Posted on 09/07/2008 5:50:13 AM PDT by kellynla
Whoever imagined that we would see a Republican convention rapturously applaud an unwed teen mother?
Yet that is just what happened on Wednesday night in St. Paul. At the conclusion of Sarah Palin’s triumphant speech, the Alaskan Governor welcomed her family onto the stage: her husband, her five children and the fiancé of Bristol, her visibly pregnant 17-year-old daughter. That moment confirmed a dramatic evolution in American politics: the transformation of the pro-life movement from an unambiguously conservative force into something more complex.
A quarter century ago, a sympathetic journalist named Burton Yale Pines set out to understand the origins of the then-young social-conservative movement.
Abortion certainly ranked as issue number one, reported Pines in his 1982 book, Back to Basics. But abortion did not stand alone. Social conservatives cared almost as much about relaxed standards of sexual morality, about government interference in home schools and about the then-new issue of homosexual rights. Social conservatives were united, Pines observed, by their “determination to [defend] the traditional nuclear family [from] more than a decade of attacks from anti-family forces on the left.”
Many or most of the issues that excited those first social conservatives have since faded away. The pro-life movement, however, has gone from strength to strength, breaking away from its culturally conservative origins and finding new allies in unlikely places.
The pro-life movement has made common cause with the movement for the rights of the disabled. Impaired pregnancies are highly likely to be aborted, including more than 90% of Down Syndrome pregnancies (according to a 2002 survey of American patients). Pro-lifers have discovered shared values with critics of biotechnological research and commercial reproductive technology, such as the former Ralph Nader lawyer, Wesley Smith.
(Excerpt) Read more at network.nationalpost.com ...
Cripes he's a weasel.
“Cripes he’s a weasel.”
Yup.
Christians in general and evangericals in particular have always been a compassionate people and reach out to comfort and support those who have misfortune or make a mistake. It is in their DNA.
He can't offer a useful perspective because in his world, everything is obstructed behind his own ego.
“I’m done with Frum”
“done with Frum”... I like that!
Sarah Palin's Daughter--What Should We Think? (We=Evangelicals)
Much better written, and more accurate.
While the Dems call conservatives hypocritical for their support of Palin and her daughter, it is not at all. Do conservatives wish that our culture was more favorable for traditional families? Yes. Conservatives would hope that the media would build up the traditional family (instead of trashing it) since statistical data demonstrate the importance of a mother-father family. At the same time, we recognize that other options-—adoption, marrying to provide the child with such support—is the answer to unplanned pregnancy. Dems truly think that Conservatives would either hide their daughters away or kick them out of the house. Palin has shown what TRUE conservatives do when life throws a curveball. Personal responsibility.
Obama wants us to believe that he wants abortion to be “rare” but his votes show that he has never supported ways to make it so. This I think was one of the most telling aspects of the Saddleback Forum...he could not answer the question about what he had DONE to limit abortion.
In fact, Obama can’t say one thing he has DONE about anything!
In 1981, 29.3 abortions were carried out for every 1,000 women of childbearing age in the United States. By 2005, that rate had tumbled to 19.1 per 1,000 women.
Boy, I think you folks too easily dismissed this piece. He's not saying the pro-life movement approves of these type of pregnancies. He is stating that options to have the child (as opposed to abortion) are becoming more normative. That's a good thing. The options create a respect for life while at the same time provide an opportunity to teach through actions responsible moral positions.
“unwed motherhood has been normalized?”
What the heck does that mean?
and
“it is not well-described as either left-wing or right-wing?”
The Left is pro-abortion which has absolutely NO USE for the trend.
“Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink.”
P.J.O’Rourke
“unwed motherhood has been normalized?”
What the heck does that mean?
He means it as a matter of fact. Not as a matter of moral approval.
“it is not well-described as either left-wing or right-wing?”
The Left is pro-abortion which has absolutely NO USE for the trend.
motherhood has been normalized. However you feel about that outcome, it is not well-described as either left-wing or right-wing.
No, he is saying out-of-wedlock motherhood has been normalized in the sense that having the child is an option made more viable by providing the freedom to have rather than have not. All the pro-abortionists want is the freedom to have an abortion. The net effect is "not well-described as either left-wing or right-wing."
My son who at 17 is to the right of Rush Limbaugh brought up Bristol Palin to me. He thought it would hurt her since she is such a conservative and her daughter is pregnant. It lead to a really good discussion on values and taking responsibility for your actions. While he is not going to be a Dad, he did get himself in some hot water this summer and is paying the price for it. His Dad and I could have easily made the situation go away and it would be done with but, we didn’t and he is taking responsibility for it. Nobody is perfect, we all make mistakes, it is how we handle ourselves when the going gets tough that tests our morals and character.
Liberals just cannot understand it.
He’s almost bad enough that he could have been planted on us by the libs.
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