Posted on 08/04/2005 6:38:36 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
Warning: This commentary contains graphic information not suitable for younger readers.
You may have heard the uproar over a new teen novel called Rainbow Party. The controversial book by Paul Ruditis concentrates on one afternoon in the lives of thirteen high-school sophomores. One of them, a girl named Gin, is planning a sex party. The other kids are trying to decide whether to attend.
The book takes explicitness to a whole new level. Several different sex acts are described. Even before the party starts, two sex acts take place, one of them in the school bathroom.
Several of the teens are innocent, but others have more experience than a lot of adults. The sexual power plays going on among these tenth-graders would make Machiavelli’s head spin. And though the afternoon doesn’t unfold exactly as planned, the book’s outcome can be seen a mile away: a class-wide outbreak of disease.
It’s no wonder that many bookstores are refusing to carry Rainbow Party, and that parents and commentators are upset about it. I’m glad they’re concerned. And yet—remember Janet Jackson and her infamous “wardrobe malfunction”? Then, too, the majority of Americans were shocked and outraged. But some weren’t shocked at all. They knew that this kind of thing had been out there for decades, on MTV and elsewhere. The only difference was that this time it happened on a broadcast network instead of a teen-oriented cable channel.
Now, sex parties aren’t nearly as widespread as MTV; according to a 2004 survey, less than half of one percent of teenagers have attended such a party. However, the 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Males showed that about half of boys 15 to 19 had engaged in sexual activity. So again, we’re talking about something that’s not as shocking to kids as it is to their parents.
And that is the fruit of what adults have taught them: sex without values. One of the book’s heroines is a sex-ed teacher, Ms. Barrett, who quits in protest over being forced to teach abstinence only. When disease sweeps the class, she makes the point that she should have been allowed to teach them “safe sex.”
But I wonder if Ruditis is fully aware of the message this character sends. When Ms. Barrett catches Gin smoking, she takes away the cigarette without apology. Yet the teacher has no such reaction to the rumors about Gin’s sex party, only telling the kids to communicate with each other, think about whether this is really a good idea, and “be safe.”
I would suggest that it’s exactly that kind of education that has confused so many kids. Without any sort of moral beliefs to guide them, why shouldn’t they do what they feel like doing, as long as they have “protection”?
As I said before, in no way am I recommending that teenagers read Rainbow Party. The few good lessons it does teach can be better taught by parents, teachers, and youth leaders in a moral context. And yet, I can’t help wondering if, for many adults, the horrified reaction to this book is simply a case of being afraid to face the monster that they’ve already created.
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I've never thought to nurn a book before but this trash deserves it.
Bump for later.
The scary part is that there are probably plenty of people like this running around our public schools giving kids this kind of message. Guaranteed...
Isn't it child porn to write sexually explict stories about 13 year olds?
Nurn, baby, nurn....
Ahhh, you'll get over it. There are plenty of books that should be burned. Just make sure you own them first - property rights are more important than MSM's "right' to publish sh*t.
This author is more prominently known for writing "episode guides" to tv-shows as well as tv-inspired paperbacks for minors.
He needs to move out of his parents' basement and stop hitting on jr. high kids.
Well, with a TEN YEAR OLD STUDY that treats a 19 year old as an adolescent boy makes me suspect something's wrong..
The anti-gun crowd does this too, suggesting "Children" are murdered, and in the small print you notice they include 18 and 19 year olds..
BAH....
I really fear for the future of the culture when there are absolutely no moral standards. We need to bring back strong families and churches that speak out for morality.
The gun grabbers call them "youths" and include males up to age 25. Gang members, thugs, drug dealers, crooks...
"All you need to know about this book is this quote, taken from the publisher's (Simon & Schuster) own website. "In 2002, Simon & Schuster was integrated with the Paramount motion picture and television studios as part of the Viacom Entertainment Group." Viacom is the media conglomerate that owns, among other properties, MTV and Nickelodeon, and the radio company that employs shock-jock Howard Stern. Author Juliet Schor has written that "the entity most responsible for the commercial exploitation of youth rebellion has been Viacom. The trend began with MTV and its teen audience ... some of that sensibility has trickled down to Nickelodeon's younger target [audience]." The author of Rainbow Party seems to have made his living by writing "books" spun off from television series; now he's a middle-aged guy writing about sexual services performed by 14 year-old girls. This whole thing is nothing more than a cynical, creepy grab by powerful adults for teenagers' wallets. Simon & Schuster should be disgusted with itself, but I suppose its executives are too busy counting all the dollars rolling in. Keep your money, readers."
Any surprise they also own SeeBS?
How about MTV's new gay dating show?
Not when a liberal does it. Laws that apply to you and me don't apply to liberals.
Junk written peddling junk.
In any real sense of the word, yes. That was brought up when the indy film Kids dealt with this same subject, but there were no prosecutions.
The federal and state authorities need to understand that child porn belongs at the top of their priority list right below counterterrorism. This stuff ruins lives, and child porn is to adult porn as blowing your own head off is to shooting up an elementary school.
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