By Legislative Liaison Carolyn Martin
Whose Reality?
Christians are unique in their worldview. We believe the Bible is the Word of God. We desire to follow Jesus and see Him in all things, confident in the belief that He made everything. We believe His world displays His mind and His creativity through the order of His creation and all reality.
That is not the worldview that dominates our culture. This is clearly evident in the latest bill to assault parental rights and religious liberty. Currently, most public schools teach sexuality through their health curriculum. HB19-1032 Comprehensive Sexuality Education seeks to change what is currently being taught.
Instruction Content
It is my contention that none of these things should be taught by the state.
Here are a few concerns about the content being taught:
- Promotes youth understanding of all types of sexual orientations as normal.
- Includes explicit information about the use of abortifacients, condoms, and other barrier methods.
- While teaching moral, ethical, or religious values as they pertain to human sexuality, healthy relationships, or family formation is not prohibited, any instruction must not employ gender norms or gender stereotypes. Is it possible to teach biblical sexuality without talking in terms of male and female?
- When talking about healthy relationships, LGB relationships must have equal footing with heterosexual relationships. All experiences must be shared.
Parental Notification
Each time a parent’s right is taken away it has an impact on the overall state of parental rights. This bill does allow parents to be notified if the school is teaching “human sexuality instruction”. Parents can opt their child out of the instruction. But “human sexuality instruction” is defined in such a way that they don’t have to notify parents if they are teaching about gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, or healthy relationships unless they are also teaching the biology of human reproduction at the same time.
Charter Schools
Currently, charter schools can request a waiver from certain instruction requirements. There are some charter schools that strongly encourage abstinence. This bill would prohibit them from obtaining a waiver and force them to teach these standards.
Homeschoolers: Why should you care?
I mentioned this bill can impact the overall health of parental rights, but how, you ask, does it impact religious freedom and my homeschool? This instruction redefines what is true. No longer does biology determine gender. Heterosexuality is just another choice. When it comes to “medically accurate” information, only one viewpoint is allowed to the exclusion of all others. The order God wrote into the universe is cast aside for self-perception and feelings. You and your children are expected to accept this as normal and true, no matter how you educate. Your children will be colleagues of the children who are taught this truth and they will expect them to embrace it. Through this curriculum they can, once-for-all, silence God’s view of the most important building block of society: the family.
Where it goes from here…
For the first step of this bill’s journey to becoming law, it will be heard in the House Health and Insurance Committee on Wednesday, January 30th at 1:30 pm. Please, be in prayer about this. If you know families who use the public school system, let them know about this bill. If the Lord leads, call your House representative and ask them to vote against this.
I’ll be watching to see what happens with this bill. Stay tuned.
Prayer Opportunity
Join me in prayer in room 351 at the Capitol at 12 noon on Tuesday, January 22nd. We will be praying weekly at the Capitol at 11 am on Tuesdays (note the exception for the 22nd). If you’re in the area, consider attending!
Trusting in the mighty power and grace of Jesus,
Carolyn Martin, CHEC Legislative Liaison
carolyn@chec.org
720.842.4852
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Hello , I need to know if the CSE would be manditory for homeschooled children as well? I am trying to inform others correctly and have two of my kids who homeschool their children and need to know.
THANK YOU!
PHR
Thank you for staying informed and wanting to get the word out!! As it stands right now, homeschoolers are not required to teach to the state standards for CSE or any other subject. But, if you participate in public school programs, be aware that sexuality and gender are being talked about throughout the entire curriculum. See also CHECs blog post from September 4th (https://chec.org/chec-blog/legislative-update-september-4-2019/) for more caution concerning curriculum in some part-time public school programs.