[Apologetics] Baylor University President Supports Abortions

[Art Kelly]

Baylor University President Supports Abortions
Posted by Senior Editor on 2005/5/4 14:34:16 

Baylor University's new interim president, William
(Bill) Underwood, stated reasons May 2 why he has been
a financial supporter of a Planned Parenthood
sexuality program for youth entering the fifth through
ninth grade.

In an interview requested by Baptist Press, Underwood
stated that he and his wife have enrolled their
daughter and son in the half-day program in recent
years.

Planned Parenthood in Waco, Texas, where Baylor is
located and in numerous cities across the country
provides abortion and other sexual-related services
and is known as the nation's largest provider of
elective abortions.

Controversy over Nobody's Fool, a summertime session
launched by Planned Parenthood of Waco/Central Texas
in 1990, spiked last year with a brief boycott of,
oddly, Girl Scout cookies. The regional Girl Scouts
organization, in addition to having been a Nobody's
Fool sponsor, had named Planned Parenthood's local
executive director as a "Woman of Distinction" in
mid-2003. In February 2004, during the Girl Scouts'
cookie-selling season, leaders of a local pro-life
group, Pro-Life Waco, called for the boycott. In late
February, the 14-county Bluebonnet Girl Scout
Council's board of directors voted to end its ties
with Planned Parenthood.

Controversy continued as the Nobody's Fool session
July 15 approached, with numerous articles and opinion
pieces appearing in the local paper. In one article,
the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Austin called
Nobody's Fool "devoid of Christian morality regarding
sexuality." In one opinion piece, a woman recounted
how a minister at a session in the mid-'90s had taught
the 12-year-old boys at Nobody's Fool how to give and
receive oral sex.

Underwood, a professor of law at Baylor who was named
the university's interim president April 29, stated to
Baptist Press that his 16-year-old daughter had
attended Nobody's Fool two or three times and his son
attended last year for the first time as an
11-year-old.

Problematic instruction on sexuality, he said, "has
not been my children's experience nor the experience
of any of the people who I talked with before my wife
and I made the decision to have our children attend."

Underwood and his wife, Lesli, were among about 100
individuals listed as "underwriters" on a Planned
Parenthood promotional flyer for last summer's
Nobody's Fool program.

Seventh & James Baptist Church where the Underwoods
are members was one of 10 co-sponsoring churches. The
others included Metropolitan Community Church, which
is part of a predominantly homosexual denomination;
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Waco; Temple
Rodef Sholom, a Reform Jewish congregation; Lake Shore
Baptist Church; First Presbyterian Waco; and First
Lutheran Church. Sponsoring churches do not provide
money for Nobody's Fool but volunteers and promotional
assistance.

"Each year that I have sent a child I have made a
financial contribution to the program," Underwood said
in the interview with Baptist Press.

Underwood said he doesn't hold the same opinion as
those who believe they should disassociate themselves
from other Planned Parenthood programs because of its
abortion services.

"My children are the most important thing in the world
to me," said Underwood, the son of a Baptist minister.
"And like every parent, you worry about the influences
of our culture on the kids and you do everything you
can at home to teach them the kinds of moral values
that you want to instill in them. And my wife and I do
that. And the same thing occurs at church....

"But I want as much reinforcement of the themes that
I'm trying to communicate to my children as possible.
And sometimes it's helpful to have people who aren't
parents and who aren't friends from church saying the
same things that we're telling them. And that's why
I've sent them to Nobody's Fool," Underwood said.

Underwood acknowledged that "some of my closest
friends are opposed to the Nobody's Fool program. I
understand where they're coming from and I understand
their concerns. But in looking at what was right for
my children and then talking with people who had sent
their children to the program, I thought it would be
beneficial for my children, because I thought the
themes that they would be exposed to at the program
would be consistent with the themes that I was trying
to communicate to them in my home."

The Waco-area Planned Parenthood's website describes
Nobody's Fool as providing "factual information about
growing up, puberty, dating, relationships, sexual
issues and sexually transmitted diseases, including
AIDS," with instruction done in gender and age groups.
Interested parents cannot attend Nobody's Fool but an
informational session is held for them the night
before the event to foster "better communication
between teens and their parents," according to the
website.

One point of contention with the local Planned
Parenthood has been its distribution of a book, "It's
Perfectly Normal," to the youth and their families in
conjunction with the Nobody's Fool program. The 2004
promotional flyer for Nobody's Fool stated that the
seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders would receive the
book, while the fifth- and sixth-graders would receive
a companion book, "It's So Amazing."

Underwood said he is aware of the book but hadn't
examined it or used it with his children.

It's Perfectly Normal spans nearly 100 pages and
contains numerous cartoon-like pencil-and-watercolor
drawings, including one or more with a naked couple
engaging in sexual intercourse and various depictions
of male and female anatomy.

It states: "It makes sense to wait to have sexual
intercourse until you are old enough and responsible
enough to make healthy decisions about sex."

But the book is devoid of any counsel to wait until
marriage.

On abortion, It's Perfectly Normal lists nine reasons
why abortions are sought.

On homosexuality, the book states: "Some people
disapprove of gay men and lesbian women. Some even
hate homosexuals only because they are homosexual.
People may feel this way toward homosexuals because
they think homosexuals are different from them or that
gay relationships are wrong. Usually these people know
little or nothing about homosexuals, and their views
are often based on fears or misinformation, not on
facts. People are often afraid of things they know
little or nothing about."

But nothing is stated about a Christian worldview as
being a plausible reason for opposing the homosexual
agenda.

It's Perfectly Normal also asserts regarding
homosexuality: "The ancient Greeks thought that love
between two men was the highest form of love. In the
ancient Greek city-state of Sparta, in about 1000
B.C., it was hoped that male lovers would be in the
same army regiment. People thought that if a warrior
was in the same regiment as his lover, he would fight
harder in order to impress him. The Spartan army was
one of the most powerful and feared armies in ancient
Greece."

Greg Wills, professor of church history at Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.,
responding to a Baptist Press request to examine the
historical assertion in It's Perfectly Normal, noted:
"Many in ancient Greece saw the love between men as
the highest form of love, but this was a matter of
true friendship, affection and respect -- it was not a
reference to the gratification of sexual desires.

"Homosexuality of all kinds was generally against the
law and generally considered shameful, but it gained
popularity and a measure of toleration among certain
classes -- the aristocracy, the elite. But it was not
the egalitarian homosexuality that gay partisans
advocate now," Wills continued. "The homosexuality
that existed among the Greeks was almost always that
of a man and a boy. It was pederasty. The man was the
active one … and the boy was the passive one, the
female. Although contrary to law, the man generally
paid the family and offered to help the boy make his
way in the world, and thus prevented them from
bringing the matter to the courts."

Underwood, in the interview with Baptist Press,
commented on sexual abstinence until marriage by
stating, "Obviously, the message that I think any
Christian would want to convey to their children is
that sex outside of marriage is not appropriate."

On homosexuality, he stated, "I think all of us would
agree that it is not an appropriate Christian response
to homosexuality to hate the homosexual. There are
lots of other reasons to be opposed to homosexuality,
including the view that it's a sin."

Underwood, in the interview, stated that he supports
another Planned Parenthood program, the Susan G. Komen
Race for the Cure, in which participating runners
raise funds for breast cancer screening for
underprivileged women.

The program also has become controversial, Underwood
said. "It's the same kind of situation, where there
are some people who are understandably opposed to
Planned Parenthood's activities and don't believe that
you should participate in any program that has any
connection to Planned Parenthood regardless of the
nature of the program.

"I consider myself to be not just pro-life," Underwood
continued, "but aggressively pro-life ... to the point
where not only am I opposed to abortion but I'm
opposed to the death penalty.

"To me, the Nobody's Fool program, when I look at it,
is about preventing unwanted teen pregnancy," which
accounts for nearly one in five abortions. "If there's
a program out there that will reduce the number of
unwanted teen pregnancies, I'm in favor of it,"
Underwood said.

Supporting the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure for
the early detection of breast cancer likewise is "an
aggressively pro-life position for me," he said. "And
I probably ought to give more money to it than I have
in the past."



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