Monday, September 06, 2010

Chinese Gov't Buys Into Christian Abstinence

[Chinese] teachers are being trained with a sex education curriculum created by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family.

-- From "Abstinence program partners Chinese officials with U.S. evangelicals" by William Wan, Washington Post 9/3/10

. . . Evangelical Christian groups want an entree into China. And Chinese authorities, despite the country's official atheism, want help with controlling population growth and managing the society's rapidly shifting values.

At an early demonstration of the abstinence curriculum two years ago - given to the Communist Youth League of China in Hangzhou - teens were supposed to end the seminar by making a virginity pledge, the hallmark of the Christian group's abstinence program. But government officials quickly stepped in, insisting that the kids pledge to no one but the Communist Party.

Officials in Yunnan, however, said Focus on the Family's message of abstinence resonated with the province's conservative leadership.

"Nowadays, teenagers have too many different channels for learning about sex," said Ma Lianhong, Yunnan's former secretary general of media, who introduced the Christian group to provincial leaders. "Even if you don't talk about it, they will just learn about it quietly by themselves, which is even more dangerous. . . . Abstinence is good for keeping the families steady and bringing down the divorce rate. And it complies with China's traditional morals."

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.