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When Wendy Pfrenger’s kids began high school in the town of Oxford, Mississippi, she had the choice to register them in abstinence-only or abstinence-plus sex ed.Although the
abstinence-plus alternative would include instruction on contraception, neither curriculum was needed to supply medically accurate details. As a moms and dad, she seemed like the lessons her teens were getting fell short of their truth.
“Our kids are on the internet, their peers are on the web,” she stated. “The things that are being shared on phones in that school, despite whatever securities remain in place, are not at all addressed by the class.”
In her discussions with other parents, she found out that some were looking for extra sex education for their teens through online classes or at workshops led by a regional pediatrician. But she wanted there was complimentary, thorough and inclusive sexuality education readily available to the entire neighborhood– that didn’t only talk about abstaining, however likewise permission; that could produce trust between youths and the grownups in their community.In January, Pfrenger started using the sexuality education she wished her kids had access to– that taught accurate anatomy, discussed pregnancy choices and the diverse ways of developing a household, and commemorated all gender identities and sexualities– at her church, the Unitarian Universalist Parish of Oxford.After the first meeting of the church’s chapter of the across the country Our Whole Lives program, she stated, moms and dads and children– most of whom were not members of the church– appeared pleased to have had access to the class.”It felt like individuals needed this opportunity to talk not just about their own households, however about where we are right now as a culture, “stated Pfrenger, now the spiritual education coordinator at the church.Sex education supporters in the US have long hoped that states would one day follow more detailed and inclusive guidelines for teaching sex ed to students in grades K-12. However over the last few years, as attacks on public education, reproductive healthcare and LGBTQ+rights have grown more noticable in state legislatures, Miranda Estes, state policy action supervisor at Siecus: Sex Ed for Social Change, states supporters progressively will opt for sex ed that is” medically accurate and age-appropriate at least “. Sixteen US states do not need sex education or HIV/STI instruction to be age-appropriate or medically accurate, according to Siecus, which was previously known as Sexuality Details and Education Council
of the United States when it was founded by a Planned Being a parent medical director in 1964. And even in the few states where extensive sexuality education is mandated, it’s not constantly moneyed. Three-fourths of all states currently have a C, D or F on the company’s US sex ed transcript.”When these hostile state legislatures try to restrict or remove sex education in schools, the information does not just disappear. It needs to move,”Estes said.”Community-based programs, consisting of faith-based ones, are needing to action in to fill the space.
“She points to examples like Heart to Grow, a Muslim sex education and advocacy program, and Our Whole Lives, the program Pfrenger trained in, designed by the Unitarian Universalist Association(UUA )and the United Church of Christ (UCC). In the 1970s, 80s and 90s– as sex ed programs throughout the United States established in response to the growing HIV/Aids crisis, as did the emerging women’s health motion, originated by texts such as Our Bodies, Ourselves– the UUA and the UCC began offering sex education to their congregants. Both progressive faiths that had long stressed LGBTQ rights and reproductive justice, the UUA and the UCC came together in 1999 with the objective of developing a curriculum that was clinically accurate and developmentally proper.( While the UCC is a Christian denomination, Unitarian Universalism came from Christianity, however many congregants no longer consider themselves Christians.)”Among the reasons that this partnership works so well is that our faith values are so similar in terms of reproductive justice, social justice. Both of our faiths– although we in some cases use different language– center love, “stated Davis, the UUA program manager.” Our denominations are so devoted to offering this gift, not only to our congregations, however anyone
can use it.”Protesters at a rally outside the UN headquarters in New york city City on 8 June 2011. Picture: Mario Tama/Getty Images Initially designed for both kids and grownups– and expanded in 2019 to consist of a curriculum on sexuality and aging for older adults– Our Whole Lives is a nonreligious curriculum that can be expanded to include faith-based products. “We’re not just a denomination that takes place to offer sex ed, “said Amy Johnson, minister for sexuality education and justice for the UCC.”This is something that our faith thinks in.”Both Johnson and Davis understand that churches are not generally spaces that use detailed sex ed.Much of the state and national legislation working to restrict sex education throughout the US has actually been authored or backed by other Christian groups.
In a report entitled Exposing Hate: The Fact About Attacks on Our Kids, Schools and Variety, Siecus recognizes the members of a “regressive minority”organizing”
versus inclusive programs in public schools”as conservative or Christian companies and billionaires like the
Alliance Defending Freedom, the Household Policy Alliance, the DeVos Family Structure and the National Christian Foundation. Those organizations aim “to eliminate all extensive sexuality education and rather label any conversations about sexual preference and gender identity as adult “, Estes said.It’s” reasonable to think that sex ed in a Christian context in particular would be prejudiced and non-inclusive because it so often is”, Johnson said. “There’s a great deal of conversations about what Christianity is or isn’t in the greater ether of the United States of America. “She acknowledges that numerous Christian spaces have perpetuated shame and stigma around sexuality, particularly for LGBTQ people. “Our Whole Lives is really about dismantling shame and preconception about bodies and relationships, and we understand that embarassment and preconception can be deadly,”she said.”If we’re not doing this work in our faith neighborhoods, I feel like it’s a sin of omission.”In the last few years, those opposed to sex education in schools have actually pointed out “moms and dads’rights”to control what their kids learn. In Our Entire Lives,”we support parents as their kids’s primary sexuality educators”, Davis said.
Moms and dads are invited to go to orientations to the program, find out how to assist in classes and motivated to speak about the product with their children.At the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Oxford, Pfrenger and other church leaders spent nearly a year building
trust with moms and dads and the neighborhood before providing any classes. In March 2025, after fundraising for the program, the parish sent out 4 members to a training to find out how to help with the course.”We might have hit the ground running in August. But we spent months speaking to grownups, knowing sessions, having Zoom sessions, having personal conversations in the grocery aisle
,” Pfrenger said. The church hosted a sampler class for adults in the fall, and then an orientation for parents in early January, before beginning its very first program for children in grades 4-6. Next year, the church will expand its offering to grades 7-9.”It’s necessary that we move at the speed of trust, “said Rev. Sarah Osborne, the churchgoers’s minister. “While the curriculum itself is secular, I believe it’s actually crucial that we are using this in a faith-based neighborhood that’s actually specific about what our worths are. And we invite individuals to share those values with us, which I think are ones that are deeply required in our time. “