Category: Culture
Teen Pregnancy Rates
The Church has a role in discussing sex and sex education with children and teens that provides scientific facts alongside the religious, theological, social reasons for making good decisions about one’s body and relationships. Just say “no” and shame may have been effective centuries ago (not really), but that places all the responsibility or blame for teen pregnancy on teen girls and makes excuses for teen boys. “Abstinence Only” curriculum is irresponsible. This article from ThinkProgress highlights one state’s struggle with that irresponsible decision that adults made on behalf of their children and youth. This comes at an interesting time when white conservative patriarchy is making a “last stand” to claim authoritarian power again in government and culture (see all states that elected GOP leaders to state houses in 2010). What is startling is that these “educated” men and women cannot see that their desires for American culture based on their expression of Christianity (presented in the media by former Governor Mike Huckabee) is akin to what the Taliban did and continues to do in villages throughout Afghanistan. Click the title to read the entire article.
State With Highest Teen Pregnancy Rate Slowly Moving Away From Abstinence-Only
By Tara Culp-Ressler on Aug 3, 2012 | ThinkProgress
As Mississippi struggles with the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the country, a majority of school districts are doubling down on a abstinence-only instruction, largely ignoring a 2011 state law that requires Mississippi schools to teach some form of sex education. But a growing number are abandoning the failed approach and opting for small steps toward a more honest conversation about sexual health.
From Religion Dispatches
Here is a good article interview that touches on what the Church is and is not doing in our culture. A few paragraphs reposted here. Click the title to read more.
Money, Technology, and the Silence of Churches: A Conversation with Susan Thistlethwaite
by Candace Chellew-Hodge | July 25, 2012 | Religion DispatchesHow do we occupy the Bible?
There are several steps to take. First, read the book, the whole Bible. I quote studies that show if you actually read the Bible outside of the church it turns you liberal. Also, get a New Revised Standard version. There is a conservative Bible project that is cutting out passages considered too liberal, so get a whole Bible.The thing about human nature is you don’t think your way out of temptation. That’s the value of the recent decade, where we’ve realized that these systemic problems need systemic solutions; they need structures and regulations. We learned that lesson in the Great Depression and put Glass-Steagall into effect. But we believed it couldn’t happen today, so the act was repealed. The drive from the Reagan years of anti-government individualism is going to be the death of the economy. Everything that the Great Depression taught us has gone away, and it’s not just in the financial sector, it’s the labor sector as well, in the attack on unions. No CEO is going to give up their money; you have to have labor solidarity in order to adjust that.
These are theological problems: what the internet does is put it on steroids.
The key to internet-driven culture is having people become more savvy, recognizing how this stuff is coming at them at 90 miles per hour. I also advocate public activism; I do what I preach. Every week I write a theological piece for the Washington Post on topics like JP Morgan Chase, which is really about hubris. I point out that this is sin. It’s not the gay people sinning, it’s these people over here who are sinning. In this way, I take back sin for what it really is.