Our religious leaders have a major role to play in protecting adolescents from sexual harm.

More than a quarter of a century ago, a wide range of religious leaders drafted a document for the United Nations. (Religion Counts, Faith-Based Reflection on Adolescent Life: Prepared for the Special Session of the General Assembly on Children, 11 June 2001.)

They distinguished between children and adolescents and contended that while parents had rights and duties to them, they acknowledged that “parents are not always engaged in their lives, and in some circumstances cause them harm and violence. Absolute parental authority is not ideal for raising adolescents.” (p. 12)

Among other, the group included Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and Taoists.

Thoughtful religious leaders were deeply engaged in discussions about the welfare of adolescents. They urged governments and non-governmental organisations to work with parents to build trust and “respect for the rights of adolescents to have access to a wide range of reproductive and sexual health information services.” (p. 12)

Yet, last year, throughout the public discussion of the Age of Civil Responsibility Bill, the only religious voices we heard were those committed to treating adolescents as children. Why have those leaders with a greater real-world understanding of the awful plight of teenagers chosen silence over engagement?

Their silence is not neutral: it is harmful. Rev. Marvin Ellison, a Christian theologian, argues that conventional sex ethics of religions are inadequate. “Outmoded assumptions about sexuality keep young people ignorant about sexuality, placing them at great risk of harm and disease.” (Call to Break the Silence on Sex, Faith, Portland Harold Press, 31 March 2001.

More than 700 years ago, St Thomas Aquinas, one of the two leading pillars of Catholic theology, lamented that there was no word for the virtue of anger in our religious vocabulary. He quoted St John Chrysostom, “Whoever is without anger, when there is cause for anger, sins.”

We must hope that our more informed religious leaders will find their anger, then their voice, and join us in urging the newly elected Government to complete the work it started in July of 2025.

Sincerely,
Tonia Frame, PhD, President, GPPA
Fred Nunes, Consultant, ASPIRE

 Dr Tonia Frame is the President of the Grenada Planned Parenthood Association (GPPA), a Trustee of the Caribbean Family Planning Affiliation (CFPA) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at St George’s University.

Dr Fred Nunes is the founder of ASPIRE — Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving Reproductive Equity, Advisor to the CFPA and GPPA, and is a former Head of Management Studies at the UWI, Mona.

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