What Would Jesus Do About Jamie Lynn?

Among the casualties of the Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy -- alongside Jamie Lynn's career, Nickelodeon's cash cow, and the last remaining shred of 2007's dignity -- is Lynne Spears' memoir, Pop Culture Mom: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World.

Maybe any publisher would have pulled -- sorry, "indefinitely delayed" -- Spears' book, but it's also possible that some might have simply slapped on a new afterward and moved the pub date to coincide with the first photos from the maternity ward. Unfortunately, Spears' book was being put out by Thomas Nelson, a Christian publisher whose market tends to frown on teenage sex and children out of wedlock.

Nelson was always a strange fit for Lynne Spears, of course. Not only is Britney out of control as an adult, but we now know that, despite her early good-girl posturing, Britney lost her virginity at age 14, an age when decent parenting might have made a difference. So why did Nelson buy the book in the first place? It was probably part of a calculated strategy to push into the secular market. And this week's flame-out is likely stirring up a fierce debate within Thomas Nelson, and the Christian retail industry in general, about how much Christians can engage with the world at large without losing their souls. (By "Christian," I mean here a particular evangelical subculture).

Thomas Nelson is by some measures the largest Christian publisher in America and the ninth-largest publishing house of any kind. Over the last few years, it has been aggressively expanding beyond its core market, with a great number of books that have little or no overt Christian content: Memoirs by Denise (wife of Alan) Jackson and Robin (wife of Dr. Phil) McGraw; Pop business manuals with titles like Neuromarketing and Corporate Canaries; Books about Ronald Reagan, Bear Bryant, and Blondie (the comic strip, not the band); The Complete Vegan Kitchen and Life Lessons From Your Cat. Basically, as long as there's no chance it's going to offend any Christians, Thomas Nelson will publish it.

The philosophy is that the secular world is not irredeemably bad and should not automatically be shunned as un-Christian. This approach to Christian publishing (and its analogs in music and other aspects of Christian pop culture) is not without critics. There are many people who believe that Christian publishers who do not boldly proclaim the word of God are at best selling out and at worst exposing the body of Christ to grave danger. The secular world, they argue, is entirely corrupt, and the proper Christian stance is to be entirely separate (except when necessary to pull other people out of it). This week, those voices just got a lot louder and more smug.

Comments

[RicksterInGulfport]

I would say Dr Phil slightly misspoke.

Great Mother?

More like grandmother.

Give her another 12-13 years, she will be a great-grandmother.

What a train wreck of a family.

[dadw5boys]

WHAT WOULD SCOOBY DO DO?

[TRYKER]

Both Spears girls seem to have a need for their father, who is divorced from their mother, right?
Where was daddy when his girls needed him to guide them in the 'ways of men'?
This probably wasn't exactly what she meant when Jamie Lynn said she would be more famous than Brittney.
Making beautiful babies isn't the worst thing to happen to young women.
With the world watching, the kids have a better chance of survival...like Kevin stepping up when Brit was faltering.
Someone is loving those boys of Brit's, they are happy, contented, looking well cared for, not acting like brats, all is not lost thats apparent. Somebody is doing something right we must admit.
I look forward to watching the little tykes grow up and hope their mothers develop what is necessary .
Our opinion of their lives however, is not necessary.

[larry278]

If the late, great JC really is looking for sinners, he hit the jack pot with the Spears clan. The place is getting too crowded. No, I'm not considering a try at reforming. I'll learn to tolerate crowds.

[Orikinla]

Is it a crime for a 16 year old to be pregnant in America?

The sarcastic disapproval of this teenage girl will make millions of other teenage girls to abort their unwanted pregnancies to avoid the stigma and trauma of public criticism and ridicule.

What she needs most now is not castigation, but rehabilitation.

Jesus Chrsit is not looking for angels, but for sinners.
He is the great physician who heals the sick.
Jamie Lynn Spears needs Jesus Christ now more than ever before.

[kellygrrrl]

I think Jesus would want his followers to grasp REALITY

[ScienceLady]

Anyone can make up stuff about what they think Jesus would say and do.
I would just like to know, is there any historical evidence that Jesus existed? There is evidence that Julius Caeser existed. And he was alive during the time of Christ.
I would like to see all the evidence of Jesus available to all in an open-world forum. Let anyone review, translate and communicate any historical evidence. Who is hoarding all this evidence, the Vatican? I want peer review.

[TWOSHORT]

Forgive her sins as told in the story of the good book.Woman was going to be stoned i think when the son of god saved her by asking who among you is without sin cast the first stone.Rape of a child isn't funny and if this is how White People treat there children!Ask what the son of god thinks of you!those who don't protect there children from harm.Lohand-Hilton-Richie-spears media inventions!

[sdskelton03]

To answer your question, He would allow Himself to be hung on a cross and die for her transgression.

[Merlin7]

Nice title. Tonight CNN aired a program called "What Would Jesus Really Do?" that was really stupid and offensive. If CBS had aired such a program during the era of Edward R. Murrow, he probably would have shot himself in the head.

The clownish anchor, some kind of religious fanatic, conducted the "interviews," most of which involved two religionists who disagreed with each other only slightly. One atheist was shown briefly, but he was shouted down and was not allowed to explain his point of view.

It's really frightening that a huge corporation such as Time-Warner would air this kind of blatant propaganda. We are really in trouble, folks, because obviously the crazies have infiltrated our most powerful corporations.

[Merlin7]

Maybe there is such a thing as heavenly retribution. Consider this: Recent studies show that the Christians' nutbag insistence on abstinence-only training instead of sex education in public schools has resulted in many thousands of young girls becoming pregnant nationwide.

Jamie-Lynn just happens to be the most famous of this new generation of kids who were left more vulnerable because their parents didn't have the guts to stand up to the Bible-thumpers who took over their local school boards.

[mckinley]

Face it, Christianity does not work.

Sorry, the reality is, Christianity does not give its adherents the tools or means necessary to live a Christian life, much less a life unfettered by the baseness of human desires in the real world.

[NABNYC]

The "evidence" to support the assumption and claims that we are a sophisticated, advanced, rational, intelligent group of people living in a nation based upon law and reason is nonexistent.

The fact is we are just as ignorant and backwards as were the cave people. The fact also is that the ruling classes love to divert us to our baser sides while they are busy looting the treasury.

There is no story that draws quite so much attention as that of an unmarried female who has sex. Or does not wear underpants, or a bra. Or whose dress slips to the side so a breast shows. Slut! Slut! Slut! the Greek chorus cries.

We love those stories because they allow us to revert to the witch-burning scape-goating days of old. Let's all express an opinion about a young girl who had sex.

My opinion is this:

(1) the Spears parents obviously failed in educating their daughters to take care of themselves and live with some dignity.

(2) I assume the Spears parents claim they are "Christian" parents. Which apparently means they wear enormous crosses around their necks while pimping their daughters out as sex objects for popular media.

(3) Parents need to educate their children (male and female) to use birth control. So, if they do have sex despite their parents telling them not to (like their parents tell them not to drink beer, but they do anyway) they can avoid getting pregnant.

And parents should also teach their children to use birth control so they don't get Aids and die just because they have sex which, by the way, is a completely natural human impulse which has been followed by pretty much every single human being in existence. Grown-ups can't keep it zipped up, so it's absurd to think teen-agers will.

And P.S.: Mary, Jesus' mother, was an unmarried pregnant woman who would have been stoned to death if the truth had come out. Joseph married her and saved her life by doing so. Was Mary a slut?

[tandrmcdonald]

What would Jesus do? He'd say those of you without sin cast the first stone.
A whole bunch of people are missing the point. The girl is sixteen; anyone out there in punditland hear of statutory rape?
Gramma Rose

[hopeless277]

He would ignore her. Either that or try to make a buck by exploiting her. I think the latter.