This is not an easy thing to know. My favorite deacon is the youth minister for our   parish.  He truly loves the kids, but he worries about them.  Young people today have bought into a culture that denies sin. But they need to learn about the deadly consequences of sin and that not all choices are good.

Over at The Catholic Lane, Mary Anne Moresco has an insightful article posted. She begings:

I never cease to be amazed by what can be included in a high school “health” curriculum these days. I was recently looking at a health course for ninth graders, which included such topics as “contraception,” “decision-making” skills, “sexual orientations,” as well as “what to know about health care facilities, costs and sources of payment.”

A Smorgasbord of Deadly Choices

Now, why would the school system seek to educate a ninth-grader in how to pay “health care” facilities? This particular school district has a problem letting the school nurse give your teen a Tylenol for a headache, but has no problem inviting Planned Parenthood in, with all their cajoling ways, to teach kids to pay for their own “health care.” Once in, Planned Parenthood happily demonstrates for the freshmen, in a co-ed setting, the various methods of contraception. As disturbing as this is, what is more disturbing is that these teens, many of whom are Catholic, will have likely been taught next to nothing about sin or the deadly effect of sin on their immortals souls. And it is precisely this ignorance that makes teens so very vulnerable to the call of Planned Parenthood’s preaching. This article is not about the fact that parents have a responsibility to know exactly what their children are being taught in “health” class — though they do. Nor is it about the horrors that Planned Parenthood has propagated on our young — great though these horrors may be. This is an article about the dire need to begin to teach teens the deadly truths about sin.

Teaching about sin is an ongoing process that ideally begins early in life. But if not begun early then there is no better time to gently begin than right now. We forget sometimes that teens are children searching for truth, and they need adults to help them discover what life and truth are all about. They may bear an outward confidence, but it’s good to remember that a mere 160 months ago, these confident beings were little bundles who could not walk, or talk or sit up on their own. Children are guided, not born, into adulthood.

Some guidance of late has been directed at helping teens make “choices” for themselves. The problem with this is not just that teens often lack the experience and discernment to be making the plethora of choices thrust before them. The problem is not just that God’s plan for their lives is often not included in this decision-making process. These problems are compounded by the fact that many of the choices thrust before today’s teens are gravely immoral. Thus some “health” classes educate teens about their sexual “preferences,” or birth control “options,” but fail to educate them in concepts of sin. Teens are thrown in over their heads and left to make decisions about choices for which they are ill-equipped to decide. Once a bad decision is made to sin, there are those in society who seem to pop out of the woodwork to help turn a teen’s bad decision into a truly dirty deed. Such individuals will happily take teens by the hand and just as happily guide them down an evil and immoral path, loudly tooting their “pro-choice” horns and ringing their “freedom” bells all the way. Continue reading here.

Note. Yikes. I am not as shock proof as I thought. I googled the word teens to get a picture for this post. Oh my.   Nothing but links to teen porn sites.  We really need to pray for our young people.