Sexuality has become ideological with an associated language – below are some words that may signal the ideological introduction of understandings of sex, sexuality, cohabitation and gender.
Alexis Lund wrote a good article in Verdinytt where he explains how we can look at secular sexuality education from a human perspective that conflicts with the Bible.
Lund writes: “Week 6 is packed with politically charged language that conditions a given view of humanity. Four basic premises for the teaching are: Humans create themselves. Humans choose their own gender. Consent is the only framework for sexuality. And our reproduction is tied to rights and demands.
This is a brilliant summary that is completely consistent with our experience and what we encounter in schools and school health services. Child and adolescent sexuality has become big business and big politics. Below is a glossary that can be a warning that what is conveyed in books or teaching is ideologically charged. The list can be constantly expanded, but is a start to illustrate how extensive the topic has become. Sexual health is a large field that requires sexologists to understand “rightly”.
Many new words constitute a language of power that can passivize or disarm parents, teachers, and pastors. Therefore, this is an attempt to prepare and interpret what the words can mean in a concise manner.
- Gender identity – Used to separate gender from biological reality and promote the idea that gender is fluid, and that children know best what gender they feel like.
- Be yourself as you are. – Can be used to legitimize norm-breaking sexuality and lifestyles without moral frameworks, and is related to “only you know who you are”
- Sexual rights – Includes LGBT+ rights and free access to abortion, often presented as basic human rights, even though they are not.
- Reproductive rights – Often coded language for abortion rights and contraceptive freedom without moral or ethical assessment.
- Inclusive language – Pressure to use LGBT+-friendly and gender-neutral terms that may undermine biblical understanding of gender.
- Equality – Is not what it once was. May include demands for LGBT+ rights and gender ideology under the guise of promoting equal opportunities for all sexes.
- Holistic sex education – Includes norm-critical sex education with LGBT+, porn positivity and early sexualization of children.
- Sexual health – Often used to promote free sexual expression and abortion rights without moral restrictions.
- Right to decide over one's own body – Used to defend abortion and gender-affirming treatment, without regard for moral or medical consequences.
- Human rights – An important value, but often used to promote abortion and LGBT+ rights as universal norms.
- Bodily autonomy – An ideology that legitimizes gender-affirming surgery and abortion without regard to biological or ethical issues.
- Same-sex marriages – Normalizes understandings of marriage that contradict biblical teachings about man and woman.
- Anti-discrimination – Used to force acceptance of LGBT+ ideology in schools, churches and communities, often at the expense of freedom of religion.
- Criticism of norms – A strategy to break down traditional norms about family, gender and sexuality.
- Sustainability goals – UN goals that hide the promotion of abortion and LGBT+ rights behind language about equality and health.
- Self-realization – Promotes individualism and assertiveness without regard for responsibility, faith, or community.
- Safe rooms – Used to protect ideological minorities from criticism, often at the expense of freedom of expression.
- Queer theory – An ideology that rejects biological gender and traditional norms in favor of a fluid and self-defined identity.
- Intersectionality – An ideology that divides people into victims and privileged based on gender, skin color and sexuality, and creates conflict rather than community.
- LGBT+ inclusion – A strategy to normalize and enforce acceptance of alternative gender and sexuality understandings in all areas of society.
- Progressive pedagogy – A teaching model that rejects fixed truths and promotes relativism and norm criticism.
- Gender diversity – Promotes the idea that there are an unlimited number of genders and that gender is not biologically determined.
- Identity – Used to promote a subjective understanding of identity independent of biological or moral frameworks.
- Inclusion – Used to legitimize and normalize all lifestyles and ideologies, even when they violate Christian values.
- Tolerance – Often interpreted as a demand for full acceptance of LGBT+ and gender ideology, rather than respect for differences of opinion.
- Transparency – Used to push for acceptance of norm-breaking practices within gender, sexuality and family.
- Gender roles – Often portrayed as oppressive and something that must be broken down, regardless of whether they are biologically or socially based, and are under strong attack from norm criticism
- Gender expectations – Used to criticize traditional views on gender and encourage a completely dissolved concept of gender.
- SRHR (Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights) – A global political concept that often includes abortion, sex education, and LGBT+ rights.
- Only you know who you are. – A subjective understanding of truth that places the individual's feelings above objective realities and God-given truths is connected to "being oneself as one is"“
- Sex positivity – Marketed as a "liberating" attitude towards sexuality, where the only morality that should regulate sex is consent. Promotes the idea that all sexual expression is positive, regardless of context, marriage, commitment or responsibility, and is vague about age limits. Used to normalize sexualization and can open up for the use of pornography and unethical sexual practices. Can create pressure for everyone to be open to and participate in a sexualized culture, which particularly affects young and insecure individuals.
- Positive attitude towards sex - Same as "sex positivity"“
- Consent – Often used as the sole moral standard for sex, without considering other ethical or long-term consequences. Ignores how external pressure, group dynamics, intoxication, threats, videos, or insecurity can influence consent – especially among young people. Can be used to legitimize destructive sexual practices, as long as both parties have given “consent,” regardless of power balance, immorality, or long-term consequences. Undermines the importance of stability, love, and commitment in sexual relationships by reducing ethics to a legal issue.
- Pride – Originally marketed as a fight for rights, but is today an ideological movement demanding full acceptance of the LGBT+ agenda in all areas of society. Pride is political, a factor of power and is used to influence society at large with its politics and ideological beliefs.
- Minority stress – A theory that claims that all minorities experience stress and poorer mental health only because of society's attitudes, not their own life choices or other factors. Used as an argument to demand that society must adapt to minorities in all contexts, including language, laws and culture.
In this podcast episode below we discuss "red flags" of language use in sexuality education, you can watch the full episode here or listen to it on Spotify.
