Premarital Sex Will Destroy Your Soul and Ruin Your Body, According to Presentation at Catholic Girls’ School

Coloma Convent Girls’ School in Croyden (England) introduced students to an interesting perspective on sex, courtesy of a group called Pure in Heart UK. The Croyden Guardian reports that the group was speaking (by invitation) at the school and ended the presentation by handing out a pamphlet called the “Single Catholic’s Guide.”

Among other things, the pamphlet warned:

In fact, many who slept around or had sex outside of marriage have discovered that it was destroying their soul and making their bodies sick. They learnt the hard way that society’s got it wrong.

…

Society preaches condoms and the Pill — it puts you at risk and keeps you isolated. Yet the only way to fulfilling sexual intimacy is ‘saved sex’. Go on — choose the best. You know it makes sense.

While they get points for the creepy religious pun (“saved sex”), attacking reliable contraceptive and protective methods in favor of abstinence isn’t going to do anyone any favors. It’s not education. It’s just fear-mongering and misinforming, at the expense of students.

According to the Croyden Guardian, safe sex wasn’t the only target of Pure In Heart UK’s misinformation:

The pamphlet also suggested further reading, including websites linking [homosexuality] to childhood abuse and campaigning against pornography.

The school’s head teacher, Maureen Martin, plans to invite the group back for future presentations. But she does acknowledge that the language was “very extreme” at times, and says Pure in Heart plans to alter it. The language is really just a small part of the problem, though.

The issue with telling people that contraception doesn’t work, that homosexuality is a choice, etc., isn’t in how it’s said (granted, it can be said in a more or less offensive or cutting fashion). The real problem is that it’s simply not true.

The school has the right to teach what it likes, to push abstinence, to teach a religious perspective; it is a religious school, after all. But it’s unfortunate that it uses that right to misinform students, to leave them with a skewed idea of reality. If an idea is good, you don’t need to terrify someone by withholding or manipulating the truth, by overstating risks and understating benefits, or by preaching eternal consequences for single actions.

(Thanks to Brian for the link)