Religious group claim that sex education is "corrupting children"

A RELIGIOUS group is using an Oxted shop to promote claims that sex education in schools is "corrupting children" and increasing rates of under-age sexual activity.

Health and education professionals have hit out at the claims made in leaflets available at Paydens Ltd booksellers and stationers in Station Road East.

Copies of "The Outrage of Amoral Sex Education" have been placed in the shop by its part-time manager,Marcus Brokes,who is also company secretary of Christian Watch, a Protestant Biblical group.

The 67-year-old, of St Andrews Way, Oxted, supports claims in the leaflet, which attack schools and the health service for promoting the message of safer sex and the use of condoms to provide all-in-one protection against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unwanted pregnancies.

It says the message is "totally misleading" and claims "there is no evidence that condoms provide protection against a number of STDs, including chlamydia, genital herpes, human papilloma virus and gonorrhoea in women."


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It also claims sex education in schools "is promoting a homosexual agenda among children, propagating the idea that homosexuality and bisexuality are natural and should not be regarded as a problem". It claims sex education "is little more than the propaganda arm of the sexual revolution against traditional morality."

Dr Tara Jones, a GP at Oxted Health Centre responsible for family planning and the named GP for child protection at Surrey Primary Care Trust (PCT), said the group blurred boundaries between fact and myth.

She said the teenage pregnancy rate for Surrey had been dropping in the last few years because of sex education, health advice and access to contraception.

She said: "The condom claim is factually incorrect. Prior use of condoms has provided extremely good protection - no method is 100 per cent perfect, but they are the best form available."

She said young people were becoming sexually active at an earlier age but there is worldwide evidence to refute the claim that sex education or sexual healthcare have contributed to this.

Margaret Hawley, headteacher at Oxted School, was also worried by the leaflets.

She said "In this day and age you cannot be homophobic.We absolutely do not promote an agenda - homosexual or otherwise.That is not our job. Our job is to protect children and inform them."

She said sex education is taught according to a moral framework but with no link to religion because of the need to respect the school's multi-faith nature.

She said the school took a practical approach to the subject and taught within the context of promoting stable and mature relationships that lead to families, not undermining traditional views of morality,the family or marriage as the leaflet claims.

She added: "What do they think we are doing? We are responsible adults who are trying to inform and protect the children."

The leaflet is a summary of a book by the same name written by Dr E S Williams, who works for West Sussex Health Primary Care Trust as epidemiology advisor and head of the West Sussex Public Health Observatory.

He said the literature was distributed freely to Christian Watch and other similarly sympathetic religious groups where he had given talks to members.

Mr Brockes, who is the former owner of Paydens said the claims were not contentious and that he felt sex education in schools was "absolutely disgusting."

"It shouldn't be allowed, they're doing it to indoctrinate little children - it's monstrous."

He said sex education should be taught according to the Bible and with this moral guidance in place, the problems of sexual health would be solved.

source:icsurreyonline.icnetwork.co.uk