ARTICLES

Oakland -- Sex-Ed Gulag

NEW CREATION SERIES FORCED ON PARENTS

By Eric Reslock

Christopher Thnay-Hu and his wife have six children, three of whom attended St. Bede's Catholic School in Hayward. They are active in their community and parish. The Thnays organized boys and girls clubs for kids at St. Bede's school. But after one of their sons came home from school with a book on sex education, the father became curious about the sex ed series, New Creation, used by the diocese of Oakland.

"In June, 1998 one of my sons was a third grader at the time and he came home one night and one of the books in his bag caught my eye. I was curious so I looked at it and for a third grader, they were talking about the sperm of the father going into the mother's vagina, and intercourse. So I wrote a note to the teacher that I want to review this. On Monday, the following week, the teacher sent a pamphlet for parents explaining the program. I examined the material and started doing some Internet research, and it turns out that this stuff has been critiqued to death."

In the first chapter of the parent pamphlet, Insights into New Creation, the authors of the New Creation series state that "the ultimate goal of the New Creation series is to provide children with an understanding of the nature and importance of human sexuality as informed by Christian faith." The introduction to Insights then goes on to cite the 1983 Vatican document, Educational Guidance on Human Love, as the source for the assumptions underlying the New Creation sex-ed series. When he examined the pamphlet, it looked innocuous enough to Thnay, but then he turned to the Internet. The search revealed that the New Creation series has repeatedly drawn fire since it was first published-- from parents, bishops, and theologians in the United States, as well as the Vatican. The dioceses of Denver, Colorado, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota have all chosen not to use the New Creation series. The diocese of San Francisco has also taken a pass on the series.

In defending New Creation, the William C. Brown Company of Dubuque, Iowa, publishers of the New Creation series, cite a U.S. Catholic Conference publication, Education in Human Sexuality for Christians (1983), as a resource for their authors.The document was the product of a committee drawn up by the U.S. Catholic Conference and the administrative board of the U.S. Catholic bishops in 1978. While the National Conference of Catholic Bishops is responsible for approving policies that are to be implemented in the United States, such policies are binding only if approved by two-thirds of the bishops. The guidelines for the New Creation series were never approved by the National Council of Catholic Bishops; and the bishops' administrative board did not read or approve the guidelines before the series was published.

Critics of New Creation say that the program takes a secular approach to sexuality and sex-ed. Father John Forliti, New Creation's theological consultant, was an opponent of Humanae Vitae, was a public dissenter from the Church's teaching on masterbation, and ran the Search Institute, which advocated contraception and abortion as solutions to teen pregnancies. Richard Richert, author of the New Creation texts from grades five through eight, is also reportedly a public dissenter from Humanae Vitae.

Catholics United for the Faith, a Catholic information apostolate in Steubenville, Ohio, has faulted New Creation for its "graphic illustrations that offend against modesty and chastity;" for "emphasizing information over formation;" and for "violating the latency period."

Shortly after its publication in 1984, the New Creation series created enough controversy that it was presented to the Pope John XXIII Center, which reviews bio-medical and sexual ethics. While their review has been kept confidential, the Center's recommendation was that the series be revised. But before this review was finished, Archbishop Daniel Kucera of Dubuque had already given the New Creation series his imprimatur on October 29, 1984. Upon learning of the Pope John XXIII Center's review, Archbishop Kucera sent letters to the bishops of the United States informing that the Center had done a review and recommended that it be revised, but Archbishop Kucera did not withdraw his imprimatur.

In 1988, a group of concerned parents in Kentucky investigated the New Creation series and published a pamphlet critical of it called, A Critical Analysis of New Creation. According to the Kentucky parents, a sales representative named Mr. Totten from the William C. Brown company, publisher of the New Creation series, told the Kentucky group that it took two years from the time the curriculum was submitted before the imprimatur was given by Archbishop Kucera. If true, how is it possible that the New Creation series was influenced by the Vatican document, Educational Guidance in Human Love, which was issued less than a year before the imprimatur? The booklet given to parents for explaining New Creation prophetically cites Educational Guidance in Human Love ten times in its first four introductory pages. But the Kentucky group believed that these nods to a Vatican document conceal content in New Creation that is at odds with its stated principles. The Kentucky parents argued that New Creation usurps the parents' role as the first and primary educators of their children by presenting "explicit sexual information to students at very young ages."

The Vatican's Educational Guidance in Human Love, which New Creation claims as one of its guides, says in Number 87, "Prudence therefore requires of the teacher not only an appropriate adaptation of the matter to the expectations of the pupil, but also an appropriate choice of language, mode, and time in which the teaching is to be carried out. This requires that the child's sense of decency be taken into account." Earlier in the document, Number 72 states, "Given the complexity of the problem, it is good to reserve for the pupil a time for personal dialogue in order to accommodate the seeking of advice or clarification -- which a natural sense of decency would not allow to arise in front of others." Critics of New Creation point out that the mode in which the class is taught, with open discussions, class drills and games about anatomical parts contradict the directives given by the Vatican.

After Thnay brought his complaint about New Creation to Ms. dela Fontaine, principal of St. Bede's, he and other parents who objected to the program were allowed to excuse their children from class during the time the New Creation textbooks were used. But Thnay and five other parents at St. Bede's were upset enough to sign a letter to Bishop Cummins about the series. One of these parents, Bill O'Connell, said that when he reviewed text from New Creation, "Those areas which addressed sex were not age-appropriate. I have seven kids, so I should know." The parents' letter points out that New Creation is based on guidelines that were never approved by the National Council of Bishops, and that the series contradicts the 1996 Vatican document, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality. Bishop Cummins did not respond to the letter. Thnay did receive a letter from the director of religious education at St. Bede's, Brother Chris Sainborn. "[He] wrote me a letter," Thnay said, "and the bottom line was that if the Bishop said it's o.k. I should listen to the Bishop. I was very upset when I got this letter.... C'mon, I wasn't born yesterday. I know that all bishops don't necessarily know what they (the schools) are doing."

In a phone conversation with the superintendent of schools for the Oakland Diocese, Anne Manchester, Thnay says he was told by the superintendent that the New Creation program would remain in place because it bears the Archbishop's imprimatur of 1984. When Thnay brought up objections to New Creation, Thnay says that he was asked what the academic qualifications of those making the criticisms were. "I said basically that you don't need a PhD to know this stuff is bad. That was the jist of it" (Thnay has an master's degree from Stanford). Thnay also that he was told that he would no longer be able to maintain his arrangement with the principal of St. Bede's and that his children would either attend the New Creation classes or they would have to quit the school. According to Thnay, Manchester told him that she did not want such an option provided to parents in the diocese. "She basically said that those children who are not attending will be getting second-hand knowledge of what is being taught and could end up worse off than (going through) the program. But my question for her was, 'why would I want my children in mixed classes of boys and girls at the same time, talking about this and teaching them to be shameless of it. Why would I want this? And with a book with so many flaws in it?'" Mr. Thnay said. " My only option is to take my kids out of school completely. One of my friends had no idea that one of her kids had been taught this stuff for five years without having any idea this stuff was going on. It's like a bureaucracy: once you set up something, people just never stop it. Even though they know that this stuff is questionable, but it's still continuing.... I just can't understand." Mr. Thnay says that the parish priest, Father Farrel, never endorsed the curriculum and was sympathetic to his concerns. Thnay says that Fr. Farrel recently started examining the series, has called the publisher, and discovered that the New Creation series is going through a revision. St. Bede's parent Bill O'Connell said, "If it becomes district policy and everyone wanted to have it, I would want to know why the diocese says this is the textbook that has to be used. With other textbooks available, why this book became the only book."

When this reporter talked to Superintendent Manchester to ask if mandatory attendance at these classes contradicted the guidelines in Educational Guidance in Human Love, she responded that it was her preference not to have children opt out but that the site (St. Bede's) could make the decision. "Children have natural curiosity and would want to find out what happened in class. It would be better to have these questions addressed in class by an adult.... When parents elect to attend our school, they need to look at all the programs together, we don't offer a cafeteria school.... If considered as a whole, if they (parents) feel that any part is inappropriate, they need to not enroll their children." When asked why the New Creation series is approved for use, Superintendent Manchester confirmed that it was the imprimatur of 1984. She confirmed that the series is up for revision.

The Thnays have decided not to return their children to St. Bede's school this fall, are looking into home-schooling for their kids, and are involved with a group to establish a charter school in the Hayward area.