illegitimacy
 

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/o...rital_sex.html

With a special shout-out to the Mormons toward the end:

The only counsel I can think of on this topic has been in the form of increasing the baby market for childless couples, more commonly known as LDS social services adoption.

Mormon leaders aren't against polygamous relationships? News to me.

If you read the article, I think the point was it's not a hot social topic. Religious leaders aren't speaking out and organizing on the topic of illegitimacy in the way they are against other topics like gay marriage or polygamy.

To some extent, I guess I am a product of my social times because illegitimacy doesn't strike me as a scourge either, so I'm not sure I believe there should be such public statements.

It is a bit jarring to see Bristol Palin out there advocating for teen abstinence. Do you think she will come up in YW lessons this week, and is that how you would teach the topic?

I haven't read the article, but I have a hard time believing that illegitimacy isn't a major social problem. How many black kids in America are raised by a single parent? 70%?

How many kids don't have a father?

The LDS church, by its nature, I think is uncomfortable in social intervention in society at large, unlike some churches.

It's been a while since I looked at the numbers, but illegitimacy is part of what is absolutely destroying the black community.

Jarring? Seems like she's an ideal candidate to speak on the topic.

Except that she's flip flopped on it. Even after her child's birth she said abstinence was "unrealistic." Her parents have since gotten her to dump the boyfriend and her tune has changed. I think it's a shame for her that she's been thrown into the public limelight. That wasn't her choice. But my cynical side seems to tell me this most recent statement from her has something to do with making her mom's christian right friends happy.

True in a respect, but you may be missing some of what RHG is trying to get at. Obviously, Bristol's experience and the challenges she will face make her well-suited to speak to teens on the importance of responsible sexuality and on the possible consequences of irresponsibility. At the same time, shouldn't the mother of a newborn be demonstrating that responsibility by tending to her newborn rather than making the talk-show circuit? And what message does she send about her baby if she's out there saying, "Hey, this was a mistake."

If you look at RHG's previous sentence, I don't think she's questioning the fitness of the speaker (Bristol) so much as she's questioning whether these statements are fruitful in the first place.

It's politics. Palin's stock value with Dobson's crew is slipping as more and more private details come out about the family. Palin needs Bristol to play the sympathetic figure of the devout Christian girl who made a mistake, and has repented, and is taking responsibility for the consequences of her sin. Then she's done the "go and sin no more" thing, and any critics will have to face "let he who is without sin" rebuttals.

I don't blame you for the cynicism. It's certainly possible. I frankly wish the families of politicians would both get out and be left out of political conversations, but that's not our culture.

I haven't read what she's actually been saying. Has she said her baby was a mistake? There is a delicate way of saying "abstinence is a better way" without taking the Obama approach of referring to a baby as punishment.

As to the talk-show circuit: do you have some inside info that Bristol is not tending her newborn?