We’ve Created a Monster
Rainbow Party
August 3, 2005

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
Warning: This commentary contains graphic information not suitable for younger readers.

You may have heard the uproar over a new teen novel called Rainbow Party. The controversial book by Paul Ruditis concentrates on one afternoon in the lives of thirteen high-school sophomores. One of them, a girl named Gin, is planning a sex party. The other kids are trying to decide whether to attend.

The book takes explicitness to a whole new level. Several different sex acts are described. Even before the party starts, two sex acts take place, one of them in the school bathroom.

Several of the teens are innocent, but others have more experience than a lot of adults. The sexual power plays going on among these tenth-graders would make Machiavelli’s head spin. And though the afternoon doesn’t unfold exactly as planned, the book’s outcome can be seen a mile away: a class-wide outbreak of disease.

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