RE: [Church_of_Christ] Today a law that permits Gay marriage, tomorrow what?
Greetings,
I have not read the text that has been referenced in this article or the research on which the book is based. I do think it is unlikely that Judith Levine is implying that such practices are positive. What she has reported is some of the evidence that was collected revealed positive experiences in a minority of the cases studied. That isn’t advocacy folks. It is revealing the outcome of the study without placing any value judgments on the outcome.
It’s a shame that there are some individuals who wish to censor free speech rather than address that speech with facts. Ms. Levine’s reference to “happy consensual sex among kids under 12” has been lifted from its context and at this point, I cannot provide the context beyond the quote which references “among kids under 12”. This doesn’t appear to be a reference or a supporting statement that promotes sexual interaction between adults and children. If she is referring to the harm that is being inflicted on adolescents by abstinence only sex education in contrast to comprehensive sex education that emphasizes abstinence and also provides information on contraception and safer sex, I agree. As well as if she is referring to the psychological and unfortunately, labeling an adolescent as a sex offender for 20 years or a lifetime should there be sexual interactions between an 18 year-old and a 15 year-old, I agree. These issues need to be addressed through education and not through putative actions against individuals who are kids themselves.
It seems that perhaps the writer is reaching or making implications that are not connected to the topic in an attempt to inflame readers. I’m not familiar with the other citations at the end of the article and cannot speak to them, although, I feel as if these have been lifted out of context as well to support the author’s intent.
Children should be protected against predators. Predators are not other children, for the most part, although there are some juvenile sexual predators. I’m really not sure how two consenting adults who desire to have the legal protections afforded through family law through the marital contract are connected with this particular article as homosexual marriages and pedophiles are apples and oranges.
Shalom,
Shawn
Byline: Robert Stacy McCain, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A new book that says child molesters are not a major peril to children is part of a larger movement within academia to promote "free sexual expression of children."
The movement to legitimize sex between adults and children is "gathering steam," warns Stephanie Dallam, researcher for the Leadership Council for Mental Health, Justice and the Media in Philadelphia, an organization that deals with prevention and treatment of child abuse.
"Some people view children as the next sexual frontier," Ms. Dallam says.
Feminist writer Judith Levine's book "Not Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Kids from Sex" has been condemned by those who say she excuses sexual abuse of children - a charge she strongly denies.
Ms. Levine says she was "misunderstood" after a news article last month quoted her saying a boy's sexual experience with a priest "conceivably" could be positive.
"Do I advocate priests having sex with their child parishioners? No, absolutely no," she said in a telephone interview. However, she said, "The research shows us that in some minority of cases, young - even quite young - people can have a positive [sexual] experience with an adult. That's what the research shows."
Featuring a foreword by Clinton administration Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Ms. Levine's book endorses a Dutch law, passed in 1990, that effectively lowered the age of consent to 12.
Ms. Levine cites research about "happy consensual sex among kids under 12," and writes: "America's drive to protect kids from sex is protecting them from nothing. Instead, often it is harming them."
The book has sparked a political backlash against her publisher, the University of Minnesota Press.
The speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives condemned the book and called for the university to halt its publication. Instead, the university press last week ordered a second printing of 10,000 copies after media attention helped drive Ms. Levine's book as high as No. 26 on the Amazon.com best-seller list.
But researchers and activists say the book is only the most recent in a series of academic arguments for "consensual" sex involving children:
* In 2000, the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco published an article, "Sexual Rights of Children," saying there is "considerable evidence" that there is no "inherent harm in sexual expression in childhood."
* San Francisco State University professor Gilbert Herdt, co-author of the 1996 book "Children of Horizons: How Gay and Lesbian Teens Are Leading a New Way Out of the Closet," said in an interview with the Dutch pedophilia journal Paidika that "the category 'child' is a rhetorical device for inflaming what is really an irrational set of attitudes" against sex with children.
* John Money, professor emeritus of psychology at Johns Hopkins University, gave an interview to Paidika about "genuinely, totally mutual" sex between boys and men. In the introduction to a Dutch professor's 1987 book called, "Boys on their Contacts with Men: A Study of Sexually Expressed Friendships," Mr. Money wrote that opponents of pedophilia are motivated by "self-imposed, moralistic ignorance."
* Harris Mirkin, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, published a 1999 article in the Journal of Homosexuality complaining that boys who have sex with men "are never considered ... willing participants, even if they are hustlers." He has also written that "children are the last bastion of the old sexual morality."
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