So I'm At The Dr This Morning and......

[rsmith6621]

Mr Doctor has WIFI in the lobby area so I took my laptop to answer a few emails and work on some other issues while waiting to get in when I come upon this story....

Mississippi has highest teen birth rate, CDC says

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090107/ap_on_he_me/med_teen_births

After reading it I said kind of out loud....INCREDIBLE....the guy next to me say's what's INCREDIBLE???...I pointed to the article and said "it is just amazing how many Bible belt,Christian culture,red state areas of the country have significant problems with teen pregnancy with all the programs that are suppose to keep this to a minimum.....he said well its not just a conservative issue it is a national problem. I said but the Christian groups are the ones who are pushing for abstinence only education...apparently it doesn't work look to Sarah Palin's family and religious beliefs it didn't work for them of all people....then he made the key statement that I was able to run with.....he is an associate Pastor of a LARGE local Pentecostal church.....(BAAM) I said well until the church can get this issue under control with regards to it's own members it has no moral jurisdiction promote abstinence only education to the rest of society and until the church can show itself without fault with several other issues out there they should stay out of working on implementing anti gay agendas...

I sat there for a few minutes quiet waiting for a response then he got up and found another seat....BTW I live in MS.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Surprised he didn't move as soon as you started talking.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. You're very brave,

and his inability to listen to what you said, to hear the truth, is symptomatic of what is wrong with all those fundies. They're the most intolerant of beings, forgetting that their savior preached tolerance and acceptance.

Love they brother, and all that. Don't recall that Jesus ever had anything to say that said you were supposed to judge and condemn people who were just living their lives and being their own, authentic selves.

You really were courageous, talking about S-E-X with a guy who turned out tobe one of those strange preachers - Pentacostals are weird.

Well done!

:toast:

[lpbk2713]

3. You shocked the hell out of him.

He probably got used to the fact that he was in the majority (locally) and you cut him off at the knees.

You gave him a wakeup call. WTG.


:thumbsup: :hi: :thumbsup:

[crikkett]

22. Not only that but you shut him up - by telling the truth

he obviously had no answer for you. Good job!

[hamsterjill]

4. Good for you!

It's really time for these people to have the results of their foolish beliefs handed back to them.

Abstinence only is a fairy tale and the facts are bearing this out.

[Deja Q]

5. Poor people have nothing else to do thant to fuck and make babies.

No amount of verbiage from a book is going to change a thing unless the verbiage is green and has a picture of a drunk Ben Franklin on it.

The media promoting indiscriminate, non-consequential sex all over the place doesn't help either.

[Froward69]

6. KUDOS to you

Silver tongue!!!

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cascadiance]

8. Cool! Also note to them that the higher divorce rates are in red states too!

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=10961

http://www.divorcereform.org/94staterates.html

So religious folks don't have mandate over putting in place the best environments to protect the sanctity of marriage either!

[monmouth]

9. HA! You may be the subject of this Sunday's "sermon.".....n/t

[zbdent]

10. too bad you didn't get a chance to tell him to ask the Dr. about

the boom of sexual problems (diseases, etc.) that teens are facing after thinking that they were "safe" without the standard "intercourse" type of sex (without protection) ...

[peacetalksforall]

11. Getting up an moving - proof of their insular thinking .

[LynneSin]

12. The fundies will make every excuse out there but I think that rate speaks volumes

The top 10 states were all red states or reddish states (like Arizona & New Mexico). The article I read said that 'some say' it was because of the large black & hispanic population. Well call me silly but we have blacks & hispanics here in the North East and you don't see any state from that region in the top 10.

If you educate our teenagers and make reliable birth control available then you'll see that rate going down.

[RiverStone]

13. abstinence only education is a joke

Teach kids how to make healthy choices, how to feel better about who they are, how to use birth control --- teach kids these things and we will have less unwanted pregnancies with teens.

[applejuice]

14. You'll probably get used as an example in one of his upcoming sermons...

He'll talk about how blind you are and will undoubtedly twist some of the things you said somehow...

I speak from experience. I've had to sit and listen to preachers rail on about stuff like this before. It is pretty scary. (Scary because people listen and agree.)

Good for you for speaking up though. Someday maybe some of the folks with these ideas may see logic.

[applejuice]

15. As an aside, whenever I hear about the teen pregnancy rates going up

I think of the film "Juno". I really hate that movie. In my mind it is actually a load of right wing crap. "Look how wonderful she is for having a baby! She did what was right and was so cool! She gave a mother a baby! She found love herself! There just was a happy scene at the end where it was all happily ever after! Don't think about the effect this may all have on her in the future!"

Sorry for the slightly off topic rant there, but I'm sick of people glorifying teen pregnancy. The reality is it does not statistically leave mothers or babies in a good socioeconomic place.

Girls need to be taught how not to get pregnant until they are ready and want to be! Boys need to be taught the same thing.

[crikkett]

23. the irony I see in 'waiting' to have a child

is how so many ageing (and yes you're ageing in your mid thirties) couples end up spending tens of thousands of dollars to force the conception of a child who's statistically less healthy, when it could've been so easy and natural, when they could've taken care of the biological imperative when it was time, ie. when the hormones are raging and the body is ripe for it.

I have friends who had their children young and who are doing very well. My own parents are young.

Whatever. My mother bless her heart, who made me the poster child for birth control and chased away any man who got near me for my own good... now faces the fact that she's not going to get any grandchildren out of me. Her sadness reaches through the phone to fill my room.

I really wish that our society didn't so heavily penalize young parents. It costs a lot less to give a young mother tuition and food stamps than it does to incarcerate her malnourished child two decades later. People are way too uptight. The family unit's been broken.

[TheDoorbellRang]

24. I completely agree on that. "Juno" was a travesty

I had someone recommend it to me as a "sweet" film, and it made me furious. It really did seem to glorify teen pregnancy. Eveyone accepted it so well -- her parents, her friends, her boyfriend, and then she lived "happily ever after" with her boyfriend. Yeah, just like real life. I told the person who recommended it that it seemed like a propaganda film for the anti-choice crowd and they thought I was over-reacting. Glad to see someone else was as dismayed by it as I was.

[Soylent Brice]

16. thank you!!

that's hilarious. i get in trouble with the wife for doing shit like that all the time.

if it's not someone at the doctor's office, it's in the line at the grocery store, or with a neighbor.

way to hand him his ass/the truth.

[DCKit]

17. Same with birth control, family planning and abortion...

But they don't advocate nearly as hard for the protection of children after they're born.

An insistance on strict controls and regulation of child services/welfare would really go a long way toward legitimizing their arguments.

[rosesaylavee]

18. Good for you.

Even though he moved, you can bet he's not done thinking about what you said. I hope that it has a good outcome... lots of stories out there about former born agains who couldn't reconcile the preaching with reality.

Good for you. Hope there were others within earshot as well.

[southerncrone]

19. Probably went to the restroom for some "foot tapping".

rsmith6621, do I recall you moving to the Memphis area from WA state a few months back?

Anyway, if that was you, you must realize that it is a perpetual do-loop of job security that these Fundie preachers must keep in place.

If these Fundie preachers don't keep the populous poor, uneducated & fundie-brainwashed, then they cannot control them.
If they can't control them, then the ignorant don't keep coming to hear them spout their BS & give them their 10%+, twice on Sundays & every Wednesday.
If you keep them ignorant, they aren't going to make that much $ in the jobs they can land, so you must make up for this in volume, i.e. having lots of kids (which keeps you poor & insures that they will not have the good educational opportunities = stupid & easily manipulated).

Thus, the continuum of Fundyism is maintained.

Isn't it a beautiful plan that they've worked out in the name of GOD? :puke:

[Canuckistanian]

20. Hypocrisy... it's not just for breakfast anymore

It's breakfast, lunch and dinner for the red states.

[Maru Kitteh]

21. are supposed to keep at a minimum - not "suppose"

It's a thing, sorry.

[bahrbearian]

25. Its seem that anyone attending a Pentecostal church is a Pastor.