New Baylor President: Sex-Education has its Benefits
Baylor's interim president sees no problem in sending his teenaged children to a sex-education program some conservatives view as “graphic and offensive.”
Baylor University (BU)’s new interim president, Bill Underwood, sees no problem in sending his teenaged children to a sex-education program some conservatives view as “graphic and offensive.”
Quoted by Agape Press (AP) on May 9 as an “outspoken pro-lifer” and “advocate of abstinence education,” the Board of Regents' recent appointee defended his decision saying while the program does not study sexuality from an “overtly Christian perspective,” he and his wife decided that the program can be of some benefit to their children.
The “Nobody’s Fool” program is one of Planned Parenthood (PP)’s summer youth sex-education programs in Waco, Texas, where the Southern Baptist-affiliated school is located.
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The interim Baylor president said in a press release by AP that all Christians should pray that their children will remain sexually pure until marriage and he would be heartbroken if that was not the case for one of his children.
"For example, they were taught to wait to have sex," explained Underwood, a father of a 16-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son.
"My daughter was taught about the dangers of dating older men, something my wife and I have talked to her about," he said, adding that his daughter was taught strategies to avoid peer pressure on sexual matters as well.
"My son, who's a good bit younger than my daughter, was taught about 'good touch' and 'bad touch' -- and I want my children to know about those things," he said.
Conservatives reportedly have accused the "Nobody's Fool" program of promoting sexual promiscuity to young people entering the fifth through ninth grade.
While acknowledging PP as the nation’s largest abortion provider that often encourages condom use among teens, Underwood contends he made the right decision in sending his children to the program. Although he does not agree with everything that the program conveys, the new president says any conflicting topic provides his family an opportunity for discussion.
"Fortunately there's no discussion of abortion in the programs I've sent my children to -- and if there had been a discussion of it, we would have talked about that in my home when we returned," he stated. "In terms of condom use, the program that my children attended explained the dangers of condom use and why condom use was not acceptable."
