Theology and Sex Education with Hispanics/Latinos
by Emma Escobar and Jessica Roffe
Three years ago I participated in Vale Esperar (“It is worth the wait”), a community-based program that educates and empowers youth to make healthy decisions about sexuality. This program focuses on young mothers and fathers that struggle here in the United States due to early child bearing. Although it focuses on abstinence, youth are also equipped with the knowledge and skills to build a better future in terms of healthy relationships and marriage. Vale Esperar gives parents the skills to talk with their youth about sex using core values in the Hispanic/Latino community.
Religion plays an important role in Hispanic/Latino cultures, the majority being Catholic and Protestant; although many are Catholic, Protestant Hispanics/Latinos have more conservative views regarding marriage and family. Statistics show that religious education is not significantly reducing Hispanic/Latina teen pregnancy, and although Hispanic/Latina women are less likely to have abortions than some other groups, a combination of factors give reason for public health officials to be concerned.
Especially in conservative and evangelical Hispanic/Latino churches, the most common view of women is that they are either holy (saints) or whores. This idea of women as either saints or evil found in churches today derives from values introduced at the time of Mexican colonization. History shows that Spaniards introduced not only negative values towards women and family, but also brought with them a patriarchal religious view towards the body and sexuality of women.
We see these western ideas today in Latin America and really strongly in the United States. Feminist theologian Maria Pilar Aquino addresses patriarchal theology in Latin America, and explains how Europeans imposed “patriarchal Christianity” on the indigenous people through conquest, took away the indigenous traditions and beliefs, and tried to eliminate females from the public sphere and remove their authority.
As the Hispanic/Latino coordinator of the New England Conference of The United Methodist Church, I visit all the Hispanic/Latino churches in the New England area. My experience is that male pastors often focus on and preach about the need for the separation between body and soul. Although sexuality has been present throughout human history, some Christians and other religious people have tried to separate the soul and the body because they consider the human
body una miseria: something that is without value and that leads to sin and evil. However since marriage sanctifies a body, pastors urge congregations (and specifically women) to “be holy and separate their soul from the body;” meaning that their bodies are a source of sin and they need to not cause males to sin.
From my experience and my own research, it is important to teach youth how these cultural and social norms came to exist through colonization in Latin America. This way, they can understand that gendered power dynamics have not always been the way they are today. With Eve as a model, women today are still blamed for sin and seen as a tool that the devil uses. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is introduced as the holy woman that is so pure that we receive hope through her when she gives birth to the son of God. Churches and schools also use a non-biblical character to reinforce the idea of women as either saints or sinners. Pérez Álvarez talks about the Malinche, who is known as a traitor because she helped Hernan Cortez to conquer Mexico. All these icons are used in the church’s theology to reinforce the notion of women as either holy or evil, which was not the case within Indigenous communities.
I suggest that any comprehensive sex education curriculum should include a Theology of the Body. This theology will address two things: first, it would make religious leaders aware of whether their own objectives reflect patriarchal values, and why they address the responsibility of abstinence only to females and not males. Such a theology would help those in the Latino community to see sex as something natural and not taboo, and therefore make it easier for parents to initiate such conversations. Since children of engaged parents tend to be less sexually active, a Theology of the Body promotes respect and understanding for everyone. It also addresses why God created us this way, as sexual beings, and how to best express that sexuality.
This theology can be incorporated in sermons to parents, and can be part of the Sunday school youth curriculum. Books or articles can be used in bible studies to encourage a better understanding of this taboo topic in the Hispanic/Latino community. This will help new generations to be born into an environment where talking about sex is not taboo; it will also foster better relationships between parents and youth, and empower youth to be independent and make better decisions about their future. This can change social norms, and have youth carefully consider how they want to fit into the roles and behaviors that society is encouraging.