General Research:
Religious views on sex and drugs.
- The conventional theory views drug attitudes as primarily coming from people’s political ideology, level of religious commitment, and personality. The other theory, proposed by the researchers and driven by ideas from evolutionary psychology, holds that drug attitudes are really driven by people’s reproductive strategies.
- Bible on drugs: A drug is a chemical substance which alters the way in which a body functions, thereby affecting the person taking it physically, perceptually, behaviourally or emotionally; sometimes in a destructive or harmful manner. The purpose of using drugs medicinally is, as far as possible, to restore a person to full health, wholeness. As such the responsible and controlled use of medicinal drugs is acceptable.
( 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1 )
- Bible on drugs: We are not meant to have 'other gods / idols'. The things our lives revolve around become our 'gods'. For the addict, whatever the addiction, something has taken the place of God.
( Exodus 20 erse 3 - 4 , Romans 1 verse 25 )
- QUR’AN on drugs: O You who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones and (divination by) arrows are an abomination of Satan’s handiwork. Avoid (such abominations) that you may prosper. (5:90)
- Allah Ta’ala has described intoxicants amongst other things as being appalling, despicable and hateful acts of Satan and he has commanded us to abstain from them, Allah thereafter states in the next verse: -
Satan’s plan is to sow hatred and enmity amongst you with intoxicants and gambling, and to hamper you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will you not give up? (5:91)
- Throughout history, God put His stamp of approval on human sexuality and reproduction. To Abraham and later to Jacob (Israel) He basically said, "I am God and I want you to reproduce!"
I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins ( Genesis 35:11 ; see also Genesis 12:1,2,7 ).
- Saint Paul subscribed marriage as a solution to such excesses:
Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband ( 1 Corinthians 7:2 ).
- Marriage and sex are among the signs of God's power and blessings. The Qur'an says, "And among His signs is that He has created for you spouses from among yourselves so that you may live in tranquility with them; and He has created love and mercy between you. Verily, in that are signs for those who reflect."(30:21 )
From these few verses of the Qur'an, one can easily understand that according to Islam: (a) marriage is a sign of God's power and blessings; (b) marriage is a highly recommended act of virtue which should not be avoided because of poverty; (c) sexual urge is a creative command of God placed in human nature. After equating sex with Allah's creative command, there can be no room for equating it with guilt, sin or evil.
- The Qur'an clearly disapproves of killing other humans: “Take not life which Allah has made sacred” (6:151; see also 4:29 “If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein (for ever)” (4:93). Allah (SWT) went even further, making unlawful killing of a single individual human being equal to mass murder of the whole of mankind: "Because of that, We ordained for the children of Israel that if anyone killed a person not in retaliation for murder or for spreading mischief on earth, it would be as if he killed all mankind. And who saved a life, it would be as if he saved all mankind." (Al-Maidah, 5:32)
Advert on these issues:
Children as young as eight are talking about being pressured for sex and taking drugs are the stars of a new government TV campaign.
"In less than four years I'll start going to parties where I'll be drinking alcohol," says one girl; another says how before she is 15 she will be drinking at a party and a boy will "pressure me for sex"; a boy says that he will soon be at his first gig, presumably drinking, where he will then be offered drugs by an older boy.
The TV and cinema campaign, from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, which you can see for the first time on MediaGuardian.co.uk, aims to drive home that young children are only a few years away from being in social situations where they will be exposed to underage drinking and its consequences.
"The sooner we talk to our kids about alcohol the less chance that drink will start making decisions for them," runs a voiceover at the end of the ad.
The campaign, which has been created by the ad agency Wieden & Kennedy London, includes two television ads and a cinema commercial. One of the TV ads will air in general programming to target families; the second carries a 9pm watershed restriction as it uses more hard-hitting language and descriptions of potential negative consequences around drinking.
The cinema campaign breaks on 1 February. Press ads will run in and around TV listings in women's weekly magazines. There will also be a radio campaign.
"Children as young as 13 are often already drinking at parties and facing some pretty grown up decisions," said Paul Jordan and Angus Macadam, creative directors at W&K. "This campaign is a reminder that good decision are harder to make when you have been drinking."
The campaign is designed to tie in with alcohol awareness advertising from the Home Office and the Department of Health.
Ian Monk: Sex and drugs give show the X Factor
So, in the end it wasn't the sex or the drugs that did for alleged hooker Chloe Heald's chances of progressing on the X Factor. It was the rock 'n' roll because, like thousands of contestants, she couldn't really sing.
Ian Monk
Sex and drugs merely fuelled the publicity for Chloe and the show. Claims that she had worked as a prostitute filled many X Factor-branded pages, as did the view that exposure on national TV would enhance the price of her non-musical services.
Photographs of her snorting cocaine published by a Sunday redtop were also avariciously followed up across the media. Did the show's canny publicists court and welcome the flood of publicity generated by the lifestyle choices of Chloe - who uses the 'working' and stage name of Mafia? Was it a triumphant publicity campaign or a failed damage limitation exercise? Chloe's subsequent appearance on the relatively genteel confines of This Morning to discuss her life certainly suggests that ITV makes few judgements on the personal lives of those it invites on to its sofas.
In a non-judgemental age, why should it? And yet questions remain. Recent advertising research shows the X Factor is right up there with The Sun as the most effective method of getting a product message to a mass audience.
Presumably all the brands that convey their message via Simon Cowell's leviathan of a show are happy with the juxtapositioning of their brands with the values of the show's raunchier contestants?
The tabloids that fawn over the X Factor tend to take a stern moral line on sex and drugs, which enables them to boost circulation off a celebrity scandal.
No matter that Team Beckham is stridently denying every aspect of every claim being made by the call girl who alleges a liaison with him. The media are using his denials and mega lawsuits to link his name to hers in banner headlines across all platforms.
X Factor Hooker Is A Junkie is a headline cast in tabloid heaven. Whether it is one that could potentially bite the hands of the show's publicists and those of its stakeholders remains to be seen.
Few young people nowadays wait until they’re 18 to drink. By the time they reach 15, more than eight out of 10 have already tried alcohol.
In minor cases this will cause the slurring, staggering and sickness associated with being drunk. But the consequences can be much more severe. Statistics show that around 5,000 teenagers are admitted to hospital every year for alcohol-related reasons.
Teenagers who get drunk run other risks, too:
• In a 2007 survey, one in five teenagers admitted to drink driving, while a third (32%) had been a passenger in a car with a driver who was drunk.
• Drinking alcohol can make teenagers forget all about safe sex. Statistics show that after drinking, 11% of young people engaged in unprotected sex in 2007. 11% again claimed to regret that sexual encounter.
• Alcohol plays a big part in antisocial behaviour, crime and violence. A Home Office survey found that one in five (18%) 12-13 year olds and over a quarter (28%) of 14-15 year olds caused damage while drinking, while one in 10 15-16 year olds said that drinking had led them to get in trouble with the police.
