Lee Duigon
August 1, 2004
[Warning: This review contains language and subject matter that may be offensive to some readers. In fact, if you're not offended, you should be.]

Planned Parenthood has done it again. In the cause of "sex education," it has imposed on the families of Waco, Texas, a nasty little book entitled It's Perfectly Normal. The book is the text for a program called "Nobody's Fool," intended for grades 5–9, children 9–14 years old. [For more information about "Nobody's Fool," see the American Life League website, all.org.]

The book by Robie Harris, published by Candlewick Press, has the endorsements of all the usual suspects — Planned Parenthood, the American Library Association, the AIDS Action Committee, and the Unitarian Church. These groups are all well-known for their anti-Christian, anti-family agenda, and It's Perfectly Normal does them proud.

Planned Parenthood runs "sex education" programs in many communities and in most states. "Nobody's Fool," in Waco, is only one of them, and many texts besides It's Perfectly Normal are used elsewhere. Let it serve as a representative of the whole abominable mess.

The first thing that leaps out at the reader is the plethora of watercolor illustrations, many of them displaying very explicit frontal nudity, hairs and all. It's not exactly a Kama Sutra for children, but it comes close.

But the text is the real offender. For instance, did you know that the anus is "a sex organ" (pp. 23, 26)? * Did you know that the one and only reason people object to homosexuality is because "they think homosexuals are different … their views are often based on misinformation, not on facts" (pp. 17–18)?

Would you have believed it was possible to write a whole chapter about AIDS without once mentioning the extra high risk of HIV infection to which homosexuals expose themselves? Did you know that although "some religions call masturbation a sin," the "fact" is that "masturbation cannot hurt you" (p. 48)? I suppose those "religions" must be wrong.

On page 73, the author lists nine reasons to have an abortion, including: "The female did not intend or want to become pregnant." Not one reason is proposed for deciding not to have an abortion. This is also one of the few pages in the book without pictures. Wouldn't want to display the actual product of an abortion — a dead baby.

Interestingly, in pictures in which the characters are clothed while kissing, necking, etc., it's very difficult to determine any character's gender. You wouldn't think that was done on purpose, would you?

Nowhere in this book can we find even a suggestion that sexual behavior has a moral dimension. The closest the author comes to it is to remark on page 76 that sexual abuse is "always wrong." But we are offered no explanation as to why it is wrong. It's hard for moral imbeciles to explain morality.

It does make one wonder what's happened to the fathers of America. If any adult had placed such a book in my hands when I was ten years old, he would've had to leave town and never come back — because my father would have killed him.

Why don't fathers protect their children anymore from such assaults on their moral development? Where are the mobs of angry fathers? I say this because millions of fathers allow their kids to be doused with this poison every day in America's public schools. Don't they care? Or are they just a bunch of girlie men?

It's a key element of Chalcedon's philosophy that merely denouncing the ungodly is not enough. One must also have a plan to make the world more godly — and act on it.

Planned Parenthood — which gobbles up millions of taxpayer dollars every year — has programs like "Nobody's Fool" all over the country. It's Perfectly Normal probably can be found in your local public library. If you're in denial about what's being taught in the public schools today, you need to study this book. If your library doesn't have it, your library can get it for you from another library.

The American Life League website has a section on how to oppose Planned Parenthood and how to drive it out of your school district. Find out whether Planned Parenthood has infested your local schools; then learn how to combat it. You might also consider withdrawing your children from the public schools altogether.

Or, you can just lie back and try to be comfortable with your children being taught that "[t]he ancient Greeks thought that love between two men was the highest form of love" (p. 17).

Note

*Page numbers refer to 1996 paperback edition.