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The efforts of supporters of OneMillionMoms (OMM) and OneMillionDads
(OMD), activism groups sponsored by AFA, continue to have success
in the campaign to restore decency to prime-time network television.
In March, OMM and OMD convinced a number of sponsors to reconsider
advertising on objectionable programming. Among them:
• Ocean Spray ordered that none of its ads would support Fox’s
Wonderfalls series in the future.
• Two companies, Colgate-Palmolive and Hershey’s, informed
OMM they would no longer support MTV programming with their advertising
dollars. Unfortunately, McDonald’s has remained defiant against
repeated requests to stop supporting MTV. (Contact McDonald’s
at 800-244-6227 or jim.cantalupo@mcd.com.)
• Nextel announced they were pulling all ads from NYPD Blue
and The Shield after hearing from thousands of OMM and OMD supporters.
CULTURE
Urban
Outfitters drops blasphemous product
Urban Outfitters had begun selling a refrigerator magnet set called
“Jesus Dress Up.” The set included a magnetic Jesus on
the cross and a variety of clothing and accessories that could be
added to the magnet to depict Jesus wearing a variety of “costumes.”
The costumes included such items as a Satan mask and tights, a ballerina’s
dress, and a dogcatcher’s outfit.
Randy Sharp, special projects director for AFA, said there was immediate
and widespread outrage over the fact “that Urban Outfitters
would take a product that blasphemed Jesus Christ, that was very
derogatory toward the Christian faith, and would make it part of
their marketing scheme.”
Within 48 hours of an AFA action alert, Urban Outfitters received
more than a quarter of a million e-mail complaints from supporters
of OneMillionMoms.com and OneMillionDads.com, activism groups sponsored
by AFA. “After receiving such an overwhelming negative response,
Urban Outfitters has announced that they will no longer carry the
Jesus Dress Up magnet set,” Sharp said.
A spokesman for Urban Outfitters told OneMillionMoms and OneMillionDads
that the clothing retailer would continue selling the inventory
on hand, but will not reorder the Jesus Dress Up sets, and has cancelled
a previous order for 2,500 more of the sets.
AgapePress, 3/24/04
Half
of young people will contract STDs, according to new study
The evangelists of the sexual revolution claimed to be the instruments
of liberation, who would set our culture free from the “oppressive”
strictures of Judeo-Christian tradition. Now, however, such “free
love” is demanding pay back, and the revolution may be enslaving
its practitioners in a lifetime lived under the chains of debilitating
and deadly diseases.
This is especially troubling among the nation’s youth. A new
study reveals that a startling number of young people are becoming
infected with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Released by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), the study revealed
that, by age 25, half of all American youth will have contracted
an STD. The report was published in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive
Health, the organization’s periodical.
The data used in the study came from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), and the numbers are staggering. Out
of the approximately 18.9 million new STD infections reported to
the CDC in 2000, 9.1 million were found in young people ages 15
to 24.
Moreover, the study said, while that age group represents only 25%
of the sexually experienced population who are age 15-44, “young
people acquire nearly one-half of all new STDs.”
Such infections do not come cheap for the rest of the culture. A
second report issued by AGI said the lifetime medical costs for
treating these STDs – just among the 15 to 24 age group –
was $6.5 billion. “The large number of infections acquired
by persons aged 15-24 and the high cost per case of viral STDs,
particularly HIV, create a substantial economic burden,” the
report said.
The health ramifications are also troubling. The consequences of
STDs can all be serious, although they vary – from possible
infertility in women (chlamydia), to genital warts and cervical
cancer (human pap-illomavirus), to eventual death (HIV).
Ongoing debate
The alarming figures are certain to continue fueling the fires of
the ongoing public policy debates concerning whether an abstinence-only
or safe-sex approach is best in combatting teen STDs.
AGI’s recommendations of more condoms and safe-sex training
for youth are no surprise: the organization was originally created
as part of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and is still
affiliated with that group. Planned Parenthood vehemently opposes
abstinence-only education.
Pro-family groups continue to advocate abstinence as the only surefire
prevention for STDs. Cindy Bailey, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota
Family Institute, told Family News in Focus, “We continue to
tell young people and old people alike that condoms will protect
them from sexually transmitted diseases or infections. That’s
not really true.”
Others agree. In 2001, for example, representatives of the 10,000-member
Physicians Consortium criticized the CDC because it had been less
than up front with the public about the efficacy of condoms.
For example, the Consortium said the CDC had known for years that
condoms were only 85% effective in helping prevent the spread of
HIV, and that condoms offered even less protection against STDs
such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, and genital herpes. The medical group
referred to a report issued by the National Institutes of Health
which found no conclusive scientific evidence that condoms prevented
the transmission of most sexually transmitted diseases.
However, a young person’s pledge of abstinence is not a magic
bullet, either. New research by Columbia and Yale universities found
that teens who pledged to remain virgins until marriage have the
same STD rates as those who don’t pledge abstinence. The results
were presented in March at the National STD Prevention Conference
in Philadelphia.
Those who advocate safe-sex education explained the results by claiming
that those who pledge virginity are less likely to use condoms when
they do have sex.
Abstinence promoters, however, argue that the study only indicates
that teens need more support from parents and other adults so they
can keep their pledges. They point to the study’s upside: those
who made a public pledge to abstain until marriage did, in fact,
delay sex, have fewer sexual partners, and get married earlier.
www.guttmacher.org, 3/23/04; USA Today, 3/10/04; 2/25/04; AgapePress,
3/12/04; www.family.org, 3/10/04
Teen violence eased by trio of factors
It probably won’t come as a surprise to pro-family groups,
but researchers from University of Washington have found that some
rather traditional factors can help steer teens away from participating
in crime.
“Aggressive 15-year-olds who attended religious services, felt
attached to their schools or were exposed to good family management
were much less likely to have engaged in violent behavior by the
time they turned 18,” the university said in a press release
announcing the study’s results.
The researchers, led by assistant professor of social work Todd
Herrenkohl, the study’s author, called the trio of influences,
“protective factors,” and said they “can foster pro-social
and healthy behaviors.”
“[G]ood family management,” for example, was considered
to include such parental habits as “actively providing supervision,
setting clear rules and expectations for behavior and reinforcing
good work habits.”
Among black teens with such parents, 11% had become violent by the
time they turned 18. But for black adolescents “whose parents
did not have these kinds of skills,” the study said 49% later
became violent.
Even with the presence of other risk factors, such as living in
run-down housing, poverty, or in neighborhoods with gangs and drug
activity, the researchers found that church, school and family reduced
the likelihood of criminal violence.
“While much research has shown that aggressive children are
at high risk for later serious and chronic behavior, it is never
too late to intervene and it is a mistake to assume that all early
behavior problems will lead to later and more serious antisocial
behavior,” Herrenkohl said. “This research is the first
step in documenting those things that can benefit children later
on and protect them against violent behavior.”
www.eurekalert.org, 3/22/04; The Washington Times, 3/6/04
EDUCATION
Law
school nixes Christian group
A Catholic law school in Washington State is being accused of stifling
religious freedom by rejecting yet another Christian student group
on campus.
Despite its professed commitment to be “a welcoming environment
for students of all religious backgrounds,” Gonzaga University
Law School denied recognition to the Christian Legal Society. The
law school’s Student Bar Association claimed the Christian
group’s requirement that its leadership be Christian is “discriminatory.”
Without that official recognition, the Christian group can’t
hold meetings in university facilities, can’t use official
outlets to announce meetings, and can’t apply for student fees,
among other things.
Greg Lukianoff of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
(FIRE) said claiming that Christian groups are discriminatory simply
because they want leaders to be Christian flies in the face of Supreme
Court jurisprudence. He said he believed the Student Bar Association
is violating basic human rights.
“Saying that the Christian Legal Society cannot actually be
a Christian group is to say that the Christian Legal Society cannot
exist as it intended,” Lukianoff said. “So in this claim
that it’s defending students from discrimination, it is actually
engaging in the crudest form of religious discrimination that you
can think of. And this has been a habit of the Student Bar Association.”
FIRE’s spokesman said he knows of no other school where the
Christian Legal Society has been rejected on the basis of so-called
religious discrimination.
Last fall, Gonzaga Law School refused to recognize the Christian
Pro-Life Law Caucus because it wanted to restrict its membership
to Christians.
AgapePress, 3/15/04, 12/29/03
Small
schools achieve better academic results
Evidence continues to mount showing smaller schools have numerous
academic advantages over larger schools.
Research by the U.S. Freedom Foundation finds that smaller schools
fare better than large schools in attendance, achievement, participation
in extracurricular activities and graduation rates. In addition,
one study in this group’s research shows schools with 2,000
students average twice the dropout rate of high schools with 600
students.
While some school districts and superintendents remain steadfast
on growing and building bigger facilities, others have been moving
toward developing smaller schools more attentive to individual needs.
For instance, Chicago schools, with 440,000 students in 600 schools,
adopted a small schools resolution in 1995. The first eight such
schools opened the next year, and one of the schools was Best Practices
High School, with just more than 400 students. While 76% of its
mostly black and Hispanic students come from low-income families,
84% of them graduate, compared to a citywide average of 67%, and
70% go on to college.
U.S. Freedom Foundation, 3/24/04
ENTERTAINMENT
Media
consumption underestimated
It’s not surprising for a study to find that America has become
a culture saturated by media consumption. What may be surprising
is the difference between how much Americans think they consume
and how much they really do.
Researchers at Ball State University’s Center for Media Design
set out to try to more accurately gauge daily American media consumption.
Rather than only using the traditional methods – phone surveys
or personal diaries – they also observed media interaction
firsthand. This they did by simply following participants around
from the time they awoke to the time they went to bed.
The results, published in The International Digital Media &
Arts Association Journal, revealed that “people spend more
than double … the time with the media than they think they
do.”
The total time spent with the media by the average person each day
was a whopping 11.7 hours. The study understood “media”
to include things like watching television, video tapes or DVDs;
listening to the radio, CDs, cassettes or MP3 players; spending
time on the computer, Internet, or sending and receiving E-mail;
talking on the telephone or cell phone; and reading books, magazines
or newspapers.
The report said the “least media-active person” observed
by researchers spent 5.25 hours a day with the media, while the
most active spent over 17 hours.
“Phone surveys reflect a person’s perception of their
media use but not their actual behavior,” said a statement
from the researchers. “Diaries give more detail than phone
surveys, but we found observation provides much more detail than
diaries.”
For example, while in phone surveys people said they watched 121
minutes of television a day, that number jumped to 278 minutes for
people recording activities in personal diaries – and 319 minutes
when observed directly.
Time spent on the Internet revealed similar underreporting: in phone
surveys people claimed they only spent 29 minutes a day online,
while personal diary accounts put that at 57 minutes. Researchers
observing people, however, said those people actually spent 78 minutes
on the Internet.
www.bsu.edu/web/icommunication, 3/23/04; www.editorandpublisher.com,
2/27/04
Sex
and nudity fail to sell at theaters
The yearly report of a media analyst organization is out, and it
shows the same thing it does every year: movies with nudity and
explicit sexual content don’t sell as many tickets as movies
that have no nudity.
Each year, the Christian Film & Television Commission and its
monthly publication, MovieGuide, analyze the content of all major
Hollywood studio film releases. Its review of movies from 2003 revealed
that, on average, the greater the amount and explicitness of sex
and nudity in a film, the worse it did at the box office. (See chart
above.)
The survey of films in 2003 showed that movies with no sex averaged
$37.6 million at the box office, which is more than movies with
implied sex ($32.1 million), briefly depicted sex ($25 million),
and extensive, excessive, or graphic sex ($17.1 million).
“Clearly, sex does not sell as well as the mass media wants
us to believe,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, chairman of the organization
and publisher of MovieGuide.
For further information or to subscribe to MovieGuide’s movie
reviews, visit www.movieguide.org or call 1-800-899-6684.
Group
says television violence a ‘bloodbath’
Over the four-year period from 1998 to 2002, the amount of television
violence on the six major broadcast networks increased dramatically,
according to a major media watchdog group.
The Parents Television Council (PTC) reviewed the prime-time programming
for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and WB for its report on the state of
the television industry. In TV Bloodbath: Violence in Prime Time
Network Television, PTC reveals that, in 2002, depictions of violence
were 41% more frequent during the first hour of prime-time, and
134% more frequent during the second hour, than in 1998.
“Television violence has become more graphic over time as well,
with more frequent use of guns or other weapons, more depictions
of blood in violent scenes, and more on-screen killings and depictions
of death in 2002 than in 1998,” the report said.
TV Bloodbath does present distinctions in its findings between the
individual networks, which differ in the amounts and explicitness
of the televised violence that appears in their programming.
www.parentstv.org, 2/24/04
TV
ads for kids must change, APA says
Television ads aimed at children should either be banned or changed
dramatically to prevent kids from being easy prey for marketers,
the American Psychological Association has said.
Psychologist Dale Kunkel, of the University of California-Santa
Barbara, said there is unequivocal evidence that young children
don’t realize commercials are unbiased attempts to sell products,
and are quickly persuaded by TV ads. “So much of what’s
advertised to kids is junk food, and these ads work,” he said.
The APA’s proposed policy endorses restrictions up to an outright
ban. Stronger messages are needed to signal to children that programs
are over and ads are starting, Kunkel said. Children see about 40,000
TV commercials a year, according the report.
The report is issued at a time when obesity has become a major problem
among both children and adults in America.
USA Today, 2/24/04
Media’s
sex deluge impacts teens
A new study finds the media’s constant bombardment of sexual
messages aimed at young people does affect them mentally and physically.
The stream of sexual messages also affects the worldview of teens,
according to study author Joe McIlhaney of the Medical Institute
for Sexual Health. “They have more permissive attitudes towards
premarital sexual activity,” he said, “and then they think
that having sex is beneficial.”
The average teenager spends about a third of each day in contact
with some form of media – print, radio, television or the Internet
– and what he or she sees can actually affect brain development.
“The teen brain is malleable,” McIlhaney said. “The
nerve cells themselves physically grow different, depending on what
they’re exposed to.”
Indeed, the number of youth having premarital sex and contracting
sexually transmitted diseases is cause for alarm. Approximately
46% of high schools students have had sexual intercourse –
6.6% of them before the age of 13 and 14% of them with four or more
partners, according to statistics gathered by the Medical Institute.
This is one reason it’s important for parents to watch and
listen to what their children are tuned in to, and talk with them
about it. “If parents sit and watch with their kids and talk
to them about what they’re seeing and hearing, it seems to
mitigate almost all the negative affects,” said Dr. Douglas
Gentile, director of research for the National Institute on Media
and the Family. “If they sit and watch with them but don’t
talk about it, it seems to enhance the negative effects, because
then the parents are giving tacit approval.”
Family News in Focus, 2/23/04; The Medical Institute, 1/30/04
HOMOSEXUALITY
Study:
homosexual priests abused boys
The long-awaited report on the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal
discovered something that few supporters of the homosexual agenda
want to discuss: the majority of abusive priests were homosexual
adults that preyed on young men.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) commissioned an
investigation almost two years ago into the allegations that a significant
number of priests had sexually abused children and teens over a
period of more than 50 years. The study was done by the John Jay
College of Criminal Justice in New York.
The results found that 4,392 Catholic priests had allegedly abused
perhaps as many as 10,000 victims in that time span. That number
is 4% of the total number of priests in the country.
What did not get much attention following the release of the John
Jay study, however, was the rather startling fact that 81% of the
sexual abuse was committed by homosexual priests against boys.
That figure, contained in the report, was released at a news conference
by Washington attorney Bob Bennett, who summarized the John Jay
study on behalf of the college as well as the USCCB.
According to The Washington Times, Bennett said, “There’s
an incredible incongruity of a man of the cloth engaging in this
type of conduct. How did they get into the priesthood?”
Some Catholic seminaries allow men to study for the priesthood even
though they may struggle with homosexual feelings. Bennett said
there are “many outstanding priests of a homosexual orientation
who live chaste, celibate lives.”
But, he added, “For those [seminaries] who choose to ordain
homosexuals, there appears to be a need for additional scrutiny
and perhaps additional or specialized formation to help them with
the challenge of priestly celibacy.”
The Washington Times, 2/28/04; Los Angeles Times, 2/27/04
PRO-LIFE
Congress
passes law protecting unborn
Pro-lifers were cheered in March after the U.S. Senate passed the
Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which President George W. Bush promptly
signed into law.
Spurred by the testimony of relatives of unborn victims of violence,
the high-profile slaying of Laci Peterson and her unborn child,
and the impassioned urgings of pro-life activists, the Senate approved
a bill that makes it a crime to harm a fetus during the commission
of a violent federal crime against a pregnant women. The bill, which
has come to be known to many as “Laci and Conner’s Law,”
passed in the House of Representatives in February.
The measure marks the second big legislative win for the pro-life
movement recently, along with last year’s enactment of the
partial-birth abortion ban.
Joseph R. Giganti, of the American Life League, told the Associated
Press: “We’re happy to see that 61 members of the United
States Senate are willing to publicly say they recognize the truth
that we have been speaking for several decades – that that
is in fact an innocent human being in the mother’s womb that
has the same equal rights that all Americans enjoy because of our
Constitution.”
AgapePress, 3/26/04
Girl
Scouts partnering with abortion provider?
Recently Kathy Cloninger, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. (GSUSA),
told NBC news that her organization has relationships with Planned
Parenthood agencies across the nation, cultivated in an effort to
bring safe-sex education programs to girls.
In response to this, American Life League’s STOPP International
announced a new initiative to find out exactly which Girl Scout
councils partner with – or intend to partner with – Planned
Parenthood, which is the nation’s largest abortion provider.
STOPP International’s Jim Sedlak said parents have historically
regarded Girl Scouts as a safe, wholesome, educational organization
for their daughters to join. However, he said, “In light of
Cloninger’s recent comments, STOPP International is creating
a tool by which parents can determine if their local Girl Scouts
still deserve that trust.”
According to Sedlak, Planned Parent-hood’s programs expose
young girls to sexually explicit images and information that will
ultimately lead them down a path toward a “contraceptive and
abortion mentality.”
He added, “This information does not help develop meaningful
values, but instead, it is often damaging to women. The Girl Scouts
of the U.S.A. needs to cut all ties with this pro-death organization.”
STOPP International is methodically contacting all the Girl Scout
councils in the country and seeking clarification from each on their
relationship, if any, with Planned Parenthood.
AgapePress, 3/15/04; www.all.org/stopp, 3/24/04
Appeals
court tosses pro-life license plates
A federal appeals court has ruled that the “Choose Life”
pro-life specialty license plates issued by the motor vehicle department
of South Carolina are unconstitutional.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its March decision
that because there are no pro-abortion license plates, the state
has unfairly taken sides in a controversial issue.
“By limiting access to a specialty license plate to those who
agree with its pro-life position, the State has distorted the forum
in favor of its own viewpoint,” the court said in its ruling.
“…South Carolina has engaged in viewpoint discrimination
by allowing only the Choose Life plate.”
However, supporters of the pro-life plates argue that there are
numerous types of specialty plates issued by South Carolina, such
as those touting NASCAR.
“Is the 4th Circuit going to toss out those plates, too, just
to satisfy the folks who dislike NASCAR?” asked AFA Chairman
Don Wildmon. “A specialty plate simply reflects the opinions
or tastes of the one who purchases it. It doesn’t mean the
state is in favor of what is on the plate.”
Supporters of the “Choose Life” plates also note that
pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood have the right to ask
the South Carolina Motor Vehicle Division to issue plates that support
their beliefs, but so far haven’t done so.
Associated Press, 3/22/04
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