Reviews

Review by Dr Peter Masters, Metropolitan Tabernacle, Winter 2003, New books catalogue

This is a large book with the slightly formidable feel of a major sociological survey, but it is clearly of immense importance to pastors, members of the teaching profession, doctors and parents in this country. It surprises and even shocks the reader as the progress of sex education in our schools is traced, and the present awful plans and schemes are brought to light.

The author, a doctor, was Director of Public Health for Croydon Health Authority for nine years and is obviously an expert in this field. Writing from a Christian standpoint he establishes the relationship between state sex education and the overturning of moral values at the present time, when explicit sex education which positively encourages sexual adventure by young people is official government policy. Names are named, movements are identified, injustices meted out to defenders of moral standards are chronicled, and parliamentary activities are described. Dr Williams writes authoritatively on 'the fallacy of safer sex' (official government policy for advice to children, rather than abstention) - referring to his own research and government statistics that demonstrate the alarming failure rate.

This reviewer would urge the reading of this book as so many of us are unaware of the extent to which humanistic, anti-Christian, anti-moral thinking has come to dominate the world of education. The author concludes that - 'if the purpose of sex education has been to protect young people against the damaging consequences of sexual activity, then it has been a spectacular failure. However, if the real purpose has been to promote the sexual revolution, as I have argued in this book, then it has been remarkably successful'.

Review in 'Evangelical Now, Dr Trevor Stammers, Senior Tutor in General Practice, St George's Hospital Medical School, London, March 2004

The bulk of this book comprises a painstakingly detailed account of the sexual seduction of our society over the past two centuries by sexual revolutionaries from Robert Owen (1771-1858) to Gill Frances of the present-day National Children's Bureau.

It is a valuable resource book for specialist readers, tracing not only the key players but also highlighting their tactics - 'values clarification' replacing a Christian moral framework, promotion of adolescent sexual activity as a given norm and the hijacking of terms such as 'family' to promote an overtly anti-marriage agenda. The sacrifice and personal suffering of those who dare to oppose the sex education lobby also comes across very powerfully, especially in the chapter on Victoria Gillick.

Five major deficiencies of the book sadly minimise its impact, however. First, is the book's presentation and style. Excessive detail and page after page of dense text unbroken by subtexts or headings will put off all but the most determined of readers (or reviewers). Secondly, Dr Williams attacks his fellow Christians with the same apparent ease that he berates the sexual revolutionaries. Anyone who - like myself, knows the opprobrium and vitriol which the FPA have poured upon those involved with developing CARE's sex education resources will recognise something is adrift when the author sweepingly asserts: The British Government, the IPPF, the FPA, Brook and CARE all teach sex education in a framework that is either indifferent to, or ignores biblical morality.' CARE is not alone in bearing Williams' wrath either - Oasis Trust, ACET, the Christian Institute and indeed, every Christian organisation that I can think of trying to apply biblical wisdom meaningfully to sex education, is undermined by the author's failure to make nay distinction between such groups and the sexual revolutionaries they oppose.

Thirdly, there is an element of implicit coercion in the book which demonises choice. On numerous occasions, Williams castigates all who seek to help young people make 'informed choices'. He sees choice as an unbiblical concept per se. What then are we to make of God himself offering his people a choice between life and death and who does not make their choices for them? (Deuteronomy 30.19, Joshua 24.15). Surely it is better to use opportunities to inform young people about the joys of sex within marriage and the dangers of sex outside it, than to leave the field to those who will feed them the entirely opposite information that Dr Williams so rightly condemns. We cannot compel others to obey God's law.

There are also some disturbing inconsistencies in the book. For example, while others are chided for using medical and health reasons for promoting abstinence rather than quoting the Bible, the author himself gives many pages to explaining the failures of condoms and the havoc wrought by sexual infections and unplanned pregnancies. Quoting the Bible and using pragmatic arguments are not mutually exclusive - both are needed.

The greatest weakness of the book, however, is that after 300 pages of criticism, the author has little hope to offer for anything better. A mere two pages at the end suggest that 'just as parents do not need to teach their children to walk or talk, for they learn these skills naturally, so they do not need to teach children the details of sexual physiology, for children come to understand their sexual nature as they mature into adulthood'. I wonder if the author adopts the same 'head in the sand' approach about geography.

We do need to teach our children about sex and we need to do it in a way honouring to Christ in a society that is increasingly hostile to biblical standards. The stark 'black and white' cover of this book suggests that the author lives in a world where everything is clear-cut. For those parents like myself, who need to find the Lord's help in many grey areas in bringing up our teenagers, this book will offer little practical assistance.

To understand the negative review of Dr Stammers read CARE and sex education, chapter 19 from Lessons in Depravity.

Review by Ann Whitaker, British Church Newspaper, October 2003

This is an important book. It describes comprehensively and with great skill the development of the sexual revolution of the past 50 years or so and its connection with the 'safer sex' policy, embraced with ardour by the present Government, which has led to the adoption of Teenage Pregnancy Strategies by local authorities all over England. Dr Williams' book is uncompromising. He does not make fun of the strictness of the Victorian approach to sex, with its extreme reticence. He argues that there can be no surrendering of the full Biblical teaching of chastity before marriage and fidelity within it, which teaching was offered to children in schools until the middle of the last century. He explains the gradual erosion of real sexual health in young people, i.e. abstinence, and calls for a recovery of Christian morality in all its fullness...

Here is a book which Christians, instructed to be salt and light in their generation, need to buy and absorb.

Review by M Paul Rogoff, Evangelical Times, February 2004

Dr Williams examines the ongoing effect in our society of removing moral values from sexual behaviour. He exposes how the sex education movement is perpetuating one of the great moral evils on our time.

Its sustained campaigns have convinced successive British governments to allow the state school system to perpetuate its ideology through the National Curriculum. The result is that our children are conditioned in school classrooms to treat their bodies and one another as sex objects for experimentation.

The author shows how a libertarian culture has deceptively manipulated the facts to sustain its philosophy. He supports his observations with meticulously gathered, cross-cultured source material.

As a one-time director of public health, he is well placed to access relevant information, and is able to communicate it lucidly and convincingly to a wide readership.

An urgent reappraisal of this blatantly amoral movement is sought by Dr Williams. What it perpetrates is depraved and should be proscribed by law. Its moral message (so often carried under the paradoxical label of 'safe sex') is dishonest, misleading and cruel - especially to girls. It is doing immense physical, moral and spiritual harm in our nation.

Meanwhile, the author claims, parents should take the lead by example, scrutinising what their children are being taught, and getting alongside young people when they seek information on the relevant issues. For those teachers and educationalists in a hurry (such as heads of departments and head teachers) chapter 20 summarises the essence of the author's outstanding research. This book makes sombre reading, but is of excellent value and should be made widely available.