Reply #12: A personal story that debunks that RW crap

[Lorien]

When I was a child, my parents were both atheists. My father was a sex therapist, so there were quite a few clinical books on sexuality around the home. I also overheard quite a few conversations on the subject growing up. When I became a teenage my parents had divorced, but my father and stepmom still spoke openly about sex and encouraged all of their children to be safe and selective. We were even given condoms in our christmas stockings.

My mom, on the other hand, became a fundie. I was out of the home when this 180 occurred, but my younger sister was still living at home. My mom became determined to "save' my younger sister. She insisted that she destroy all her suggestive rock and roll albums, and live a chaste existence. Men became the enemy-they were not permitted in the home-ever (meanwhile-I was allowed sleepovers at my father's home with my boyfriend). By age 17 my younger sister had herpes, a drinking problem, and was a heavy smoker. By age 19 she had her first child out of wedlock which she gave up for adoption (she has had another since then). She became involved with drugs, she shoplifted, she wasn't the least bit selective when it came to her choice of partners. I was-I've never had an STD, never gotten pregnant, never had substance abuse problems or committed a crime. The only real difference it the way we were raised? She spent five years with a repressive fundamentalist while I did not.