about what effect is it having on young people?”
- America has the highest teen birth rate in the industrialized world
- 70% of American teens have had sex – of all the mothers of sexually active teens half believe their children are still virgins
- Abstinence language suggests that sex belongs alongside illicit drugs and alcohol, which places sex in a dangerous or compulsive category
So What?
The following four quotes from the documentary should serve as a call to action for faith communities:
- “When we adults don’t step up to the plate and provide what our children really need they look elsewhere and in today’s world that is the internet and pornography and peers who get their information from older siblings who are getting their information from peers, pornography and the internet. So that in our absence of talking with them historically we have made our children really really vulnerable.” (Unnamed voice)
- “Religion in America today is failing the youth of this country precisely because these traditions are not addressing issues of sexuality – sexual behavior – in responsible or realistic ways” (Randall Balmer, Episcopal Priest, Professor of Religious History, Barnard College)
- “I just thought this is a matter of truth telling to young people. Young people have a right to full and truthful information about what I believe is a wonderful God given gift: their human sexuality. And what better place to have that conversation than in the church.” (Pastor Greg Flint, First Congregational UCC in Eugene, Oregon)
- “The answer isn’t just talking more about sex, it’s talking about it in the proper context as sexuality is not some external evil force that we have to wrestle with or control; its something internal and individual. It should be it can be a normal and healthy part of who we are.” (James Houston)
Does your congregation offer comprehensive sexual education? If so, what does that look like? If not, what is provided and what is being planned? (For those interested in using this documentary as a resource, consider the free resources for faith communities, which include a discussion guide.