Colorado School District Pushes Christian ‘Purity’ Training for 11-Year-Old Girls

[leftynyc]

Entire title is: Colorado School District Pushes Christian ‘Purity’ Training for 11-Year-Old Girls to Find Future Husbands

Parents in Colorado have complained that a school district used its email system to advertise a Christian event which uses Bible lessons to encourage girls as young as 11 to stay “pure” while looking for a husband.

Colorado blogger Anne Landman first reported that the Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers had been contacted by parents after Mesa Valley School District 51 sent out an email promotion for an event called “Wake Up Sleeping Beauty: Worship At His Feet.”

snip
A complaint from the parent was quickly dismissed by the school district.

“Having reviewed the flyer and KHB-R per your request, we do not find that the flyer promotes a religious organization or demeans a person or group on the basis of gender,” District 51 Communications Specialist Jeannie Smith told the parent in an email.


A flyer with a bible quote doesn't promote a religious organization? On what fucking planet? Just more religious freaks trying to control women. The American Taliban.

Whoops: Edited to add link:

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/colorado-school-district-pushes-christian-purity-training-11-year-old-girls-find

[RKP5637]

1. Exactly! "The American Taliban!" I think more people are waking up to some of these religious

outfits that function as the American Taliban. They are really the same, "religious freaks trying to control women."

[leftynyc]

2. I'm trying to think of what

I would do if one of my kids came home with one of these flyers. The board has already dismissed them. What are the options for parents outraged about this?

[RKP5637]

4. If it were me, I would do what some of the parents have done,

Last edited Fri Jan 22, 2016, 07:22 AM - Edit history (1)

The Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers had been contacted by parents after Mesa Valley School District 51 sent out an email promotion for an event called “Wake Up Sleeping Beauty: Worship At His Feet.”

Far too many people IMO give people like this a free pass. Throughout history religion has often been another political force often coercing, dominating and persecuting people. I view much of religion as dangerous to a free society.

[leftynyc]

19. I only view it as dangerous

when they don't keep it to themselves. I know plenty of religious people who would be horrified by that flyer. Why can't people just leave others to live their lives as they see fit? And why do so many religions make controlling women's lives a centerpiece? It's madness.

[RKP5637]

33. And often these same ones claim religious persecution against them. FFS, it's them that are always

off persecuting someone else.

[nadinbrzezinski]

42. Contact the ACLU

and SUE THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF THE DISTRICT...

[leftynyc]

43. You're absolutely right

but I was thinking more immediate. Would I pull the kids from the school? Send them to private school (something I would normally never do)?

[ShrimpPoboy]

53. Private school often means religious school

Which would be ironic to say the least.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Yeah, that's pretty fucked.

Especially that they tried to argue "it doesnt promote a religious organization", presumably with a straight face.

[underpants]

5. Reminds me of the "Silver Ring Thing" federally funded during the W years

Link

[RKP5637]

6. As we know, many individuals of this ilk do not play with a full deck and are often delusional.

They just don't comprehend how bizarre their behavior is.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. When I read stories like this I am reminded it's time to write another check to Americans United.

https://au.org

[RKP5637]

10. K&R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[leftynyc]

20. A terrific organization and

a wonderful idea. I will follow your lead.

[Turbineguy]

7. SEX!

FILTHY SEX!

[Warren DeMontague]

9. ...

[grossproffit]

16. God yes! Filthy Sex!

[hifiguy]

41. Who was it that said sex is only dirty

if it's done right? Carlin?

[Initech]

50. Maybe it was Zappa?

[Le Taz Hot]

48. Well, . . . yeah!

[whathehell]

11. Push 'purity' on boys for a change..

So tired of The Double Standard. :

[smirkymonkey]

35. I know, wtf?

What is the religious obsession w/ controlling females?

[whathehell]

37. Actually

It's the patriarchy in general. Some religions are more patriarchal than others.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

12. "Looking for a husband?"

UGH

[BlueJazz]

31. I thought that also. First: At 11 years old? Second: Maybe some women don't want a husband.

Third: Maybe some women will find or not find a husband whenever the hell they want to!

[griloco]

13. No doubt becuz it's so effective--if you want pregnant teens

Teen birth rates in the Bible belt http://www.citylab.com/politics/2012/04/teen-birthrates-are-way-down-still-high-these-states/1735/

[B Calm]

14. Parents who pound morals are making a mistake not unlike

parents who preach how dangerous marijuana is. Often they feel powerless and in defiance will do the opposite!

[Major Nikon]

17. Pounding morals into kids isn't a bad idea

Preaching abstinence has about as much to do with morals as the proper way to sell your daughters into slavery.

The problem with pounding false morals into kids is they eventually figure out you are full of shit.

[B Calm]

18. Without using the word false that's exactly what I meant! My bad!

[hifiguy]

40. The wonderful philosopher Daniel Dennett has said

that deliberately lying to a child about anything more significant than Santa or the Tooth Fairy is child abuse. I agree with him wholeheartedly.

[Maeve]

32. Colorado has an effective program

http://gazette.com/struggling-colorado-birth-control-program-worked-even-better-than-thought-says-health-department/article/1561708

Long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) can make the difference.

[grossproffit]

15. Where's the purity training for boys?

[leftynyc]

21. Excellent question

I was so focused on them always trying to control women, I simply didn't even think of what a double standard this is.

[MuttLikeMe]

22. Right?

[jtuck004]

23. Child molesters would love this. It's like grooming a whole flock of girls for their owner.

Or owners.

Perhaps the school district is only competent to teach women to be subservient.

You teach what you know, eh?

[Hestia]

24. It is programs such as these that makes it easy for, let's face it, men, to groom children for

sexual abuse and exploitation. (Yes, women do it too, just not at the numbers and levels of men.)

The children are shamed if anything happens to them and have no one to turn to when it does. This is out and out sexual abuse in and of itself.

[tblue37]

25. That is exactly what Elizabeth Smart said. She said the abstinence/purity

training she received as a young girl made her feel so guilty and worthless after she was raped that she didn't feel that she could seek help--or that she had any right to be rescued.

[leftynyc]

27. OMG - I haven't read anything

about her since she was found and brought home. I think I saw she wrote a book - that's quite a condemnation of the "purity" program right there.

[tblue37]

46. She has said that in both interviews and speeches. The abstinence preachers she and her peers

were forced to listen to likened girls who had lost their virginity to already chewed, disgusting pieces of gum.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/05/06/elizabeth_smart_abstinence_only_sex_education_hurts_victims_of_rape_and.html

In 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City home, held captive in the mountains, and raped repeatedly for nine months.* Since her escape, she has emerged as an advocate for human trafficking victims—and recently, a critic of abstinence-only sex education. When Smart spoke at a Johns Hopkins University panel last week, she explained one of the factors deterring her from escaping her attacker: She felt so worthless after being raped that she felt unfit to return to her society, which had communicated some hard and fast rules about premarital sexual contact.

“I remember in school one time, I had a teacher who was talking about abstinence,” Smart told the panel. “And she said, ‘Imagine you’re a stick of gum. When you engage in sex, that’s like getting chewed. And if you do that lots of times, you’re going to become an old piece of gum, and who is going to want you after that?’ Well, that’s terrible. No one should ever say that. But for me, I thought, ‘I’m that chewed-up piece of gum.’ Nobody re-chews a piece of gum. You throw it away. And that’s how easy it is to feel you no longer have worth. Your life no longer has value.”

(SNIP)

[leftynyc]

47. That is simply heartbreaking

and the most compelling reason I've ever heard to get rid of abstinence programs. Her parents are responsible for allowing that poison to have been poured into her young brain.

[Ilsa]

44. yes, if girls are taught that their virginity is worth

more than themselves, they face depression and low self esteem if they choose another course or are sexually assaulted.

The girls won't need to "look for a husband" if they are well-adjusted and can support themselves. Instead, being married will be a great gift of companionship, etc.

[Hestia]

51. No, I didn't know she said that at all. I have read where she is out there trying to be

the resource to get rid of "purity" programming for children. I'll have to go read more by/about her.

It really makes you wonder about how these programs get into public schools, doesn't it? Who is allowing this? Why is it allowed? This is tax payer funded!

[hifiguy]

39. Bingo.

You smacked that one completely out of the park.

[Ms. Yertle]

26. "Just more religious freaks trying to control women."

11-year old girls are "women????"

Frankly, there is a LOT about this that is wrong, but 11-year-olds are not adult women, and should be encouraged to delay sexual activity until they are mature enough to understand all the consequences of such decisions.

[leftynyc]

28. Which has fuck all to do with this flyer

A comprehensive class on sex education is what's called for. Not to teach girls to "bow at the knee" of some man and let him control her life. I can't believe that's what you saw fit to focus on here - talk about missing the message.

[Ms. Yertle]

30. I was responding

to your comment about "women." I said there was a lot wrong with the flyer, and I agree that comprehensive sex ed is needed; but 11-year olds are NOT women, and to refer to them as women rubbed me the wrong way.

Sorry if I overreacted.

[Ilsa]

45. Keep in mind that controlling women begins

with the brainwashing when they are girls. I think that is what the comment refers to.

[Vinca]

29. Why can't religious nuts mind their own damn business?

If they want to hold father and daughter creepy dances, have at it, but leave the rest of the population alone.

[asjr]

34. Sometimes I feel we all are headed back to

the time we lived in caves. The cave men went out with their clubs, dragging their women by their hair in order to find food. None of them had a language so they just grunted. Of course they didn't have to worry about electing a president. If something worried them they turned around and bashed someone's head. I am now just taking each day as it comes.

[smirkymonkey]

36. This is so wrong and makes me so angry I could spit nails.

I can't even believe they can get away with something like this in this country. What the hell is going on here? Have people lost their minds?

[hifiguy]

38. Why the blueberry fuck don't these moronic assholes

just move to Saudi Arabia? They might well be happier there. Or create their own theocratic state somewhere in the area where they tested the H-bombs in the South Pacific?

[Initech]

49. This is your American Taliban at work.

[KittyWampus]

52. i say some parents start pushing for "reality based safe sex first" training