Health Care Reform Begins at Home

Each of us makes decisions about our own physical and psychological health and wellness. Much of our personal illness and injury is created by lifestyle choices related to destructive habits in eating, exercise, cleanliness, drinking, smoking, drug use, and reckless driving.

President Obama, in his discussion on health care reform policies, emphasized preventive health care, urging all of us to take more responsibility for our own health.

Chruches are also adding health and wellness dimensions to their ministry, a practice that is consistent with the concerns of Jesus for healing and wholeness.

Restoring the health of our family relationships and sexual behaviors should be a priority concern in our move toward health care reform. Both religious and secular education needs to include rigorous preparation for healthy sexual, marriage and family relationships, beginning with children and increasing for teens and older.

"The devastating impact of marital and family breakdown on individuals and on our society as a whole has been well documented, yet too often we stand by helplessly while families fall apart. We often fail to provide the relationship education and support needed to build strong families whose members enjoy each other and cope effectively with life's challenges...
We can learn the skills to build healthy relationships;
we can unravel the emotional tangles that sabotage our families;
we can build on family strengths to establish the deep friendship and mutual commitment that undergirds lasting marriages and healthy families." 1.

Many organizations and resources provide help in the development of family relationship growth. (marriagelovepower.net)

Classes on marriage enrichment and parenting skills should be offered on a continuing basis, with classes focusing on premarital counseling, different stages of marriage, and childhood development.

HEALTHY SEXUALITY

Modern social influences are bombarding us with enticement into dangerous and destructive sexual behaviors that too often result in debilitating disease, broken trust, broken relationships, and broken lives.

Healthy sexuality focuses on ultimate concern for the individual lives involved and ultimate concern for the lives of children who develop from sexual togetherness.

PORNOGRAPHY DISTORTS HEALTHY SEXUALITY

Speaking out against the dangers of pornography and educating people, especially young people, about lustful addictions and sexual distortions that grow from pornographic images is an essential and valuable concern for health and wellness.

PREMARITAL ABSTINENCE AND FAITHFUL MONOGAMY WITHIN MARRIAGE

Our contemporary society is presenting sex as a toy for personal pleasure, even to the young. Tragic consequences related to sexually transmitted diseases, loss of self esteem, broken trust, children born out-of-wedlock, and abortion become the reality for too many people. Young people need to be given the understanding and commitment to resist the temptations of careless sexuality.

An understanding of the importance of sexual abstinence before marriage and faithful monogamy after marriage is a foundation for healthy sexual behaviors.

THE DANGERS OF 'SAFE SEX'

The careless double talk of 'safe sex' and the handing out of condoms, even to middle school students, puts sexual health in jeopardy. Condoms are not safe. They have a 14% actual use failure rate, a failure rate of 1 out of 6 or 7 time. This amounts to Russian roulette sex. The common use of the phrase 'safe sex' in regard to condom use is cruel, dangerous and careless.

THE SANCTITY OF LIFE IS THREATENED

Healthy living is a call to respect the value of each life, and a call to order our lives in ways that we support and cherish our own life and the lives of others.

Since 1973, abortion has taken the lives of over 50 million infants. About 80%
of abortions are performed on unmarried women, as young women are told that a fetus is 'merely a mass of tissue' rather than a developing child.

The development of the ultrasound machine is allowing women to respect and watch the growth of their child. Pregnancy centers are protecting and educating women in the development of their child.

Women who feel that they are unable to raise a child can be supported in their pregnancy and encouraged to offer their children to loving couples seeking a child to adopt.

PROTECTING TRADITIONAL FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

Heterosexual marriage is primarily a social issue. It becomes a religious concern and a political concern because it is a foundation for social integration, freedom, reproduction and health.

The normalization of homosexuality in society would create profound changes in social organization that warrant caution and serious consideration rather than the heated arguments that are being generated.

Social Integration -
The traditional family is the building block for the integration of society as members grow in understanding of various perspectives within the family. In spite of immense variation within the sexes, there remain fundamental differences in biological and psychological make up. Heterosexual marriage seeks to integrate these elements into a caring unit.
As men relate intimately to men and women to women, social disintegration will occur.

Social Freedom -
The family preserves and passes down its unique cultural values to the next generation, providing checks and balances in society which guard against destructive extremism. Homosexuality will jeopardize the intergenerational transfer of cultural patterns within society.

Social Reproduction -
Homosexuality will jeopardize social reproduction and the intergenerational transfer of genetic patterns. Reproduction will necessitate contrivance and manipulation, buying and selling.

Social Health -
Personal health risks associated with homosexual behavior are deeply troubling. According to the American Medical Association, homosexual youth are 23 times more apt to contact a sexually transmitted disease than their heterosexual counterparts. In the U.S., men who have sex with men account for 60-70% of estimated HIV infections, although they represent only 5-7% of the population.

CAUTION IS WISDOM -

Countless research studies confirm that the greatest sources of nurture, support and meaning for the majority of Americans are found within the family unit. Legal constraints maintain a sense of appropriateness. Extending the range of permissible behavior will put in jeopardy social integration, freedom, social reproduction, and social health.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS BEGINS WITH US AND OUR PERSONAL CHOICES.



1.United Methodist Marriage Ministries (Overview). www.marriagelovepower.net.