Wise words with...

'Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.' Philippians 4: 8 (NIV)

As I am writing this article, we now have only one further week of Term 2 remaining to complete. I often marvel at both the speed with which our school terms pass us by and also at the amazing variety of events and activities that occur throughout these times. I can confidently state that Term 2 at Nowra Christian School has been no exception as all of our students, from Kindergarten right the way through to HSC, have been engaged in a wide range of stimulating learning experiences.

Much has happened within this past week but, in this article, I will focus on just one of these important activities. This ‘activity’ involved the visit to NCS on Thursday and Friday of this week by Melinda Tankard Reist and Daniel Principe. Most parents and carers will be well aware of this visit and many of you were represented at the community gathering on Thursday evening. Melinda and Daniel provided all in attendance with a stimulating presentation on the challenging topics of sexually explicit advertising and the adverse impacts of social media and pornography on the attitudes and behaviours of our children.

We had already provided a significant amount of information to our NCS parents and carers leading up to the arrival of Melinda and Daniel at our school. This included the following statement: ‘Melinda Tankard Reist is an author, speaker, media commentator, blogger and advocate for young people. She is best known for her work addressing sexualisation, objectification, the harms of pornography, sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence against women……..Daniel is a youth advocate, educator and event host. He partners with schools and communities to challenge porn culture and the sexualisation of women and girls. Daniel works with young men across Australia to reimagine healthy expressions of masculinity and manhood.’

I had the privilege of hearing Daniel as he provided two engaging presentations to our Years 7-9 and Years 10-12 boys. (Melinda also presented two separate sessions to our Years 7-9 and Years 10-12 girls.) I also attended the evening community presentation, where Melinda and Daniel both addressed the audience of around 150 parents and carers, many of whom belonged to our NCS ‘family’. On the Friday I was able to sit in on much of Melinda’s presentation to our Years 5 and 6 boys and girls. 

The key reason why we invited Melinda and Daniel to provide these challenging presentations is because we recognise that attending a Christian school does not mean that your children will somehow be completely sheltered from the insidious impacts of the world of sexual exploitation, inappropriate advertising and pornography. It was the desire of our staff team to have these controversial topics directly addressed in an age-appropriate way and in a manner that, whilst clearly highlighting the dangers, did also indicate that there is real hope for a solution.

We were greatly encouraged by the honest way in which our students responded to the material that was presented. Yes, it was abundantly clear that they were aware of the pornographic images that can saturate our social media and that many of them had encountered unwanted material. Whilst this is clearly disturbing, it is important to note that this is an area that we as staff, in partnership with you as parents and carers, have the opportunity and responsibility to continue to address with our young people. I can assure you that this important issue is one that all members of our staff team are committed to continuing to address, both directly and indirectly, through the programs and activities that we provide at our school.

As I listened to the presentations and viewed the material provided, I was continually reminded that, at NCS, we do belong to a community of hope and that this ‘hope’ is found through faith in Jesus. The Bible presents us with God’s word which, in turn, provides compass directions for how we are to live our lives. Just one of these vital ‘compass directions’ can be found in Philippians 4: 8 where we are encouraged to focus our full attention on everything that is ‘noble, right, pure and lovely’. Clearly the world of pornography and sexual exploitation does not fit this definition and, for this reason, we must not allow our attention to be drawn to these unwholesome areas.

I stated earlier that Nowra Christian School is a community of ‘hope’ and that this hope is found through a personal relationship with Jesus. This reminded me of another one of God’s ‘compass directions’ found in the Bible that states, ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!’ 2 Corinthians 5: 17 (NIV) This is the message that I would desire to leave you with and it provides us with the assurance that God does have the victory over all things and this certainly includes the world of pornography and sexual exploitation.