MEDIA RELEASE

11 November 2013

Stuff.co.nz reported last week that children as young as 13 are being issued with 12-trip passes to safer sex, in an effort to drive down abortions and teenage pregnancies.

Condom Card Aims To Cut Teen Pregnancy | Stuff.co.nz

The scheme is being trialled in Hawkes Bay but the report says it could be picked up nationwide.

National Director of New Zealand Christian Network is wondering what is it going to take for Kiwis to ‘wake up’ and reverse the sexualisation insanity going on in our country.

“For so long we’ve tolerated an increasing sexualisation in society – in adverts, TV, films, videos, and music – that we’ve become like the frog in boiling water – too stupefied to realise we’re being cooked to death.

The decision over whether to give condoms to an underage person who is sexually active and refuses to stop is actually a very difficult one.  Even though it would have been utterly unthinkable 30, even 20, years ago – it’s where we’ve arrived at.

But if the situation is not to deteriorate further, if we are to reduce the negative statistics related to the selfish individualism which exists in our society, we have to make some radical changes, and be prepared to commit to them unto the change has taken hold.

There’s been endless hand-wringing over the group of young boys in Auckland who have posted claims of sexual exploits on social media which amount to drugging and rape of girls.

But there’s been precious little comment about the sexual imagery that is ubiquitous in society, from which soft- and hard-core porn are inevitable transitions for some. And there’s enough consensus  among experts establishing the link between porn and the behaviour being condemned that it should have everyone focused on changing the culture of sexualisation.

And just what are we teaching to our young folk regarding sex?

Wherever the bar is set it is the nature of young people to push against it – to test the boundaries. This is what is so great about young people – they push boundaries, try things that older folk have lost the drive or courage to do.

But if the bar in this area is not set at the highest level, that sex has it’s proper place only in a committed faithful relationship, which is what marriage is all about, we share the responsibility when the problems occur.

See also  Family First NZ slams free condom schemes | My Christian Daily

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Author: Glyn Carpenter

Glyn Carpenter was National Director of New Zealand Christian Network from March 2003 to 2017. He attends Northcote Baptist Church in Auckland, is married to Christine (married in 1981), and they have three sons – two working as doctors and one in computer science.