Sex Lessons

Dear Victorious,

My kids are learning in school that masturbation is an acceptable practice, and much preferable to actual sexual intercourse. My husband and I are just not comfortable with this. Should the school be teaching this kind of thing? What should we do?

Marilyn R. - Redding, CA

Dear Marilyn,

Well, the school is teaching the facts. But as Christ-followers, we know that the facts are circumstantial ... and usually don't represent the truth. The truth is that masturbation is just as much of a sin as sex outside of marriage. It just has different consequences. Masturbation does have negative consequences, though they're not readily apparent like pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases would be. So society tends to be ignorant of those consequences (or at least severely discount them).

What you should do is teach your children about godly sexuality. You should be intentional and explicit in explaining sexuality to them. Take it from a perspective of honoring God with our sexuality. That includes teaching them the truth about sexual aberrations like masturbation or fetishes, pre-marital sex, multiple sex partners, etc. You may have to do some learning on your own so that you'll be prepared to teach it to your children. But basically what you're teaching are the spiritual dimensions of sexuality. What's taught in society (or our schools) is limited to the physical dimensions of sexuality.