Bad Economy is good for family values

This is the first of a multi-part post in which I will discuss the impact of a soft economy on the family. A soft economy often means scaling back some extravagances in the family budget. Things like movies, dinners at restaurants, the buying of new toys and gadgets, etc. are often the first thing to go in a family budget. In many cases, this is a blessing in disguise. An attentive parent can see opportunities to spend more time with their kids and for their family to grow together.

Over the next few posts I will focus on opportunities that can be gained to help families to spend more time together and grow stronger during an economic slow down. I'll also focus on external things happening outside the family that are impacted by a sagging economy that can turn out to improving family values within the United States.

Stay tuned!

Teens Had Pact To Get Pregnant

http://wbztv.com/local/gloucester.high.school.2.751873.html

A recent graduate who had a baby during her freshman year told Time she knows why the girls wanted to get pregnant.

"They're
so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally,"
Amanda Ireland, 18, said. "I try to explain it's hard to feel loved
when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m."

Wow this is really interesting. So a bunch of teenagers actually wanted to get parent of out wedlock to "feel loved unconditionally". Talk about candidates for hearing PJPII's Theology of the Body!

Some of the lowlights here:

1. They used homeless men to impregnate them
2. They didn't feel "loved" by anyone else in their life
3. School officials are allowed and encouraged to give contraception to students.


Just more evidence that our teens need to hear the truth about their bodies, their God, and the love he has for them.

Lesbian Kiss at Ballgame has everyone wound up

From http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9142SUG1&show_article=1

The hoopla here is that a lesbian couple was asked to stop kissing because it made another fan uncomfortable. I can sympathize with the fan because I've seen from experience that lesbian and gay couples often have displays of affection that are, shall we say, a little more intense than the average straight couple.

Sibrina Guerrero complained that there was another couple there making out just a few rows up front. She claims she was singled out because of her sexual orientation. I wasn't there, of course, but I'm sure it must have been one heck of a smooch fest for it to make another fan uncomfortable.

The gay and lesbian lifestyle is carnivorous in its approach to sexuality. I mean think about it, their sole reason for claiming their minority status is the fact that they have a different sexual drive than others. Plus, in this case specifically, it seems like Guerrero may just be a little more than enthusiastic about her sexuality:

Since the incident, Guerrero's job and her
past have come under scrutiny. She works at a bar known for scantily
clad women and was a contestant on the MTV reality show "A Shot at Love
With Tila Tequila," in which women and men compete for the affection of
a bisexual Internet celebrity.

Face the facts, the lives of gay and lesbian couples are diven by sex, why should we expect them to act prudish in public? It seems like it's part of the coat of arms for the GBLT movement that you need to come under public scrutiny at some point in your life. Why is every GBL-or-T person I've ever met so obsessed with sex?

The first steps to a pornographic mindset

Another example of the kind of thinking that leads our young people to think and experiment at shockingly early ages.

I know she's in it for the money, but can Beyoncé really be that ignorant of the damage she's causing to young girls?

Check out the article, you'll see what I mean:

http://www.parentdish.com/2008/05/12/beyonce-sexing-up-childrens-clothing/

No such thing as a "risk free" contraception

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths to which people traverse to justify the use of birth control. In a recent article about the patch contraceptive Ortho-Evra, a groups asks that the product be removed from shelves, citing recent research that shows high levels of risk for users:

But Wolfe argued that the patch offers no better contraception in return for the extra risk. And he said lawsuits by women who claim they were harmed by the patch have unearthed two previously unpublished studies from Johnson & Johnson researchers that found higher estrogen exposure from the patch even before it won FDA approval in 2001.

It boggles my mind how people can overlook the natural, wholesome, healthy, and relationship-building approach to the spacing of children: Natural Family Planning.

Of course NFP requires a completely different mindset with regards to children, sex, and families.

Salvia Divinorum - keep an eye on it

Although not really an illegal drug, there's a potential for abuse here since only eight states consider it illegal to use this stuff.

As a parent, I like to keep out on all this stuff because you never know what kinds of weird stuff kids in the future will be into.

Suicide Note of a pimp

Suicide note. Those are two words you never ever ever want to say when talking about a loved one. Well, Florida police have released the suicide note for a woman known as "the DC Madam", who apparently ran a prostitution ring for almost 13 years.

This is just another sad example of what happens when the value of our bodies and the God-ordained sexual experience is devalued to the point of death, literally, in her case.

For me this raises the question of legal prostitution, which is rampant in many parts of the world. Here in the United States, prostitution is only legal in one state, Nevada, but in many parts of the world, sexual services can be gotten very easily.

An upcoming post will deal with the issues of prostitution, but I wanted to make a post about the note itself. Look at the handwriting, the nuances of her penmanship, the details of her punctuation marks. There is emotion in this letter; the emotions of a sad woman, with a desperately warped perception of love. Let us pray for her soul and for those involved in this lifestyle.