Dedicated to the Holy Family

    Jesus taught by moralizing. He clearly defined right, wrong and sin. Jesus described the Kingdom of God with clever analogies; creative parables containing references the people could relate to. While his stories sometimes were not understood, they were never seductive. Even misunderstood, Jesus' parables did not contain mixed messages that might put the listener in the occasion of sin. Jesus' goal, while developing well formed consciences in his followers, was to spawn love for God and to generate understanding for the necessity of obedience. While conversion, disdain for sin, and repentance oftentimes spurred emotion, even today the decision to follow Christ stems from the reasonableness of God's divine and natural law.

    Unfortunately, moralizing isn't very popular these days. Modern classroom teaching methods succeed in skirting moral absolutes in favor of values clarification, an insidious technique which usurps all traditional moral norms in favor of personal choice. Values clarification ideology loathes moralizing. Proponents of this method insist that behavior should be freely chosen after analysis of options and consequences. By insisting that students feel comfortable with their choices, values clarification introduces an emotional component to decision making, even though emotions change easily and quickly, and are not necessarily objective, realistic, or wise. After over 30 years of classroom values clarification, is it any wonder why youth forcibly oppose having someone else's morality imposed upon them, even when it is the same morality taught by Jesus Himself?

    Traditionally, and until the advent of values clarification, Catholic parents and teachers employed moralizing after the example of Jesus. Paradoxically, values clarification has crept silently into Catholic and secular abstinence and chastity education, not to mention the misnamed catechesis in sexuality. Proponents insist that given all the facts and consequences, our young will make good choices. But let's face reality. Young people do not live in a vacuum these days. They learn about the consequences of untimely pregnancy, disease and heartbreak long before they hear about them in the classroom. How will telling students what they already know prompt them to behave differently?

    The Vatican document The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality condemns values clarification explaining how "young people are encouraged to reflect upon, to clarify and to decide upon moral issues with the greatest degree of ‘autonomy', ignoring the objective reality of the moral law in general and disregarding the formation of conscience on the specific Christian moral precepts, as affirmed by the Magisterium of the Church. Young people are given the idea that a moral code is something which they create themselves, as if man were the source and norm or morality" (section 140).
 
    Aletheia Press never has and never will publish any material that utilizes values clarification. Our commitment is to define morality, God's will for us, in the straightforward fashion of unpopular moralizers. We understand that ‘choice' and free will do not mean the same thing. Unlike choice, free will is never autonomous, for it is always accompanied by responsibility to choose God's will. Aletheia Press strives to produce materials that will assist youth develop a well formed conscience in hopes that they will one day enjoy heaven with Jesus.

Thank you for your interest in Aletheia Press. God bless you.

Mrs. Lisa Marie Contini - Publisher