A Challenge to Parents

The world is a far less moral place than it used to be. There is a glut of sex-​related advertising. Magazines that present women as casual playthings are sold at the grocery store. A rock song endorses date rape. Indeed, as evidenced by what is seen and heard every day, this is an immoral world!

PROFESSOR of family studies Greer Litton Fox observed that of “the 40 or so” acts of intercourse or implied intercourse “that one can be exposed to on television from 1:30 to 11 p.m. daily, less than 5 percent involve married couples.” With the media pushing sex, it is not surprising also to read of the “staggering rates and devastating consequences of teen pregnancy.”

Surely, for parents who want the best for their children, it is a challenge to rear them in this immoral world. Yet, this does not mean that all young people are engaging in sex relations. Surveys reveal that half of America’s 15-​to-19-​year-​old girls are sexually experienced, thereby confirming that half are not! Moreover, even many of those who have become involved sexually wish that they hadn’t. One wrote to newspaper columnist Ann Landers:

“Sex with Joe (my first crush) was disappointing, so I tried again with Mike, then Neal, then George. I don’t know what I was looking for. Whatever it was, I didn’t find it. I had gotten a lot of foolish ideas from magazines, soaps and movies. Real life wasn’t like that.

“If I could talk to the young girls who read your column, I would tell them that teenage sex doesn’t solve problems, it creates more. It doesn’t make a girl feel loved, it makes her feel cheap. I’d let them know that it doesn’t make a girl ‘more of a woman,’ it can make her less of one.

“If I could talk to parents, I’d urge them to emphasize self-​respect and high standards.”

Actually, young people who are close to their parents and who feel secure in their families and good about themselves are much less prone to fall victim to immorality than are those who are not. And there is an organization of well over four million persons earth wide in which the young people are helped to hold to a far higher standard than is generally followed today.

How, in view of these facts, can you help your children to protect themselves from the increasing immorality in today’s world? How can you help them live happier, better, and more moral lives? That is the subject of the next two articles.