Concerned parents in Childress, Texas, are denouncing two churches for providing sexually suggestive materials to children without their permission. Officials from the church claim that they were simply answering questions posed by the children.
One mom, Kayla Evans, wrote on Facebook the disturbing terms and conversations her 13-year-old daughter was subjected to at Childress First United Methodist Church last Wednesday .
"I'm seriously at a loss for words and just completely confused what our daughter was taught at church tonight. I'm outraged," complained Evans. "It's been a while since I've been at church but is this really what's being taught to youth now?
A handout was reportedly distributed to students as part of a marital intimacy lesson in the Church of Christ in Childress' youth program (children aged 12 to 18), reports KCBD 11.
The lecture included a discussion of pornography as well as a glossary of lewd words.
Evans said that she debated whether or not to post about the subject, but eventually chose to do so to serve as a warning to other parents.
"(I'm) concerned it's being taught in other churches, so I think other parents need to be aware!!" Evans reasoned.
A representative of Childress First United Methodist Church, who requested anonymity due to his lack of authority to talk openly, informed The Christian Post Tuesday that the church mean well when they collaborated with Church of Christ in Childress for the sex education lesson.
"We joined with another church, and it is a curriculum that they've developed over the last 15 years," said the spokesperson and added that the real handout that was distributed was prepared to address the "questions that youth had over the last several weeks."
"It was answering questions that the kids brought up," said the representative.
When questioned why parents were not contacted prior to the church providing responses to the children's concerns, the representative said that he could not directly answer that.
"The parents were not aware of the handout, but the very few calls we have received have been asking questions of clarification," he said in defense. "The majority of people have not called this church and my understanding is they have not called the other church. They have taken to social media to air grievance without finding out what actually happened."
On Tuesday, CP attempted to obtain statements from Mike Henderson, a spokesman for the United Church of Christ in Childress but received no comment. However, he informed KCBD 11 that the sex education lesson is part of a curriculum that has been offered to their youth group for 15 years with no issues and participants are normally mindful of what would be discussed.
"I don't want to throw anybody under the bus, and I don't want to be critical or defensive at all. At the last minute, like maybe even 5:00 Wednesday afternoon, the youth minister from the other church involved called Drew Denman, our youth minister, asking if they can attend," Henderson said.
"And he said, 'With parental consent,' but when someone shows up, you can't tell them not to come in because they knew what it was about."
He also said that this was the first time they permitted another church to enter the series weeks after it began, which may have influenced some parents' reactions. He added that the seven-week series sets the tone for all that followed.
"The individual who was upset wasn't there for the first three sessions to brace them for what was going to happen," he said.
The Church of Christ in Childress, according to KCBD, would make reforms to be more stringent in obtaining parental consent.
