Parents divided over US chastity campaigner Jason Evert

Parents have split over the decision of some schools to cancel talks by US chastity campaigner Jason Evert with some objecting to the promotion of ‘purity culture’ and others endorsing his message.

Jason Evert speaking in Sydney on Monday. Picture: Giovanni Portelli / Sydney Catholic Schools

Parents have divided over the decision by three Catholic schools on the NSW central coast to cancel appearances by US-based chastity campaigner Jason Evert, with one mother rejecting suggestions opposition to his presentations was linked to the promotion of abstinence.

Sarah Greenway, who has a daughter in year 10 at St Joseph’s Catholic School in East Gosford, said she was one of several parents concerned about Mr Evert’s promotion of “purity culture”.

Ms Greenway, who believes St Joseph’s does an excellent job educating students, pushed for the talk to be cancelled.

She told The Australian she took issue with arguments that put the “onus on women and girls to be responsible for men and boys”.

“It tends to give men and boys a get out of jail free card that if there’s a transgression from those pure, modest ideals, that (men and boys) are within their rights to behave badly and dis­respectfully,” she said.

Ms Greenway wrote to Catholic Schools Broken Bay on Friday, arguing that Mr Evert “promotes the idea that chastity and ‘purity’ is inherent to men treating women with dignity”.

“I do not endorse any approach to teaching … that puts the onus on my daughter to take responsibility for a man’s behaviour towards her,” she wrote.

She also said Mr Evert had described homosexuality as “disordered” and this perspective could be “harmful and alienating to students”.

After his arrival in Australia on Monday, Mr Evert this week had appearances cancelled at St Joseph’s in East Gosford, MacKillop College at Warnervale and St Peter’s College at Tuggerah after the schools received complaints. His presentation was livestreamed for students whose parents opted-in.

Mr Evert, who addressed more than 1000 kids from Sydney Catholic schools on Monday at the Good Samaritan Catholic College, told The Australian “if the things said about my presentation in the media this week were true, I would not allow my children to attend such an assembly either”.

“They are gross mischaracterisations. For example, shaming women for a lack of male self-control isn’t modesty – it’s blame-shifting.

“As someone who has friends and family within the LGBT community, I know the last thing they need to hear in a chastity presentation is that there’s no room for them in the church. That’s not the church’s message to them, and it’s not mine,” he said.

“Students who had the opportunity to hear the presentation this week have filled out surveys, and the diocese said responses were overwhelmingly positive.”

Khiara Squires, whose daughter attends MacKillop Catholic College, was disappointed Mr Evert did not appear in person to deliver his presentation. “I was delighted to hear he’d be visiting my children’s school,” she wrote in the Catholic Weekly.

“I am perplexed as to how my children are now missing this opportunity for high-quality Catholic information at their Catholic college on account of ‘concerns’ which are in fact at odds with Catholic teaching. I am also concerned that this sends a message to students that what they see on social media is ‘normal’ and that views like those expressed by Jason Evert are fringe.”

Mr Evert said it was important to tell young people how to distinguish “love from lust.”