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July 30, 2005 Michael John McCrae recently related the tragic story about a 13-year-old girl who had been gang raped by a group of teenage boys. With 6 boys allegedly participating in the rape and 16 others accused of watching and cheering, Mr. McCrae argued that this poor girl was actually raped by all 22. I don't often agree with him, but events like this are often the common ground where people - regardless of their beliefs - tend to come together. Rape is a serious issue. The gang rape of a minor, as this case demonstrates, is one of the most vile and offensive acts one can imagine. Lives are ruined over far less. This young girl has a tough road ahead and I'm sure that we all wish her well. Unfortunately, rather than just report the events or add something constructive, Mr. McCrae decides that this is the perfect opportunity to promote his own agenda. "A society that begins teaching sex-education to fourth graders with all the bells and whistles; while handing out free condoms is encouraging odds of 22 against one." Is he serious? He often makes claims implying his superior morality, but his morality doesn't seem to include compassion, honesty or respect. Implying that sex-education is, in any way, responsible for promoting gang rape is the absolute height of ignorance and bias. It is opportunistic, dispassionate, insensitive, and a bald-faced lie. This sort of fear-tactic is, unfortunately, all too common. Extremists, regardless of which belief they ascribe to, often take a single incident which is clearly contrary to the norm, mischaracterizing it as typical and declare that this incident is the result of a world separated from their "one true belief". Does anyone remember the Falwell/Robertson claims after 9/11 - laying the responsibility at the feet of homosexuals, atheists, abortionists and the ACLU? Fortunately, at least half of that team of mental midgets recognized that this probably wasn't a nice thing to say and tried to retreat from that position - though it hardly excuses him. Does teaching chemistry lead to dirty bombs? Does teaching religion lead to terrorism? Does knowledge lead to action - or more correctly, does general knowledge lead to a specific action? These boys didn't rape that girl because someone taught them about sex or provided them with condoms. Implying otherwise is dishonest. It cheapens the issue and prevents the real issues from being addressed. I suppose Mr. McCrae would support abstinence-only education or some other method which leaves our children uneducated and ill-prepared to face the reality they live in. The degree to which abstinence-only sex education has failed is well documented. Take a trip to Lubbok, Texas some time. I don't want to get off track and beging talking about the benefits and failures of various philosophical views about proper sex education. That's not what this article is about. You see, sex education isn't the issue at all. As any rape counsellor will tell you, rape isn't about sex. What Mr. McCrae is doing is propagandizing and he's doing it in the worst possible way. He's misrepresenting the issue, disrespecting the traumatic experience of a young girl and insulting the intelligence of his readers. He's taking advantage of an issue, twisting it to fit his agenda and vomitting it back out as some sort of "truth". It's not truth. It's not respectable. It's absurd and ignorant. He should be thoroughly ashamed. ------------ About the author: Matt Dillahunty is an active member of the Atheist Community of Austin (www.atheist-community.org). In addition to his article submissions for Useless-Knowledge, he enjoys e-mail and forum debates. He also hosts/co-hosts on a weekly call-in television program (The Atheist Experience) and a bi-weekly Internet radio program (The Non-Prophets), which are both sponsored by the ACA. After more than 20 years as a fundamentalist Christian, his interest in apologetics, skepticism and critical thinking convinced him that his religious beliefs were the result of irrational, uneducated thought and the beliefs of Christianity and other religions are simply untenable. Email: sans_deity@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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