The folks at Zondervan have recently published the True Images Bible, aimed at girls ages 13-16, and promising to “strengthen your relationship with God, family, friends and guys.”

It also features sidebar fictional stories of teen girls discussing oral sex, lesbianism, pregnancy, and alcoholism. While these are (thankfully) classified as Bad Things in the conclusion of the stories, the overwhelming frankness is disturbing. Imagine sweet 87-year-old Aunt Martha deciding to get Cassie a new Bible for her 13th birthday. “Mom, what’s fellatio?”

Cameron Conant, Zondervan’s public relations manager for Bibles (isn’t that a nauseating title, in and of itself) hides behind statements that are mind-blowingly inapplicable:

We’ve forgotten that the Bible is filled with sex and violence, and God’s redemptive role in the lives of sinful people. The Bible itself is a pretty provocative book.

In Conant’s mind, general references to a subject in the Bible means that the publishers have carte blanche to discuss that subject at great length and in great detail. Perhaps we ought to package DVD copies of the entire Quentin Tarantino library with each Bible, so long as we put a disclaimer, “Kids, don’t try this at home.”

Conant “explains” that a great deal of research was done into issues that concerned girls of their target age and then states:

These issues are out there … Virtually every 13 to 16-year-old out there is dealing with these issues.

This is the same logic that says that we ought to distribute condoms in the schools because the kids are having sex anyway. Or that we ought to give clean needles to junkies.

Conant then went on to say (emphasis mine):

We want to point them to God-centered solutions and responses to the things they’re seeing on TV and the things they’re hearing from their friends.

And herein lies the biggest problem. Society is stripping away parental roles, left and right. Even our legal system has gotten in the act. As noted here, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit wrote last year that “[t]here is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children…” Apparently Zondervan is just trying to uphold the law and joining the 9th Circus by telling you, “These aren’t your kids!”

Children, obey Zondervan in the Lord, for this is right.

Hat tip to Tim Challies for pointing this out. Much of the information in this post comes from this WorldNetDaily article.