Investiture Achievement/Spiritual Discovery Discussion

Don't forget each Pathfinder needs to study the topic before your discussion.

This topic list is repeated in both Voyager-Spiritual Discovery and Guide-Spiritual Discovery so consider combining your Guides and Voyagers for these discussions and discussing different topics than last year.

Teen Pregnancy

Nearly 3 in 10 teen girls in the US will get pregnant at least once before age 20? The statistics are just as bad in the UK, Canada and other countries, if not worse. There are more than 700,000 teen pregnancies each year just in the United States!

As a Pathfinder, what does this mean? Teens hear about the dangers of teen pregnancy but it remains a problem. Why are so many teens still getting pregnant every year and what can we do about it?

At the right time babies are fantastic. We all love their cute and cuddly ways. But babies are so much nicer when you can hand them back to the responsible adult parent. Babies are expensive and demanding.

Pathfinders and supposed to be true and pure which means not having sex outside marriage, but what if you do have sex? What are the consequences of getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy? According to research almost 50% of teens have never thought about how a pregnancy would affect their lives, yet a baby will be one of the most life-changing things to happen to a person.

Consider these consequences:

1. You will drop out of school.

Having a baby is the Number One reason teen girls leave school without finishing. It is very hard to juggle homework and a baby's needs. Less than 50% of teen mothers EVER graduate from high school and fewer than 2% earn a college degree by age 30. Teen pregnancy kills education for the mother and a lack of education kills opportunities and earnings for life.

2. Your kids will do poorly in school.

For a variety of reasons kids of teen mothers do worse in school than those born to older parents. Poverty and lack of education in the home causes this. Kids with teen mothers are 50% more likely to repeat a grade. The are less likely to complete high school (even years after their moms are no longer teens), and perform lower on standardized tests. They are also more likely to become teen parents themselves and live in poverty.

3. One baby leads to another.

Teen pregnancy factors, like low self esteem, lead to about 25% of teen moms becoming pregnant again with a second child within 24 months of the first child. It seems that some girls can't learn from their first mistake. The second child makes it even harder to stay in school or stay out of poverty.

4. Babies don't keep boys around.

Babies make boys run, period. They don't make relationships stronger, because they introduce more stress. It does not matter what he promises you or how much he says he loves you. Chances are you are going to raise the baby on your own. 8 out of 10 fathers don't marry the teen mother of their child. In the USA, absent fathers pay less than $800 annually for child support, often because they are also poor and can’t afford legitimate support payments or they choose other priorities.

5. It’s hard in the parents, and the kids.

More than half of all mothers on welfare today had their first child as a teenager and two-thirds of families begun by a young, unmarried mother are poor today. Teen pregnancy breeds poverty and trouble. Kids living without the father at home are 5 times more likely to be in poverty.

If you have a daughters as a teenager she is 3 times more likely to become a teen mother herself compared to girls born to mature parents. If you have a son as a teen mother, he is twice as likely to end up in prison as a son born to a stable family.

6. It is not fun for the boys either.

Getting a girl pregnant will destroy your life. You will be tied to that girl for at least the next 18 years whether you want to be in her life or not. Being a dad will damage your opportunity to date good girls - the good ones don't want a loser who can't control himself and they don't want to end up like the girl you got pregnant. You get to pay child support, and if you can't afford it, you will feel like a loser. Child support tends to cut your opportunity to go to college. And when you find a girl to marry how is she going to feel about part of your paycheck going off to another woman?

How can you prevent teen pregnancy?

1. Avoid getting heavily involved emotionally until you are at least out of high school. False feelings of love by those who are not mature enough to love like an adult leads to baby making.

1. Guard yourself. Don't get physically involved. If you abstain, there will be no pregnancy 100% guaranteed.

1. Avoid situations where you can get into trouble. If you are not alone you can't mess up.

1. If you insist on sex, use birth control (but abstaining is better)

1. Avoid all drugs and alcohol. Many a baby is conceived while judgement is impaired

1. Follow God always. If you think about the consequences of having a baby before you are ready, and ask for God's help in following his will, you do not need to be worried about teen pregnancy.

1. Communicate with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Clear conversations about expectations undertaken outside the heat of the moment help avoid problems when passions are high.

1. Talk to trusted adults. Your parents, pastor, teachers or Pathfinder staff are there to help you work through the process of growing up. Talking through the issues around sex and pregnancy avoidance with an adult first will help immensely when you need to discuss it with your girlfriend or boyfriend later.

Now you have decided not to become a teen parent - what can you do to help other teens avoid it?

1. Educate: Spread the word, distribute material from groups that want to educate teens about the dangers of teen pregnancy.
2. Advocate: tell your friends what you learned. Share stuff on social media. Speak up in health class. Make it cool to NOT be having sex and having babies.
3. Be a friend: watch your friends relationships and state of mind. Is your friend thinking about sex? Are they feeling lonely and needy and that a baby could fill a void in their life? Are they undertaking risky activities like spending time one on one in private with their boyfriend or girlfriend? Be willing to step in and talk to them if they seem at risk. If that does not work, talk to a responsible adult about what you see and encourage them to get involved.

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is a very difficult subject in the Seventh-day Adventist Church today. Historically, like most Christians, Adventists considered homosexuality a sin, and generally homosexual individuals hid their feelings and activities from the public and their families. Most Pathfinders are not old enough to remember those days though. Pathfinders live in a world where homosexuality is often not a big deal at all and it seems antiquated to even discuss it as a bad thing.

Within the lifetime of our Pathfinders the whole context of the discussion has all changed. Movie stars, politicians, professional athletes and people in all areas of life have come out at gay or lesbian. The week this guide was written (October 2014) Apple CEO Tim Cook publically announced he was gay and, while it made news because he is such an important business leader, the world shrugged it off as no big deal.

Many countries and states now allow same sex marriage and many church denominations perform these weddings. Gay bishops and pastors are being accepted in some denominations. No longer is it cool to joke about gays, and discrimination based on sexual orientation is outlawed in many parts of the world.

On the flip side, countries like Russian and Uganda have passed laws that severely restrict or ban homosexuallity and impose penalties for practicing it.

So what does all this mean for the teenage Pathfinder?

1. You probably have gay or lesbian or transgendered friends. If you don't, surely you will know someone in your wider circle.
2. Respect is the only acceptable way to treat homosexuals, just like you should respect your elders, those from other cultures etc.
3. Recognize that regardless of your personal feelings about homosexuality, or what you interpret the Bible as saying, that most homsexuals and many other people in society believe homosexuality comes from the womb and is a normal variation in humans. You are not going to win friends or influence people toward truth by arguing against this belief.
4. Homosexuals, like all people, need to be welcomed into our churches. Even if you believe that homosexual behaviour is a sin, we are all sinners.
5. Many draw a distinction between the desire to sin by acting on homosexual (or any sexual) desires outside of marriage, and the actual acting out these desires. This position states it is not a sin to be a homosexual any more than it is a sin to have any sinful desire, but that it is the acting out that creates the problem.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has an official statement on homosexuality that is worth discussing in your group, as follows:

HOMOSEXUALITY

The Seventh-day Adventist Church recognizes that every human being is valuable in the sight of God, and we seek to minister to all men and women in the spirit of Jesus. We also believe that by God's grace and through the encouragement of the community of faith, an individual may live in harmony with the principles of God's Word.

Seventh-day Adventists believe that sexual intimacy belongs only within the marital relationship of a man and a woman. This was the design established by God at creation. The Scriptures declare: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh" (Gen 2:24, NIV). Throughout Scripture this heterosexual pattern is affirmed. The Bible makes no accommodation for homosexual activity or relationships. Sexual acts outside the circle of a heterosexual marriage are forbidden (Lev 18:5-23, 26; Lev 20:7; Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:9-11). Jesus Christ reaffirmed the divine creation intent: "'Haven't you read,' he replied, 'that at the beginning the Creator "made them male and female," and said, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?" So they are no longer two, but one'" (Matt 19:4-6, NIV). For these reasons Seventh-day Adventists are opposed to homosexual practices and relationships.

Jesus affirmed the dignity of all human beings and reached out compassionately to persons and families suffering the consequences of sin. He offered caring ministry and words of solace to struggling people, while differentiating His love for sinners from His clear teaching about sinful practices. As His disciples, Seventh-day Adventists endeavor to follow the Lord's instruction and example, living a life of Christ-like compassion and faithfulness.

This statement was voted during the Annual Council of the General Conference Executive Committee on Sunday, October 3, 1999 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Revised by the General Conference Executive Committee, October 17, 2012.