A study in the October 2005 issue of the American Journal of Preventive
Medicine demonstrated that teenage experimentation with sex and
illegal drugs often leads to depression, especially among girls.
The article said that it had not been previously clear whether
such experimentation was caused by depression or vice versa. However,
the recent study found that: "Overall, sex and drug behavior predicted
an increased likelihood of depression, but depression did not predict
behavior. … Engaging in sex and drug behaviors places adolescents,
and especially girls, at risk for future depression."
The researchers surmised that the greater risk for girls was due
to their "greater interpersonal sensitivity," and when girls engage
in sex and drug use, it creates stress that affects them more strongly.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine,
10/05
Majority
of teens engage in oral sex
A stunning report recently issued by the National Center
for Health Statistics, a department within the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, revealed that more than half of
teenagers 15-19 had participated in oral sex.
The study, based on data collected in 2002 and 2003, found that
55% of boys in that age group and 54% of girls had either given
or received oral sex. The percentage jumps to about 70% of all youth
ages 18-19.
Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen
Pregnancy, told USA Today that while adults generally consider oral
sex to be an extremely intimate act, "to some of these young people,
apparently it isn’t as much. What we’re learning here
is that adolescents are redefining what is intimate."
Psychologist/author David Walsh says the media is partly to blame,
because of the casual manner in which sex is portrayed. Sex, he
told USA Today, "just becomes kind of a recreational activity that
is separate from a close, personal relationship."
In fact, a 1999 issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association reported that only 38% of female students and 44%
of male students believed that another person having "oral contact
with your genitals" constituted sex.
Oral sex also carries with it the risk of contracting diseases
like gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes and the human papilloma
virus, according to the Washington Post.
USA Today, 10/19/05; www.washingtonpost.com,
9/16/05
Syphilis,
chlamydia rates jump
A recent report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) said that syphilis rates in the country
rose for the fourth consecutive year. The rise was due primarily
to the increase in risky sexual behavior among homosexually active
men.
"Syphilis has increased 8% during 2003-2004," said Dr. John M.
Douglas, director of the CDC division for prevention of sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs). "The overall increase is attributable
to men who have sex with men."
The CDC stated that 64% of all adult cases of primary and secondary
syphilis were among homosexually active men – a huge jump from
the 5% of cases represented by that category in 1999.
Chlamydia, an STD which is linked to cervical cancer, also increased
last year – up about 6%. While the CDC had reports of nearly
930,000 cases of chlamydia in 2004, public health experts with the
agency estimate as many as 2.8 million new cases each year.
Gonorrhea rates reached their lowest level in the U.S. since the
government began tracking the disease in 1941. However, that good
news was tempered by the fact that, in 28 cities, a CDC survey found
an increase in cases of gonorrhea that were resistant to antibiotics.
Once again, the homosexual community experienced the worst of the
news: The incidence of drug-resistant gonorrhea was eight times
higher among homosexual men than for heterosexuals.
These STDs – and others such as AIDS, genital herpes and human
papilloma virus – are more than simply a public health issue.
The CDC press report noted: "CDC estimates that 19 million STD infections,
including HIV and other non-notifiable STDs, occur each year. In
addition to their immediate and long-term health consequences, these
diseases result in direct medical costs of an estimated $13 billion
annually."
www.cdc.gov, 11/8/05; AP, 11/8/05;
PlanetOut.com, 11/8/05
AFA ACTIVISM
National
motto faces new threat from Newdow
Michael Newdow, a California atheist, is attempting to use the federal
courts to order removal of the national motto, "In God We Trust,"
from U.S. coins and currency, arguing that the motto is a violation
of the separation of church and state.
Newdow is best known for his attempts to ban recitation of the
Pledge of Allegiance in public schools because it contains the words
"under God."
In an online petition drive, AFA hopes to secure one million signatures
in an attempt to stop Newdow’s campaign. The names are being
delivered electronically to the office of Congressman Chip Pickering
(R-MS), to encourage him to re-introduce a constitutional amendment
to guarantee the right to use and recite the motto and the Pledge
of Allegiance. The petition can be accessed at AFA’s Web site,
www.afa.net.
Ford
boycott ends, Target action to continue
AFA has cancelled its boycott of Ford Motor Company.
The boycott began last summer over Ford’s promotion of the
gay agenda, but was suspended when local Ford dealers asked for
six months to resolve AFA’s concerns. AFA agreed.
"While we still have a few differences with Ford, we feel that
our concerns are being addressed in good faith," said Don Wildmon,
AFA chairman.
Wildmon said the input from local dealers made a resolution possible.
"The dealers were very helpful in bridging a gap and opening a line
of communication between AFA and Ford. The dealers seemed to share
many of our concerns," he said.
Meanwhile, an AFA boycott aimed at national retailer Target, which
was originally limited to the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, has
been extended.
On November 18 AFA launched the online boycott campaign citing
the retailer’s decision to ban the use of "Merry Christmas"
in their in-store promotions and retail advertising.
However, when AFA subsequently requested that Target consider changing
its policy for the 2006 Christmas season, the retailer did not respond.
Wildmon said nearly 600,000 individuals have signed on to AFA’s
call for the boycott. "Target has chosen not to listen to the concerns
of thousands of offended customers," he said. "So we’ve extended
the boycott indefinitely."
AFA is forwarding electronic copies of the Target petition to other
major retailers that also appear to be removing "Christmas" from
the season.
Narnia
workbook available
Author Michael Pritchard, of Memphis, Tennessee, is offering
a companion workbook titled Lessons from the Lion: Your Family’s
Guide to "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
Lessons from the Lion is a 33-page illustrated workbook
designed to be an interactive learning guide for teaching Biblical
lessons as extracted from the truths presented in C. S. Lewis’
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
The family edition workbook is targeted at elementary-age children
and is available at a reduced price of $4.99, through December 31,
2005. It is sold as a downloadable PDF file at www.lessonsfromthelion.com
or through links at www.afa.net and www.afr.net.
Several buying options are available, some of which include a teacher’s
edition and a hardback, read-aloud version of The Lion, the Witch
and the Wardrobe.
A&F
responds, pulls offensive T-shirts
In early November, officials with clothing retailer Abercrombie
& Fitch (A&F) announced the company would stop selling some
of its T-shirts with controversial slogans.
The action came after a protest dubbed a "Girlcott" and sponsored
by the Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania (WGF).
With the protest, a group of 13- to 16-year-old girls in Allegheny
County urged young women across the U.S. to stop shopping at the
popular A&F chain until the clothier agreed to stop selling
several of its offensive "attitude Ts."
Slogans emblazoned across the offending T-shirt fronts included
"Anatomy tutor," "Please tease," "Available for Parties," and "Who
needs brains when you have these?"
Two teens representing WGF appeared on NBC’s Today Show.
On the show, 16-year-old Emma Blackman-Mathis and 13-year-old Jettie
Fields explained their protest. Blackman-Mathis noted that many
of the shirts’ messages "get really, really offensive to me,
just because they’re very degrading to my friends and myself."
A&F’s corporate office in Ohio was reportedly inundated
with media inquiries. Shortly afterward, the company issued a statement
saying it had reached an amicable agreement with the WGF of Southwest
Pennsylvania "under which we will stop selling several T-shirts
in our stores."
AgapePress, 11/14/05
ENTERTAINMENT
Big
bucks offered for religious screenplays
First-time screenwriters whose works speak a religious
message have the opportunity to get their scripts noticed by top
Hollywood executives through the First Bi-Annual John Templeton
Foundation Kairos Prize for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays.
The prize is co-sponsored by the Templeton Foundation and the Christian
Film & Television Commission and is accompanied by a monetary
award that is larger than many notable secular prizes. The prize
also guarantees the winning screenwriters consideration by major
studios in a way no other prize does.
According to Dr. Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film &
Television Commission, several of the top movie studios have already
agreed to take a first look at the three winning scripts. In addition
to the acclaim that is attached to the award, the grand-prize winner
will receive $25,000 while first and second runners-up will receive
$15,000 and $10,000, respectively.
"We hope the establishment of the Kairos Prize will encourage talented
young screenwriters with new ideas and a great respect for the Biblical
faith to move forward on that project they have in mind and to inundate
Hollywood with moral, inspirational movies," said Dr. Jack Templeton.
The purpose of the Kairos Prize is to encourage aspiring screenwriters
to tell stories on film that will increase man’s love for and
understanding of God. The prize will be presented March 2, 2006,
at the annual MovieGuide Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment
Industry.
The early entry deadline has passed. The final deadline is January
6. More information is available at www.kairosprize.com.
A. Larry Ross Communications, 10/4/05
Study:
violent games, aggression linked
A study by a researcher from Michigan State University
(MSU) and other colleagues found that violent video games lead to
activity in the brain that is characteristic of aggression.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers
simultaneously recorded both the game playing of study participants
and their brain activity during game play. Then both were analyzed
on a frame-by-frame basis.
"There is a causal link between playing the first-person shooting
game in our experiment and brain-activity pattern that is considered
as characteristic for aggressive cognitions and affects," said Rene
Weber, assistant professor of communication and telecommunication
at MSU and a researcher in the study. "There is a neurological and
there is a short-term causal relationship.
"Violent video games frequently have been criticized for enhancing
aggressive reactions such as aggressive cognitions, aggressive affects
or aggressive behavior. On a neurobiological level we have shown
the link exists."
An MSU statement concerning the new study cited a 2004 report from
the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, which reviewed
the 70 most popular video games. That study found that 49% contained
serious violence, and in 41% of the games, violence was required
in order for the player to win.
"New-generation violent video games contain substantial amounts
of increasingly realistic portrayals of violence," said the MSU
statement. "Elaborate content analyses revealed that the favored
narrative is a human perpetrator engaging in repeated acts of justified
violence using weapons that results in some bloodshed to the victim."
www.msu.edu, 10/11/05
Americans
rack up more tube time
It’s called a habit, and like most habits, Americans
are slipping deeper into TV, watching more than they did a decade
ago.
According to the Parents Television Council, research shows that
American families watch an average of 8 hours and 11 minutes of
television every day. In 1995, the average was 7 hours and 15 minutes.
The data was obtained from Neilsen Media Research.
Industry experts said the increase in TV viewing is probably due
to the increase in the number of channels available, as well as
the increasingly diverse specialty channels, which cater to individual
tastes.
Researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that the amount
of sexual content on TV today is nearly double the amount that appeared
on the tube in 1998.
In Sex on TV 4, a biennial study released by the Foundation
in November, the organization said that while the amount of sex
is going up, the presentation of the related risks of sexual activity
appears less often.
In about a week of watching, Foundation researchers saw nearly
3,800 scenes with sexual content. Their report concluded that about
7 out of every 10 television shows have some sort of sexual content,
excluding news, children’s shows, and live sports. And during
prime-time hours, sex is even more prevalent, with nearly 8 in 10
shows including sexual content.
According to the study, those 70% of TV shows that include sexual
content averaged 5.0 sexual scenes per hour. In 1998, 56% of shows
contained sex and averaged 3.2 sexual scenes per hour.
Vicki Rideout, Kaiser Family Foundation vice president, said their
research also showed that fewer shows today included messages about
"safe sex" or abstinence. Among shows with any sexual content, only
14% included at least one scene with a reference to sexual risks
or responsibilities.
AgapePress, 11/10/05; Parents Television
Council, 10/7/05
FAMILY
Court
strips parental rights over sex ed
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, considered by
many to be the most liberal federal court in the nation, has done
it again. After twice ruling the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional
because of the words, "under God," the court has now ruled against
parental rights in matters of sex education in public schools.
The case originated in Palmdale, California, after parents discovered
that their children were given a survey which, unbeknown to the
parents, asked probing questions about sex. The kids were asked
questions about how often they touched their private parts, thought
about having sex or thought about touching other people’s private
parts.
The children who participated in the survey were in the first,
third and fifth grades.
Six parents sued the school district, alleging that school officials
had violated their right to privacy under the U.S. Constitution.
A lower court ruled against the parents, who then appealed to the
9th Circuit.
There, the parents lost again. Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who wrote
the decision for the appeals court, said, "We agree [with the lower-court
ruling], and hold that there is no fundamental right of parents
to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual
matters to their children, either independent of their right to
direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed
by it" (emphasis in original).
Carrie Gordon Earll, director of issue analysis for Focus on the
Family, said: "What the court did here is declare parenthood unconstitutional.
It’s long been the liberal view that it takes a village to
raise a child – but never before have the ‘villagers’
been elevated, as a matter of law, above mothers and fathers."
www.worldnetdaily, 11/3/05; AgapePress,
11/4/05
HOMOSEXUALITY
Coming
soon: ‘Polyamorist rights’?
It may only be in its beginning stages, but the "polyamorist
movement" may be grabbing onto the coat tails of the increasingly
effective homosexual movement.
"Polyamorists" are individuals who maintain more than one emotional-sexual
relationship simultaneously, believing that monogamy is unnatural.
Relationships can be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual.
Paul Harris, a New York reporter for The Observer, a London, England,
paper, writes in words that sound strangely similar to those used
to describe the homosexual movement.
He said "polyamorists are coming out of the closets across America.
Several groups have sprung up. In New York, Polyamorous NYC holds
monthly meetings, has an e-mail list of about 800 and holds a Poly
Pride Day each year in Central Park.
"A documentary, Three of Hearts: A Postmodern Family, has opened
at cinemas in the city, chronicling a 13-year relationship between
three people living together in a relationship that produced two
children."
"Most people in the poly community are very closeted," Justen Bennett-MacCubbin,
founder of Polyamorous NYC, told The Observer. "The community is
where gays and lesbians were in the ’60s."
"We want a change in perception of what’s possible. By and
large, people are not naturally monogamous, and we should be able
to talk about it without prejudice," Bennett-MacCubbin said.
Perceptions seem to have definitely changed in The Netherlands.
In a nation that is arguably the most accepting of homosexuality
in the world, the first polygamous civil union was recorded this
fall, when a man and two women had their relationship legally recognized.
"I love both Bianca and Mirjam, so I am marrying them both," Victor
de Bruijn proudly declared in September.
The Observer, 11/13/05; www.brusselsjournal.com,
9/27/05
Study
shows increase in gay experimentation
According to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), more women are experimenting with
homosexual activity.
The report was based on data collected in 2002 in the National
Survey of Family Growth. It found 11% of women said they had had
a sexual experience with another woman. That is compared to 4% of
women who said the same thing in a 1992 survey.
Younger women, however, were even more likely to experiment with
homosexuality. According to an article in the Washington Post, 14%
of women in their late teens and 20s claimed to have had a same-sex
experience.
Some experts said more and more young people simply see such experimentation
as a rite of passage. "It’s very safe in the [college and university]
academic community; no one thinks anything of it," Elayne Rapping,
a professor of American studies at the University of Buffalo, told
the Post.
In fact, said the article, lesbian experimentation, even among
heterosexual women, has become so chic on campuses that some jokingly
refer to being "lesbian until graduation," or "LUG," said Craig
Kinsley, a neuroscientist at the University of Richmond. Kinsley
studies the biology of sexual orientation and gender.
Men appear less willing to experiment with homosexuality, but the
percentage has still increased. The CDC report said 6% of men in
their teens and 20s said they’d had a same-sex experience in
their lifetime. In 1992, 4.9% said they had done so.
However, when it came to self-identifying as homosexual, the percentages
of the U.S. population that appear to be gay or lesbian was as small
as in other surveys – only 2-3%, according to the CDC
study.
www.cdc.gov; www.washingtonpost.com,
9/15/05
RELIGION
Commandments
stay in Washington state
Federal Judge Robert Lasnik ruled recently that a Ten
Commandments monument may remain outside the Everett, Washington,
police station.
Judge Lasnik cited two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions as precedent
for his ruling. In June 2005, the Supreme Court struck down a relatively
new display of the Ten Commandments on a Kentucky courthouse wall.
Ironically, at the same time the high court allowed the continued
display of a decades-old Ten Commandments monument on the grounds
of the Texas state capitol.
Regarding the Washington case, Judge Lasnik said, "The display
at issue here poses no threat to the religious freedoms of the citizens
of Everett." In fact, he said the Everett monument is so well hidden
behind shrubs and overshadowed by well-lit war memorials that it
looks more like neglect of religion than promotion of it.
AgapePress, 9/14/05
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