Palin's Evangelical Base Slaps Down Bristol

There are ironies, and then there are real ironies. In the aftermath of Bristol Palin's candid interview with Greta Van Susteren this week about teen abstinence, one of mom Sarah Palin's chief support groups -- right-wing evangelicals who promote abstinence -- tore into Bristol over her comments on Fox News that "abstinence is unrealistic."

In a statement entitled "The Cold Hard Facts Melt Myth That Abstinence Is Unrealistic," the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA), an organization dedicated "to serve, support and represent individuals and organizations in the practice of abstinence education," issued a rather harsh and direct response to Bristol's claim:

During Sarah Palin's recent vice-presidential bid, her unmarried teen daughter Bristol's pregnancy became a hot campaign topic. As a follow-up report on this compelling human interest story, Fox News Commentator Greta van Susteren, asked Bristol Palin about abstinence. Bristol shared her view that "abstinence is....not realistic at all." It is suspect that media, seemingly devoted to science based research, is quick to claim Bristol Palin's experience as proof positive that abstinence education for all teens should end...

The NAEA statement concluded:

While Bristol's story makes for an interesting human-interest story, her comment should not be the basis to form public policy on the complex issue of teen sex especially if we look at the facts regarding the teen sexual activity.

I'm not going to touch NAEA's implied reference to Fox News with a ten-foot pole. But only weeks after Sarah Palin said "leave my kids alone," her biggest "news" promoter, Van Susteren, sneaks into Alaska behind Palin's back for a ratings-grabbing interview with Bristol. And then a conservative Christian group goes after her daughter.

Where's Palin's vituperative comeback at Van Susteren or the NAEA?

Her silence says truck loads.

I've written more than two dozen pieces on Palin since she was picked to ride shotgun with John McCain, and I've never once mentioned Bristol and her pregnancy. But now that Bristol is 18 and coming forward with public interviews of her own about issues such as teen-pregnancy and abstinence, I felt compelled to point out the irony of this new attack on Bristol and the hypocrisy of Palin's silence.

Moreover, this is not the first time that the NAEA has used Bristol's pregnancy to advance its own cause. Last September, Valerie Huber, the executive director of NAEA, invoked Bristol's pregnancy in an op-ed piece for USA Today pushing the abstinence myth.

The governor was silent then, too.

I don't pretend to be an expert on teen pregnancy. But for the record, I think Bristol was spot-on in her comments about abstinence. If Sarah Palin's evangelical base really wants to confront teen pregnancy, they'd be smart to listen to Bristol Palin and others in her shoes and absorb some of their real-life wisdom.

Comments

[soonhappyamerica]

Indy Hoosier,

How exciting. Your reference to the Bronze Age is very interesting. I studied Biblical Archaeology in Israel and it is rare for anyone, other than archaeologists and their students, to know about the Bronze Age, let alone refer to it. Your point is very well taken.

[maddronn]

Palin’s idea of sex education is teaching abstinence only. Clearly this notion of schooling has been thriving in her family. She was able to successfully instill her notion of virtuous morality in her oldest daughter. Oh, my bad! Palen’s daughter of 17 didn’t get the message. Palin, the beacon of Victorian morality, the icon of the far right Christian notion of the purpose of sex, clearly didn’t have enough time to properly parent her own kids. I think she can keep her opinions to herself. Bristol, thank you for your candor. Maybe we can get back to real and thorough sex education taught in Health Class. The decline in the teen birth rate from the peak in 1990 is known to be caused by a combination of birth control and abstinence education. If our goal is to help our kids grow into adulthood than we should provide them with all the tools to enable them to make better choices.

[ObjectiveRealist]

LOL!

quote:
Palin's idea of sex education is teaching abstinence only. Clearly this notion of schooling has been thriving in her family... Palin, the beacon of Victorian morality, the icon of the far right Christian notion of the purpose of sex, clearly didn't have enough time to properly parent her own kids. I think she can keep her opinions to herself. Bristol, thank you for your candor.
/quote

[ddDinah]

OBESSED with other people’s sex lives. An organization which is founded on the premise of someone else’s sex life….

[exile]

like the gay issue is for minister fred phelps, teen pregnancy and the abortion issue is simply a fund raising oppournity for these right wing conserative groups.

[milo h minderbinder]

"abstinence is....not realistic at all."

Amazing, finally something I can agree with one of the Palins on.

[mlang52]

I am a very conservative Christian. I believe that abstinence is a very unrealistic approach to adolescent hormones! I don't care how you are taught. If you are a teenage girl and don't have some form of protection from pregnancy, you are at risk for becoming pregnant. And most girls can't depend on the boy for protection. They are responding to urges that are almost uncontrollable. They are, also, not the ones that have to carry a baby around in their bodies advertising to the world they had unprotected sex. They are not in the same boat as the girls. Abstinence worked for centuries because of social mores. Today, they are not the same and even good Christian kids get into trouble. The temptation is just too great, at times. We need to admit that it would be smarter to protect our girls from unwanted pregnancy. One way would to be sure they understood the rationale behind birth control and thinking ahead. Teaching abstinence is good. But it didn't work with me, even though I wanted to be good. I just never got any girl pregnant! And believe me, I felt guilty!

[lunchlady]

Thanx for your honesty and practical approach. Please speak up on your views about this issue. It will carry more weight coming from you than from a nonconservative like myself.
I hope that my own children wait until they are at least 18 and then are very cautious in their approach to sexuality, but I know that hoping may not make it so and the higher priority is their future health and happiness.
Even when the social mores and punishments were stronger abstinence didn't work all that well.

[soonhappyamerica]

mlang52,

Your comment may, no doubt, help many other Christian Conservatives to deal with this very real and serious problem of abstinence only education and its subsequent teen pregnancies.

[Cheapthrills]

Hmmmm...li­ke mother, like daughter. Wasn't Sarah pregnant upon her marriage to the first dude? The nut doesn't fall far from the tree.

[Bubba Gump]

Look, I wish all the best for Bristol, her baby, her baby's daddy, and the family. But we must recognize a pattern here. Bristol, if you keep jumping into the public arena, now that you're 18, you're not sitting at the kiddie table anymore. The scrutiny is gonna get painful.

[Marvin S Sukatytski 46]

The gov. is another ly/ing sack of Republican.

[SimonOne]

The church's abhorrence of birth control is simply the result of an ancient policy that attempts to overwhelm competing religions through unchecked reproduction. That the only way to ensure that their own family members remain true to these out-dated rules is by attempting to enforce it on the secular community - by promoting laws which ban abortion and attempt to limit sex education to the concept of abstinence.

Abstinence is clearly against human nature. The only way to avoid the ruinous consequences of unwanted pregnancies is to ensure that our children be fully informed. They can avoid throwing away their futures if they have all options of avoidance and mitigation available to them. We should not allow the religious to limit the ways in which secular people can exercise their rights.

Being against birth control is an insane position. They claim that the basis of their belief is that every life is precious. But they care nothing of the teenage mothers whose futures are ruined forever by having the responsibilities of child-rearing - not to mention the lives of the innocent men, women and children of other faiths who are routinely murdered in military actions of which they often loudly approve.

Religious texts are often destructive and irrelevant to the world as a whole. It's time for us to loudly rebuke these narrow-minded views, bring a proper, secular discourse to all these issues and disallow religious distortions from carrying any weight whatsoever in our public debates.

[Bubba Gump]

"Religious texts are often destructive and irrelevant to the world as a whole. It's time for us to loudly rebuke these narrow-minded views, bring a proper, secular discourse to all these issues and disallow religious distortions from carrying any weight whatsoever in our public debates."

Silencing someone of a different viewpoint is not the answer. That's the death of liberty, not the exercise of it. Let me speak from one such religious text. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7:8-9, "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I." (Paul was single.) "But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." In those days, there were no contraceptives. If you had sex, there was a pretty good chance you would have a pregnancy and/or STD, and without penicillin, sex outside of marriage could be deadly. Essentially, Paul is saying to use you common sense.

The Holy Bible has been misquoted, abused, and conveniently ignored throughout history. But can you argue against a way of life which promotes justice, mercy, protection by law against crime (thou shalt not murder, rape, steal, lie, etc.), and loving your neighbor as yourself? Christians have flaws because Christians are human. But the love of God, the sacrifice of Jesus, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit transcend our human deficiencies to reach up and strive for something better!

[indyhoosier]

I especially like the transcendance and the promotion of liberty and tolerance of another viewpoint that Jesus championed (at least as far as one can tell when the only evidence that Jesus existed is based on scripture created in the bronze age) as dictated in Luke.

"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” (Luke 19:27 KJV)

[OkieIntellectual]

Ahh but you see the grand failing of Christianity, as well as Islam and Judiasm (to name a few) is that they lay exclusive claim to "truth" and the "right" way to live. That always has and always will be their Achillies Heel. By proclaiming they hold the ONLY path to the allmighty, they each disenfranchise all others who do not share the same view. They set the stage for one group to proclaim itself and its beliefs "better" than all others, without giving any thought to what they may have in common or to the potential merit of ideas that are held by another group.

[indyhoosier]

Given the era in which church doctrine was "evolved", the most likely cause for the exhortation to reproduce had little to do with competition with religion, and a lot to do with survival.

Life expectancy in the Roman empire was between 22 and 25 years. Infant mortality and childhood diseases that are now easily treated took its toll on the population.

Agragrian economies need labor to produce, and in order for the papal church/state to survive and prosper, it need larger quantities of people to farm the land. There was more arable land (and profits from which to build more churches) than there were people to farm the land.

Hence, the exhortation to go forth and multiply.

As usual in the course of human history, just follow the money, and you will be enlightened.

[andrushka]

What a whole bunch of hypocrites!!!

[luke150]

Wow, let's see if the mother stands against her daughter. In other words, is the devotion to the Church stronger than the devotion to the daughter.
Bristol looks much wiser than Sarah, it is a paradox.

[LeaderofMen]

The US is one of the most insane cultures I've ever had to live in.

All because those crazy Puritans, who were KICKED OUT OF EUROPE for being so whacked out in the first place, were given the time of day, some freakin' corn, and were allowed to replicate.

Look at the legacy. Look at it. The whacked out religious 'values' voters are still lying and they're still voting.

[luke150]

Well, true historically, but now it's a business. Evangelicals are rich and pastors are getting even richer. Money creates influence. However, since the whole thing is based on lunacy, I believe there is a limit to how deep they can penetrate society. I hope I am not underestimating them though.

[midwesthousewife]

I fear you may be...

[busterbrownthefirst]

Nicely put, LeaderofMen. It was that doggone replicating thing that got us into the pickle where we are today. That is, a bunch of evangelicals have been spawned to attempt, with considerable success, to hoist their absurd morals on the rest of us. I keep thinking about that comment of Bill Maher's about how on the one hand the U.S. has this bunch of enlightened citizens with sort of a European outlook, and then on the other hand it also has a big bunch of far right religious red-neck zealot nuts. So how come the nuts always get the press? Because they're procreating faster, probably!!

[mizerello]

The reason the NAEA came forward so quickly to deny Bristol's statement that abstinence is not realistic is quite simple; money. This organization would not exist without abstinence programs. They receive millions of dollars in aid (yours and my tax dollars during the Bush admin.) from their evangelical base. If it gets out that it simply doesn't work, then they're out of a job.

[tonedef]

NAEA quote: "While Bristol's story makes for an interesting human-interest story, her comment should not be the basis to form public policy"

OMFG. The NAEA are a group of idiots. Why would anyone think public policy is being formed based on a TV interview with Bristol Palin?

[trunk65]

cost of bush's abstinence education program------ over 100 million.
incidence of std's caused by substitution of anal sex to preserve virginity-­----------­over 15 million
seeing Bristol on Fox-------­----------­----------­----------­-----price­less