Charlie Gard Case for Life and Parental Rights

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Little 10 month old Charlie Gard of London England was born healthy, but at age 1 month old was diagnosed with a rare disease called mitochondrial depletion syndrome. Doctors say he has no chance of living but there is one chance; an experimental medicine that might reverse his illness. The problem is the drug and the doctors who administer it are in the United States and the English doctors and courts won’t let the parents take Charlie to the United States. One has to wonder if this is just a money or pride issue for the UK medical system.

People all over the world have reached out to Charlie’s parents in financial support and moral support of their parental rights. Even the Pope and President Donald Trump offered help and support. The parents have the money to take Charlie to the US, but they are still being denied.

The parents took the doctors to court and lost. They worked their way up the court system, going all the way to the European Supreme Courts and were told that Charlie deserves to “die with dignity.” This means they want to kill him.

The courts of Enlgand and Europe put the rights of the child as defined in the UN CRC document ahead of the rights of the parents to care for their children. The title of the case lists his parents against the hospital and Charlie Gard.

The Worldwide Organization for Women recognizes the pain and frustration that Charlie Gard’s parents are going through and sees this case as proof of the importance of protecting parental rights. Parents know their children more than states and doctors do. Parents are entitled to inspiration regarding the raising of their children, but states aren’t. Parents should always be allowed to determine the care and treatment of their children.

May God bless Charlie Gard and his parents this day, since there likely isn’t much time left. We will continue to fight for parental rights for you. It is a women’s issue. Women who have children should have their rights to protect and care for their children protected.

World Congress of Families Budapest 2017 – Report

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On the Buda side of historic Budapest in Hungary, the land named for it’s conquerer Attila the Hun, under the majestic Buda Castle, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has his office, the eleventh World Congress of Families was held.

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WOW’s president, Nicholeen Peck, and a couple of her interns, which just happened to be her adult children too, traveled to Budapest to participate at the congress. 

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The first night of the congress started with a welcome that was truly a World Congress of Families FIRST, a flash mob. They had a family flash mob at the historic Liberty Square. Here is a video of the flashmob. 

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Mr. Viktor Orban invited Nicholeen to speak at the congress about The Importance and Sanctity of Motherhood as part of a panel of experts on the topic. 

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During the Demographic Forum, which was the day before the official start of the congress Viktor Orban spoke aboute the importance of Hungarian families having children because their population decreases each year by more people than their country lost during the whole Holocaust and they are concerned for their future. 

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There were many great speakers about the complicated demographic situation around the world. This slide was part of the presentation by Pat Fagan, who explained that children have better gains when they are raised by intact families who practice their religions. 

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As part of the congress it is customary to see cultural events. This congress was no exception. It was so much fun to see the native Hungarian dancing and singers. But, the best part was that the performers were mostly children. They are being trained in their national heritage, which is so imporant for them to develop strong identities. 

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We met people from all over the world who are busily engaged in trying to strengthen families identities and bonds, and who are working to safeguard policy in order to create sustainable countries based upon family values. 

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As a partner of the World Congress of Families, WOW hosted a booth. At this booth we gave away three free e-books to leaders and families. We gave links and copies to Simple and Safe, Before They Connect, and A Free Parenting Assessement donated by Teaching Self-Government LLC. 

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As always, we are honored to be able to participate at the World Congress of Families and feel like this year’s congress was especially good. It was unique in that there has never been a congress sponsored by a head of a country before. This was a first! But, Prime Minister Viktor Orban was happy to be the first because he wants Hungary to be the “Family Friendly Country.” 

Many meetings have followed the congress. Most recently Hungarian leaders met again to discuss solutions for their demographic crisis and how to safeguard families and children in their country. Clearly the congress has created some momentum in Hungary that should do some good. 

 

WOW at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York

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Worldwide Organization for Women sponsored a parallel event at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW),  March 21, 2017, titled, Family: The Girl Child’s First Line of Defense in Health & Education.  

WOW held a panel with six speakers, who presented information on child sex abuse prevention. WOW emphasized that the most effective abuse prevention program is to empower parents by giving them the information they need to prevent sexual abuse .  The panel presenters were: Nicholeen Peck, President of WOW, Yvonne Averett, WOW Board, Sharon Slater of Family Watch, Amaka Akudinobi, WOW Africa member, Nahiomi Aponte, student, and Heather Richey, Mrs.World Ambassador.

WOW premiered their two free  e-guides, Simple & Safe, and Before They Connect. Before They  Connect offers information about young “digital citizens” and the potential dangers associated with internet use, and suggestions for creating a family use plan. Simple & Safe is a guide that teaches 4 simple safetylessons, essential for children to learn, and how to prevent sexual abuse for parents.

Health and & Education are two strategic areas the UN has included in its Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. Goals are assessed and rewritten every 15 years.  When participating at  CSW, or other UN event, WOW  advocates  family solutions to the many problems and issues the UN addresses. 

Here is our president: Nicholeen Peck, opening the event after we endured protesting from another group and while the other group was in the hallway trying to stop world leaders and diplomats from attending the event. [[{“fid”:”188″,”view_mode”:”default”,”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:360,”width”:480,”class”:”media-element file-default”}}]]

Click Here to hear teh presentation about Digital Citizenship and keeping children safe online!

Click Here to hear some of our speakers addressing what can be done globally to stop the sexual abuse of children!

Click Here for the free e-book Before They Connect 

Click Here for the free e-book Simple and Safe 

 

“Say What We Want or We’ll Make Your Life H*ll”

Fiery Sunset

This is an accurate sub-heading in an article, Iowa Bureaucrats Force Trans Bathrooms On Churches, Forbid Non-PC Preaching on thefederalist.com  website. The article reveals Iowa’s Commission on Human Rights new SOGI regulations. The new regulations place churches under a “public accommodation” banner with stiff fines for those who do not comply.  We knew the intention of anti-discrimination law was meant to FORCE THE KEEPING OF FAITH PRIVATE, but this egregious tyranny reaches even into the private religious domain, which is unconstitutional as well as disturbing. Click HERE to read the article.

 

Review of “How Do You Kill 11 Million People?”

Review by Phyllis Kimpel

https://youtu.be/EH_Izul6J5M

This video based on Andy Andrew’s book made a strong impression on me.

   It begins with asking, “How did Hitler get elected that led to the killing of 11 million people?”  The answer was that he lied to a nation. It quotes Hitler, “How fortunate for leaders, that men do not think. Make the lie big, make it simple, keep it simple and eventually the people will believe it.” In Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf  it said, “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one.” This book was widely read by the German people at the time. The masses either believed Hitler’s lie or ignored it.

   At the time the total German population was 79.9 million people. Less than 10% of the population actively campaigned and worked to bring about Hitler’s change. The vast majority of the population, fathers, mothers, ministers and teachers avoided the uncomfortable truth of what was happening around them and around them.  The Nazis even started targeting the children. By that time they were too late to do anything about it.

   The German people tried to distance themselves. Every Sunday the German people could hear the train and its whistle bringing the Jews to the camps. Since they knew the time the trains would pass by they would start singing at that time to drown out the screaming noises.

The video points out that speaking the truth is the least we should expect from our political leaders. It is a beginning to solving our problems. It asks, “What are our standards for being led? Is it alright for a guy to lie to us even if his intentions are good? Who are the bad guys and who are the good guys? Do we judge the bad guys by their actions and the good guys by their intentions? If so, how can we tell the difference?” The most dangerous thing is, trusting a liar. The movie said, “Have you ever noticed that if we lie to our leaders, it is a felony but if they lie to us, it is politics?”  

  The video ends by asking, “Is lying to be elected acceptable? Would truth be a starting position to solve the nation’s problems? Where are we headed? Can you hear the whistles and wheels coming down the track? How loud are you singing?”

   I think of  April 30, 1789, when George Washington was first inaugurated as the first president of the new nation of the United States of America and after the inauguration, George Washington led a group of people to St. Paul’s Chapel from the Federal building in New York and dedicated America, as a nation to God. In his inaugural address he said, “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States.”

    If the first leader of this nation credits God for it being established, what would God think of this nation now? John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

   The citizens of his nation were meant to have freedoms and certain unalienable rights set out by the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. We as a people have become complacent and now we are in a position where our freedoms of religion, parental rights and the moral rights of our children are being threatened by the laws that have been established. What has been our moral conduct before all this happened? What laws supported them? Why? Was it for personal gain, pride, power or greed? What do we need to do to change things so that we are secure of our rights?

    Thomas Jefferson said, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” We as citizens have no one to blame but ourselves for not being more involved in the choosing of our leaders and the establishment of our laws.

    I pray, as a “people of good conscience” that we be more involved in the affairs of our government and nation.

Click here to see the video!

World Congress of Families Marches Through The Streets of Tbilisi, Georgia

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World Congress of Families X happened May 2016 in Tbilisi, Georgia. This historic country with a rich family culture showed the world that even though it used to be part of the Soviet Block it has not forgotten it’s identity. They Georgians displayed their family and religious culture for leaders from around the world as they held four days of conference sessions designed to strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.

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In the opening session religious leaders from around the world spoke in support of strengthening the family and praying for the family. Protection of religious liberties is always an important part of protection of family. This is a photo of LDS General Authority, Elder Kacher, saying we need to be teachable like little children. 

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Alexey Komov, head of World Congress of Families Russia & CIS, gave a stirring presentation about the exact steps leading up to soviet control of Russia, which parallel steps being taken by many nations around the world, but especially the Untied States. 

 

Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II spoke as well about the sacredness of the family unit. Patriarch Ilia  is the godfather of every third child born in Georgia. He has been through many national crisis and knows the power family has to strengthen a society. His encouragement to have more children and his willingness to become the godfather to many in his nation has increased births and led to more of a family culture in Georgia.

 

A Historic March For The Family Through Tbilisi 

 

As part of the conference there was a march for the family from one side of the city to the largest Orthodox Cathedral in Georgia for a short service and blessing on the family by the Holy Patriarch. 

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More than 50,000 people joined the World Congress of Families and world leaders in this march to support the family. 

 

Georgian political leaders expressed gratitude for what they learned at the congress and some even shared intentions to create legislation that will strengthen the family further and removed information from schools that will damage morality in their nation. 

 

This historic conference was not without it’s protestors, but they were few in number. The conference was largely accepted by all and was even televised on the national television station.

 

WOW was happy to speak at this event and sends our thanks to the World Congress of Families who, despite constant attacks, continue to calmly and effectively strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society. 

 

The Right Way To Teach Sexual Abuse Prevention

[[{“fid”:”150″,”view_mode”:”default”,”type”:”media”,”link_text”:null,”attributes”:{“height”:360,”width”:480,”class”:”media-element file-default”}}]]This year at the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women I got a few minutes to speak about the right and wrong way to teach sexual abuse prevention. 

Teaching children how to be safe from sexual abuse is so important, but some people aren’t recognizing that some comprehensive sexuality education is actually encouraging sexual abuse in children. The Worldwide Organization For Women has worked tirelessly since 1977 to stop the abuse of women and children around the world. Part of stopping this abuse is stopping the sexualization of the planet through theory based educational programs such as Comprehensive Sexuality Education.

A Sign Our Society Needs Self-Government

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On a recent plane flight I happened to open the magazine provided for passengers by the airline in the seat back pocket. In the magazine there was an article titled “Break Room” about these “Anger Rooms” that are starting to pop up around the country. 

For between $25 and $75 a person gets the opportunity to smash a fake office, living room or kitchen. The company can also provide mannequins to destroy as well. 

Donna Alexander, the founder of Anger Rooms said the idea is to provide “a place for people to safely lash out without any consequences.” 

After reading this line in the article my heart sank. “Are we really living in this place?” I wondered. Do we live in such a brutal, out of control society that it would be considered good therapy or appropriate for a person to spontaneously destroy stuff or mannequins posing as real people? Is the next great trend for the modern world anger and violence? Are we that selfish? Have we lost touch with our humanity? 

These Anger Rooms are proof of our society’s entitlement mindset. The business is based on the idea that a person should be allowed to be as aggressive as they want to when they feel an emotion coming on, and not have to follow God’s law of cause and effect. 

It is a false ideology that people need to “lash out” in order to calm down. Sure, when a person gets angry and aggressive they release endorphins which cause a high and then a low similar to  the high and low induced by exercise, but that kind of chemical manipulation isn’t calm.  It isn’t safe either. 

It isn’t safe for a person to feel like they have to beat something or smash something to gain control of themselves again. What could happen to a person who routinely visits Anger Rooms to “lash out” and then one day is in a town without an Anger Room? What could they feel entitled to do?

According to the employees of Anger Room in Atlanta the solution to this potentially unsafe situation is clearly more shops. In one video on www.angerroom.com the staff member interviewed said, “If there were an Anger Room on every corner, the world would be a better place.” In the “Hemispheres” magazine the company said that they have intentions to take Anger Rooms global in 2017. 

It saddens me that there is a market for paid anger sessions. 

Don’t forget that it was the villain in the recent Star Wars movie who lost control, not the good guys. Kylo Ren, dressed in his black cape and mask, repeatedly lashed out in anger with his light saber on computers and in entire rooms aboard his ship. No one was there.  The property was his. He didn’t hurt anyone during those anger sessions. Despite all of this my son leaned over to me in the movie and said, “Mom, he is totally out of instructional control.” It was obvious that his evilness and out of control behaviors complimented each other.

As I look at the social and psychological steps we have taken in recent years to arrive at this new type of emotion-based Anger Room business, I see a society living a lie. The lie is that they see themselves as more humane and loving than ever before yet there are more bullying cases at school than ever before, more cyber bullying than ever before and more domestic violence and abuse cases than ever before. Is our society going more and more out of control? Are we living in a never ending violent video game? Does war have to be in our heads as well as on our televisions? 

I am in my 40s. When I was a child most children still didn’t talk back to their parents. Now days I have seen children yell and hit their parents, even in front of other adults and in public places. In a recent Wall Street Journal article titled “Parenting in the Age of Awfulness” Leonard Sax said, “Children are immersed in a culture that stokes disrespect.” 

What could be more disrespectful than a violent video game aimed at hurting another imaginary person for no apparent reason. And what about the way people talk to each other on social media and commentary threads on blogs? People are hostile and aggressive and this is seen as a sign of power. Text talking cuts out all civility in discourse.  And, finally the interactions seen in television and movies are selfish and image as well as power based. 

On the internet we preach of personal power but never preach of self-restraint. Accepting no answers is not an option in most people’s minds. This is proven when young parents ignore authority as they let their children run wild in businesses and public places. We are missing boundaries and no answers. We need self-government. 

This might go down in history as one of the most negative articles I have ever written, but I think it is important to take in the whole picture. Society at large doesn’t seem to be filling in the missing pieces. 

We don’t need places to lose more control and ignore consequences. Instead we need the source of true control, and to focus on positive consequences. Without consequences there is no good and no happiness as well as no bad. Good choices create good consequences and a happy life. We need to put off the anger, not feed it, and show the world how to find the real power and the real happiness by learning self-government. 

The increased social emphasis on anti-bullying has increased bullying, and the increase of a variety of media addictions and disconnection from family has created more selfishness and violent tendencies. Entitlement mentality is at an all time high and respect is at an all time low. Even self-respect is hard to find. 

The history of this social change and reasons why we are now in this violence mess could all be discussed at length, but the solution is simple and short. Roles. If parents and children understood their roles again the world would be different. No answers would be given when needed and problem solving would occur with the help of consequences. When people understand their roles at home they remain more free from the intrusion of outside influences upon their roles. The media would become less important and be used less frequently. The role of media in our lives would be considered more carefully. 

I have noticed that parents who know their roles and frequently teach and correct their children are also the parents who analyze the influences coming into the home more as well. 

Knowing our roles and understanding them is only half he battle though. We must know how to properly use them. This means we need to know how to do the teaching with principle and skill. This is why I teach self-government. 

 

Notes:

Anger Room and Promotional Video: https://www.angerroom.com/ 

Hemispheres Magazine by United Airlines: https://www.unitedmags.com/ 

Domestic Violence: https://www.austin-institute.org/research/is-domestic-violence-on-the-rise-in-america/  

Bullying: https://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-statistics.html 

“Parenting in the Age of Awfulness” https://www.wsj.com/articles/parenting-in-the-age-of-awfulness-1450397051 

Kylo Ren Temper tantrum video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaZ0L7aDx50 

Historic Pro-Children, Pro-Health, Pro-Family Event Today In Utah!

Utah Governor Herbert, Pamela Atkinson, Dr. Jennifer Brown, Sen. Todd Weiler, Rep. Hall

Today in the historic Gold Room in the historic Utah State Capitol history was made. For the first time ever a state body signed a resolution stating that pornography is a public health crisis. Because of the boldness and honesty of this resolution and the backing by medical experts and groups who have studied pornography it was a statement to the world that pornography is not just some other activity like gardening or painting, it has health risks that need to be known; especially because they can effect children in such a devastating way. 

 

The resolution was talked about on “The View” television program, in a recent front page article of TIME Magazine, as well as many other national and international talk and news programs. Even when we were at the United Nations this year multiple people from other nations talked to WOW about the resolution and showed approval. At the CSW [Conference on the Status of Women] conference leaders of an organiztion from Africa told us “it is about time someone points out that pornography leads to violence against women.” 

 

In the press conference and public signing today on Utah capitol hill Clay Olsen of “Fight the New Drug” said that he has received letters from boys and girls stating that they have learned accept violence against women because of exposure to pornography. 

 

Dawn Hawkins, president of The National Center of Sexual Exploitation, said that a “pandemic of harm” is caused by porn. She said the porn industry furthers sexual exploitation. 

 

Dr. Brian Willoughby, a relationship expert and BYU professor, talked about his research and corresponding research on the damaging effects of pornography sighting that it has been proven that pornography exposure at young ages links to “lower mental health.” 

 

The sponsor of the resolution, Senator Todd Weiler, said that calling porn damaging to health is no different than declaring smoking damaging to health. He sighted how cigaretts used to be available in vending machines until the true dangers and addictive qualities were made known at which time protections for children were put into place, and now the same needs to happen for pornography. 

 

The pornography industry is very lucrative. Pamela Atkinson, chair of UCAP, said that the latest data shows the porn industry makes 14 billion dollars annually. 

 

This truly was an historic day! WOW was happy to be part of promoting this resolution this year on Utah’s capitol hill and plans to continue to promote this type of awareness about pornography to help protect children and families from the harms  to conscience, health, and familial happiness that have been proven to occur when pornography is present in the home. 

 

Read the famous resolution here.

How Comprehensive Sexual Education is a Threat to our Children

Children in school

In the 2014 movie, The Giver, the citizens of the ideal society were told to have “precision of language” whenever anyone didn’t like or understand what was said. Once the lead of the movie, Jonas, used the word love and he was told to have “precision of language”. The word was outdated and didn’t have meaning in their new society. Each time Jonas would go to his next training as a “receiver of memory” he would essentially learn a new word. Sometimes it was a color or animal that had been banished from their society, and other times it was a feeling, a virtue or a concept.

During this current legislative session I can’t help but be reminded about how important understanding the power of language really is.

The Power Of Language In Law

Legislative activity is happening all over the United States right now, and that means lots of words are being discussed about a variety of sensitive and emotional topics such as sexuality, children, pornography and health.

Utah is no exception to these hot topics and some of our bills have even made national news. The TV program The View discussed SCR009, which declares that “pornography is a public health hazard leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms.” Indeed pornography does affect the health of the person and the society who is using it.

In contrast, this year Representative Brian King sponsored a bill, HB246 ,that sought to implement comprehensive sexuality education in Utah schools. This bill was voted down in committee, but will likely appear in other years since there is a global movement to put this controversial sexuality education in schools. As the president of The Worldwide Organization For Women I have seen the negative effects of this program around the globe and I know it is a very unhealthy program. The methods law makers and school boards use to get the program accepted is vague language.

Clear Language Is Powerful And Honest

In SCR009 Senator Todd Weiler uses some very clear and honest language. The words chosen are not mistaken to mean anything else and are not open to interpretation. The resolution says, “pornography perpetuates a sexually toxic environment; pornography is contributing to the hypersexualization of teens, and even prepubescent children, in our society; [and] because pornography treats women as objects and commodities for the viewer’s use, it teaches girls they are to be used and teaches boys to be users.”

When language is this accurate and descriptive the message is clearly understood and can be effectively acted upon. Senator Weiler should be commended for sponsoring such a timely and important resolution.

Unclear Language Creates Confusion and Bad Effects

In HB 246 there are some very vague and subjective terms that would have lead the law and curriculum selection to be based on interpretation if it had passed. Whenever wording is open to interpretation it is sneaky language. This type of language is interpreted based on the person’s scope of experience and education. This means some law makers or citizens could think a term sounds friendly to their values and they would vote for it, but in reality if the term is looked at from another perspective the law would purposefully go against the values of those voting. They are just none-the-wiser.

These are a few of the terms in HB 246 that, even though there was attempt to define some of them, are considered vague and misleading. Sometimes a definition can help a vague term and sometimes it doesn’t make any difference to how the term will be implemented. Some of the terms in the bill are: age-appropriate, positive youth development, low-income, family planning, adequate sample, strength-based, positive attributes, healthy relationships, personal power, delaying sexual initiation, etc.

The list could go on and on. It is easy to see how terms like low-income can mean any child because all children don’t have money or they can mean a status based on the parent’s income. Family planning could mean contraception and abortion or it could mean trying to get pregnant. Personal power could mean any variety of things depending on what the person teaching thinks is power. The word delaying is concerning because that could mean a month, a year or until marriage. Finally the term age-appropriate sounds like a good thing, but what is age-appropriate to you? Do you think that engaging in “consensual genital exploration with same age (and often, same sex) peers” is age-appropriate for age 8? I would not consider that age-appropriate.

I am sorry to give such a graphic example but these types of examples are popping up everywhere under the title “healthy sexual development.”

Utah State School Board Interprets Age-Appropriate Inappropriately

In fact, just recently the Utah State School Board was forced to interpret the term age-appropriate from a 2014 sexual abuse prevention bill [HB 286] and posted a list of what they called “healthy sexual development” guidelines that included the previously mentioned graphic example and more. It was shocking for people at the Utah legislature to see this list of “healthy” stages of development for children ages 0 – 12 years old.

These types of guidelines are so agenda driven that they make a relationship such as the child liking their parent a sexual thing. This type of idea that people are not spiritual beings or human beings but sexual beings, was all started by a sex researcher named Alfred Kinsey. He made popular the idea that sexuality was at the core of who we are. He often said, “there are only three kinds of sexual abnormalities: abstinence, celibacy and delayed marriage.” According to those who promote Kinsey’s ideas, today a person who is not having sex or expressing their sexuality in some pleasurable way whenever they want to is experiencing “sexual oppression.”

When people look to change ideas, societies or laws they usually try to change or redefine language.

Here are the images of the Utah State School Board website page that has since been taken down. Hopefully this reference remains unpublished. It is important for us to remember that this page existed and that it came into being because of one subjective term, “age-appropriate.”

There will be more legislation in the years to come relating especially to sexuality and sexual ideas. We need to watch the wording closely to make sure that we aren’t thinking the bills mean one thing but those who will run the program think the words mean something else.

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In a time when special interest groups and even some government officials are calling for political and social “precision of language” to silence some people or to discredit others it is good to keep our eyes peeled for the real language that isn’t precise and might possibly be leading us down a path we didn’t intend to go down.