In my next class, "Sexual Purity," they were bound to take attendance, so I couldn't very well just not show up. I thought a bit about what the consequences might be if I were to skip one of my classes, but in the end, since I knew that some of my friends would in there with me, I decided to just bite the bullet and attend.
When I arrived at the classroom, sure enough April, Alexandra, and Jenny were already there saving me a seat. The classroom was a bit bigger than the others had been. Undoubtedly they were more concerned about giving this lesson to as many kids as possible than they were about getting us to read the Pearl of Great Price. Each of the desks had a Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cup sitting on it, but it was written on the board in big letters that we were not to eat them. Read more ->
4 comments:
Your story is great. The only thing I remember about the "sexual purity" type classes was being embarassed that they were using the word sex inside a church. It did not seem to bother me when I heard on the radio.
Thanks Wayne!!!
It's true -- the fact that it was being discussed in church added a new dimension to the embarassment.
My jaw dropped with the donut metaphor. Talk about reinforcing the idea of a used woman! It's infuriating that people still perpetuate that in religious settings. I never did get to see an example like that one in church, but we did have the one of the picture of Jesus being permanently holey from our sins even if we have repented.
What I remember from my youth is that we were warned against the sins and vicious web of fornication, but we were never really told outright what was ok and what wasn't. So, we ended up feeling guilty for everything except hand holding. Unless said hand holding brought on sexual feelings. Then it was bad because we had committed sin in our hearts.
Hey Lemon Blossom!!!
So you got a lesson about how Jesus has permanent (painful?) wounds as a result of your "sin in your heart" of sexual feelings? Normally I don't agree with those people who say religion is child abuse, but some of these things seem a little borderline...
As for the object lessons in this chapter, the "Reses Peanut Butter Cup" one -- demonstrating the pleasure of waiting -- was a lesson I was treated to at Youth Conference myself. The "glazed donut" one was recounted to me by my brother's BYU roommate as one he had endured. They're both related to two canonical ones (which are both described in stories on Main Street Plaza): offering the choice of a chewed piece of gum vs. virgin sticks of gum, and passing a fruit or flower around the room to be manhandled, and see how it looks at the end...
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