the voice of reason's blog

There seems to be rash of "either/or" philosophies going around concerning what, for ease of labling, I will refer to as "abstinenece education." I believe this policy is actually what's holding us back. "We must teach ONLY abstinence," they say, or, "We must teach ONLY 'safe sex.'"  Read More »

This is a paper I wrote for English. I don't remember what the original assignment was, but this is what I came up with. The ending is a little cynical, but sometimes a cynical viewpoint is good; it can be a catalyst for change.  Read More »

It's been a long time since my school has done something this stupid.

A whole year, in fact.  Read More »

I believe it is a grave mistake to assume that because Christians are supposed to “turn the other cheek” and “forgive seventy times seven” times that they are “pushovers,” or unable, or not supposed to, stand up for themselves.

Some of the most good and holy people ever have been quite terrifying, and stern, and the exact opposite of “nice,” at least at times. (Except in the ancient sense of the word, when instead of the modern ambiguous placeholder, it referred to “scrupulously exact.”) Case in point? God.  Read More »

I’ve done lots of thinking about progress, the different kinds and applications of. Some of my posts have reflected this. An aspect of progress that most occupies my thoughts tonight—or this morning, depending on how you read the clock—is the idea of progress as moving on.  Read More »

Everyone gets so worked up about the separation of church and state they seem to have forgotten one crucial fact: you don’t have to be a Christian to understand the importance of “religious” dictates like The Ten Commandments.

For those who don’t know, this is what the Ten Commandments actually say:  Read More »

First, monogamy prevents the spread of disease.

We recently had a motivational speaker at school who gave us what was essentially an abstinence pep talk. On the other hand, I think all but the most hardcore opponents of abstinence education could have appreciated this one. He didn’t tell us waiting is what we “should” do, he just presented the facts—if you don’t do it, you’re very, very unlikely to get the disease, whereas your chances go up dramatically, even with protection, if you start being involved in sexual activity. He said if we were going to, we needed to use protection, because sometimes it does help; but he did remind us not to count on it.  Read More »

The inspiration for this post came from commenting on this post by Kbale: http://www.progressiveu.org/112942-taking-god-out-of-our-schools#comment-127838. Posting a comment there made me realize exactly what I wanted to say on the subject, so I decided to do this post, to expand on my ideas.  Read More »