March 25, 2007 9:42 AM
Keith Deltano answers Mainstream Loudoun on abstinence
For those following Loudoun County public school skirmishes over Keith Deltano's abstinence presentations:
The Washington Post got involved, evidencing its usual bias - and the fact that it gobbles up talking points from Mainstream Loudoun - in the title of its coverage: Christian Sex-Ed Lesson Criticized. Note to the Post: It wasn't a "Christian Sex-Ed Lesson.
Let's take the first paragraph for a teensy lesson in the power of a writer to slant a story:
Christian comedian Keith Deltano used fear, shame and misinformation to spread his message about abstinence to students at three high schools in Loudoun County this school year, according to a critique by an organization that advocates comprehensive sex education.
Notice how the punch of this sentence is at the beginning? Notice how just changing the subordinate clause can change the subconscious message delivered?
According to a critique by an organization that advocates comprehensive sex education, Christian comedian Keith Deltano used fear, shame and misinformation to spread his message about abstinence to students at three high schools in Loudoun County this school year.
See the difference? This is one way the mainstream media brainwash people who think they are reading/hearing objective reporting everyday: by positioning the talking points of liberal groups as the default.
Anyway, I have to give the Post credit for allowing Deltano to respond - though of course, his letter is competing against a supposedly objective "news" item.
The Safe Sex LieLet's talk about spreading misinformation and fear ("Christian Sex-Ed Lesson Criticized," Loudoun Extra, March 15).
Let's talk about why certain political groups crusade to censor a well-documented and researched hour on abstinence offered to (not forced on) students already receiving a week of comprehensive sex ed in public schools.
Let's talk about why The Post's reports focus on the red herring church-state issue. I respect public school/ACLU guidelines, so why the misinformation carried in your article's title? Why label me a "Christian comedian" while neglecting my qualifications as an award-winning middle school teacher, private family coach, academic team coach and author?My message is driven by a simple agenda: that teens have individual value and should be taken seriously; that they should think for themselves and avoid exploiting others; and that they can rise above messages that teen sex is inevitable and harmless. It's an equal-opportunity message, based on no religion at all but on the simple conviction that during the teenage years -- when the emphasis should be on learning to respect one another and building your future through education -- sex can be a gigantic distraction with lifelong consequences for oneself and for others.
I've been presenting this material to kids for 14 years not for my sake but for theirs. Contrary to Mainstream Loudoun's charges, I have never tried to manipulate facts or issues to justify my positions but have relied on government research and data.
Comedy is simply the method I use to deliver medically accurate scientific facts and statistics about risk, outcomes, failure rates and sexually transmitted disease. And is there really anything wrong with comedy? Consider: In light of the fact that the average American teen watches 27.5 hours of sex- and violence-infused teen media a week, how could a monotone recitation of facts ever deliver a message they desperately need to hear? A history of notes and e-mails affirms that through interactive comedy I have a positive impact on their lives.
Telling teens the truth about condoms is not "fear-based" -- it is fact-based. Shouldn't teens learn that 30 percent of women whose partners always used condoms still became infected with HPV in only eight months of sexual intercourse ("Condom Use and the Risk of Genital Human Papillomavirus Infection in Young Women," New England Journal of Medicine, June 22, 2006)? And since condom use is promoted in public school sex ed, shouldn't students also learn that if used 100 percent of the time during vaginal sex, condoms reduce the risk of getting herpes by only about 50 percent and that there is no evidence that condoms reduce the risk of getting herpes during oral or anal sex (Medical Institute of Sexual Health, Fact Sheets, 2004, 2005)?
Is this information scary? Yes. But in a culture in which we urge kids to abstain from tobacco, drugs and alcohol -- and even fast food! -- because of the dangers they pose, why the uproar over teaching them the hard realities of teenage sexual activity?
Interestingly enough, Mainstream Loudoun boasts of receiving the Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award (for successfully suing to remove porn filters from Loudoun County public libraries) in 1999. And though the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States claims to seek the spread of accurate information and comprehensive education, it believes that teens don't deserve to hear the case for abstinence as one of their options.
The "safe sex" lie has been promoted by those who stand to profit from it financially and ideologically. Telling teens the truth about condom ineffectiveness is something we owe them. Teens have to make choices; they need all the facts, not "safe sex" propaganda. For more information, go to http://www.virginityrocks.com.
Keith Deltano
Julian, N.C.
Btw, I do not represent myself as a journalist, but as a commentator. While journalists are supposed to be objective, commentators are expected to have worldviews which propel their writing.
So I'm free to tell you here that having seen Deltano's presentation three times in local high schools (I came as a witness against the tiny but disproportionately vocal group which calls itself Mainstream Loudoun). It is loaded with research and facts, yet delivered in a style that makes kids sit up and listen. There is no guilt or shame, but an appeal to kids to not listen to the garbage that they are driven by their passions and can't help themselves - that they should view themselves and others with dignity and respect, and that girls should be more than the sex objects our media sets them up to be.
There is no condemnation of those who've already chosen to have sex, but rather an appeal that they can rise above the past to grab hold of a better future. And an appeal to have a medical checkup to avoid spread STDs - which can be completely asymptomatic even as they are being spread.
You can contact Deltano to schedule a visit to your public schools here.
Posted in Loudoun County, Pro-Life Issues, Teens and Tweens | Permalink
Comments
I wonder if the Post would have lead in with a sentence like - "African American comedian", or "Wiccan comedian"...
But it's still PC to villify Christians, so that fact must be relevant, right?
And why is it that "comprhensive sex education" almost never includes the ONE 100% way to prevent STD's and pregnancies - abstinence? That's not very comprehensive in my book.
Posted by: Milehimama | March 26, 2007 8:46 AM
Wow, what an excellent rebuttal by Deltano! Well done.
Posted by: Becky Miller | March 26, 2007 10:06 PM
