What we have in Portland, Maine is worldly wisdom desperately struggling to find a way to prevent children from having children. But notice a few flaws of the worldly wise:
1) Parents can't raise their children; the trained professionals must do it for them. Rather than contacting, educating, and working with the students' parents, the school system bypassed them in making this decision. Why would they do this? Because the educated elite know better than parents.
This worldly wisdom is prevalent in our modern society. Parents have bought into the lie that they aren't equipped to raise their kids. In fact, one school board member in Portland who has a daughter at King Middle said, "I know I've done my job as a parent, but there may be a day when she doesn't feel comfortable coming to me." Granted, teenagers are notoriously hard to communicate with, but there are things we can do as parents to keep our kids talking. Parents are the single greatest influence in their child's life.
2) Sex isn't the problem; pregnancy is. The school board (rightly) trembles at the thought that 12 year olds are pregnant, but they seem unconcerned with the equally chilling fact that 12 year olds are sexually active. Is the goal just to keep our kids from having babies or is the goal to keep our kids from destructive sexual behavior? The wisdom of this world doesn't view sex outside of marriage as a problem. It's natural. It's neutral. The only down side to sex is the side effects (pregnancy...STDs).
But the sexual union itself is destructive for these kids... in so many ways. Why doesn't the school board find ways to deter children from having sex instead of finding ways to protect the children while they have sex?
3) Contraceptives are the only hope. The wisdom of this world stands utterly incapable of changing the situation in Portland, Maine (and everywhere else in America). In fact, they are so blinded that they cannot see their worldly wisdom (i.e. the sexual revolution, etc.) is what lead to all of this in the first place. They turn to condoms and birth control because, sadly, it's all they have. What they desperately need and furiously fight against is wisdom from above (James 3:17).
The life-transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the ultimate answer for King Middle School. Only Christ's righteousness can overcome our unrighteousness. Only the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit can replace our indwelling perverse desires.
"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men,
and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
1 Corinthians 1:25
