Pretty good New Yorker article about teen pregnancy among evangelical Christians. This is the kind of topic that deeply fascinates me. There is such a profound chasm between what evangelicals say and what they actually do; it's astounding and it never fails to amaze me. And I don't really say that in a hateful, "evangelicals suck" kind of way (even though they do, let's be honest)--but more of just like a puzzled observation. I grew up around a lot of evangelical Christians and they've always been an alternately maddening, hilarious, and tragic spectacle in my life.

I think that article--while a bit too detached (would it have killed them to go out and interview some actual evangelicals?)--does a nice job of bundling up the basic sociological dynamics that have developed in the past twenty years: middle-class liberals who get married at thirty and raise their children in an open-minded home not overly preoccupied with religion come out on top, while evangelical Christians who get married young either because they got pregnant or because they're desperate to have sex (but won't before marriage) get divorced and raise their children with an emotional and economic disadvantage. As always there are exceptions, etc. etc., but more or less that's the measure of things from what I've seen growing up.

So anyway, moral of the story is: teach contraception. And if I may misappropriate one of my favorite Bob Marley lyrics that comes to mind every time I think about religion: "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery." Let's go to the video...



More Bob...




Bob is so cute in this one.



DON'T FORGET TO VOTE ON TUESDAY! aka Don't forget to vote for Obama.