THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHURCH ON PRE-MARITAL SEXUAL EDUCATION AMONG THE YOUTH IN THIS CONTEMPORARY GENERATION : A CASE STUDY OF THE PENTECOSTAL ASSEMBLIES OF GOD IN SOROTI ASSEMBLY CHURCH

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In our society, the Church is under constant pressure and assessment by the public on whether they practice what they teach. It has become more and more challenging in stressing the aspects of sexual sin and talk about sex exclusively within marriage. Although the Church wants to be counterculture of the worldly perception of sexual practices upon the young people by sticking on the biblical boundaries and Christian values, the young people are always met with very tempting circumstances that influence them into sexual practices especially by western free culture that are accessible through the media. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine the significance of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God churches on the pre-marital sex education.
The young people are constantly hearing about sex from school sex-education classes, Internet pornography, Strait-talk papers and sex magazines which are not Christian and Bible based. The community is only more concern on how to prevent sexual Transmitted Disease (STDs) and AIDS/HIV without biblical concept. In that everybody seems worried about young people's sexual morals, yet the church is doing nothing to help young people on sexuality.
The crisis is that, if the church ignores sexual education to the youth, the young people will adopt funny lifestyles acquired from the media. In response to that, 35 young people from the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Churches were interviewed and the findings affirmed that the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Churches is not teaching the youth on pre−marital sex. The Youth are taught general teaching on spiritual matters without specific sexual. This only takes place during marriage counselling that is when sex is talked which very late and also is not how to avoid but to do sex in marriage. Therefore, this study affirms the biblical principles on matters of sexuality as well as giving a challenge to the church to be actively involved in guiding the youth on their sexuality concerns.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
• 1.1 Introduction and background of the study
• The Church or religion plays very significant role in the lives of people of Uganda and in Africa at large. Her message on moral building has very strong impact as she responses to the mandate given to her by the Lord Jesus Christ; to preach and disciple the faithful. However, Christianity in Africa left the issues of human sexuality to the hands of anthropologists, historians and public health scholars thus detaching it from biblical worldview. Originally, sexual teachings were handled symbolically since sex was considered sacred and talking it publically is a taboo. For the case of the church, the preachers condemned any participation in sexual matters without thoughtful guidance to the young people.
• The danger posed by HIV/AIDS epidemic in Uganda led the leaders to openly discuss the issue of human sexuality in their social and political circles. Therefore, sex and sexuality becomes a central work of HIV prevention. Though families, schools, and communities always found it not easy in dealing with sexual education, there was no alternative, but to teach the community on how to prevent the spread of the disease. Thus majority of Ugandans found it difficult to teach human sexuality especially when dealing with young people and more so to the relatives of the opposite sex. The myths that raises fear and discomfort is believe that, sexual health and HIV education may lead to promiscuity, and this concern can be a barrier to open frank sexual health and HIV education for young people. Yet on the negative note, young people are engaged in sexual intercourse without information that guides them. So the apparent dilemma is that if young people receive sexual health and HIV education they may become promiscuous and if they don’t they may become infected with HIV. So many high school students continue to engage in behaviors that place them at risk especially in the area of relationship .
• Though research however, tells us that, people are sexual beings throughout their entire lives, there must be proper guidance to the young people on how they can approach its practice. As Stanley points out that, sexuality begins from birth, and sexual expression is a basic human need throughout our lives in which sexual expression is an essential component of healthy human development for individuals of all ages. He adds that, at certain points in life, sexuality may manifest itself in different ways. Each life stage brings with it pressures for change and sexual development milestones to be achieved if sexual health is to be attained or maintained. Therefore, the stages of sexual development are human developmental process involving biological and behavioral development. He further argued that humans are undeniably sexual beings. Thus, in a Christian context, this sexuality belongs to our existence as creatures of God. Therefore, it’s crucial for us to articulate a specifically Christian understanding of this central dimension of our being. In that note, there is need for corporate sexual education among the young people with all the stakeholders in our communities.
• Yet in most cases, parents are often embarrassed or ignorant, or provide misinformation, sometimes in good faith, but sometimes to stop a child’s probing questions. To avoid being embarrassed, in many cases, adults have a vested interest in lying, for example, about situations of sexual abuse. Ideally, the parents should provide sexuality information and ethical-moral guidance. But equation comes in, who educates them? Where do they find out what they do not know? Actually, the state recommends sexual education programs in public schools, and HIV/AIDS education. But who educates the teachers? True, many excellent teachers-training programs provide information to many educators, yet some of this is biased or not fully comprehensive .
• Our difficulty comes in when the redefinition of human sexual orientation and attitude has created challenge in sanctity of human sexuality. The redefinition is inconsistent with biblical teachings which are the foundation for church’s ethical conduct. There is already confusion among the young adults on the issue of homosexuality and heterosexuality because of its inconsistent information about human sexuality, the church presents a different worldview on sexuality contrary to secular or media worldview where sex can no longer be practiced based on the bible of man and woman but has recommended other additional methods of man to man and woman to woman besides oral sex.
• In Uganda, there was reintroduction of the anti-homosexuality bill in 2014, An Act to prohibit any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex; prohibit the promotion or recognition of such relations and to provide for other related matters. It was true that the Christian community sought support through members of parliament that led to the signing of the bill by the head of the state his Excellency the president of Uganda yet on the negative note, the Uganda's Constitutional Court annulled tough anti-gay legislation signed into law in February 2014. Though The Anti-Gay Movement in Uganda is still alive and active, the advocators and supporters of homosexuality are still at large active basically targeting the youth.
• The most tragic act in the issue of sexual education is defilement in Uganda. Though defilement is a capital offence in cases where the victim has been infected with HIV/Aids virus or is very young, many of the offenders escape unpunished and sometimes children aged 12-17 find it difficult to stand against such offenders unless the victim is caught on the act. Yet on other hand, young girls are at risks as they travel to schools from neighborhood at dawn and dusk thus increasing the risk of forced sexual intercourse besides the evil of extreme poverty. Many girls are tempted by the promise of a little money to buy food or clothing in exchange of sex demand hence opening wider gaps of becoming a culprit of sexual object and catching of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy .
• Notably, in my observation, there are many private schools with no proper dormitories and most parents oft to rent rooms for their children so that they can study. The result of this rented isolated houses have turned to be small lodges and girls are more affected group. In some instances, parents have married off their young children so as to have the family survive because of lack of poverty.
• Therefore, in such environment, the church becomes a fitting knout in standing in the gap to provide full information on matters of sexuality, sex behavior, premarital sexual behavior, adultery, divorce, contraception, abortion and masturbation as an agent of God on earth. In the book of Mathew 19:4-6, Jesus affirmed the expression of sex during his earthly ministry by saying, “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. ” thus, the focus of the bible is that, sex is only expressed in a marriage life as reflected in the Bible. The church is central in shaping such beliefs and activities to conform to the heavenly vision.
• In that note, this paper is born out of the concern of the prevailing and troubling acts of sexual intercourse among the youth in church and the community at large yet the church is silence on this central practice of human kind with no provisional plan for the young people. The study acknowledges the difficulty in obtaining necessary information and the sensitivity of the study especially in discussing about sex with people’s children. In shaping the values of the social setting of our community, the church has appeared not to be sensitive in the areas of human sexuality, thus, young Christians often, when having questions that pertain to their sexuality, find themselves with no “reliable” source to consult but turn to peers and internet or fiction novels. The current situation due to the advances in technology and its impact on the quality of life in addressing the holistic state of the Christians and its influencing factors has become important . Hence this study looks into the role of the church in adolescent attitude and behavior in Pentecostal Assemblies of God, Uganda.
• Also as it brings together research findings on church, it puts forward wonderful hope in understanding how churches can respond positively to pre-marital sexual education and the AIDS epidemic. Hence, a better understanding of the potential of the church to provide supportive social spaces for tackling early sexual practices in the youth and related outcomes like pregnancy and AIDS stigma could be of an importance as it gives information to church leaders seeking to construct a theology to support church involvement in supporting community in building holistic morals.
• 1.2 Definition of key terms
• 1. What is Sexuality Education?
• 2. Sexuality
• According to Sexuality Resource Center for Parents, they outline the meaning of sexuality as much more than body parts and sex; thus, they include it as follows:
• a. The gender identity (the core sense of being female or male),
• b. gender role (the idea of how we should behave because we are a female or male),
• c. sexual orientation (heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual), how we feel about our bodies (body image), sexual experiences, thoughts, ideas, and fantasies,
• d. the way in which the media, family, friends, religion, age, life goals, and our self-esteem shape our sexual selves and
• e. how we experience intimacy, touch, love, compassion, joy, and sorrow and
• f. That is Sexuality is expressed in the way we speak, smile, stand, sit, dress, dance, laugh, and cry.”
• Therefore, in short, sexuality is an integral part of who we are, what we believe, what we feel, and how we respond to others .
• 3. Significance means importance; consequence:
• 1.3 An explanation of the problem
• The instruction of the young people is a responsibility of the Christian parents who are to train and teach their young one so as to inculcate within them proper virtues as the basis for their existence, discourse, and behavior in a society. As instructed by Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” This meant to produce loyalty and faithfulness where they can trust and come to know God, to fear God and turn from evil, to honor God. But looking at the current trend, Christian parents are so much taken up with creation of wealth where many parents are busy or have no time for their children.
• Additionally, parents seem to be reluctant on their responsibility especially concerning sexual education with the assumption that, giving information to young people about sexual guidance will only encourage them to engage into sexual activities. But this assumption has no root apart from the cultural observation.
• The young people in normal circumstances pass through three key groups of people that are foundational in shaping the morals of the youth specifically in regard to premarital sexual education. These gropes include parents, the church and the teachers that seem to be the common hands children pass-through. The challenge is the failure of the church in addressing the matters of premarital sexual education and handing it to the parents and the parents also feel embarrassed to teach about sex to their children have handed it to the teachers. This in turn has created lack of proper information for the Christian girls and boys who are left without a Christian role model to follow thus, they have been forced to shift their attention into secular role models to follow as they are given enticing information that seems attractive to their test, as they seek for the answers on their sexual questions.
• Additionally is the question of having rightful information to give to the young people. Ideally parents and teachers can provide sexual information and ethical-moral guidance, but the equations one asks is who educate them? Where do they find out what they do not know? Today, due to the advances in technology, most young people rely on peer pressures and the media to get information pertaining to sexuality. Therefore, this study examines the significance of the church in adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior in Soroti Assembly.
• 1.4 Research objectives
• The objectives of this study will be:
• i. To find out whether the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Soroti church’s teaching and practice is significant on the sexuality of its teenage and young adult members.
• ii. To find out if the timing of the church’s teaching on sexuality is significant on the young people.
• iii. To find out if strategies used by the church to teach sexuality are significant on the sexuality of its teenage and young adult members.
• 1.5 Research questions
• The following are the questions the study seeks to answer:
• i. What influence does the church’s teaching and practices have on the sexuality of their youth?
• ii. What is the biblical perspective on sex and sexuality?
• iii. What strategies can the Church employ so as to engage herself into pre-sexual education in the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Soroti Church?
• 1.6 Hypotheses
• This research seeks to test the following hypothesis:
• i. There is no significant relationship between the teachings and practices of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church and sexuality of her members.
• ii. There is no significant relationship between what the bible teachings on sexuality and the practice of the youth in the church
• iii. There is no significant relationship between the strategies used by the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Soroti in teaching sexuality and the impact on her members.
• 1 .7 Scope of study
• This study will be conducted in the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Soroti Assembly Church in the eastern Division of Soroti Municipality, in Soroti District in Uganda, East Africa. Young members of the Church, both male and female, aged from thirteen to thirty years of age will be involved in this study with the ability to read and write in English at the time of the research. The study will focus on the youth’s responses to the church’s teaching on sex and the extent and methods of church’s involvement on sexuality.
• 1.8 Significance of study
• Though there is a lot of research conducted on the church’s role and attitude in sex education of her members, still little significance has been realized on pre-sexual education upon the young generation of the church. In Uganda, many churches have been able to respond to cases like HIV and AIDS, early child marriages, among other things but there are no concern challenging the youth on the matters of premarital sexuality.
• Yet on contrary, sex education is concentrating on condom use differing with the church stand on sexual expression.
• Besides, there is Straight Talk Foundation which envisions a world in which young people have access to sexual and reproductive health services and rights, and live healthy and productive lives
• But most of the teachings here is more on how to avoid contracting the AIDS virus, the practice of safer sex and not concern for the purity of life as to reflect the image of God the creator in living a life that fears and honors God. Thus, it contrasts the biblical teaching and training that the church ought to present to her young generation.
• Therefore, the church is to deliberately get involved in the whole life of her young people which includes sexual education other than living it in the hands of people who have no fear of God. In addition to that, the church must be able to create a very friendly environment where the young people can freely be able to ask questions and share their concerns on their sexual life and experiences. According to this information, the researcher believes that the proposed study will motivate the church to be more involved in the sexuality of the young people and also having the theological study to be more comprehensive in the whole life of the youth. Above all, it will also motivate the government and other researchers to develop further research on the area of this topic.
• 1.9 Summary
• In the summary of the above chapter, the discussion has been able to give a brief background on the sex. Additionally it has discussed on the problem statement, objectives, hypotheses, and purpose of the study, Research questions and significance of study.
• CHAPTER TWO: THEOLOGICAL OVERVIEW
• 2.1. INTRODUCTION
• Today’s life style is more independent than before in Soroti community especially in the urban and semi urban areas. Originally, parents loved to stay with their children. However, because of school, employment, old age in marriage and economical challenges, loose life style has been encouraged as a result of independent living, creating breakdown patterns of premarital abstinence, which was practiced as a way to encourage good moral patterns among the young people. Additionally, the mobility and migration into urban centers and cities in search for employment increase sexual practices caused by working situations. The same patterns of behavior are found almost in every semi centers in the rural settings of Uganda.
• Although the recent sexual education among the youth has received much scholarly attention, its major providers are secular; media, peers, internet, and schools. The challenge is that the providers have various philosophies of education, hence creating confusion among the young people. In my observation, this is the confusion to be clarified with the doctrinal teachings because it’s the church setting where people can be receptive to Christian ethics.
• Regarding Christian worldview, children are gift and blessing from God (Psalms 127:3). But some consider it as blessing and other as a burden especially when unplanned children are born. In such scenarios, the teenager giving birth to the unplanned child, creates a negative attitude and any help given to her is always done out of pity. The unplanned children are abandoned or institutionalized. In extend time; it’s likely that children with experience of being abandoned will make sexual decisions without any doctrinal guidance.
• In light of the above information, this section will discuss the theological overview on matters relating to sexual education and the church’s significance on sexual ethics.
• Before we discuss these matters, it is necessary to overview why human beings face sexual difficulties and thus to have sexual education. For the Scripture teaches us that all human beings are fallen.
• 2.2. MAN AS A FALLEN BEING
• 2.2.1. Definition of sin
• According to John Calvin, Original sin, then, may be defined as a hereditary corruption and depravity of our nature, extending to all the parts of the soul, which first makes us obnoxious to the wrath of God, and then produces in us works which in Scripture are termed works of the flesh. This corruption is repeatedly designated by Paul by the term sin in the book of Galatians 5:19; while the works which proceed from it, such as adultery, fornication, theft, hatred, murder, reveling, he terms, in the same way, the fruits of sin, though in various passages of Scripture, and even by Paul himself, they are also termed sins.
• Sin is disobedience in terms of transgression of the rule established by God, the breaking of the covenant, the inner opposition to God, and simultaneously the inner depravity of human being. Sin has evil consequences for both fellow human beings and the sinner himself. Sin makes man guilty before God, and makes man a Prisoner. He loses the freedom given to him by God. Sin chains man to evil. This clearly comes through in the designation of enmity against God (Romans 8:7) . In more fair term, the definition of sin must go hand in hand with how sin came to exist.
• 2.2.2. The origin of sin
• The discussion on the origin of sin takes us back to the beginning of the Bible, in Paradise. Scripture as the authority of God testifies with respect to the origin of sin by picturing man as having been created good by God, and as having subsequently disobeyed his command in Paradise. The inception of sin in the lives of Adam and Eve as reflected in the book of Genesis 3 in which man fell into sin through temptation, implies that evil-the power of sin manifested in antagonism toward God and disobedience against God’s command had existed before Adam fell into sin. Thus the very first sin must therefore be ascribed to the devil. Putting it farther, the temptation of Adam and Eve involved imagination. Their imagination was aroused bringing God’s prohibition into question by disputing this prohibition, they gave free rein to their imagination with the help of the serpent, and Satan appealed to the attraction of the forbidden fruit. Where imagination and desire reinforced each other as James 1:15 say, “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death”. Yet the fact that man is tempted does not diminish his guilt, this is because Satan tempted Jesus Mathew 4:1-11), which applies to all people whether they are believers or not as well represented in the prayer of Jesus in Mathew 6:13 that asserts that, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”.
• According to Genesis 1:26-28, God created human beings with the reflection of his image; but when he fell due to sin, it created deficiency in man, which to John Calvin, man is now a degraded being; he has corrupted the image of God . As one looks at human nature as it is now, you see it as depraved, wretched, subject to death. There is universal tendency of man breaking laws in a given community and sometimes being not aware of its cause. However, the biblical study has shown that, it is sin which makes man depart from the right path.
• According to J.Van Genderen in his book states that, sin then spread and progressed meaning it is not satisfied with a single act and does not restrict itself to the human being who sin. Sin as a rebellion against God is imperialistic and totalitarian. In this sense, it is the negative image of the beneficent rule that God exercised over mankind. Therefore, sin has passed from the domain of angels to Adam and Eve. It has been passing from them as parents to their children. Genesis 3 is followed by Cain’s murder of Abel in chapter 4. In this act, sinful motives play a role, for example, jealousy, envy and hatred and therefore begrudging the other person his life. He further sights that the more we progress in the Bible, the more we see how sin spreads in terms of breadth and depth, scope, and intensity which magnitude of man’s evil is depicted in Genesis 6:5, 11-12.
• While getting out of the original sin, but showing now the enormous extent, the universality, the baffling self-evidence of sin as a phenomenon in our history in Psalms 14. Both David and Job reflect on the sins of their youth (Job 13:26; Psalms 25:7). Therefore, sin has succeeded in taking control of this world and its inhabitants. There is no human being, no situation and no history in which we do not encounter it .
• Jesus, in Mark 7:21-23, says, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person” .
• This sinfulness of man is more fertilized by an external factor which easily stimulates sexual desires in man, actually, Genesis 3:3-4 gives this external evidence that when the serpent lured the woman into dialogue, God’s command was misrepresented. The serpent had succeeded in drawing the woman’s attention to another possible interpretation of God’s command in which the tenor of the original command was no longer valid. For instance, she omits those elements in the command, “any” and freely,” placing the prohibition in a context of liberality, Secondly, she identifies the tree according to its location rather than its significance; thirdly, she refers to God as the serpent had done. Lastly, she also adds the phrase “you must not touch it” and thus, she fail to capture the urgency of certain death “you will surely die”. To her, through dialogue, God was represented as not good and gracious; he is selfish and deceptive, preventing the man and woman from achieving the same position as God himself (v.5). The serpent spoke only for about what she would gain and avoided mentioning what she would lose in the process .
• In many circumstances, many young people are influenced by what they hear especially concerning their interest from the media just as the woman’s ability to resist temptation was pressed down by falsehood of promises to have knowledge and awareness of something new. The account of Genesis 3:6 vividly makes a strong point towards external influence. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” thus she perceived there was no threat of the fruit to her relationship with God because in her mind, the fruit looked like any other fruit because the bible says that it became good for food and pleasant to the sight as any of them. Meaning that man is always controlled and influenced by what he constantly sees especially when it’s a touched with benefits or rewards to an individual.
• Today, we face the same challenge where sin becomes delightful to the eye and to our taste (Genesis 2:9). The evil one is still using the same strategy against the people of God by creating a lot of doubts on God. The strength of this sin is seen when Cain killed his brother (Genesis 4) even after God had warned him by saying, “Sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7) hence, Cain was not to let sin master him; instead, he was to master sin. Yet today, young people have been mastered by sexual sin which could either be through pornography, illicit sex, among others.
• For that reason, by human standard, the sin of sexual immorality is not easily preventable because of the fallen nature in which sin has mastered mankind.
• The answer to the fallen man is in Paul’s letter to the Romans 5:12-21, that asserts that, death came through Adam and life has come through Christ Jesus. This death as stated by J.Van is as a result of sin which does not have sense but rebellion against creation without reason because of its irrationality in opposing the law by despising the good law of God and departing from goodness and ending up choosing death which is like kicking against the one who gave you life . As a result, one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For that reason Jesus Christ is the only remedy for the fallen man as one is indwelt by the word of God and power of the Holy Spirit that in turn will help guide and empower the believer to walk in God’s righteousness and obedience against the power of sexual immorality. Also the Bible contains much more information in line with the sin of sexual sin as seen bellow;
• 2.2.3. Sexual Sin
• Human sexuality has been tarnished by sin due to the fall of man into sin making every area of human existence damaged, which includes the areas of sexuality, sex and making love. They all lie in the domain of sin and suffer the consequences. Because of the fall, men and women became confused about their maleness and femaleness. Making love was replaced with having sex and even the joy of childbirth became hampered with pains in childbearing (Genesis 3:16) .
• This is further expressed that, the breaking of the covenant in the Garden of Eden gave room to various manifestation of different forms of sins as Galatians 5:19 spelt out as the works of the flesh.
• What Surprises us is that, the modern culture has tried to redefine sexuality as a personal right to be exercised any way as an individual wishes, where by sexual behavior is considered a personal choice. However, God as the creator of sexuality preserves the right to set boundaries for it and the Bible is clear about the guidelines. When God created the first man, Adam, and brought to him the first woman, Eve, He joined them together in marriage and pronounced it “very good” (Genesis 1:31; 2:18, 24). At that time, God introduced sexuality and set the boundaries for its expression. God created a union between a husband and wife that He called “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:6; Mark 10:8; Ephesians 5:31). He then defined any sexual activity outside of the husband-wife relationship as a violation of His gift. Fornication, homosexuality, pornography, and lust are all violations of God’s intent when He created the sexual act in 1 Corinthians 6:9, 18; Galatians 5:19-20; Jude 1:7; Matthew 5:28; Hebrews 13:4.
• However, we may not have in Hebrew or Greek a word used in the bible that exactly spells or refers to sex before marriage. But what we read is that, the Bible condemns adultery and sexual immorality. Yet according to 1 Corinthians 7:2 it seems to give a clear suggestion that fornication is unwanted as we read what Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:2 says, “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband”. This verse suggests that because people cannot control themselves and are engaged into sexual immorality outside marriage life, they should get married so as to have or fulfil their desires in a moral manner. Now since 1Corinthians 7:2 clearly includes sex before marriage in the definition of sexual immorality, the Bible verses that condemn sexual immorality as being sinful also condemn sex before marriage as sinful. With this respect, there are numerous Scriptures that declare sex before marriage to be a sin (Acts 15:20; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13, 18; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Jude 7). Therefore, Sex before marriage is included in the biblical definition of sexual immorality where the Bible promotes complete abstinence before marriage. Sex between a husband and his wife is the only form of sexual relations of which God approves as reinforced by Hebrews 13:4 that says, “Let marriage be had in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers God will judge”. Sexual sin in this aspect is defined as per God’s standard that is clearly written in the Bible .
• Following the family in the areas of sexuality, as children get older, the way they express their sexual feelings changes. In this modern generation, children are exposed to sexual images at a far younger age in today’s culture more than ever before through music videos, websites and social media. So it's not surprising that sometimes children's sexual development can seem out of step with their age which then takes us to the family sexual challenges.
• 2.2.4. Sexual Problems in the Family
• The ongoing economic crisis is directly and negatively affecting the livelihoods of millions of families in Uganda which is impacting children within their various contexts. This is also linked with negative conditions such as substandard housing, homelessness, inadequate nutrition and food insecurity, inadequate child care. Teens are therefore at greater risk for several negative outcomes such as behavioral and socioemotional problems, poor academic achievement, school dropout, abuse and neglect, more so children living in single-mother families.
• And in response to fight poverty, Parents try as much as possible to work hard to meet the demands of the families which on other side create another challenge especially in regards to discipline and spiritual guidance of children. The family then invests little time or no time to guide their children in their spiritual life which create a gap that is then filled by the media. This then create cause for concern because there is more sex in the media and more explicit than it used be. This is more apparent in the case of television where representations of sexual activities and pornographic pictures are openly displayed sometimes in the middle of the day of late night slots and the presenters tend to have allowed more frequent programming both before and after 9:00 pm meant for family viewing. The effect of media particularly as regards children, when it comes to sex in the media, children are learning about many things which they have not experienced in real life-things about which they may be intensely curious. And for this reason, they are often deemed to be particularly at risk of negative influences. The media violence, invoking concerns about children/youth, sex and media seems to serve as a powerful means of mobilizing more general anxieties about social and moral decline. Thus the attempts to assess the messages or themes carried by sexual content are bound to be more problematic. For example, researchers have studied the extent to which sex on television takes place in marital or committed relationships; the extent to which such stories mention the risks associated with sexual activities (such as sexually transmitted infections (STLs) or unwanted pregnancy); and more broadly, whether sex is presented in a positive or negative manner .
• Although sexual content in the media can affect any age group, adolescents may be particularly vulnerable. When the adolescents are exposed to sexual content in the media during a developmental period when gender roles, sexual attitudes, and sexual behaviors are being shaped, it then puts the young people at risk because the cognitive skills that allow them to critically analyze messages from the media and to make decisions based on possible future outcomes are not fully developed. Hence there must be measures set by the parents so as to monitor the use of media and anything that can easily affect their minds as they grow.
• If there are no guidelines exist on the recommended amount of time that adolescents should spend viewing television or other media, there will be possibility of interfering with an adolescent patient's ability to function effectively in other spheres of life. Above all, the characters in the media will in along ran be model to their behaviors. This can cause harmful influence upon the young people especially in line with sexual behaviors thus, making them to have unrealistic expectations
• Therefore, the importance of supervision and guidance in the media choices of adolescents and their volume of use should be emphasized by their parents and concerned adults. Notably, Joint viewing or participation may be the best option or have the parents or guardians screen or sort out software reduce inappropriate access sexual images. Also the parents can help their children to learn on how to critically evaluate the media and its content as they become critical consumers of the media content.
• Yet all the above information needs parents who can balance their time between work and guiding their children.
• As Christian parents, Paul in Ephesians 6 states that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and forces in the heavenly realm. In my opinion, there are evil forces against the families. Paul’s note on the family management in Ephesians 5 is a clear indication that, there must be care for all the parties in the family. Yet as we said, when there is no commitment to the word of God and prayer, families are teared down by quarrels and fights as a result of demonic activities against God’s plan and parents will end up in divorce. Meaning the children will be raised up by either step mothers or step fathers thus creating a negative impression to the next generation who in turn might become rebellious to their parents and live a life of ungodliness. The young men would engage in sexual acts while girls continue to abort to keep themselves from the shame of pregnancy.
• Though the family needs are to be met, there must be balance of responsibility so that one should not gain materially but lose having well-disciplined children. As matter of fact, family is supposed to be a model for the future generation where the promises of God to his people are experienced as per Genesis 19:18 and Deuteronomy 6:6-9 where God emphases to Abraham and the church of Israel to train the child in a biblically minded given community. Yet this commitment is lacking in this contemporary generation.
• 2.2.5. The Biblical stand on sexual Immorality
• For this case, the church’s involvement in the adolescent’s life from childhood influences what the youth learns and how the adolescent responds to sexual temptations thus impacting their decision making in the area of their sexual lives.
• It’s really true that the Church is the rightful place to educate youth on issues of sexual matters due to the authority they hold in people’s lives in the community due to their believe in God. We also note with care that the book of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 rightly forwards instructional materials that the church can use in teaching the young people. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”.
• To Garland, the kingdom of God is the kingdom of righteousness and that the unrighteous can have no part in it. Meaning God’s rule brings with it moral conditions that require radical transformation of values and behavior for believers. The ten sins in this list reflect the behavior of those outside the church who are guilty of open rebellion against God and destined for judgement. Paul repeats six vices from the list in 5:11, beginning again with fornicators and adding four new evils: “adulterers, males who are penetrated sexually by males, males who sexually penetrate males and thieves.” Refers to those guilty of sexual relations outside of marriage and the gravity of the sin of sexual immorality should not be diminished in the lives of the young people simply because it does not directly mentions them. Actually, the book of Leviticus chapter 15 and 18, give guidance and education on matters of sexual practices.
• According to John Calvin, on Leviticus chapter 15, men are defiled by the flow of the seminal fluid as it arises from lust as condemned by the general law of purity. Besides, the menstruation of women is connected with other forms of uncleanness and defilement. The sum then is, that the seminal-flux is reckoned among the pollutions which prevented the Israelites from entering the tabernacle, and from the external service of God, hence whatever proceeds from an unclean man is corrupt, and that no one can duly offer either himself, or what he possesses, to God, except he who is pure and perfect in soul and body.
• As Paul exhorts believers that, being received as God's peculiar people, they should cleanse themselves "from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." (2 Corinthians 7:1.). But Moses further declares, that uncleanness is contracted, not only when the seed is emitted, but when it is retained; and that not only is the man himself rendered unclean, but whatever he may have touched -- his bed, his seat, his saddle, his clothes; and that the contagion extends to others also, if any should have lain on the same bed, or ridden on the same saddle renders them unclean. Because the corruption of the nature cleaves to the whole human race and only the remedy of the evil act is repentance and trusting in the blood of the lamb .
• The bible also mentions of some young people who lived a reckless life style for instance in Proverbs chapter 7 that says that, for at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw among the naive and discerned among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing through the street near her corner and he takes the way to her house. So she seizes him and kisses him and with a brazen face she says to him, come, let us drink our fill of love until morning, let us delight ourselves with caresses. Her house is the way to Sheol descending to the chambers of death (7:6-27). Though this is the reflection of the fallen nature, still this example vividly explains what goes through the lives of some young people who lack judgement.
• It’s important to note that Israel has a traditional values and teachings, and the family is always the first area in which those teachings are passed down to help the young people in their daily judgement. Proverbial sayings and other traditional teachings were collected and studied, and the court officials presented their wisdom in polished literary works. Certainly, the family was the first locus of the wisdom in Israel culture, and it continued to play an important role through Hebrew history.
• Unquestionably, under the divine guidance a great deal of traditional family wisdom has been incorporated into the text of proverbs. The family rather than the school is everywhere presented as the primary place of training. Although it’s obvious that some type of teachings went on in various circles, it’s particularly significant that in Proverbs education is frequently said to have been done by the parents . For example in reference to Deuteronomy 6:6-7 “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up”.
• This Parental exhortation in which a parent exhorts a child to gain wisdom, to avoid prostitutes or criminal associations or to maintain a life of virtue; especially in Proverbs 7:1-5 that states that, “my son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and to insight, “You are my relative.” They will keep you from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive word”.
• Additionally, the bible further gives us Joseph as one vivid example of a young man who stood his ground despise the weight of the temptation that he met during his youthful stage of growth, especially taking from Genesis 39:7-10 that says, “And after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her”. This verses stand to support the point that, Godly instructions tend to guide the young people as they grow in the community.
• Joseph in this chapter, gives very vivid example that young people can be able to live pure and victorious life in the face of this contemporary generation especially when they abide by the words of God. In this temptation, Joseph offered an explanation for his refusal of her solicitation based on three lines of argument: first, the abuse of trust, secondly, an offense against her husband and thirdly a sin against God. His resort reaches the highest ethical plane: “How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (v.9). the rhetorical question highlights the absurdity of considering such a breach of moral conduct. In Hebrew, this great wickedness has the same effect of underscoring the depravity of her illicit suggestion and also described the mental affections of prediluvian society (Genesis 6:5), and it was the Mosaic penalty of death that removed the evil from Israel (Deuteronomy 22:22). Furthermore, Joseph was not deterred despite the daily pressure. “Day after day” expresses the distributive use of the repeated “day” meaning every day. Temptation is not apart-time experience of the believer .
• According to John Calvin, religion prevailed in Joseph that he abhorred all impurity. As we see that the eyes were as torches to inflame the heart Potiphar’s’ to lust. By which example we are taught that nothing is easier, than for all our senses to infect our minds with depraved desires, unless we are very earnestly on our guard. For Satan never ceases diligently to suggest those things which may incite us to sin such as sexual thoughts, thought to view pornographic pictures among others.
• The senses both readily embrace the occasion of sin which is presented to them, and also eagerly and quickly convey it to the mind. Wherefore let everyone endeavor sedulously to govern his eyes, and his ears, and the other members of his body. For there is no doubt that this impure woman endeavored, by various arts, to allure the pious youth, and that she insinuated herself by indirect blandishments, before she broke forth to such a shameless kind of license. As she spoke to Joseph day by day; the constancy of Joseph is commended; from which it appears that a real fear of God reigned in his mind. Whence it came to pass that he not only repelled one attack, but stood forth, to the last, the conqueror of all temptations. We know how easy it is to fall when Satan tempts us through another: because we seem exempt from blame, if he, who induces us to commit the crime, bears a part of it. Holy Joseph, therefore, must have been endowed with the extraordinary power of the Spirit, seeing that he stood invincible to the last, against all the allurements of the impious woman . Making this narrative a support to our point that the church has especial responsibility to the young people as they admonish them in the way of God and instilling those biblical principles of God’s presence in all that concerns them.
• The Bible further points to the youth and the church very instrumental instructions according to David Garland. The rhetoric question ““Do you not know?” explains why sex with a prostitute is so serious a matter. Sexual union creates an enduring bond. The verb “Kollan” implies that the man and the prostitute are wedded together even if there are no wedding vows. They may regard their union as only a temporary liaison, he too gains sexual release, she too gains a living but it is more entangling than that; neither is free from the other when they part company. Paul derives his proof for this view from Scripture according to Genesis 2:24, “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh”. The assumption is that every sexual act between a man and a woman, whether licit or not, fuses the partners together into one flesh. There are no such things as casual sex that has no enduring consequences, even when the partners have no intention of forming a mutual attachment. If a Christian joins himself to a prostitute, and if the prostitute represents forces opposes to God, this immoral act has aligned the Christian over against God. The seriousness of this transgression for Paul far outweighs other legitimate moral issues about the evils of sex for hire. He does not say anything about how such behavior violate the principle of Christian love by treating another person as a commodity that can be purchased for one’s personal gratification rather than a person who is to be won to Christ. He stresses that the primary concern is how tis act violates one’s relation to Christ. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that the Christian is holy as the shrine of the Holy Spirit. The argument in this verse assumes that when something holy is joined to what is unholy in an unholy union, the flesh becomes corrupted and the shrine desecrated and made unfit for the Holy Spirit .
• This is supported in the book of Leviticus 11:44 “I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground”. In this section an attempt is made to define the terms. The Priests were instructed to distinguish between the holy and the common and between clean and the unclean (Leviticus 10:10.). In this verse a double contrast is made between holy and common and between clean and unclean. Chapter 11 divides the animals’ kingdom into two groups, those that are clean and those that are unclean. Similarly chapters 18, 20-21 detail which sexual sins make someone unclean and which leave him clean. Common is likewise the reverse of holy (gadosh), just as to profane (hillel) is the converse to sanctify (giddesh). In Hebrew thinking everything was either clean or unclean, holy or common. Common things were divided into two groups, the clean and the unclean. Clean things become holy, when they are sanctified. But unclean objects cannot be sanctified. Clean things can be made unclean, if they are polluted. And finally, holy items may be defiled and become common, even polluted, and therefore unclean. People could be unclean by sin, even sin of sexual immorality, touching a dead person.
• Sanctify
• Holy Common
• Profane
• Cleanse
• Clean Unclean
• Pollute
• The above diagram assumes to explain how the temple of God can be polluted by sexual immorality .
• To Garland, the verb Kollan is used in the LXX to refer both to sexual unions and spiritual bonds. In the latter usage, it simply means “to hold fast”. In Deuteronomy 10:20, for example, Israel is commended to fear the Lord their God, worship him alone and hold fast to him. Hezekiah is commended for holding fast to the Lord and keeping his commandments (2Kings 18:6 LXX). By contrast, Solomon is chided for doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight by violating the Lord’s command in loving and marrying many foreign women and clinging to them in love. Cleaving to these women with their idolatrous segments influenced him to turn away his heart to other gods (1Kings 11:1-8 LXX). Therefore, the consequence for Christians cleaving exclusively to Christ is that they become one spirit with him (Romans 8:9-11). Paul does not intend to suggest that Christ unites only with the human spirit or soul. The Spirit creates the union with Christ and makes the body its temple. Christ’s Spirit becomes the command center for the body, which would rule out all contact with prostitutes, because the body is to be given over in service only to its Lord. The command to flee porneia draws the conclusion to his argument and a fundamental concern throughout these middle chapters of the letter. The man having his father’s wife is guilty of a porneia relationship that even pagans find revolting. Paul’s initial instruction about sexual relations within marriage is governed by the fear of the danger of porneia (1 Corinthians 7:2, 5). His warnings about idolatry include warnings about sexual immorality (1Corinthians 10:8). Paul shares the sentiment expressed in the Old Testament of the twelve Patriarchs that fornication is the mother of all wicked deeds; separates from God and leads men to Beliar. It is the pitfall of life, separating man from God and leading to idolatry. Fornication and idolatry go together (1Corinthians 5:10-11; 6:9; 10:7-8) because they belong to the same evil domain that warps what can be known about God, disfigures life and wreaks havoc in society. Anyone who finds sex with a prostitute permissible is also likely to have no qualms about idolatry. The statement “every sin that a man commits” is notorious essential point. Many have tried to resolve the problem by turning it into mere Corinthian quirk and dismiss it as another of their bizarre slogans. This view assumes that the Corinthians’ fallacious anthropology lies behind a claim that what is merely physical, such as sexual activity, is morally irrelevant because it does not touch and cannot harm the inner citadel of the soul. This view is to be rejected because Paul includes no marker to signal the presence of quotation. Sexual sin is deemed particularly destructive because it causes the greatest damage to a person .
• According to John Calvin, he that is joined to an harlot brings out more fully the greatness of the injury that is done to Christ by having intercourse with an harlot; for he becomes one body, and hence he tears away a member from Christ's body. For Moses speaks there not of a base and prohibited cohabitation of a man and a woman, but of the marriage connection which God blesses. "Moses says that by the marriage connection husband and wife become one flesh, but he that is jointed to the Lord becomes not merely one flesh, but one spirit with him." For as fornication is the corruption of a divine institution, it has some resemblance to marriage and it can be applied to fornication due to the purpose of expressing the more fully the heinousness of the sin. The expression, therefore, that the two become one flesh, is applicable in the true and proper sense to married persons only; but it is applied to fornicators, who are joined in a polluted and impure fellowship, meaning that contagion passes from the one to the other since there is no absurdity in saying that fornication bears some resemblance to the sacred connection of marriage. In that manner "God pronounces husband and wife to be one flesh, in order that neither of them may have connection with another flesh; so that the adulterer and adulteress do, also, become one flesh, and involve themselves in an accursed connection.
• Flee fornication, Paul shows its greatness by comparison that this sin alone, of all sins, puts a brand of disgrace upon the body. The body, it is true, is defiled also by theft, and murder, and drunkenness, he does not altogether deny that there are other vices, in like manner, by which our body is dishonored and disgraced, but that his meaning is simply this that defilement does not attach itself to our body from other vices in the same way as it does from fornication. My hand, it is true, is defiled by theft or murder, my tongue by evil speaking, or perjury, and the whole body by drunkenness; but fornication leaves a stain impressed upon the body, such as is not impressed upon it from other sins. This is because; First, that our bodies are temples of the Spirit; and, secondly, that the Lord has bought us to himself as his property. The Spirit of God cannot take up his abode in a place that is profane, we do not give him a habitation otherwise than by consecrating ourselves to him as temples It is a great honor that God confers upon us when he desires to dwell in us (Psalms 132:14) Hence we ought so much the more to fear, lest he should depart from us, offended by our sacrilegious acting
• In matter of fact, sexual sin and brokenness always start early when young people are exposed to distorted sexuality and slowly enslave them. It’s always necessary for the young people to make up their minds beforehand to avoid any excessive physical involvement. It should be noted that sexual contact like prolonged kissing, fondling/groping, mutual masturbation and oral sex shouldn’t be considered or attempted, because it is not easy to overcome the temptation of sexual intercourse in that kind of mood. I suggest that Christian teens must be aware of the highly sensitive, areas on their bodies, places like; the breasts, the thighs, the nipples, the ears, and the genitals (among other areas), that can heighten the sexual desires. As Romans 12:1-2 states that, the mind, intellect, emotions and will should be train in God’s will and in God’s word to allow God to transform, change and renew our thinking, our emotions and our attitudes, thus, leading to new responses, new behaviors, new character and a renewed life. Genesis chapter 39 shows how Joseph had made up his mind beforehand to avoid any excessive physical involvement. Therefore, in my view, it’s very healthy for the church to get involved in the adolescent’s life right from childhood that will have an influence on what the youth learns and how the youth responds to sexual issues.
• However, before we get deep in discussing premarital sexual education, we want to look at how the church taught about sexual acts.
• 2.2.6. Problem solving for Family Problems
• 2.2.6.1. The Parents
• According to the Bible, parenting involves more than simply raising a child. Parents are directly responsible to God for more than providing food, shelter, and protection. Proverbs 22:6 emphasizes the significance of biblical parenting: "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." As parents turn to the Bible for instruction they are able to open up channels in their children's lives so that God's grace can flow in and then produce quality character that is different from a child's natural inclinations as they shape their attitudes, actions, and associations.
• In Deuteronomy 11:8-19; 6:67, parents are called to obedience to God’s command to teach their children so as to put his words in their hearts and use them when they are at home, when they are walking along the road, when they lie down and as they get up. Therefore, parents must be teachers of their children on the aspect bible purity.
• However, the Bible reports of Eli who spoke to his sons about their bad behavior but he failed to restrain or exercise authority over his sons thus bringing judgement upon the house. (1 Samuel 2:22-25; 3:12-13).
• As I understand it, we must pass on what we know about God, His Word, His work, and His ways to the coming generations because God has established His testimony; He has given us His word; and He has commanded that we teach these truths to our children (Psalm 78:5). As a matter of fact, we are to teach these truths to our children with great diligence, taking advantage of every opportunity the Lord grants us (Deut. 6:7).
• The question comes, how and what can we teach our children on the issue of sexuality? I want agree with Barbara. According to Kohl, sexual education goes beyond providing information that is accurate and timely. To her, we must also shape the values and attitudes of our children, shape their worldview, also we must practice what we preach which act as modeling, provide our children with the emotional strength that they will need to make godly decisions, and instill in them the skills to implement the good decisions they make. Most importantly, their behavior will spring from their hearts, which will be formed by their personal relationship and devotion to God. Thus, influencing their spiritual growth must be a top priority.
• She further says that, sex education is an essential element in discipling teens, and the church can help parents to fulfill their responsibility by helping to train them in at least four important aspects of parenting:
• 2.2.6.1.1. Parents must learn to prepare children for puberty
• First and foremost, before a child begins to go through the physical, intellectual, and emotional changes of puberty he or she needs to know what lies ahead. A boy needs to be prepared, for example, for the uncontrollable “squeak” as his voice deepens, for the first nocturnal emission, and for spontaneous erections at inopportune times. A girl needs to look forward to her first menstrual period as a wonderful sign that she is physically becoming a woman, rather than being terrified that something is radically wrong with her when she suddenly discovers blood on her panties.
• Both boys and girls need to know that emotional ups and downs are normal. Other developments like the growth of pimples on the face, feet and hands grow faster than the rest of the body; girls gain unwanted weight and all this is normal for young people so as not to lose confidence in themselves during puberty.
• My view is that there must be a relationship build between the parents and the children so that they can freely interact and discuss matters of sexuality as they ask any questions and the parents must be ready to answer and not lie to them or find a friend who can help in areas they find themselves difficult to teach.
• 2.2.6.1.2. Parents should prepare teens for opposite-sex relationships
• This is one of the difficult stages in the parent and teen. There is need to ask many questions that help to certain the flow of information. I do share with the argument of Barbara that, Parents must first ask themselves questions such as “How old should my child be before he or she begins to date?” “What type of dating is appropriate (group, double, single) at what age?” “What are appropriate activities for a date, and where?” “Should there be a curfew?” “Should we always meet the prospective date first?” “What level of physical contact is acceptable?” Or, “Is it necessary, or advisable, to date?” Who will make these decisions – parents, or the teens themselves? Therefore, it calls for the parents to have discussions and come to an agreement on such issues prior to discussing them with their teens. They also need to know how to reassure their young teens that the strange new feelings of attraction they are experiencing for the opposite sex, at the same time both scary and exciting, are normal.
• She further adds that the church can help parents to think through these issues. While they will also address with parents topics they will need to discuss with their teens, topics such as the difference between love and lust; the differences between males and females, especially but not only in terms of what arouses each sexually, and what it means to respect these differences; the “slippery slope” nature of physical intimacy and the danger of indulging casually in intimacies intended to arouse the body for sexual intercourse; the importance of choosing friends wisely; the meaning of sex, which is typically understood by today’s teens as being only vaginal intercourse; and the advantages of saving sex for marriage.
• Additionally, the parents must be aware and available to the young people (children) so that she or he can be able to listen to them so that one ca be able to assess what goes through their lives, what matters to them, how things are going in their world. In this approach, the adults can be able to advise them in an informed environment. In most cases the friendly relationship ought to be cultivated that one can be able to communicate the content of the message thus winning them not only their hearts and minds but also be able to hear from them in a friendly and a caring situation. Thus this connection is created when the parents know what goes in them and are available to them . To which Carnegie affirms that, young adolescents do not want to be left to their own devices. . . They want more regular contact with adults who care about and respect them . This is further recommended by Hersch that, there is need to spend time with teens because adolescence life is a journey, as one search for self in every dimension of being, and they need mature guidance in making that journey .
• This is in response to challenges in which they are pressured by their peers to engage in sexual activity, rejection if they don’t, and the impression given in sex education in their schools that teen sex is natural and normal.
• In my observation, which agrees with Barbara is that, there is need to set standards, guidance, and supervisory measures by the parents. In many occasions, parents are unaware of the dangers into which they may unintentionally plunge their teens in by not setting standards and guiding principles to provide appropriate supervision. For instance parties without adult supervision are in many case gather large attendance by and they are open invitations to involvement in drinking, drugs, and sex. Free and unsupervised access to the Internet makes it easy for teens to find misinformation on sex and can open the way to cybersex, to enticement by sexual predators, or to an addiction to pornography.
• However, it would be unfair if this discussion goes on without touching on how those ahead of us viewed sex in their generation.
• 2.3. The Historical View of Sex
• First and foremost, Judith K and Jack O. reflect on how the contemporary issues have generated heat and conflict in society and church on human sexuality. The practice of homosexuality including the debate over causation, legitimization and ability to change orientation, have dominated the media, thus, have generated controversy over the issue of free speech versus censorship. Pornography is also identified as widely accessible to the young people through internet yielding great consequences that we do not yet control. This as a result has created an increased rate of sexual compulsion. However, sexual behavior does not come in vacuum, Judith and Jack tresses it in sociocultural context where they assert that sexuality is learnt from within a specific family, tribe, community and society. Meaning sexual message can vary widely due to individuals and members of number of social societies who are responsible of instilling attitude, values and beliefs resulting into major role in the formation of sexuality within a person.
• Genesis 1:26 states the origin of mankind as part of God’s creation where human sexuality reflected God’s design of sexual practice. This has been distorted due to sin. The fallen nature and deviation from God’s original design has since affected the purpose of sexual practices. This good gift has been perverted and corrupted in our secular world, creating unreal, false convolution and unreliable messages about sexuality and sexual behaviors, hence, a need for premarital sexual education to the young people by the church.
• 2.3.1. Judaism:
• According to traditional Judaism, sexual practice and reproduction were treated as sacred through which one can imitate God. This is because Judaism is the only ancient religion that affirmed marriage and sexual relations bring a person to a higher state of holiness than abstinence. Jewish sages and prophets all married and bore children. According to many Jewish sages, when done at the proper time with the proper intention, sex is the highest and holiest experience available to human beings. However, many boundaries and guidelines were set forth as obligatory. It prohibits sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage, maintains biblical structures on relations within marriage including observance of Niddah, a prohibition on relations for a period including the menstrual period, and Tzniut, requirements of modest dress and behavior. Traditional Judaism views the physical acts of adultery, incest, intentional waste of Semen, men having anal sex with men, and male masturbation as grave sin . In General, traditional Jewish societies, discouraged premarital sex in attempt to strengthen marriage and maintain Jewish religious cultural continuity.
• However, due to the contemporary view, some have shifted from this historical legacy, especially when premarital sex becomes more acceptable in secular American society since the 1960s. More liberal thinkers generally accept an unmarried or young couple’s choice as to whether or not to have sex. In this view, sex outside of marriage can be perfectly valid for monogamous couples of all sexual orientations, as long as the relationships adhere to certain codes of ethical conduct. Marriage is not necessary for sex to be pleasurable or fulfilling, and premarital sex will not erode the institution of marriage. This liberal view should be rejected and the Orthodox view be upheld because, only marital sex provides emotional, spiritual, and physical fulfillment for the sexual partners and for precreation. Sexual practices outside of marriage erode the psychological, spiritual, and procreative value of sex, and undermine the societal strength of marriage .
• 2.3.2. Apostolic Church Fathers on Premarital Sexual Education
• In early and ascetic Christianity, sex (procreation of children) was not emphasized, while celibacy and virginity were highly praised. Paul the Apostle stated in 1 Corinthians that it is good for the unmarried to remain this way, but if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, "for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." Paul did, however, support marriage, and sex within marriage. He recognized that for married couples, sex is helpful in protecting them with respect to their temptations and he recommends ongoing sexual relations between spouses, even if their religious observances may prompt them to abstain for a time.
• During the apostolic times, most marriages were arranged by parents, and necessarily involved a close and permanent social contract between families. Marriage for romance or physical attraction was not priority but based on free will. The aspect of romance and physical attraction is a relatively new social experiment not in the times of the apostolic fathers. Though there were some setbacks with arranged marriages, they led to strong social and family stability, a necessity for the survival of children.
• Polycarp taught that, neither fornicators nor male prostitutes nor will homosexual inherit the kingdom of God, or those who do perverse things. Therefore one must keep away from all these things and be obedient. This kept Godly fear of God in the hearts of the people .
• 2.3.3. Early Church Fathers on Premarital Sexual Education
• In matters concerning sexual intercourse in the earlier period of the church especially after the apostles, evidence concerning the sexual ethos of the early church becomes scanty for several generations. However, during the second and third centuries, Christian writers gradually began to elevate sexual problems to a position of greater prominence than these had possessed in the thought of either Jesus or Paul. Several leading writers in this later period viewed sexual relations as the protype of all moral offenses. Those who adopted this position were often thinkers who had been influenced by Gnostic beliefs, which linked mankind’s fall from grace to sexual intercourse. Origen and the anonymous author of the Gnostic Gospel according to the Egyptians, for example believed that Adan and Eve had been innocent of sexual temptations or even sexual feelings in paradise. However, when they committed sin by disobeying God’s command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, Adan and Eve introduced sex into the world and with it the evil of lust. With sex came death. Since the fall from grace, according to the Gnostic, sex was tied to reproduction and hence to life and death cycle of human experience. Only a cessation of sexual activity in the world would bring about life without death. Thus as long as people marry and have sex, they will also die.
• The few early patristic writers observed that sex was inherently so filthy and degrading. This attitude to sex has been described as a reaction against the sexual license of pagan society and indeed, against the legends of pagan gods themselves. Some basis for this can be traced by Lactantius, for example denounced the incestuous practices and other sexual delinquencies of the pagan priesthoods and characterized paganism as a licentious and sexually perverted religion that polluted both minds and body.
• The conventional interpretation that links Patristic disgust with sex to revulsion at pagan debauchery seems historically misleading. Many early church Fathers considered sex disgusting and obscene by its very nature. Tertullian a radical critic of sex ultimately joined the Montanist sect, whose members rejected marriage as altogether incompatible with Christianity. Tertullian’s revulsion at sex led him publically to renounce sexual relations with his wife. In his treatise he admonished his wife to put away lustful desires and totally lead a celibate life. Sexual craving and delight, even in marriage, Tertullian declared, can have no place in Christian life. He further in praise of chastity expounded more fully his belief that marital sex was incompatible with Christian virtue. He argued that coitus causes spiritual insensitivity: sexual intercourse drives out the Holy Spirit, and this deprives sexually active couples of the benefit of divine counsel.
• Both Origen and Tertullian blamed women for luring Christian men into sexual indulgence that they might otherwise have been strong enough to resist. Women, Tertullian declared, are the devil’s door: through them Satan creeps into men’s hearts and minds and works his wiles for their spiritual destruction. Origen believed that women are more lustful than men and that they are obsessed by sexual desire and like Tertullian, Origen considered women a primary source of carnal corruption in Christian society.
• Denunciation of sexual feelings and activities in the writing of the early Fathers are often balanced against other pages that praise sexual abstinence as a peculiarly Christian virtue. St. Justin Martyr for example, celebrated continence among Christians and found especially praiseworthy the example of one young man who asked to be castrated (presumably on the strength of Matthew 19:12) from sexual temptations. Christian men did not commonly seek physical castration, but the early Fathers soon elevated virginity from the position of a rare, charismatic choice made by few to a general virtue required of many. Stoics and non-Christians often spoke of sexual restraint and even total sexual abstinence as morally commendable. Despite the strictures of Christian apologists about pagan debauchery, non-Christian religious traditions in many parts of the Empire had identified sexual self-denial as evidence of spiritual strength and had venerated virgins as sources and symbols of spiritual power.
• The church in the second and third centuries was not prepared to tolerate most other kinds of no marital sexual liaisons. Unchastity ranked with homicide and Idolatry as the most serious offenses in the early church’s penal law. Among the sins of the flesh, the church’s attention centered primarily on three: fornication, adultery and the sexual corruption of young boys .
• In my view, the church fathers narrowed so much the purpose and focus of sexual practices and some of their comments on premarital sexual education were harsh and judgmental. Though sex is to be practiced in marriage bounds, for them, sex was only for precreation. I want to agree with, Genesis 1:31, which says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day”. Besides that Genesis 2:21-25 states that marriage did not only exists after the Fall of Man but God had designed sex for marriage and Eve was one flesh with Adam before the fall.
• Though there are some gaps in their teaching, the church fathers upheld the biblical teaching that helped to restrain the young Christians from indulging into sexual intercourse.
• The issues of sex goes to the times of Platonism, for example, spiritual/intellectual entities possess more “being,” while aspects of reality that belong more to history and matter fall down the ladder in diminishing grades of being. To the “upper world” belong the eternal forms: unchanging, one, and real; the “lower world” consists of the realm of mere appearances: ever-changing, diverse, and shadowy in their existence. In the case of human beings, the mind or spirit is the immortal spark of divinity, while the emotions are slaves of the body and its bondage to the realm of mere appearances. We just need to go deeper within to find the truth, overcoming our sense of estrangement from “being” by returning to the source of a single Light
• Tim Killer adds that Sexual Platonism rated Sex as animal passion which was one of the most influential branches of Hellenistic philosophy viewing the spirit as the highest good and the body as “lesser.” That is, the lower, physical, “animal” nature was seen as chaotic and dark, and the higher, more rational, “spiritual” nature was seen as civilized and noble. This led to viewing sex as a degrading, dirty thing, a necessary evil for the propagation of the human race. Premarital sex was forbidden because sex in general was dirty and was allowable only for the higher good of having children and building up the family name. Unfortunately, this view took root in many places in the Christian church.
• Originally there have been three different personal and cultural attitudes toward sex which have been predominant through the centuries.
• Secondly to Keller, Sexual Realism was treated as natural appetite. The ancient Greeks and Romans viewed sex as similar to any other bodily activity, such as eating or sleeping. Realists claim to be neutral about sex; they see it as just one human activity among many. Their message is prominent in today’s public school sex education.
• And thirdly to him, Sexual Romanticism repressed creativity. While Hellenism located the source of evil in the physical, the Romanticists located it in the cultural. They thought that human beings in their unspoiled original state were brimming with natural goodness and creativity; it was society that stifled it. Goodness would be achieved by liberating the basic, primal instincts, which were in themselves pure. Opposed to Romanticism was Victorianism, the assumption that goodness could be achieved only by suppressing the primal instincts, which in themselves were evil .
• The above statement as supported by Robert T. Francoeur, see that, the church fathers could have been influenced with the above three interwoven ideas: the dualistic cosmology of Plato i.e. the soul and mind are at war with the body, the Stoic philosophy of early Greco-Roman culture i.e., nothing should be done for the sake of pleasure, and the Persian Gnostic tradition i.e., that demons created the world, sex and your body—in which your soul is trapped, and the key to salvation is to free the spirit from the bondage of the body by denying the flesh. These could have influenced the Christian thinkers into a rampant rejection of human sexuality and sexual pleasure .
• However, most Christian in the second and third centuries accepted marriage as a legitimate social institution. St. Clement of Alexandria enunciated the majority view when he taught that it was wrong to condemn marriage as it was to seek indiscriminate sexual pleasure and those who condemned sex within marriage seemed to have set themselves against the teaching of the Gospel. Marriage to Clement was conducive to the spiritual well-being of faithful Christians .
• 2.3.4. Protestant
• Historically, Shapiro and Nancy states in their book that pre-marital sex was common in England during the 15th and 16th centuries, it declined in the American under the Puritan influence. They further argued that the puritans, discouraged young people from sexual expression because sex was an important aspect on marriage relations: Hence, the Puritan attitude toward sex, though directed by a belief in absolute God-given moral values, never neglected human nature. The rules of conduct, which the Puritans regarded as divinely ordained, had been formulated for men, not for angels and not for beasts. God had created mankind in two sexes; he had ordained marriage as desirable for all, and sexual intercourse as essential to marriage. On the other hand, He had forbidden sexual intercourse outside of marriage .
• As the biblical guidance, the offenders were punished as a means of reforming this expectations and providing support to all the offspring. In the same note, human sexuality is not some awesome force over which men and women have no control nor some drive outside the humanity. To Walter C, sexual creation was for the good of humanity but as a gift to those who are married. Though for today, the perversion of sex is tied with the fall of man. Though the Old Testament does not contain straight restriction condemning fornication, the restriction between or the enacting of the law restricting intercourse between a married woman and single man should be punished because they have practiced fornication though fornication is defined as heterosexual intercourse between un married people. Though rarely is the word fornication being used, but as you read the verses of Deuteronomy, the Old Testament is not separate in cases such as rape (Deuteronomy 22:23-29) and seduction of a girl who was not yet engaged (Exodus 22:16-17 or seduction of a betrothed girl . In Deuteronomy 22:13ff if a girl had broken her virginity, she was to be stoned to death that was the seriousness of fornication. To which is well spelt in the New Testament in which Jesus in Mathew 5:27-28 condemns lust and Paul encourages one to marry than to burn with sexual desire, however, all this is about a mature person who is able to take care of the family (1 Corinthians 7:8-9). Therefore, God created sex and our sexual desires which is to be exercised within the boarder of marriage
• Additionally, Shapiro and Nancy in their book state that, an adolescent’s risk of conceiving results from both physiological and behavioral characteristics. Girls engages into sexual acts because she is both sexually active and biologically grown up in terms of physical appearance, behavior or thinking or ripe enough to be fertilized.
• During adolescence, girls are active sexually with the risk of getting pregnancy outside marriage. These trends has changed of recent, where young girls could get marriage at late age of 25 years due to age of menarche when they are mature and ready to take up a family responsibility. To a general acceptance, this change is because of good nutrition and high body weight contributing to earlier menarche today. Beside that is the greater consumption of hormone-laden cow’s milk concomitant with a decline in breastfeeding by infants, environmental exposure to estrogens and endocrines, and older maternal age at childbirth. Above all, the community is dominated with many sexual elements that tend to enhance the development of sexual excitement among young people, for example, there are televisions with no restriction for their programs thus, sexual images are being shown; men and women romancing, access to pornography in the internet, some newspapers like Red Paper in Uganda, videos that portray people having sex do sexually stimulate the young people thus increasing sexual adventure which carries with it negative consequences for the teenager.
• In addition to that, it is necessary to consider the physical development of the young people since, the start of puberty is marked by many aspects of physiological changes that extract differential influences on the psychosexual development of both boys and girls. Zabin and Hayward summarized the process and their social significance:
• To them, pubertal development is caused by increasing levels of steroidal hormones. In males, all physical and morphological changes, as well as nocturnal emission and other aspects of maturation are caused by androgens. In females, estrogens cause hair growth. In both sexes, androgen is responsible for increased sexual drive experienced during the adolescent years and the role of estrogens in sexual motivation is as yet uncertain. The decline in mean age of menarche in the modern era means at the very least that all these changes occur at younger ages and that fertility is achieved earlier than before. And when they occur at younger ages, they create a discontinuity between biological maturity, on the one hand, and psychosocial and cognitive development processes proceeds independently. One effect of earlier physical maturation is sexual desire that puts the young person at greater risk of conception and sexually transmitted diseases before the skills to manage a sexual life are well developed.
• Therefore, the actual physical age development exerts strong influence on sexual behavior when teens are younger.
• According to Madunagu, the way people express their sexuality is largely influenced, dictated and shaped by social attitudes, expectations, norms and taboos. But since these are not static, so also, the choices a person makes is influenced by what the society holds in a given time. Individuals as they grow-up become more aware of their sexuality especially during the period of adolescence (age 10 to 19). It is during this period that individuals become aware of how they feel, think and behave as female or male and what they want in terms of close relationships and physical affection and attraction. This is when people begin to feel strongly attracted to other people and start noticing and seeking to understand their own sexual feelings, desires, dreams and fantasies. This is also when they develop a strong urge for independence and depend more on their peers and the media for information; and most often information about sexuality issues. This fact underlines the importance of Comprehensive Sexual Education for all young people from their growing up years. This is to properly guide them to make the right choices to promote responsible behavior and reduce the high risk they face as a result of ignorance, misinformation, myths and misconceptions about Human Sexuality. It has to be understood that experiencing sexual feelings is just an aspect of our sexuality.
• As sexual beings, everyone has sexual feelings, which do not necessarily have to lead to sexual intercourse. Out of ignorance or influenced by social perceptions and attitudes, many people including young people, think that having sexual intercourse is such a powerful uncontrollable force that cannot be resisted. Yet having sexual intercourse, which is but a minute aspect of sexuality, is and should be a deliberate consensual choice and decision as one will have to consider when, why, with whom, where, how often and bearing in mind the risks attached to it for example sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, and unwanted pregnancy .
• Additionally during this period, premarital Sex in the Age of the Reformation especially, in the sixteenth century reformers rejected many features of medieval marriage practices in particular to sexual issues, both Luther and Calvin rejected the teaching that marital sex must be specially directed towards procreation in order to be without sin. Calvin conceded that there might be some reason to believe that when married couples yielded to lust and had sex just for venereal pleasure they fell short of Christian perfection, but he added that God pardons whatever sin might be involved because of the value of holy matrimony. Marriage to him was so good that it overcame the sexual depravity inherent in conjugal relations. To him, marriage was the greater good, benevolent and conductive to holiness, while celibacy was rare condition, always morally suspect, which usually led to unhappiness and sin. While Bucer adopted a position similar to Calvin’s but without some of the qualifications that Calvin insisted upon. It was blasphemy, Bucer maintained, to call marital sex sinful. For Luther, he rejected Jerome’s condemnation of the married man who burned with sexual desire for his wife.
• In all in all, they agreed that sex was necessary part of any marriage in which marital sex both symbolized and embodied conjugal affection. They viewed sex in marriage not only for procreation, but rather that it expressed and increased the couple’s love for one another. It was the affectionate and loving relationship between married persons that constituted the good of marriage and lay at the heart of the marital state .
• 2.4. SEXUALITY AND MARRIAGE
• Marriage in African context is polygamous where one man marries more than one wife. According to John Mbiti’s proverb of marriage, “death takes life while marriage creates life”. Another African proverb says “A man without a wife is like a vase without flowers”. Therefore, the concept of marriage is not only at the centre of human life, but also creates the impression that being unmarried is both a taboo and disgrace, not only for the immediate family but also for the whole clan and community. Thus, to ensure the survival of marriage, extended family interventions are of paramount. Hence, marriage is characterized by relatives of husband and wife thus, creating a close relationship involving two clans. .
• To Matsobane Manala states that the continuation of the extended family life is sometimes done through enforced sexual relationships with the wife of the deceased. This is confirmed by the following quotation; “First my husband’s family insisted i have sex with his younger brother. 1 gave in and had sex with him day and night for seven days. That was bad enough. But then they said I must marry him. I will only marry someone I love. I realized that I had to escape”
• In my view, the deceased wife cannot just leave her marital home and if she refuses to accept any of the men and opts to leave for their parental home, then she has to forfeit any material blessings including her children. Since marriage is a communal venture, individuals are identified by their families as well as the community.
• Furthermore, customary marriage involves the consent of the in-laws to hand over the girl for others to receive her. In African custom, the immediate parents are not allowed to hand their child over in marriage themselves, but someone from the family would hand over the girl which is a good sign that not only the parents agree with the marriage but that it also has the consent of the whole family. Traditionally, marriage is regarded as an alliance between the families. However, the practical situation is that a shift of events from communal style of marriage to individualistic view. The traditional African society value systems had been altered and shifted from a predominantly kingship system to individualism and the nuclear family as a result of western influence and more effect is on the individuals who migrate, experience multiple stresses that can impact their mental well-being, including the loss of cultural norms, religious customs and social support systems, as they adjust to a new culture and change in identity and concept of self”.
• Traditionally, culture preserved their morals differently. According to Marshal, moral views are vastly different across cultures. The study of sexual behavior in 190 societies were classified as sexually restrictive, Semi restrictive, or permissive. Their research found that a minority of societies are sexually restrictive. Such society’s attempts to deny children and youth any form of sexual expression and restrict access to sexual knowledge. However, in these societies there is often considerable difference between idealized moral codes and actual behavior. Cuna children from Panama are restricted from observing animal births or obtaining any sexual knowledge until their wedding. Chagga youth who live in the foothills around Mount Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, learn that babies come from the forest. Amazonian Apinaye children are beaten for masturbating and Kwoma youth from Papua New Guinea are allowed to touch their genital, even for elimination. The Sudanese infibulate girls (surgically remove the clitoris and suture the vulva closed). Unmarried couples from the Gilbert Islands in the western Pacific are put to death if sexual union becomes known.
• Restrictive societies often segregate the sexes, require girls to be chaperoned, or threaten social disgrace and punishment for sexual behavior. Some restrict cultures prohibit masturbation and limit information about contraception or disease prevention. Despite these efforts, few restrictive societies are entirely effective in preventing premarital intercourse.
• Sexually semi restrictive societies place formal social; restrictions on childhood sex play and premarital sexual expression but accept such behaviors as apart of normal development without punishment. In Indonesia, Alorese parents formally object to childhood sex play, but it is generally ignored. South Asian Andamanese parents accept premarital promiscuity as common and allow it as long as youthful love affairs remain secret. However, Huichol adolescents in western central Mexico are beaten and forced to marry if they are caught in sexual intimacy. Premarital pregnancy is avoided by conceptive education in most semi restrictive and sexually permissive societies. Sexual permissive societies believe sex is indispensable to happiness and have positive sexual attitudes. They encourage free sexual expression from birth as a means of developing adult sexual health and children are allowed to publically engage in free sexual play. African Chewa parents believe that unless children exercise their sexuality early in life they will not be able to have offspring. In eastern Bolivia, the South American Siriono people massage their children’s genitals, and masturbation is approved of and goes almost unnoticed. Lesu children from the South Pacific publically imitate adult sexual behavior without rebuke .
• 2.4.1. The church Amidst Sexual Revolution
• However, Christians at the close of the twentieth century found themselves living in a sexual-oriented culture where sex and sexual expression is the dominant characteristics of contemporary western society. The advertisement industry and the media have gone to greater length to exploit the theme of sexuality and have given the expression that to be sexually attractive and to express ones sexuality is a key to personal happiness and success. Although the sex ethics focusses on marriage as the proper context for sexual expression, this ethic has been attacked in recent years in which many have rejected the older link between marriage and sexual expression. The sticky moral dilemmas are the result of combination of technology and human sexuality in which abortion is used as birth control measures. Issues like artificial insemination are becoming increasingly important as well. Therefore, the current situation of the contemporary attitude have sought to redeem sex from bondage of sin that characterized earlier stages in western history, but this liberation which has its emphasis on the ecstatic and on quality of sex has not been without negative effects. It has brought heightened expectations to sexual relationships and a performance orientation to practice of sex which is an additional example of the general undermining of the religious orientation of life.
• Stanley further sites these current modern eras as sex and secularization, which era resulted from the Enlightenment process termed as “secularization” this process entails a movement away from religion as basis for understanding life. People view increasingly fewer dimensions of personal and social existence by means of reference to or in terms of, religious symbols and stories. He farther adds that as secularization advances, religion is relegated to the fringes of life. It becomes a private matter, seen as having little bearing on life beyond the realm of personal convictions.
• According to Stanley, human beings are sexual creatures, reflecting God’s plan in his creation of Adam as a son and his wife Eve in a covenant relationship and all born since Adam remain in that covenant of grace with the purpose of reflecting God’s image. Indeed, this statement is related to our sexuality and our existence as male and female as an integral part of the way in which we reflect the divine nature and fulfil the divine intention toward bonding that leads to community. The employment of the human sexuality in bringing about the divine intention forms a foundation for the expression of human sexuality .
• To Les Parrott, the Old Testament book, Song of Songs, is replete with erotic metaphor and sexual excitement. He further says that unlike, most animals that only have sex during the female’s fertile period, God created us to continually enjoy sexual intimacies within the bracket of marriage. He points 1 Corinthians to support his argument by quoting the Bible passage which says, “The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control” (1 Corinthians 7:3-5).
• Therefore, sex is a gift from God to be enjoyed. Thus, sex is more than for our pleasure but also to make us holy. Since sex is not limited to only for pleasure and procreation so as to differentiate humans from animals, it’s also about relationship which is personal encounter, not just a biological action. Human race are only ones that have sex face to face so that partners look at each other as they mate because human sex is more than physical but it touches our souls. Thus if we disconnect sex from the sacred, we shall neglect our spiritual longings, thus, creating a breakdown in intimacy which then ends in spiritual bankrupt and pain .
• Additionally, the expression of human sexuality is within the context of divine will to the community, the fellowship of male and female within the marriage bond and singleness within the fellowship of the people of God. Stanley cites it from the book of Genesis, that marriage has been part of human exercises from the beginning to the present in all societies.
• In the book of Matthew chapter 19, Jesus’ interpretation of Genesis narratives of creation of man and woman, reinstated that according to design of the creation of marriage, it consists of the monogamous union of male and female in a lifelong commitment to one another, which is to be characterized by fidelity as a summary of the essence of the divine intent from the beginning. Hence they are no longer two but one. Therefore, what God has joined together, let man not separate (Mathew 19:6). He additionally, places marriage in the context of God’s ultimate intent that the primary intent of God in the Old Testament and New Testament describing the creation of the first human pair (Genesis 1:27; 2:1ff) indicates that the husband and wife relationship is God given, which acts as human drive for bonding and thus a community. Affirming the natural fellowship that the creator desired to enjoy with humankind despite the fall, hence, the divine intention of sexuality is in the establishment of a redeemed humanity.
• The redeemer will be the child of the woman, in which the New Testament asserts that the Old Testament expectation is fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. The New Testament now maintains that the greatest earthly expression of the divine will is now the community of Christ, not the family. Therefore, the fellowship of believers is intended to be the primary focus of the experience of the community pointing to personal identity which is evident with Jesus’ declaration that those who do the will of the Father are his true family members (Mathew 12:50) and Paul’s emphasis on service to the Lord is the chief decision concerning entering into marriage (1 Corinthians). That rightly placed the family to function as agent for the expansion of the church and as the vehicle for the outreach mission of the church seen in their influence of godly families in the wider society.
• Stanley further states that marriage acted as metaphor in the Old Testament in which the Bible employs the marriage bond as a metaphor of the spiritual relationship between God and God’s people. In both, the Old and New Testaments use of the male-female bond in relationship to the church fits marriage in the metaphor of the triune nature of God. God is a unity of three persons who share the one divine nature but who are distinct from each other, as a result, the Trinitarian life of God is reflected in marriage itself. This then affirms the purpose of marriage through sexual expression, for the procreation and child rearing, on companionship and marriage as a spiritual metaphor .
• Moreover, Judith and Jack points out six biblical principles that are believed to lead to authentic sexuality that include:
• i. Human sexuality is established in differentiation between male and female in the unity established between them.
• ii. Sexuality is a good gift, meant to draw persons to deeper levels of knowing self, others and God.
• iii. Human beings are born with an innate capacity for sexual pleasure, and human sexuality can best develop within an emotionally caring, trustworthy family environment.
• iv. Sexuality and spirituality are intricately connected.
• v. After the fall sexuality become distorted and in need of redemption
• vi. Christ offers restoration and renews our potential for authentic sexuality
• Yet to these effects, the sexual revolution raised a new question concerning the meaning of sex. The changes of 1960s splashed on the shore of sexual ethics, offering attempts to provide a theoretical rationale for the more permissive attitude towards sexual exploration in the intent of broadening sexual expression beyond the boundaries of marriage thus reducing the meaning of intercourse. Others argue and reduce it to purely bodily sphere, suggesting that sexual intercourse is to be viewed solely as a function of the body that can be satisfied without involving the real person, since it’s purely bodily act, intercourse carries no meaning beyond being an expression of the needs of the body .
• My view is that when sex is reduced as mere instinct, then we are risking of losing its meaning and making it become more of a physical pleasurable act without a spiritual connection which will create repression, frustration and shame.
• As Yancey says, our experience of sexual desires should not flinch in guilt, but follows God’s original intent through taking us to God’s original purpose in creating us as sexual beings. He created us for relationship and relationship does not get more personal or more sacred than when it’s consummated in making love. In many cases we hear many religious people talk, as if God created the torso, head, legs and arms, but the devil slapped on the genitals. Sex is created by God for human beings thus godliness in marriage and all the patriarchs and prophets did likewise. The longing of a man for a woman is God’s creation .
• The Christian understanding of human sexuality, however, cannot condone any reduction of the meaning of sexual intercourse rather it must be viewed in terms of its deep meaning within the context of marriage as intended by the creator in accordance with the divine purpose. Paul’s response to the people or teachers who on the basis of the mistaken idea that what a person’s body does has no effect to one’s spirituality and they argued that they could simply indulge the body without restraint. As a result of this, Paul admonishes the Corinthian Christians to honor God with their bodies, for the body belongs to Lord. This principle is applied to the sexual area. On the basis of Genesis 2:24, Paul concludes that sexual act is more than an insignificant and inconsequential bodily function. In some way it actually is able to effect a personal union between the partners (1 Corinthians 6:12-20). Sexual acts without commitment is dehumanizing and recreational sex is always in danger of treating people as merely convenient objects for pleasure, hence, such use of another person’s body is a blatant denial of his or her humanity as an embodied being.
• Therefore, sexual act within the marital bond will lose meaning when its practiced outside its contexts where sexual intercourse is no longer positively meaningful and beautiful act as designed to be, but becomes instead an expression of self-gratification, adultery, infidelity. This in the end results into divorce and separation and its consequences, whereas, if it is in its divinely intended positive meaning of this act, we shall find meaning within its divinely given proper context of marriage. This is because; sexual act as the sacrament of marriage, as an expression of mutual submission, and expression of openness, sex has relative value and there is enjoyment of the sex act to the end of marriage life .
• Yet to our surprise, the interpretation of sexual acts in the contemporary generation has gone against the traditional understanding and meaning of sex. These have been further accelerated by the use of medium of communication (Televisions, internet, radios among other) in our society.
• 2.5. THE ROLE OF MEDIA
• Marshall Cavendish notes that, the movies have been very significant in promoting sexual imaginations and practice. To him, sex and sexual desires have been persistent themes in narratives and visual art since prehistory. The advent of motion pictures in the 1890s presented the public with a new form visual representation, which was soon explored as an exciting new narrative medium. Just as early photographers began representing nudity and sex. In that he illustrates with basic instinct where he has picked one enormously popular film notable for depiction of female sexuality is Paul Verhaegen’s Basic instinct. In the movie, Sharon Stone plays a woman who may or may not be a serial killer, who is bisexual, and who manipulates and dominates the men who come into her orbit.
• Usually, however, in Hollywood’s moral universe, she gets away with these offenses. The infamous scene in which stone’s character reveals that she is not wearing underwear while being questioned my male detectives exemplifies the postfeminist climate of the 1990, in which women were recognized as having sexual desires, and as having the right to explore them and utilize them with just as much enthusiasm as men.
• He further points out the issue of music, particularly popular music, as having a close association with sex. Many songs have lyrics about romantic love or physical attraction. Some are so explicit in their references to sex. Many music performers exploit their personal sex appeal in order to attract fans. In addition, music is intimately connected with dancing and nightclubs, both of which play a major role in sexual interaction between individuals. He also cites homosexuality in music, though the lyrics of popular music through many decades have been primarily heterosexual, there are also significant lyrical strands representing homosexual experience. The lyrics of many love songs often do not specify the gender of the object of desire, meaning that the extent to which a song is perceived as heterosexual or homosexual is largely dependent on the attitude of the listener. In the late 1970s, the music industry began to market music specifically for the gay community, at first focusing on disco pop acts, such as, most famously, the village people. The lyrical content of such music was not necessarily focused on homosexual topics, nor were there artists necessarily homosexual themselves, but it is this music that is most commonly associated with homosexuality. To him homosexual materials and performers have often contributed to the range of sexual experience represented in popular music. He list Michael Jackson performing on his “Bad” tour in 1988 as a forerunner to the stylized sexuality of modern music television in Jackson’s choreographed evocation of sexuality in his performances .
• Media play a big role in the lives of the community in social roles that is surveillance of the larger environment, achieving consensus among the segments of society and transmission of culture .
• The above statement show that the media content is effective in influencing the youth in to earlier practice of sexual acts. As we have seen from the above, that the influence of media content is effective in influencing the youth.
• Sex roles and sexual behaviors are associated to television. An exposure to sexual images affects the person, meaning regular media use is also associated with sexual desires during early period in a relationship where men are believed to be sex driven and that women are sexual objects. Additionally, television also is associated in the approval of smaller waist, smaller hips and a medium-sized bust among female.
• In my opinion, young people can learn behavior through listening and observing models over the media because, it has the ability to impact the behavior of the youth especially on issues concerning sexual acts. This can be by instilling sexual techniques, alter sexual attitude and basically shape its practices in a negative manner. For example, the message of the media is very clear; sex is good: you can have it anytime with anyone, male or female, anywhere. This message of the media is equally reflected in the behavioral patterns envisaged in the society today characterized by rampant sex, multiple sex partners, and homosexuality. Music, television, radio, internet, and any other forms of literature play a big role in shaping our cultures with very great deep negative effect on the young people. For instance, listening to any pop, rap, or country music, you will be shocked of the content passed to the community, for an instance, a song done by Akon “I Just had Sex”. The lyrics openly promote irresponsible sexual behavior. Most of these songs are repeatedly played on the radio and TV, by the young people’s request and sexual related topics are common that the day cannot pass by without its being mentioned as an expression of their love. Some of these musicians are adored by these young people because of the influence they in music .
• Additionally a song by Shaggy achieved a huge success in many countries, topping the charts in Australia, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, the U.S, and Africa, being sung in almost every home. The lyrics of the song are about a man caught in the act of adultery by his wife, and so he is scared and seeks advice from his friend, who counsels him to say it was not me. Most family seemed have been influenced with this kind of attitude. There is no honesty in most married couples especially when they have been overtaken by adultery. Thus, there is no difference among the young people who constantly listen and even keen to understand the rapping well of any new song. There is no doubt that this kind of songs arouse sexual argue and obsessive images .
• As one observes the behaviors of the community, mass media has greatly contributed to its effect. The western culture has been transported to Africa through media. The worldview is changing people in matters of car, people’s dresses which is as a result of media influence in the community.
• As McLuhan points out that a medium affects the society, the invention of technology especially TV, Radio has been responsible in reshaping society especially on how those who had conservative cultures have adapted the western sexual freedom. With this importation of ideas, Ugandan young people spend much time watching films, internet or drama television programmes based in the west modern culture that has created a habit that has transformed into a character among the youth. Most of this programmes present viewers with pictures of violence and sexual images which in a sense has become real life .
• Ideally, some of these musicians are celebrities, whose life styles are copied by the young people directly or indirectly and in most cases determine their dressing fashion, hair styles, walking styles among others. In Uganda, a large group of young people identify with them because of their success and fame. Yet to a certain extent, some of them are homosexuals or divorced which conveys negative message to the followers who will then associate life with recklessness. Today we have children who wear unfit underwear for competitive dance and the style of dance is more sexual. The truth is that the costumes used are getting out of hand because they sexualizing the young people. Though we need to dance, I think, there are other costumes that can be appropriate for the dancers not to bring out their sense of dance in a sexually meaning.
• Like in Uganda, Christiane Lang Hearlson writes about a tough age for girls in America. Young women grow up in a porn-saturated, image-centered, commercialized culture in which “empowerment” is just a feeling, consumption trumps connection, “hot” is an imperative, fame is the ultimate achievement, and the quickest way for a woman to get ahead is to serve up her body before someone else does. Some of them become victims of violent pornography, rape, bullying, harassment, coercion to sexual acts or to perform oral sex, there are challenges of nude photos of girls being shared online without their consent or with their consent. Many of the girls’ sales profiles also appear to be addicts-to clothes, beauty products, and social media. Girls complain that “social media is destroying our lives,” and yet they also say that without social media they “would have no life .
• In many circumstances, the church is silent, giving no help to either teens and those who wish to understand their sexual desires and how to deal with it, are left with their peers, the media, and possibly their school sex education program as their guides in sexual matters. In such an environment, where the parents have no time for their growing children and the church seems passive or quite, distorted messages about sexual acts are given to young people. The teachers’ concern is not abstinence but the dominate lectures on how to use condoms and contraceptives. This kind of teaching directly encourages young people to engage into sexual intercourse and this has resulted into many pregnancies, abortions and single mothers and fathers.
• Following the above statement, the Newspaper (daily Monitor) of Monday may 15 2017, Cato N. Lund, takes us back to Saturday August 2, 2008 by the editorial in Daily Monitor of May 9, where the main front page banner of Saturday Vision that day had a large figure of 40 000 primary school girls defiled by their teachers in one year”. Some years later another survey, by the World Health Organization (WHO), brought out other figures on annual occurrences in Uganda: 700, 000 unwanted pregnancies, 300,000 abortions, and 68,000 women dying from complications caused by illegal and unsafe abortions. He further states that 12,077 defilement cases were reported and investigated in 2014 according to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos). The figures indicate that this is just the tip of an iceberg. The actual size of the iceberg is difficult to assess, as many cases go unreported because they are “settled out of court” by the perpetrator paying a sum of money to the parents or giving some other compensation. Alternatively, he uses his position to intimidate the victim and her parents to keep silent and drop the case completely. Together with common lack of confidence in the Ugandan police, assuming nothing will be done unless reporting of the case comes together with some “facilitation”, this results in skewed statistics. While some victims fail to report some of their cases because of unwarranted shame, fear of bigotry, stigma and blame, difficulty of bringing material evidence to support her narrative, and numerous other reasons .
• This is as a result of Sexual Revolution which has loosen sexual proscriptions that took place during the latter part of the past century with social phenomenon emerging with such labels as “love-ins,” “free love,” “sexual freedom,” and “sexual equity,” and have been accompanied by dramatic increases in the experience of casual sex, co-habitation, unwed pregnancies, abortions, and sexually transmitted diseases highlighted by the tragedy of AIDS. As a result, young girls have been influenced to look sexier thus, teachers and others end up being seduced or attracted to them because of the general social loosening of religious and moral standards which had controlled and checked people’s sexuality .
• As I understand it, this therefore is a challenge to the church especially in finding a clear principle or statement in dealing with sexuality amidst sexual freedom or revolution which is driven by increasing western influence in Uganda with the culture of less tolerant of the Christian faith. As a result, the Christian worldview is increasingly being separated or eliminated as secular competing worldviews are elevated or encouraged making Christians become uneasy or afraid. Hence how can Christian youth then remain faithful in light of this hostile? In such cases, God’s ways will seem not admirable especially when Christians do more of complain and more geared to others weaknesses than focusing upon the beauty and the grace of God upon them.
• According to Dennis, it’s not easy to believe in and live out the Christian meaning of sex because around us are the major carriers of culture such as films, art, or music, the educational institutions, public policies of government and some portion of church. Hence getting the meaning of sex derived from Christian worldview goes against almost the core of the society and culture perception of sex around us. He further states that the western culture is a challenge because of its increasingly pervasiveness of undermining the meaning of sex. Today there are billboards with advertisement websites that encourage extramarital affairs. With a reading “Life is short, Have affair” .
• This therefore makes a Christian to have a hard time integrating his sexuality with his faith because one can feel that their sexuality is the enemy to their devotion to Christ. In many cases, some of the religious teachers have pictured the male and female gentiles to be very demonic and much condemnation is put in the area of sex that sex has lost its meaning in the church. Hence sex is naturally tainted to certain extent where some see it as evil while others view it as the quality of interpersonal love.
• However, contrary to the romantic view of sex, the Bible teaches that love and sex are not primary for individual happiness but as a way to know Christ and build his kingdom which goes beyond the traditional and secular revolution of sex. According to Timothy Keller, he draws up three reasons why Sex is sacred;
• Firstly, Sex is sacred because, with God, it co-creates a new soul. Sex propagates the human race (Gen. 1:28). Its purpose is not merely for the building up of a family name. The purpose of sex is to create families of disciples, to establish new kingdom communities. Secondly, sex is sacred because it is the analogy of the joyous self-giving and pleasure of love within the life of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in a relationship of glorious devotion to each other, pouring love and joy into one another continually (cf. John 1:18; 17:5, 21, 24-25). Thus, Sex between a man and a woman points to the love between the Father and the Son, as well as that between Christ and the believer (1 Cor. 11:3). He further sees it as the Biblical openness to celebrate the delights of sex. Hence sex is supposed to be wonderful because it mirrors the joy of relationship in the Trinity and because it points to the eternal ecstasy of soul that we will have in heaven in our loving relationships with God and one another (Proverbs. 5:18–20; Deut. 24:5). In the same manner, he connects with the role of the woman throughout the Song of Solomon which is truly astounding, especially in light of its ancient origins. It is the woman, not the man, who is the dominant voice throughout the poems that make up the Song. She is the one who seeks, pursues, initiates. In Song of Songs 5:10–16, she boldly exclaims her physical attraction that alludes to their lovemaking. Thus, there is no shy, shame, mechanical movement under the sheets, rather, the two stands before each other, aroused, feeling no shame, but only joy in each other’s sexuality.
• Thirdly, sex is sacred because it constitutes a covenant renewal ceremony. The original purpose of sex was to “become one flesh,” meaning a complete personal union. Sex creates deep intimacy, oneness, and communion between two people (Gen. 2:24; 4:14). In the Bible oneness is not simply a matter of emotion but is always the creation of a covenant. Romanticism considers emotional happiness to be the main condition for marriage; if there is interpersonal happiness, sex is warranted, and then comes marriage. But when love dies, it is also allowable to walk away from the marriage. In the biblical view, however, the main condition of marriage is a binding covenant. In the romantic view, sex is self-expression; in the biblical view, sex is self-giving. More over as he pursues the subject of covenant, he clarifies that marriage is a covenant that creates a place of security for vulnerability. But though covenant is necessary for sex, sex is also necessary for covenant. The covenant will grow stale unless we continually revisit and reenact it. Sex is a covenant renewal ceremony for marriage, the physical reenactment of the inseparable oneness in all other areas—economic, legal, personal, psychological—created by the marriage covenant. Sex renews and revitalizes the marriage covenant .
• Additionally, when we understand sexual relationship by means of the covenant and God’s character and will, then we will understand that, we are made for the community, for bounding in covenant relationship and not mere for self and other but for one another in need of our love where sexual faithfulness is the backbone of marriage relationship
• Additionally, the bible depicts God’s value for our sexuality through the book of Genesis (1:27-31), this is seen when he declared that it was good after he created human beings as sexual beings. According to other Scriptures especially Genesis 18:12; Genesis 26:8; Song of Solomon 4:1-16 reveal that sex is valued and joyfully celebrated. Nevertheless, we also have scriptural verses that call for abstinence from sexual activity especially when is time with God in prayer or for the cases of the young people (Exodus 19:15; 1 Samuel 21:4-5); while others restrict it above normal marital relationship (1 Corinthians 7:1-9, 1 Corinthians 7:37-38; Revelation 14:4). It is thus evident that our sexuality is from God and should be celebrated because it is created by God and he had declared it was good. So sex without God is no satisfaction. Sex Has Boundaries, Sex only works in the fullest way God intended for one man and one woman within the exclusive, permanent, legal commitment of marriage that is to say, sex is a God-invented way to say to another person, “I belong completely and exclusively and permanently to you, Amen.
• 2.6. SINGLENESS AND SEXUALITY
• Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short” (1 Cor. 7:27–28). On the one hand, it means that the social and material concerns of this world still exist. But on the other hand, the gospel brings us an internal peace and a hope in the future that transforms all our earthly relationships (Rom. 14:17). Therefore we must not overinvest ourselves in anything besides the kingdom. Though we have possessions, we should live as if they weren’t really ours, for our real wealth is in God (Luke 16:1–16). Paul applies this principle to marriage and singleness. We are to be neither overly elated about getting married nor overly disappointed about not being so—because Christ is the only spouse who can truly fulfill us and God’s family the only family that will truly embrace and satisfy us. The Christian gospel and hope of the future kingdom dethrone the idolatry of marriage.
• According to Timothy Killer (2005), singleness was a sign of hope in the future kingdom of God. Firstly because of the theological purpose of marriage, Christians are to choose between marriage and singleness not for the basic contemporary motive of personal fulfillment, nor for the traditional motive of propagating family legacy. Rather, we are to marry or to remain single on the basis of which state best makes us a sign of the kingdom so that we can witness to the coming kingdom by showing that their hope and significance was not in family or heirs but in the kingdom. Though being married is also a sign of the kingdom because one of the main purposes of marriage is to build kingdom-exhibiting community—to show the world how Christ transforms everything, including marriage that is why God forbids Christians from marrying nonbelievers. A Christian who knowingly marries a nonbeliever shows that his or her motive is not mission or kingdom exhibition. One of the main ways—and perhaps the main way—that married Christians witness to Christ is to show the difference Christ makes in a marriage. When a single person does not compromise on this point, then he or she is paying a price for the kingdom and will be blessed for that (1 Peter 4:13–14, 19). Furthermore, God will use the Christian’s singleness to minister to others in ways that married people cannot (cf. 1 Cor. 7:32–34), thus reflecting the glory of the coming kingdom of God .
• 2.7. SIGNIFICANCE OF TEACHING SEXUALITY
• The idea of sexuality education has been a topical issue and its inclusion in the school curriculum has generated and is still generating a lot of interest in Uganda. The controversy about sexuality education stems from the fact that most people do not have an accurate understanding of what sexuality education is all about and the benefits that could be derived from it and this includes the teachers .
• 2.7.1. Understanding of sexuality education
• Clear understanding of what sexuality and sexuality education mean is necessary because there seems to be widespread misconception that sexuality is all about issues related to sexual intercourse and on the basis of this misconception some programs of sexuality education. Therefore, the definition of sexuality is a necessary step in defining the scope and content of sexuality education proposed in this study. According to WHO, sex refers to the biological characteristics that define humans as female or male. The term sex is often used to mean “sexual activity”, but for technical purposes in the context of sexuality and sexual Education discussions, we can prefer Sexuality which is a central aspect of being human throughout life and encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction. Sexuality is experienced and expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, practices, roles and relationships. While sexuality can include all of these dimensions, not all of them are always experienced or expressed. Sexuality is influenced by the interaction of biological, psychological, social, economic, political, cultural, ethical, legal, historical, religious and spiritual factors . To James, Sexuality is a central aspect of being human throughout life and encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction. It is often experienced and expressed in thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, practices, roles and relationships but not all of them are experienced or expressed since it is influenced by the interaction of biological, psychological, social, economic, political, cultural, ethical, legal, historical, religious and spiritual factors. It has been described to mean “the totality of who you are, what you believe, what you feel and how you respond” Therefore, Sexuality is often broadly defined as the social construction of a biological drive, which often deals with issues such as whom one has sex with, in what ways, why, under what circumstances and with what outcomes a person engages in sex .
• Thus, sexuality is about the anatomy, physiology and bio-chemistry of the sexual response system which determines identity, orientations, thoughts and feelings as influenced by values, beliefs, ethics and moral concerns. The interactive relationship of these dimensions describes an individual’s total sexuality .
• The origin sex education came far back as 1897, a female Swedish doctor, Karolina Widerstorm, saw the need to educate the young especially the girls about sexual hygiene as a way of informing and protecting them from sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and syphilis which were found to be very common during that period. To her, the idea was that, “if girls got to know in good time how pregnancy came about and how sexually transmitted diseases were spread, they would be better able to protect themselves. In this way girls were considered to be able to take responsibility for the sexual health for boys as well as for themselves .
• However, to Martha and Perper, sex education is not a recent innovation of liberalism. The Kahun Papyrus from 1990 B.C. E. in ancient Egypt gives contraceptive formulations based on such interesting ingredients as crocodile dung, to be inserted into the vagina. Importance and STDs were also addressed ancient papyri. They further say that Chinese manuals are reported as the world’s earliest, most comprehensive and most detailed, dating back as least to several centuries B.C.E .
• 2.7.2. Comprehensive Sex Education
• According to SIECUS, sexuality education is a life-long process of acquiring information and forming attitudes, beliefs, and values. Therefore, comprehensive sex education addresses the root issues that help teens make responsible decisions to keep them safe and healthy. These programs use a holistic approach to provide young people with complete, accurate, and age-appropriate sex education that helps them reduce their risk of HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and unintended pregnancy.
• Comprehensive sex education includes age-appropriate, medically accurate information on a broad set of topics related to sexuality including human development, relationships, decision making, abstinence, contraception, and disease prevention. They provide students with opportunities for developing skills as well as learning. .
• Despite the guidance and benefits of sexual education at schools, there are yet many challenges in School sexual education; because today, we have many girls who have dropped out of schools because they are pregnant. The system teaches use seems to be encouraging young people to engage into sexual intercourse. This, the problem is deeper than what man can solve because it is into the heart of man. As Romans 3:23 states that, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” all these are the reflection of a fallen man who is bent on doing wrong against the law of God. As Romans 5:18-21 asserts that, “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The remedy is Jesus who is the way, truth and life”.
• For the case of Uganda sexual educational system, according to UNESCO, the Content had no specific age limit, the structure was not –appropriate and accurate, topics across and within the grades where by the curriculum did not seem to designate a particular learner age group. Much of the content and activities appear to be appropriate for learners in late primary grades which was a six-year span. Besides that, the definition of sexuality included ‘having sex appeal and being sexy’ which is not appropriate for the young leaner. Furthermore, there were appeals to homosexuality which was seen as teaching learners the principles of respect for diversity and non-discrimination. Sexual reproductive health (SRH)/ HIV knowledge and attitudes towards condoms where the text briefly mentions health benefits of male circumcision without explaining the link between it and HIV transmission. This was dangerous for the young people.
• And personal values about sex and abstinence included a very detailed list of information about various sexual practices, including fetishes such as sex with the elderly and practices involving faeces. Even for older learners, this is unnecessary information and can cause discomfort for teacher and learners alike which is highly inappropriate for younger learners .
• In addition to that is the conflicting cultural values where in August, Green Hill Academy in Buwate was in a spotlight after books on sexuality were found in the school library. In May, a study by Daily Monitor revealed that over 100 schools had been duped into training disguised homosexuality to their teachers and students. Therefore, Parliament on August 17, 2016 banned comprehensive sexuality education insisting it was promoting values, practices and behaviors that are against Ugandan customs and aspirations. The MPs asked the ministry of Education to put in place a framework which would guide stakeholders on sex education. For further inquiry, there is need for government to regulate sexuality information that is being given in regard to age groups. Have a policy on sexuality education that addresses needs of young people . According Stephen, Christianity reaches more people than healthcare," Stephen Waititi, a former church deacon and the medical director of Milmay Centre, an HIV/Aids clinic in Kampala, seems to suggest that the church’s voice can be listened to. He pointed out that what the churches say matters: not just because of their reach, but because of their authority. The message from the pulpit shapes the climate . In line with that, the church is a relevant tool to respond on sex education as additional option as a voice speaking on behalf of God. There is a longing for discovering and direction for the youth. As Joyce points out that people need someone to tell them how to set things right, tell them what to do as long as they find peace of mind . These depicts that, sex teaching must be from rightful sources. The fear comes in with teachers who do not have what is basic for a particular age group on the aspect of sexuality and what will be the response of the children being taught about sex! As Barns states that, if those responsible in teaching are more humanitarian oriented in which it has no moral foundation, then it will be a shock, but when the topic is approached religiously, where the bible comes in the scene without reducing people to their sexuality, then that will bring hope . The church is the role model as she preaches the gospel of Christ, which guides the young people to look at God as their creator. The church should be innovative in equipping the youth with skills to cope up with their changing body system in their adolescent period .
• The approach used by the teacher matters, according to Al Vernacchio, states that the ways we talk matters to the young people .
• 2.8. SUMMARY
• In a country like Uganda with large and diverse youth population and with a challenge of poverty due to unemployment in the country, high rate of spread of HIV and AIDS among the youth, there is a high need for the intervention of the church and the organs concern to help the young people reduce engaging themselves into premarital sex before marriage but responsible life in the community.
• As we sighted that, sexual behavior of young persons are influenced by multiple factors, there is therefore need for integrated and purposeful involvement of all arms of community that includes the government, non-governmental organizations and civil society, the youth, parents and the church in the planning and implementation of sexuality education programs, formation of curriculum to ensure that relevant and substantial results are achieved. Additionally, the church must also as an institution come up with an intentional program meant to equip the youth through discipleship in which the spiritual and physical aspects are catered. This basically is a response to the mandate given to the church by Jesus in Mathew 28:19-20. The reason is because of the fallen nature in man, whereas the bible spelt that, God in his creation, made man in his image and humanity was good before the fall. When man fell by disobedience, sexual function was also affected. We read in the book of Genesis 3:16 where the curse was pronounced. The result is making young people including the old to be wild sexual activist. As we talk today in this generation, there are many measures for one to engage in sexual acts and get enslaved in it. Therefore, the rightful body to take a lead is the church with the mandate from God to teach and train the Christians the community on proper use sexual acts.
• As we have seen that sexuality is a natural part of being human. It is multi-dimensional involving the physical, emotional, social, moral and spiritual dimensions of human life and the relationship. Despised all this pleasures, the sexual practice must be guided by the word of God so as to enjoy its pleasure. The word of God gives a guidance that, sex is made to function within the framework of marriage and when practiced outside that framework, it only causes pain and injury to the individuals as well as the community that includes the family. There is therefore, need for all stakeholders to acknowledge the reality of adolescent sexuality and teach them how to be healthy sexual beings with purity (chasteness, innocence, modesty, chastity or goodness, righteousness, virtue, virtuousness), without endangering themselves and others. The teaching of the church must be in position to influence the behavior and attitude of young people so as to transform them as Romans 12:2 states that help them from being vulnerability to risky social, sexual and reproductive behavior and HIV/AIDS.
• CHAPTER THREE: VICIOUS SEXUAL PRACTICES
• 3.1. CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT FOR ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY
• Traditionally, premarital sex is not acceptable in Uganda particularly in Teso culture due to the influence of Christianity in the community. However, young people are normally taught about sex when they are being initiated from the age of ten years and even below. The teachings are normally conducted by the uncles or unties and sometimes elderly brothers or sisters and while the parents are involved in other areas of their children’s development. Though according to the society, girls are not expected to indulge in sexual behaviors until adulthood following their first menstrual experience, the observation and personal interviews have indicated that early sexual public exposure seems to be the pattern among adolescent-girls including among the pre-initiation and premenstrual girls. Many young people engage in sexual activity as early as the age of 10 years or even earlier. Joseph Malinga states that, "Many children in Uganda are victims of defilement, child prostitution and early marriages due to lack of proof of age," it says; they have no birth certificates. He further elaborated that, parents of the defiled victims accept bribes and connive with alleged offenders to alter the child's age to pervert the course of justice. He sites out one of the Katine primary school teacher as having said, “We are telling these young people that early sex is not good. Some take the message but others don't. You find a girl in primary five (about 10 years) going out for sex with a man older than her father .
• While some norms prohibited premarital sex, other cultural norms encourage or force the adolescents to have unprotected sex. In most cases, sexual activities are traditionally considered a sign of being normal. One elder expressed that Sex is a sign of normality of the human being hence young people need to do sex to prove that they are normal. In some cases girls undermine boys if they have no girl friends or have no experience in sexual intercourse. In such cases, girls talk about such boys as they collect water or in a play grounds by calling them funny names such as “immature pawpaw tree” or “someone who fell from a pawpaw tree”(meaning, such a boy is impotent) thus, making such boys to respond by having sex with them or with many. And to certain extent, a parent of such a child will become concern (Male Elder 50 years).
• In such situations, culture plays a bigger role in influencing young people in Uganda. Though, there are 17 different tribes with 40 different languages in the country, the only official language used is English and Kiswahili. Thus, many feel embarrassed with the idea of teaching sexual lessons because of its cultural attachment as a taboo and fear of making it as an act that will motivate the young people into more sexual activities.
• Though the Pentecostal churches in particular, are very hard on their youth where they are not expected to associate with an opposite sex, the young people are faced with challenging sexual temptations as a result of how people view sex in the community due western influence through media. Yet the church has no formal organized teaching on premarital sexual education, they are normally left on their own to read the bible and pray, yet they are not mentally prepared to withstand against sexual temptations. This could be because the church has left the teaching of sexuality to the teachers who also have questionable characters where many of the teachers are guilty of sexual harassment. Research carried out by Action Aid found that three in every ten teachers feel it is wrong to dismiss teachers who have sexual relationships with their pupils and that is the extent in which teachers seemed to have supported their sexual engagement with their pupils in schools.
• 3.1.1. Social Construction of Adolescence in Soroti-Uganda
• This is the process of constructing or bridging a young person into adult stage of life. Hence, the understanding of adolescence as a gradual transition from childhood to adulthood is not something that carries much weight in developing countries. In some society, young girls get married at earlier stage, especially in rural and underdeveloped areas, a girl is often considered as an adult at the time when menstruation is established regularly because once menstruation commences, girls were expected to enter into marriage since they are now regarded as adults. As a result of such constructions, some girls were being betrothed from childhood and most of them married soon after puberty in some African societies. In the polygamous societies, they became second or co-wives On the other hand, young men’s sexuality was accepted and in some polygamous societies they were allowed to have access to the younger wives of their older married brothers or even their fathers. Other possible sexual relationships were with cousins or other relatives as sexual experience.
• 3.2. POVERTY AND SEXUALITY
• Eastern region and Soroti in particularly has the highest concentration of poor people per square kilometer in Uganda, according to new figures from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBS) with a poverty density of 53%. The gap between the rich and the poor highest in central Uganda, poverty rates in Uganda's east range from 27% to 62%. The region continues to register low or no progress. In such circumstances, there is a link between poverty and teenage premarital sexual acts. The current socio-economic situations in eastern Uganda especially to those who live in a poverty line or below the dollar are easily coarse into sexual intercourse in expectation of being given money. In the same case, the family cannot afford a bigger house; they are forced to share or rent smaller houses, which lack privacy, hence, children grow up with sexual knowledge and this explains why disadvantaged teenagers engage into sexual acts due to low esteem Thus, a challenge to premarital sexual education since the young people do not see the consequences of sexual intercourse and how easy to get pregnant but hard to take responsibility of that outcome. Therefore, many teenagers live a life of rife with half-truths and ignorance. In most societies in Eastern region Sex is a taboo among most cultures in Uganda, and no one could dare take time to talk to young girls about sex. Some schools that are expected to offer sex education are also at a crossroad. Most teachers are stuck between the obvious need for sex education and safe sex practices for teenagers, and cultural and religious notions. They leave these mucky waters to the parents, instead of risking being labeled immoral and “spoiling” the children. On the other hand, parents hardly offer any help, with some pretending that their teenage daughters are not sexually active. So in the end of the matter, the children are left with no guidance yet this young people enjoy having sex. .
• Many parents are not responsible, thus they allow their girls to dress like common prostitutes and boys are encouraged to appreciate them and love them. They are also free to stay out for long hours of the night. This increases high chances of girls falling into sexual acts that result into pregnancy.
• In some communities in eastern region, adolescent pregnancy is not recognized as a serious problem for boys, because it provides approval of manhood and sometimes they are encouraged by their peers or parents as the culture that believes in having many children as an expression of manhood. Yet girls on other hand, pregnancy may be a disaster especially when it occurs outside marriage. That is, it will mean disgrace and may well lead to expulsion from family and school. However, to prove their love for their boyfriends, girls are often pressured to have sex. Thus girls are caught in the dilemma to obey the demand of their boyfriend who in many cases are older since they have little say, they succumb to sexual pressure in which she may not use contraceptives and man not using condoms because girls may continually fear asking them to put in the condom in being leveled lacking trust on him
• For this reason, the occurrence of unwanted pregnancies has become a common result of this kind of sexual recklessness. The child will lack basic things like good health care, food, education and Uganda like any other African country still have negative attitude to such children when they are still growing. Thorough observation, many girls finds themselves fixed because of poverty and some give up studies and oft for prostitution so as to satisfy their economic needs. Additionally, others are attempted to have sex with their guardian or employers or in exchange of good grades at school.
• According to Nyirabahire, most sub-Saharan countries, at least 10% of single teenagers of 18 years get pregnant unwillingly due to lack of information about reproductive health. He further highlights that unmarried mothers sometimes encounter many more difficulties than married mothers. They receive less support from their families and communities, and sometimes have fewer resources to bring up and educate their children. Sex in all most communities is less discussed with members of the family. Therefore, Teenagers who experience physiological and other changes often find it difficult to discuss this experience with their parents and relatives which then give rise to many related problems like psychological trauma, depression .
• As a result, abortion becomes an answer. Yet most developing countries do not have safe abortions. Most of these girls either go or are taken to local old people who tend to help to abort. Mugagga and Patience states that, at least 25–30% of maternal mortality in Uganda is caused by unsafe abortion and over 50% of these cases are among adolescents and young people. In many developing countries, hospital records of women treated for the complications of abortion suggest that between 38% and 68% are less than 20 years of age. A longer delay in seeking abortion; resorting to less-skilled providers, the use of more dangerous methods; and a longer delay in seeking help for complications. Because of all these factors pregnant adolescents, particularly the unmarried, are more likely to suffer serious complications than other women. Adolescents are aware of abortion and its complications, but strong social condemnation is of greater concern for young girls than the risk of death and illness associated with unsafe abortion sometimes the necessary medical facilities are not available, and this results in large numbers of unsafe abortions performed by lay abortionists. A recent Action Aid report indicates that the national primary school dropout rates for girls in Uganda is at 20% annually and about four times more in some districts in the northern and eastern parts of the country. Here, early marriages and teenage pregnancies are well above 50% compared to the national average of 25%. In districts like Kumi, the school drop-out rate for girls stands at 84% annually compared to the national rate of 20%, while early marriages and pregnancies in the district are over 60% compared to the national average of 25% .
• The society’s negative reaction stigmatizes and disempowers the girls pregnant. The thought of becoming young mothers and failing to return and complete their education, rendering themselves irrelevant in the society make them seek abortion as a result. In many cases, poverty becomes a powerful force that leads these girls into sexual acts and yet pregnancy before marriage makes them a disgrace to the family and society and only way to save their reputation is abortion.
• Yet on that, an educated woman remains pivotal to the wellbeing of not only her family but the entire nation. The high fertility rate in the country is partly attributed to low levels of education, low incomes and social status, early marriages, low contraceptive use and religious and cultural beliefs. Therefore, as they resort to abortion because of the fear of their churches, family, and friends, thus complications from this abortions in cases results into death or some throw their newborn babies into latrines (toilets) because of fear of the community and the shame associated with pre-marital childbearing or chased from school such avoid embarrassment of failing to take care of the child.
• 3.3. RAPE
• The young people especially the girl child are more vulnerable to sexual aggression than the boy child. Judith and Jack suggest that, college women are no more at risk than non-college students, yet less at risk when living at home. This is certainly due to some characteristics like low socioeconomic status, low self-concept and neediness are related to being more at risk for assault, thus , the rapist are more inclined to choose a victim they view as weak and defensiveless . In that case, rape is one of the challenges in discussing about premarital sexual education. In places where there is no security, young girls including many disabled children are victims of child sexual abuse. Due to their very vulnerable situations, they cannot fight off attackers, do not know what is going on due to their mental status and cannot report. They are simply very vulnerable to abuse. Right from the time of birth when parents realize they have a disabled child, his/her chances of receiving enough parental care and love are put on balance . Defilement cases are on the rise in Uganda and these girls are impregnated and left to struggle to manage themselves alone because the culprits in many cases ran away. As a result, there are many single young mothers in our communities who know nothing about motherhood because of such reckless social crimes. As Judith and Jack suggest that the rapist look for the weaker victims, in a sense, most of these girls are between 13 and 16 years who through rape, defilement or incest end up pregnant. Taking a particular case in Mubende, the Monitor of October 10th 2015 gives an account of Betty, 14 years of age, a Primary Six resident of Kyedikyo in Mubende District, who is six months pregnant, was raped by a 19-year-old neighbor as she was going to the well to fetch water. The girl tells the painful history, “He asked me to have sex with him and when I rejected, he just threw me in the bush and forced himself on me. We reported to the LC1 chairperson, but he refused to give us a letter to arrest Kakooza because his family had bribed him. My mother instead reported the case to Madudu Police Station Mubende District, but he has not yet been arrested,” she narrates as tears roll down her cheeks .
• Besides that, lust is also one of the causes especially in the case of Ammon and Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1-2). Certain myths also encourage rape. In some communities, it is believed that having sexual intercourse with a virgin or a baby will heal off HIV/AIDS. Hence such beliefs have led to surge in rapes against the vulnerable. Yet this carries permanent consequences to the victims, they become emotionally traumatized and such experience destroys the victims’ self-esteem . According to Deuteronomy 22:25-29, it lays down conditions for rape and that, those who are guilty, must be responsible. Thus, if a man happens to rape a young woman pledged to be married, the penalty is death because the case is like an attack and murder of a neighbor while for the case of a virgin who is not pledged to be married is raped, the man should marry her by paying her father fifty shekels for he violated her. In the Jewish customs, the Bible does not only mention about rape but lays down the laws that govern it. However, according to Exodus 22:16-17, further states that, if a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged in marriage and sleeps with her, he is to pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife but if her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay the bride-price for virgin. This spelt the social responsibility because of the consequences such a girl can be subjected to in the community. This is understood differently in Soroti where raped girls tend to keep it to themselves because of the fear of what the community would say thus, keep quite with such trauma.
• On the aspect of rape prevention, I do agree with Judith and Jack that, in many cases, the rapist suffers from deeper problems than the act of rape. This is seen when some of the rapist when they are released from prisons, they immediately commits another sexual crime. In that respect, they have given the following suggestions:
• The family origin; for they have argued that, at the family level, sexual offenders usually come from inadequate, neglectful and abusive home environments, which are lacking in nurture and solid guidance. At community level, the absence of positive models of manhood makes it difficult to develop a secure and adequate person who can engage in satisfying adult relationships. At the societal level, self-interest and lack of regard for others lead to dehumanizing, marginalizing and violating practices. Not forgetting cultural layer of power and control which is a dominant agenda that sees a man as above a woman.
• Additionally is the Rape myth acceptance. To them, this should be challenged among men. The belief that rape is normal part of the encounter between males and females. The myth is that women have a secrete desire to be raped. “That only bad girls are raped”. “Men can’t control their sexual desire.” The reality is that most sexually aggressive men are emotionally weak and usually can be foiled by the presentation of strength in the person they seek to victimize. The reason is that, this myth needs to be opposed.
• Therefore, Judith and Jack affirm that changing the attitudes and beliefs about rape is possible to which they have recommended to the church to use the same approach or method to raise awareness. Thus, single Christian need to be aware of the destructive sexual beliefs, attitudes and behaviors in community.
• The victims of rape cases always share the same physical and emotional violation by the rapist, whereby they are caught up with fear, powerlessness, shame, guilt, anger and hate. In such circumstances, they need a safe environment and a sensitive trusty person to help them walk through the loss, grief, rage, denial, helplessness, depression and fear and also overcome low-self-esteem and suicidal feelings. Besides that, the family is also affected in one way or another and for that matter need counselling to work out the implications of what has happened and be in position to support the survivor .
• 3.4. INCEST
• Judith and Jack define incest as a sexual violation between persons related by blood or marriage, including stepparents, caretakers or live in partners who assume a parental role. The powerful parental position leaves the child especially vulnerable to their request or demands. Instead of protecting and providing for children dependent on them, the offender misuses authority to coerce them into sexual compliance. It’s a shattering blow of betrayal when the sacred parent-child trust bond is broken. No child is ever prepared for such a twisted reversal of relationships. They further elaborate that, the most common type of familial sex offense is siblings’ incest, usually an older child with a younger child .
• This is a practice of all incest practitioners, especially to this contemporary generation, the practices is beyond young people only. In this context, the parents or grown up people have violated their young relatives a thirst to satisfy their sexual desire.
• Formerly, in African society, premarital sex was prohibited and parents and relatives acted as protectors of their daughters against such behaviors, though incest was another social practice that was common in some societies especially in western Uganda. The same types of such practices have been observed among some people living in urban and mini-urban centers. According to the Daily Monitor of May 15th 2016, a Father was found guilty of continuous sexual harassment towards his daughter. To the paper, the act of incestuous sexual abuse went on for several months as the girl endured the hurt occasioned by her own dad. Later when the girl had turned 15 years old, she conceived from her father .
• Moreover, some men because they provided for the livelihood of their daughters, they think that they had all the rights to do whatever they wanted with them. Some cases could be because the man has separated with his wife or they are starving sexually. Due to that fact, the young girls are denied their rights to stay sex free life until marriage since in such situations; the victims are powerless and cannot negotiate for safer sex intercourse.
• I do agree with Judith and Jack that, a home with no biological father also places a child at greater risk for sexual abuse in that home. They further states that, stepfathers are five times more likely to sexually abuse children and abuse is of more serious in nature than natural fathers because of the strong cultural taboo attached throughout most cultures of the world, keeps biological fathers from sexually abusing their daughters. Especially when the biological fathers have sufficiently bonded with his children, he is less most likely to treat them as objects of his sexual desires .
• However, to certain less extent, some fathers have turned to sexually abuse their own daughters which could be as a result of sexual starvation or have separated with the wives. The fear of getting another woman because of low esteem in the community or no time because of work that isolates one or poverty that he could not be able to pay for the dowries could have contributed towards such shameful act of sexual abuse.
• To Judith and Jack assert that, incestuous families may look normal on the outside, but inside the home, relationships are seriously disrupted. In many of these homes, a closed boundary around the family keeps others out, while rigid roles within the family promote male dominance, female subservience and authoritarian parenting. These dynamics set up a conspiracy of silence. No one dares tell an outsider what goes on inside the family, for this would be considered a profound disloyalty. Power and fear are tactics used to undermine weaker family members, who are not allowed to question authority or expose the truth. Thus the members learn to walk with cautiousness and to keep their feelings to themselves. Meaning when there are no clear boundaries or respect for personal space, a child’s privacy can be invaded physically, sexually and emotionally in a variety of ways. Hence a father who sexually abuses his children sees them as property. He is emotionally immature and often unable to fulfil his needs in nonsexual ways. He has little capacity to take the feelings or wishes of other into account and resorts to controlling, coercing and seducing children under his control .
• Moreover, during the course of my personal interview, a girl narrated how a relative she calls uncle made use of her sexually. The family saw the relative to be a support in providing her with accommodation as she studies, but it turn to be a nightmare for her because the man almost turn her to be house wife and worse of all, they had to perform abortion because the man feared the shame of the family and his wife when she became pregnant.
• Samuel shares the same African mindset on social behavior where incest is considered a grievous sin against society, the gods and the family. However, there are differences where by some relax sex or marriage between cousins. In African tradition, there were strict rules that govern how relatives of the opposite sex were to live. They were not allowed to be together in dark areas or discussing sexual matters. However, because of sexual permissiveness of the contemporary age, many people have disregarded the respect they were supposed to have towards members of the opposite sex including their own blood relations. Stepfathers may seduce their step daughters and even grandfathers may exploit their closeness to their granddaughters to seduce them into sexual intimacy .
• In all matters, sexual abuse leaves painful wounds within the heart of a child, psychological effects are the harder ones to detect yet they have devastating impact [negative] on the life of the victim/survivor. These impact directly on their brain and therefore dictate their behavior. These effects can be realized in both short and long terms that include:
• Mistrust for people, withdrawal from social events and continuous desire to be alone, frequent or no bathing/washing at all, poor eating habits, poor Concentration and forgetfulness, extreme fear on seeing a member of the same sex as the offender i.e. Trauma, difficulty in relating and maintaining relationships with others especially with members of the same sex as the offender, regressive behavior such as bed-wetting habits, sleep disturbances e.g. experience nightmares, aggressiveness for no justifiable reason, frequent emotional outbursts e.g. crying, quarreling for no good reason, sexualized behavior where a child starts looking for someone to have sex with and might begin dressing seductively, self – destructive behavior, self – hatred, severe depression, suicidal attempts and Mental illnesses .
• As Judith and Jack put it that, sexual abuse, whether done by family member or a stranger, whether a single act or ongoing pattern, cuts to the very core of the child’s soul. As mentioned from the above, the survivors of sexual abuse suffer from a wide variety of disorders. Therefore, it calls for healing which comes as one tells his or her history and a sense of forgiveness . Additionally, a lot of effort must be invested in protecting children from being sexually abused. This calls for actions on the part of both adults (parents and guardians) and the children themselves. For these interventions include:
•  Creating massive awareness among adults and children about the existence of the problem and consequences of the problem.
•  Disseminating information about the pre- disposing factors and circumstances to child sexual abuse.
•  Breaking the myths surrounding the upbringing and protection of children as they are given proper support .
• 3.5. PROSTITUTION
• Prostitution is seen as a business for getting money in this case the young girls. Most girls from all levels of education have engaged into prostitution. For the case of sex trafficking as we consider a child as a person under the age of 18 years. As per UYDEL, 2009, Samuel 2008) trafficking is an act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation that includes, prostitution, other forms of Sexual Exploitation, forced labor, slavery and/ or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. This practice has consolidated itself from within the country and across boarders in which it has become a form of modern-day slavery whereby, the children are deceived or enticed with promises of a good life and good things by traffickers. For instance good clothing, good accommodation, jobs, marriage, education, remitting money to parents and generally a brighter future which never materializes once they reach the destination. This can be done by peers, recruitment agent or other perpetuators in case of adolescents who are most likely to make the decision to leave home by themselves with or without parental consent. The situation is worse if relations between child and parent are bad, children would see this as an opportunity to leave home in the hope for a better life.
• In the same note, girls and sometimes boys find themselves in custody of pimps and brothel owners who sell them for profit for sexual activities with older men. Other trafficked girls are employed in towns as bars/ hotels/lodges and restaurants attendants for purposes of attracting male customers who in turn use them for sexual purposes. In fact many girls employed in these businesses do not receive pay but are supposed to use the workplace to look for market and pay themselves by engaging in sexual activities with customers. Traffickers have exploited this vulnerability to traffic children within and out of the country in the form of false adoption
• According to Samuel (2008), the demand for sex is also accelerated by what he terms as exotic tastes where in the western countries, many men now want to have sex with “cheaper and more exotic women from developing countries” or with children. These tastes play into sexual trafficking and the child sex trade. Therefore, as people crave for sex and ready to pay for it, the sex trade will continue therefore, for that case, when considering combating prostitution and sex trafficking, one should not solely focus on prostitutes but also the clients .
• 3.6. CONCLUSION
• The Bible perspective in all these changing situations is treated as sin and both the Old and New Testaments condemn its practices begging from rape, incest, prostitution and trafficking and Homosexuality. For instance Deuteronomy 23:17-18 states that, “No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute. You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the Lord your God to pay any vow, because the Lord your God detests them both’.
• And 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says that, or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Therefore, the word of God does not entertain immoral acts.
• Overall review shows that while understanding and challenge in pre-marital sex education problems are attributed to several factors such as social, economic, morals and cultural norms play a significant role in contributing to premarital sex. Factors such as tradition practices, prostitution and trafficking, poverty increase adolescents’ vulnerability of young people to premarital sex problems. While several approaches have been used to promote awareness of premarital sex with its consequences the existing strategies have no capacity to change these social practices of the young people on sexual intercourse
• In my review therefore suggests that there is a need to develop a health promotion strategy that can transform the communities’ social consciousness towards social norms related to adolescent sexuality.
• And bringing this transformation will require an understanding of the underlying processes that drive the influences of the young people into becoming crazy with sexual acts. As I understand, the challenge is deep in man’s hearts that call for the spiritual healing.
• CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• 4.1. Methodology and Design of the Study
• Investigating young people’s sexual behaviors is one of the risky and trying times because it opens to misunderstanding and objections . Many developing countries have communities that attach sexual behaviors to their ethnic and cultural values and meanings and as a result, adolescents may engage into sexual intercourse for many other different reasons . As having a mixed up community where others restrict premarital sexual practices especially for religious concern while other cultural norms encourage, researching on unmarried adolescent sexual life becomes difficult because of its sensitivity. In some communities, sexual engagement is always a secrete practice that is not open to the public, making it difficult to get information. (Alder, personal communication). With these issues, it’s difficult to obtain access to adolescents to freely talk about their private sexual lives.
• As such, methodologies used to investigate and understand sexual lives and practices and their determinants are important because some adolescents might find questions about sexual lives embarrassing and awkward. Yet other methods may not reveal the detailed sexual practices of the intended person in depth.
• Sexual issues being a sensitive subject and the ability to understand adolescents’ sexual practices in Soroti municipality, bring us to this chapter which discusses the methods and procedures used in the study. However, our worldview will definitely have an effect in the results of the research. Never the less, this research employs the descriptive research method, which uses observation and surveys as it aims at assessing the significance of the church on premarital sexual education among the young people with the Pentecostal Assemblies of God is Soroti Municipality.
• The research is based on both qualitative and quantitative research methods. This allows flexibility to interact during the data gathering as the choice and design of methods will constantly be modified, based on ongoing analysis. Thus allowing the investigation of important new issues and questions as they arise while the less important are dropped that are not productive to the original plan of research .
• The researcher relied on the Kosin university library to obtain the books, utilized the Internet (google search) to gather more information on sexuality and guidance given by Professor Samuel Lee and his recommended text books.
• Through the Internet, the researcher was able to gather the information on various aspect of sexuality that was useful for the secondary data. The data was gathered through test and survey questionnaire and the researcher chose the participants randomly and the respondents were composed of 35. Most questionnaires were collected right after the respondents answered. The researcher made it to a point that the respondents will answer the questionnaire honestly and sincerely.
• Besides that, after the questions were answered, the researcher had provided a recommendation form for the respondents for any suggestions or any necessary corrections to enhance further improvement and validity of the research. There were also some questions that the researcher reviewed so as to ensure the reliability of the instrument thus, some were removed that were irrelevant and difficult words that would be difficult for the respondents.
• CHAPTER FIVE: PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS, AND ANALYSIS
• 5.1 INTRODUCTION
• Young people are always greatly influenced in their communities by cultural factors, religious and traditional norms which are important motivators of behaviors for all the peoples. Yomi Babatunde and Low Sui Pheng, state that, these influential factors includes; individuals, peers, partners, family and household, institutions and communities, policies and social norms . Therefore, this chapter reveals the presentation, analysis and interpretation of data gathered by the researcher. The 35 youth of this study went through different questions to be answered. The instrument used was the survey questionnaires and the study employed the use of quantitative and qualitative data analysis procedures to analyze the data. And for that reason, the main purpose of this study was to examine the significance of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God church’s teaching on premarital sexual education on the youth of Soroti Municipality, Uganda.
• Additionally, the use of detailed interview guides, helped to ensure in-depth, data was collected during the data collection and this reduced researcher’s involvement in the construction of meanings in the study. And the use of checklist during the participant observations at the suburbs ensured that all important areas were questioned and observed.
• 5.2. FINDINGS
• 4.2.1. How many times have you ever heard your church organize teachings on premarital sex in a year?
• NUMBER VARIABLE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
• A. Always 8 22.8
• B. Sometimes 18 51.4
• C. Seldom 2 5.7
• D. Never 5 14.4
• E. Not Sure 2 5.7
• Total 35 100
• TABLE 1: The times the church organized teachings on premarital sex in a month
• On the findings, questions such as: How many times have you ever heard your church organize teachings on premarital sex? This helped to asses if the churches were teaching on the themes of human sexuality. Of the 35 respondents, the findings are as represented on the table above: The table 1 above indicates that 51.4% agree that their pastors have ever taught about sexual education in year. The 22.8% likewise do confirm that they have sometimes heard teachings on sexually relates topics. However, 14.4% have confessed never ever heard any topics concerning sexual related teachings during the course of the year in the church. The 5.7% affirmed that they seldom have ever heard the church organizes youth on the sexual related subjects and the 5.7% are not sure of such organized meetings. In that order, the findings indicate that some churches are involved in the teaching of human sexuality, while others are not. It is proper stating that the margin line is quite unbalanced. Thus the previous chapters, showed that there is need to organize and teach young people on sexual related topics, yet the findings show that while approximately 51.4% of the churches in Soroti Municipality are involved in teaching the young people on human sexuality in their churches, the rest have never considered it worthy teaching because the numbers of the findings reveals the low percentage.
• 5.2.2. How early should pre-marital sex education begin?
• NUMBER VARIABLE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
• A 9-12 Years 18 51.4
• B 13-14 Years 08 22.8
• C 15-17 Years 06 17.1
• D 18-20 Years 02 5.7
• E 21 years above 01 2.8
• Total 35 100
• TABLE 2: Show how early should pre-marital sex education begin
• According to the findings, 51.4% respondents considered that sexual education should begin at the earlier stages this due to the environment young people are subjected to, where by kids will still be in position to hear about sex, either from their friends, from surfing the internet, or by watching the television. Thus getting in to their lives first will ensure that they receive the right information and more importantly, that they will know how to behave and be self-sensitive to situations, yet also will be in position to trust their parents thus be able to share information on such topics. Hence kids that receive good sexual education are more likely to delay having sex and when they do start, they are more likely to avoid unwanted pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infections. Hence will be in good position to make rightful decision when choosing a partner for marriage
• 5.2.3. How often do your friends engage into sexual intercourse?
• NUMBER VARIABLE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
• A Always 08 22.8
• B Sometimes 16 45.7
• C Seldom 03 8.5
• D Never 05 14.2
• E Not sure 02 5.7
• Total 35 100
• TABLE 3: The table shows how often the young people engage themselves into sexual intercourse.
• In the findings, all the 45.7% of the young people agree that their friends who are Christians are sexually active. When the number of those who always and those who sometimes do is added total to 68.5% is relatively a high number of the Christian young people engaged into active sex before marriage. In reference to the churches that are involved into teaching sexual education as per our findings above, this figure satisfies the purpose of this research that there is a need for the churches to get involved into sexual education because as per what we have seen, there is no significant relationship between the teachings of Pentecostal Assemblies of God and her young people is relatively a big number of the youth that are engaged into sexual intercourse. Though 14.2% respondents claimed that their single Christian peers are not engaged in premarital sex, still the number of those active is still calls for seriousness on the part of the church and all the concern persons to be more involved in to this business of the youth. Additionally, the 5.7% is slightly a big fraction of those who are not sure of what to do, this could be as a result of privacy of sexual matters where one finds it hard to openly discuss sexual affairs or disclose his or her sexual affairs to their friends.
• TABLE 5.2.4. How often does your church leadership condemn and punishes those who are sexually active or become pregnant before marriage?
• NUMBER VARIABLE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
• A Always 13 37.1
• B Sometimes 13 37.1
• C Seldom 04 11.4
• D Never 04 11.4
• E Not sure 01 2.8
• Total 35 100
• TABLE 4: Shows how many times the leadership condemn and punishes those who are sexually active or become pregnant before marriage
• As shown, the responses to this question reveals that, out of the total number of 35 subjects, only 37.1% indicate that the church leadership always does condemn and punishes those who are sexually active and 37.1% responses for “sometimes” and 11.4% for “Seldom” mean that the church leadership gives church discipline. Meanwhile the 11.4% revealed that they have never seen any kind of disciplinary action against the youth who are found guilty of such acts of sexual intercourse and yet 2.8% answered that they are not sure whether they have ever listen, seen or heard the church carrying out disciplinary actions on such immoral behaviors. That is to say the church’s attitude towards those that have fallen is a way of redeeming them and at the same time discouraging others from getting involved into such sexual acts before marriage.
• 5.2.5 How often do you find it easier to access information about sexual satisfaction through the internet than talking to your pastor or youth leader?
• NUMBER VARIABLE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
• A Always 13 37.1
• B Sometimes 07 20
• C Seldom 06 17.1
• D Never 06 17.1
• E Not sure 03 8.5
• Total 35 100.
• TABLE 5: Shows the regularity of accessing information through the internet for sexual satisfaction than talking to the pastor or youth leader.
• The responses to this question as reflected in table 5 reveals that, out of the 35 subjects, 20 (57.1%) indicate that it is easier to find sexual satisfaction through the internet than discussing with the pastor or any spiritual leader. 17.1% seldom meaning they are in between as they compare notes of what the pastor says and what the internet says. 17.1% is the small fraction of the youth who said never to find sexual information through the internet but rather go to their spiritual leaders for rightful information as indicated from the table above. This therefore, shows the church seemingly not dependable for sexual information for the young people which to certain extent affirms the reason of this work. It’s true that the church in Soroti Municipality occasionally mentions issues of sexuality in form of restricting its act but not being reliable for full information that brings clear understanding to the young people. There is need to find easy ways on to guide the young people understand the issues surrounding the area on human sexuality as way to help fight against using internet and other medium of communication that are easily accessible for the young people to find sexual information.
• TABLE 5.2. 6. Choose whether you agree or disagree with the following statements.
• No. AVARIABLES Agree % Disagree %
• A Is poverty the greatest factor causing young people to be engaged into sexual intercourse? 26 74.3 09 25.7
• B Is it only the media that provides sexual information as compared to the church? 23 65.7 12 34.3
• C Does the church provide satisfied information on sex and sexuality in making rightful sexual decisions? 11 31.4 24 68.6
• D Are you satisfied with the way (methods) the church leadership teaches the youth on premarital sex? 09 25.7 26 74.3
• E Have you heard about sexual education at school? 14 40 21 60
• TABLE 6 Shows whether the respondents agreed or disagreed with the type of questions.
• On the basis of the quantitative findings expounded in the preceding table, it can be observed that:
•  Item A: The majority of the subjects, 74.3% agree that poverty is the major cause of young girls engaging into premarital sexual intercourse in Soroti Municipality while 25.7% opposes this statement. This could be partly because of the rampant poverty affecting the region and most young people especial students and employed are living independently thus have the freedom to use their bodies for the exchange of money with the so called the sugar daddies. This affirms that there is lack of premarital sexual education among the young people.
•  Item B: 65.7% of the respondents agree that much of the information they have is as a result of the media on issues of sexual understanding while the 34.3% disagrees with the statement meaning that they have got information from the church concerning sexual matters. However, the number of the yes compared to those who have disagreed clearly depicts that the church is lacking behind on the issues of the sexual matters hence there is lack of biblical information in the area of human sexuality to the young people.
•  Items C: The majority of subjects, 31.4% agree that the church provide enough information for the young people to make rightful decision whale 68.6% disagree with that statement meaning much information is from the media.
•  Item D: shows 25.7% respondents that agree that the church’s method is satisfactory in delivering the topic of sexual education while the majority of 74.3% disagree with the statement meaning that the church does not employ a rightful method of teaching young on premarital sexual education. This could be because in most cases, the church begins to teach about sexual matters only to those who are getting ready for marriage. In otherwise, the teaching is to the couple in preparation for their wedding not young people who are meeting challenges of sexual acts in all aspects of their lives.
•  Item E: 40% of the respondents agree that they have ever heard about sexual education at school while the majority of about 60% disagree of the statement meaning they have no formal form of sexual education but relying on the media which has opened them into acts of fornication.
• 5.2.7. How often do you always listen to radios or watch television?
• NUMBER VARIABLE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
• A Always 12 34.2
• B Sometimes 12 34.2
• C Seldom 02 5.7
• D Never 05 14.2
• E Not sure 04 11.4
• Total 35 100
• TABLE 7: Regularity of listening to radio and Television programmes on music and big brother.
• The responses to this question as reflected in the Table 7 reveals that, out of 35 subjects, only 12 (34.2%) indicated that they cannot afford to miss the radio and Television programs. 14 gave B and C (that is 12 responses for “sometimes” and 02 for “Seldom”) as answers which means that they do not always have time to listen and watch Television programmes. 14.2% subjects showed that they never listen to these programmes, while only 11.4% answered that they are not sure whether they listen to this programmes or not. This in fact shows that most of the youth in Soroti Municipality spend much of their time either listening to secular music or watching television especially their preferred celebrities. In the end of such programmes they tend to imitate them and live a life that resembles them meaning, much of their behavior is as a result of these programmes. Though they get into church, they find church not appealing to them because the message of the church is not capturing their attention hence less influence by the church to her young people. This could be due to lack of pre-marital sexual education since this music and TV programmes tending to provide such topical teaching on sex. For example, a song could be having sexy language or television presenting people’s pictures of naked women and men and sometime they are shown while kissing, all this interests the young people as they are growing up to discover.
• TABLE 5.2.8. How often does your church leadership address the effects of wrong sexual decisions other than offering teachings that would effectively guide and influence good sexual decisions or behavior?
• NUMBER VARIABLE FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE
• A Always 10 28.5
• B Sometimes 12 34.2
• C Seldom 08 22.8
• D Never 01 2.8
• E Not sure 04 11.4
• Total 35 100
• TABLE 8: Shows how the church leadership addresses the result of wrong sexual decisions than offering effective teaching or training to the young people.
• The figures and percentages in a table 8 show the response of the church leadership to the fruit of bad sexual decisions which could be as a result of limited information on the issues of sexual education. As can be seen from this table, 28.5% of the subjects indicated that always the church addresses the effects of bad sexual decision while the percentage of sometimes is 34.2% and seldom is 22.8% all speak the same language that the church leadership is more concern for the outcome of bad sexual decisions than addressing its root causes. Only 2.8% as seen in the table 8 as saying never meaning that the church leadership also looks into some of the root causes of young people engaging into sexual intercourse or the church is involved into giving sexual information to the young people on matters of sexual acts for an informed decision. 11.4% of the respondents are not sure whether the church leadership is only concern for the outcome of bad sexual decisions or is concern.
• The table clearly affirms that there is no adequate information that is biblically motivated to shape the lives of the young people as they make their decisions thus resulting into engaging into premarital sexual intercourse before marriage. In most cases, the church is faced with the challenging issues like HIV and AIDS, rampant unwanted pregnancies, abortion and elopement cases among other health related matters rather than dealing with the root causes of the challenges.
• 5.3. PHASE TWO: QUALITATIVE INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
• Analysis of Interviews to supplement the results and to fill the gaps left in the questionnaire, the qualitative approach was used. This kind of technique looks more likely to give more substance and to reveal detailed information. Qualitative research is concerned with trying to achieve a clear understanding of the problem under review in a more complex way than in the generalized way that is the outcome of questionnaires. This methodology is used to get information about how people think, feel and act and what they know. This section of the research was conducted in two ways, through individual interviews and focus group discussions consisting of 10 people at each workshop. The information collected was presented in a narrative form that includes the description and analysis of data.
• A. The church leadership should be exemplary to the youth. They should encourage the youth to be prayerful so as to overcome temptations especially in the areas of sexual temptation. They should encourage the youth to join productive activities other than being idle “as the bibles says that the idle mind is Satan’s workshop”. Like joining football, teams for youth, witnessing for Christ, discussion groups and be care takers of one another.
• B. The church leadership should keep an eye upon the youth-spend time with them so as to help and identify the truthful sheep. Take time to teach on the negative implication of premarital sex which is common among the youth of today at church (1Timothy 3:1ff.)
• C. Encourage the youth to be patient waiting upon the Lord. Encourage them to love Christian music. Especially girls should be advices to wear on long skirts not short ones that expose their thig thus bringing sexually attractions.
• D. The leadership should teach, guide and not only look for these who have messed up to punish. (meaning the pastors look for the broken to punish)
• E. Support hostel ministries especially in those high schools, campuses for the university (the issue is that they get attractive by evening). The pastors should be with the youth not only the youth leaders and also allow the youth to express their thought on the issues of sexuality.
• F. Conduct seminars in order to teach the youth on sexual issues-preach against earlier sex.
• G. Have counselling sensations and committees, have sex conference, promote youth committees, have Christian magazines that gives guidance on matters on sexual matters
• H. One respondent suggested giving the youth condoms and encourage them to go for ARVS.
• I. The leadership should encourage those effected with incurable diseases to go for checkup and counselling and begin to taking medicine
• J. Invite well trained counselors and teachers to talk with the youth. Make the youth your friends,
• K. Encourage the parents to teach sex topics to their children when they are young. Create a friendly environment to engage youth into discussion on relationship matters.
• L. Identify individuals who have fallen victims of premarital sexual acts before marriage
• M. Organize modern youth day outings as CU as a way to get them out together for such discussion.
• N. Sexual matters must be scheduled and put in the church programme. Pastors should be given training rather than only gospel oriented trainings and they should also act like teacher but not as believers only. The church should learn on how to present themselves to the youth on matters of sexuality and not abuse or discriminant the people.
• O. Young people should be taught so that they avoid getting information through peer or discuss sexual issues alone.
• CHAPTER SIX: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
• 6.1. INTRODUCTION
• As I suggested that the limitation of man in overcoming sexual argue especially among the young people is because of the fallen nature of man in which sexual acts become misplaced and meaningless not in the line of the creator intent. A Christian community insists that sexual practices outside marriage are improper and illegal. We have seen that sex itself is not sinful when practiced in its boundary of marriage.
• Therefore, the impact of the church on pre-marital sex education among the youth, in Soroti municipality especially in the Pentecostal Assemblies of God. As I suggested that the limitation of man in overcoming sexual argue especially among the young people is because of the fallen nature of man in which sexual acts become misplaced and meaningless not in the line of the creator intent. A Christian community insists that sexual practices outside marriage are improper and illegal. We have seen that sex itself is not sinful when practiced in its boundary of marriage.
• Therefore, the impact of the church on pre-marital sex education among the youth, in Soroti municipality especially in the Pentecostal Assemblies of God is wanting. The finding therefore, will enable the church enhance its strategy in teaching pre-marital sex education to the youth. Having in mind that this research is guided by the three key questions that is:
• i. To find out whether the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Soroti church’s teaching and practice is significant on the sexuality of its teenage and young adult members.
• ii. To find out if the timing of the church’s teaching on sexuality has an impact on the young people.
• iii. To find out if strategies used by the church to teach sexuality have an impact on the sexuality of its teenage and young adult members.
• In following the objectives of the research, data collection was collected from 35 respondents of the targeted 40. A self-administered questionnaire was the major tool for data collection, and other five (5) personal open interviews were carried out. The purpose of the questionnaire was to collect data on the strategy of the church and to examine her significance on the teaching of premarital sex to her young members.
• According to the research, in most cases, many churches in the Pentecostal circles in Soroti Municipality are not offering any formal teaching on pre-marital sex education. In reality, many preachers only mention it in their sermons with emphasis of its negative outcome with strong voices against the practice. To some churches that offer some form of education on sex, tend to respond to questions raised by the youth, may be during youth conferences or youth outings. Thus, the content seems to be very inadequate and has less influence on the sexuality of the youth. The most words that the youth are told is that, “don’t do it” ex-communications for those who dare walk in an appropriate manner, such sending very hard signal to the rest of the youth. As a result, the youth live with fear with no information, yet keep hearing sexual stories from their peers as an act that rewards. In my view, the church, however do not offer useful information to the youth on how to value and celebrate their sexuality. For this reason, lack of influence has caused high rate of engagement in premarital sexual acts. This in away has resulted into a high rate of unwanted pregnancies, and HIV & AIDS prevalence among the youth of the church. Due to this, some of the youth are negatively affected in their mental development with wrong misconception that sex relation is the most important aspects of their life and is to be enjoyed at whatever ways possible. Though Pre-marital sex seems to be having social and economic benefits, but at the end of it all comes a bitter experience and the most affected are the girls who are more vulnerable than boys, because, they likely see sex as a sign of commitment in the relationship. As a result, some have gotten into regret, drug abuse, unwanted pregnancies, bondage, and loss of self-respect, corruption of character, depression, fear of future commitment, sexually transmitted infections, guilt, poor academic performance, loss of family and parental support, victims of ritualists. For lack of proper guidance and teaching on side of the church, many young people have resorted having information on sexuality through the media, internet, TV, and radio. I feel this is as a result of fear and judgmental approach of the church towards young people’s sexuality such that the youth have no one to depend when they are seeking for sexual information.
• The church is called upon to get involved in teaching premarital sexual education to the young people in the early stages of their growth. As for the findings, most churches get involved into the life of the young people during the time when they have begun the process of marriage. In most cases, the pastor responds by giving counseling and sometimes, untrained people are the ones given the mandate to give guidance.
• The subject (topic) on sex is always so interesting to the young people, and in the findings, they have express their need to have an opportunity in which they could learn more about human sexuality so as to help them make informed (rightful) decisions for their stable marriages. To those who have grown or married without sexual education, have encountered many mistakes that threaten the continuity of their marriages partly because, they could have been victims of early sexual experiences which could have weaken their faith or they found themselves in unauthentic means of satisfying sexual curiosity like: masturbation, pornography among others.
• Therefore, as the results show, the church does not have any strategy in teaching the youth on sexual matters. Messages spoken in sermons tend to cause fear and are judgmental to the young people. In most cases, the youth are very far from the leadership because the pastors look so strict and serious and anything in that line of sex, one is called immoral. My view is that, the methods or approach used by the church needs to be revisited to effectively create a healthy relationship between the church leadership with the youth so as to freely have discussions on matters of sexuality in order to counteract the world or secular understanding of sexuality in this modern error.
• 6.2. RECOMMENDATIONS
• In this recommendation, I have tried to subdivide them into three categories which involve School, the parents and the church. The research is more practical than theoretical and this recommendation can be available to the above church for guidance on the premarital sex education.
• The finding therefore, will enable the church enhance its strategy in teaching pre-marital sex education to the youth. Having in mind that this research is guided by the three key questions that is:
• i. To find out whether the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Soroti church’s teaching and practice is significant on the sexuality of its teenage and young adult members.
• ii. To find out if the timing of the church’s teaching on sexuality has an impact on the young people.
• iii. To find out if strategies used by the church to teach sexuality have an impact on the sexuality of its teenage and young adult members.
• In following the objectives of the research, data collection was collected from 35 respondents of the targeted 40. A self-administered questionnaire was the major tool for data collection, and other five (5) personal open interviews were carried out. The purpose of the questionnaire was to collect data on the strategy of the church and to examine her significance on the teaching of premarital sex to her young members.
• According to the research, in most cases, many churches in the Pentecostal circles in Soroti Municipality are not offering any formal teaching on pre-marital sex education. In reality, many preachers only mention it in their sermons with emphasis of its negative outcome with strong voices against the practice. To some churches that offer some form of education on sex, tend to respond to questions raised by the youth, may be during youth conferences or youth outings. Thus, the content seems to be very inadequate and has less influence on the sexuality of the youth. The most words that the youth are told is that, “don’t do it” ex-communications for those who dare walk in an appropriate manner, such sending very hard signal to the rest of the youth. As a result, the youth live with fear with no information, yet keep hearing sexual stories from their peers as an act that rewards. In my view, the church, however do not offer useful information to the youth on how to value and celebrate their sexuality. For this reason, lack of influence has caused high rate of engagement in premarital sexual acts. This in away has resulted into a high rate of unwanted pregnancies, and HIV & AIDS prevalence among the youth of the church. Due to this, some of the youth are negatively affected in their mental development with wrong misconception that sex relation is the most important aspects of their life and is to be enjoyed at whatever ways possible. Though Pre-marital sex seems to be having social and economic benefits, but at the end of it all comes a bitter experience and the most affected are the girls who are more vulnerable than boys, because, they likely see sex as a sign of commitment in the relationship. As a result, some have gotten into regret, drug abuse, unwanted pregnancies, bondage, and loss of self-respect, corruption of character, depression, fear of future commitment, sexually transmitted infections, guilt, poor academic performance, loss of family and parental support, victims of ritualists. For lack of proper guidance and teaching on side of the church, many young people have resorted having information on sexuality through the media, internet, TV, and radio. I feel this is as a result of fear and judgmental approach of the church towards young people’s sexuality such that the youth have no one to depend when they are seeking for sexual information.
• The church is called upon to get involved in teaching premarital sexual education to the young people in the early stages of their growth. As for the findings, most churches get involved into the life of the young people during the time when they have begun the process of marriage. In most cases, the pastor responds by giving counseling and sometimes, untrained people are the ones given the mandate to give guidance.
• The subject (topic) on sex is always so interesting to the young people, and in the findings, they have express their need to have an opportunity in which they could learn more about human sexuality so as to help them make informed (rightful) decisions for their stable marriages. To those who have grown or married without sexual education, have encountered many mistakes that threaten the continuity of their marriages partly because, they could have been victims of early sexual experiences which could have weaken their faith or they found themselves in unauthentic means of satisfying sexual curiosity like: masturbation, pornography among others.
• Therefore, as the results show, the church does not have any strategy in teaching the youth on sexual matters. Messages spoken in sermons tend to cause fear and are judgmental to the young people. In most cases, the youth are very far from the leadership because the pastors look so strict and serious and anything in that line of sex, one is called immoral. My view is that, the methods or approach used by the church needs to be revisited to effectively create a healthy relationship between the church leadership with the youth so as to freely have discussions on matters of sexuality in order to counteract the world or secular understanding of sexuality in this modern error.
• 6.2.1. The Role of the Church on Premarital Sexual Education
• As I pointed earlier that, man is fallen being and is constantly bent toward sin. The bible in Ecclesiastes states that, “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). All this is as a result of sinful state into which all people are born. In Romans 3:23 states that, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. There is something in man that became deprived making him short of the standard to do that God requires. Therefore, Man is on a move to invent things that are morally opposing God’s holy character and resulting in making man look like animal and not reflecting the glorious image of God as originally purposed.
• To this, the remedy for fallen world and secularization of our culture is in our risen Lord Jesus Christ. The church is the body of Christians where Jesus is the head and stands in the gap of being the rightful place where sexuality education is to be taught. In the book of Mathew 28:19-20, Christ calls the church to make disciples, teaching them to obey everything he has commanded. Therefore, the pastor of the church or leader is in a unique position to make significant contributions for their young people as they often take part in Christian’s rites of passage, including marriage. Despite sexual revolution, there is a need for revival just as the early disciples who after ascension of Christ, were surrounded by a hostile Empire and moral decayed society, and as they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, they witnessed so boldly and preached so courageously that three thousand came to Christ (Acts 2). Before long, they "turned the world upside down" for Jesus (Acts 17:6). As Christians trust the Holy Spirit, he will aid and empower the young people and give them the thirst of the word of God as guided by the pastors.
• Though the young people are increasingly engaged into sexual acts, the commitment of the church towards giving rightful information to the youth will reduce the dilemma of the young people running to the media for information concerning sexuality and since people are concern, dramatic changes in boy-girl relationships and their effects on morals, personal and social standards and the integrity of the family and marriage will be realized.
• However, in African traditional setting, sex is sacred and open discussion is a taboo. Yet we are consistently confronted with sexual images in every newspapers, radio talks and televisions. As a result, there is need for pastors and other adults to be given help in dealing with teen sexuality.
• The African Christian worldview ought to be informed and that Christian adults are responsible in the cause of shaping the mindset of the young people so that they live in a sexually pure lives to bring in the holy fear of God and live a healthier life that helps them to counteract the untruthful and destructive messages teens are receiving from secularized culture.
• First and foremost, there is a need to equip the pastors (church leaders) and parents in the area of relationship between pastor and teen. Our research pointed out that the pastors and youth relationship is apart and young people are afraid of asking questions on sexuality. Therefore, the training should seek to make pastors create an atmosphere of confidence or boldness and to know what they can say or teach the young people or their children. And this will help make the young people to honor God in their relationships, both as teens and later as adults, thus avoiding the negative consequences of premarital sexual activities. It will also make children to make godly and wise decisions about their sexuality in their teenage years as well as laying foundations for them to experience the blessings of God’s gift of sexuality as a mature and responsible adult, whether married or single.
• In that context, topics on God’s holiness and biblical knowledge on the purity of sexuality should be emphasized. The classes should be organized in way that allows questions and answers between the learner and the pastor and this in turn will help occupy the life of the young people. This could be organized in their youth groups, Sunday school classes. Besides that, the content of sex should not be judgmental but they should hear it as something good that God made for a particular purpose in uniting the husband and wife and to bring pleasure in the marriage relationship as originally intended. This is reflected in Proverbs 5:19; Genesis 1:26-28; 2:20-24 in which God created mankind in his own image and blessed them to multiply. In my view, since 1 Corinthians 7:2 clearly includes sex before marriage in the definition of sexual immorality, all of the Bible verses that condemn sexual immorality as being sinful also condemn sex before marriage as sinful. Sex before marriage is included in the biblical definition of sexual immorality. There are numerous Scriptures that declare sex before marriage to be a sin (Acts 15:20; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13, 18; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Jude 7). Therefore, the Bible promotes complete abstinence before marriage. Sex between a husband and his wife is the only form of sexual relations of which God approves as also reflected in the book of Hebrews 13:4 that states “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral”. Though God forgives when one repents, the book of 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, sounds an alarm of God’s judgement which is echoed by Romans 6:1-2 as an encouragement not to go on sinning because of grace, but encourages us to be strong against sin.
• In abroad sense, the discussion of sexual education of young people should involve live and current issues that directly concern the youth, which in many cases have robbed them of their time during weekends. Such weekends can be replaced with church program in which they can get outside their busy schedules with a church leader where they can discuss variety of activities.
• I do agree with Barbara M. Kohl that, there are pertinent questions to be asked amongst church leaders on how they can deal with forces that are faced with the youth, for instance; how can teens learn to incorporate the biblical standards into their everyday lives in a concrete, practical way? How can they learn to recognize the temptations they face and develop the necessary skills to deal with these temptations?
• Like in Uganda, we have had mature youth of 20-35 years retreat and also students groups where they could discuss issues on their growth but for the mature, we openly discussed issues of marriage not touching deep the subject of human sexuality. As a result Barbara suggestions of bringing together sixth grade girls (12- to 13-year-olds) from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon can also of a benefit to Soroti church.
• In having them together, allows the girls and the leader time to become comfortable with each other so that they can feel free to talk openly. Even as this event has to begin with worship and continues with a wide variety of activities for instance:
•  The young people or girls search secular teen magazines for popular views on dress, dating and relationships, and self-worth and for the boys have set up activity.
•  They discuss the Christian view of issues such as purity, boundaries, temptations, and resistance skills, using the Bible.
•  And they can also watch and discuss a video on sexually transmitted diseases and other consequences of sexual intimacy outside marriage.
•  They try to identify what is presently the most important thing in their lives as Mathew 13:45-46, echoes of fine pearls of great value of Jesus and their love relationship with him.
•  And if they are ready to do so, they write a letter to God telling him their struggles in the area of sex and pledging to keep him in first place in their lives and to save sex for marriage.
• This practical training in healthy relationship calls for dedication and involvement of the adult leaders/parents in which the activities are planned and discussed and one of the activities is a take-home mother-daughter bible study on topics related to sex, at the end of which both mother and daughter will sign a card pledging them to sexual purity.
• These type of retreat helps to counteract many of the motivating factors and unhealthy influences that cause teens to become sexually active. It makes the teens to understand and learn to express in words what they are feeling as they enter this new phase of life, and to stand up for their standards in public. They learn the facts about the effects of early sexual intimacy and some of the skills necessary to be sexually pure, to stand up against peer pressure, and to recognize the false information presented by the media.
• The hand massage and the party tell the girls that they are of value to other people, and that they should never let anyone treat them with any less respect. The bible study tells them that, they are of value to God and shows them his standards for relationships and his desire to be first in their lives. The participation of their parents shows them that their parents care about them and want to communicate with them.
• Moreover, sexual purity calls upon a particular commitment or covenant signing between the young people and their God. I remember signing some kind of card in 1992 to remain faithful until marriage and surely it worked. Though there are some shortcomings as a young man, still when you remember, it gets to your gripe. The bible gives a clear example of God making a covenant with his people such as Abrahamic covenant, Mosaic covenant and Davidic covenant, all these helped in building strong relationship and helped in making the promise fresh. In my view, I suggest the signing of the card for one to remain faithful is of a higher benefit to the young people if they dare remain faithful to it.
• Additionally, I do agree with Barbara that, there is need to create appositive peer pressure where the church can encourage the development of a counter-culture, a group setting in which its teens can support each other in resisting negative peer pressure they face in their daily walks. This can help them to reach out together to their school friends in their Sunday school classes and in their youth group meetings. Barbara further suggest that, such a culture can be well built in the “True Love Waits” program in which a parent-teen bible study done in their own home culminates in the signing of a commitment card, followed by the public presentation of all signed cards in a special worship service at the church. Holding such a service every year would keep the ideal of sexual purity before the entire congregation and encourage members to hold each other accountable. The detail of the card bears the details for example:
• Youth Commitment Adult Commitment
• Believing that true love waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my future mate, and my future children to a lifetime of purity including sexual abstinence from this day until the day I enter a biblical marriage relationship.
• Signed _______________¬¬-_________
• Date ¬¬¬________ Believing that true love is pure, I join ___________ in committing to a lifestyle of purity. I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, and my community of faith to abstain from pornography, impure touching and conversations, and sex outside a biblical marriage relationship from this day forward.
• Signed ________________________
• Date ¬¬¬________
• A healthy parent-child relationship is enhanced by a public pledge to remain a virgin until marriage is one of the strongest incentives to avoiding sexual intimacy until marriage. Teens who sign such pledges delay initiating sex, are significantly more likely to be virgins when they marry, and are less likely to have a child out of wedlock.
• Luke 2:52 says, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man”. The bible encourages us to train our members especially the young people. They usually encounter daily battles through their friends or peer groups, media in which they are temptation to see sexual images in their smart phones or internet. Therefore, training and discussing with them helps to reduce and fight against the popular misconceptions on sexuality since they will always get their strength in studding the scripture as like the in Acts 7:11 that states that, “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true”. That means that the teens will be taught not accept anything without critical analysis of the source.
• In including children and their parents in such meetings tend to strengthen the parent-child bond and as well gives children a sense of being valued not only in relation to their own families but also in the wider community of the church. Therefore, such firm foundation affirms young persons of their worth and assures the love and willingness of their parents to walk with them whatever life brings. In such a relationship, not only can teens talk with their parents about sexual issues but they will not need to look for love and significance in premature sexual intimacy relationships.
• Most notably is the aspect of special events for the young people in which they can get involved in going out to witness for Jesus Christ, thrice in a year, get involved in carrying all the ministry in the church like; preaching, ushering, cleaning, teach in the Sunday school, do ministry in singing, make announcements in the church, cook for the ministers, collect offerings. In my experience, this involvement has in many cases strengthened their relationship horizontally and vertically with God and one another.
• In addition to that is youth conference where they can be able to meet with youth of different church backgrounds and freely listen to the sermons and group discussions among which are geared to help them stand steal in the face of temptations.
• For her, she even goes further by suggesting that there is to go beyond sex education by creating an environment in which those who sin sexually may find forgiveness and restoration, not judgment and rejection .
• According to divine mandate in Mathew 28:19-20 where the church is instructed to make disciples through baptism and teaching them to obey everything commanded by Jesus, is a direct guide for God’s present help to the young people through the Holy Spirit. Discipling the young people should be the top priority of the church. The living word of God will always resurrect whenever teens wants to do something wrong thus, honoring God and walking in within the boundaries set by scriptures which creates a healthy relationship between boy-girl with the Lord. And a direct relationship between a teen’s commitment to absolute truth – and to the God who has revealed that truth will result in their commitment to abstinence until marriage. This helps to check those who are extremes and will be convicted to give their wholly lives to the Lord. However, sexual issues emerge from the heart and the bible in Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10), hence there is need to build the love of God in the heart of the young people. No wonder, Deuteronomy 6:5 stays, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” hence obedience to the word of God will save the young people to have holy marriages. For that reason, church must help the teens to honor God with their bodies because they belong to him and they are the temple of God where the Holy Spirit lives. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 states that, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. This then will compel to become good model in their communities in which they will desire to live as salt and light of the world as they minister to their communities of their reach (Matthew 5:13-14).
• There is need to strengthen families: One of the challenging factors that are much affected the young people is the neglect of the parents to take full responsibility. In Uganda especially in Soroti Municipality, people are forced to look for food because of poverty and this makes them to leave children To Whom It May Concern. There are a great number of single parents who still do not have skills to take care of themselves. As a result, I do agree with Barbara that one of the strongest “motivating factors” in teens’ becoming sexually active is a poor home environment: a broken home, or a home in which love is not expressed or there is little interaction between parents and children, or in which the father is either physically or emotionally absent, or where the parents do not “parent.”
• A happy family life and good communication between parents and teens is the best deterrent to premature sexual activity. The church needs to be in the business of strengthening families: honoring and celebrating marriages, providing marriage enrichment and help for struggling couples, and challenging and training parents. She further states that there is need to create a Culture of Forgiveness and Restoration especially to the teens that get pregnant out of wedlock. Sometimes the church sees them as much worse of committing such a sin than any other. The church has to live up to the calling by becoming a place where sinners – whatever their sin they can seek forgiveness and restoration. In order for this to happen every member of the congregation must see themselves as sinners, saved by grace. As such, they are no better than any other sinner and so they can offer to others the forgiveness that they themselves have received from God on the basis of Christ’s death for all people while they were still sinners (Rom 5:8).
• Your church should be a haven to which all sinners feel free to come to receive God’s forgiveness, fleeing to him and the body of believers rather than from him and his people. Achieving this requires engaging all members of the congregation in opening themselves to a change of attitude, as well as specific teaching on how to respond biblically in every situation.
• Reaching into the Community
• It is difficult for teens to constantly hear conflicting messages about sex. How do they know which voice to listen to? In a Christian home they may hear, “No sex before marriage” but without a clear definition of what “sex” is and without reasons as to why they should abstain. In the church they may hear the same message or nothing at all. At school they are probably being told that when they begin having sex, which they inevitably will, they should use condoms and contraceptives. They may well hear that message also from health care professionals, and they certainly do from the media. If they are not being sexual they may be ridiculed and rejected by their non-Christian peers, because “everyone is doing it.” Can the church do anything about these conflicting messages?
• Even if your church is hesitant to speak out or take action as a church body, your members can. The church can encourage them to act, both as individuals and as groups of concerned citizens. Parents can speak out about the sex education curricula in their children’s schools. Often heads of schools and members of school boards are unaware of the content of these curricula or of the effect of the teaching on children and teens. Informed parents can bring this information to the attention of school authorities and influence the choosing of curricula and materials. Teachers of sex education, social workers, and health care professionals can be invited to seminars offered at the church. Many professionals are poorly informed or misinformed about the facts of teen sex. Abstinence messages can be provided to the media to counterbalance the “safe sex” messages. Church members can write letters to the editor of the newspaper to point out errors in reports or to provide valid alternative viewpoints to articles on sex. Such activism is more likely to happen if the subject of teen sexuality is regularly discussed in the church.
• Some will object to the promotion of abstinence to the general public, saying that since large numbers of teens are in fact already sexually active the message they need to hear is the “safer sex” message of condoms and contraceptives. In the interests of public health, they will say, public policy demands the latter message. The promotion of condoms as “protection” from sexually transmitted diseases, however, is misleading. Except in the case of HIV/AIDS, condoms actually offer little risk reduction for transmission of disease. To give teens the impression that condoms “protect” is to give them a false sense of security and may actually increase the numbers of teens who become sexually active. Public health policy should, therefore, promote sexual restraint rather than risk reduction. “Because sexual restraint is an aspect of emotional health and maturity,” says Joe Webb, President of the Medical Institute of Sexual Health in the USA, “it must be the foundation of sexual public-health policy.” Regarding the promotion of contraception for teens, Trevor Strammers, an eminent British doctor, says,
• Much teenage sexual activity has little to do with sex. It may be a way of expressing anger or frustration, a means of acting out, or a cry for attention. It is frequently part of a search for love and meaning – neither of which are necessarily found in sex. Concentrating on preventing conception is treating a symptom rather than a cause; it does not address the issue of why teenagers are having early and unprotected sex.
• Statistics from the Search Institute in the United States provide an answer to that question, as well as to why teens engage in other risk behaviors. Search has identified “40 building blocks of healthy development that help young people grow up healthy, caring, and responsible.” These “developmental assets” include family support, positive family communication, and parent involvement in schooling, a sustained relationship with an adult outside the family, neighborhood boundaries, and religious community. Studies show that among young people who have 31-40 of these assets, 3% engage in sexual intercourse; of those who have 0-10 assets, 32% engage in sexual intercourse. Depression, both a cause and a result of early sexual intimacy, affects 5% of youth with 31-40 assets and 42% of youth with 0-10 assets.
• Teens are most likely to commit to saving sex for marriage if their environment is healthy and supportive and if the sexual message from the entire community – the home, the church, the school, the media – is a unified one. The church can play a very important role in making this happen .
• 6.2.2. Training the Teachers
• In Uganda in particular, sexuality education is a new thing that has created a lot of inquisitiveness among the youth themselves but casting doubts among the adult community on its effectiveness. There were irregularities in the first curriculum which had quite some distortion content and basically the issue of bringing the teaching of homosexuality along the process of teaching. However, there is work out of a new curriculum for the lower classes which could be seen as help. Though the curriculum may carry wonderful content like: body changes during adolescence, emotional changes such as mood swings and paying attention to detail especially for girls, how to control emotional feelings, personal hygiene, sexual maturation and relationships among others, there are a lot of things to observe even as the school is one of the entities that support the cause of parents in giving instruction to the youth on matters of sexuality.
• In my opinion, the education sector could consider having comprehensive sexuality education approach which is an important component of formal schooling. I want agree with the submission of SIECUS that, most often teachers do not have the skills, knowledge, or inclination to teach such courses. Like Uganda, teachers are shy or over confidence thus miss the point of essence of the purpose because they have not received formal training in sexuality education. According to SIECUS study revealed that the nation's elementary and secondary school teachers are not adequately prepared at the pre-service level to provide sexuality education, including the teaching of HIV prevention, to their students. Because sexuality issues touch on so many developmental issues relating to children and youth.
• There must be deliberate training of teachers and leaders on how to communicate the content of sex to the young people. To which I do agree with SIECUS that, teachers and leaders must believe in the program and are trained to deliver it. Trained teachers can complement the education provided by families as well as that provided by religious and community groups. Teachers responsible for sexuality education must receive specialized training in human sexuality that includes basic information on sexuality topics and a special focus on the philosophy and methodology of teaching sexuality education. Teachers should, ideally, receive this training as pre-service teachers in academic courses or programs in schools of higher education that provide them with time-intensive and rich training. This training can be complemented by extensive in-service courses, continuing education classes, or intensive seminars.
• SIECUS further suggests that there is need to building support networks for sexuality education. A wide range of organizations support comprehensive sexuality education–including those representing health care professionals, businesses, the media, and faith communities–and are willing to advocate on its behalf. Education professionals can also become actively involved in supporting sexuality education programs in their communities. Professionals have an important role to play as outspoken advocates by writing letters to editors, voting in school board elections, writing supportive letters to teachers and administrators, and serving on community advisory committees. This involvement will help assure that young people have access to effective programs .
• In my opinion, this network must also reach people outside of school which is considered by SIECUS an important component of efforts toward ensuring a sexually healthy society. Therefore, these efforts need to be broadened beyond schools. Out-of-school adolescents are more likely to report having had sexual intercourse and to having had four or more sexual partners.
• One of the challenges for the education and health community is to develop innovative, accessible approaches that meet the sexual health needs of adolescents who are not in school. Community based organizations, youth-serving agencies, health agencies, families, and faith communities often have contact with young people who may not be engaged in school, and these entities can be important sources of sexuality information and programming. Agencies need to be encouraged and supported in their efforts to work together to establish and strengthen partnerships for ensuring the sexual health of all young people, particularly those at most risk.
• As teachers are given information on how to teach the young people, there must be consideration to regulate what they see as they use the internet and other technologies. This is because in Internet and other technologies are making sexuality information more accessible for many young people, both inside school and out. Many Internet sites provide age-appropriate, unbiased sexuality information for teens. As I pointed earlier that the issue of young people engaging into sex is a spiritual issue emanating from the fall of man, therefore, the church must in the position to front in the biblical principles that will help curve young people engaging into sexual intercourse. However, the school sector is one of the most available places to reach the young people on matters of sexuality education. As I understand, the church must also contribute in the making of the curriculum so as to have a common grand in handling the young people.
• Yet the church should also take in consideration on ongoing challenges. The rates of intercourse, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are still much higher in Uganda. Because of these realities, all young people in the Uganda need the information, skills, and access to services to make and carry out informed, responsible decisions about their sexuality–both at the present time in their lives and in the future.
• 6.2.3. Supporting Parents in Their Roles as Sexual Educators
• Parents and families play a major role in ensuring adolescent sexual health. Parents are the primary sexuality educators of their children. They educate both by what they say (and do not say) as well as by how they behave. Research indicates that young people who are able to talk to their parents about sexuality often behave more responsibly.
• With open communication, young people are more likely to turn to their parents for help and support. Some parents have difficulty communicating with their children about sexuality, particularly because many of their parents also had difficulty with this issue. In order to overcome this difficulty, the church community can provide parents with information about sexuality and show them how to provide this education and information to their children and also set programs that provide parents with the help and encouragement they need to express their values about sexuality to their children and to provide accurate, honest, and developmentally appropriate sexuality information.
• Parents and other trusted adult family members play an important role in encouraging and supporting adolescent sexual health. Parents and adults can assure that young people have access to accurate information and education about sexuality issues through direct communication and by providing books, pamphlets, and videos. Parents and other adults need to foster responsible sexual decision-making skills and need to model healthy sexual attitudes and responsible behaviors in their own lives.
• 6.2.4. SUMMARY
• In a world in which sexual immorality is rampant and destructive, the church can provide its teens with an alternative culture – one in which the norm is abstinence before marriage and fidelity within marriage. In such an environment, parents will be encouraged and equipped to be the primary sex educators of their own children and teens will be strengthened and encouraged by peers who share their standard of sexual purity, and every member of the church will care enough for teens to confront them when they appear to be making unwise choices and will forgive and restore them if they fail. The church will undertake to help teens to become mature in every area of life, and will reach out into the community to help to create an environment in which all young people will thrive.
• APPENDIX
• APPENDIX ONE:
• This is not a test that you should fear; I will only request you to be truthful in your response. We have no right or wrong answer. Please write what is true in your case. Your information will be treated with high confidentiality. And your participation to the success of this study will be greatly appreciated and I want to thank you in advance.
• My name is called Eliabu John Moses
• QUESTIONS:
• 1. How many times have you ever heard your church organize to teach on premarital sex in a month (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
• 2. How early should pre-marital sex education begin? (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20) in a month
• 3. How often do you engage yourself into sexual intercourse?
•  (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) in a month
• 4. How often does your church leadership condemn and punishes those who are sexually active or become pregnant before marriage?
•  (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) in a month
• 5. How often do you find it easier to access information about sexual satisfaction through the internet than talking to your pastor or youth leader?
•  (1, ,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) in a month
• 6. Poverty (lack of necessary basic needs for the young people) is one of the courses for the young people to be engaged into sexual intercourse?
•  Agree
•  Strongly Agree
•  Neither agree nor disagree
•  Disagree
•  Strongly Disagree
• 7. How many times does a the medium such as radio, Television, Internet, News Papers and magazine provide current information on sex and sexuality as compared with the church?
•  (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) in a month
• 8. Are you satisfied with the information given by the church on sex and sexuality in making rightful sexual decisions?
•  Agree
•  Strongly Agree
•  Neither agree nor disagree
•  Disagree
•  Strongly Disagree
• 9. How often do you always listen to radios or watch television?
•  (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) in a month
• 10. Are you satisfied with the way (methods) the church leadership teaches the youth on premarital sex?
•  Strongly Agree
•  Agree
•  Neither agree nor disagree
•  Disagree
•  Strongly Disagree
• 11. How often have you heard about sex and sexuality education at school?
•  (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) in a month
• 12. How often does your church leadership address the effects of wrong sexual decisions other than offering teachings that would effectively guide and influence good sexual decisions or behavior?
•  (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) in a month
• 13. What recommendations would you suggest to the church leadership as a way to help educate the youth about sexual concerns?
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