Sarah Palin and Bristol's Pregnancy - in Criticizing Them, We Might Be Criticizing Our Own Ideologies

In being critical of Sarah Palin in light of her daughter Bristol's pregnancy, people on both sides are only criticizing their own policies and ideologies. Here are a few of them. I'll hit on some stuff that is usually labeled "liberal" first, but don't get your pants all in a bunch yet - read on! My fellow conservatives aren't getting a "pass" in this commentary.

Judge not lest ye be judged - everyone's favorite Bible verse (Matthew 7:1). Liberals pride themselves in "judging not" while accusing conservatives of being judgmental. While every outspoken pundit sure jumped on the Bristol Palin bandwagon fast, both liberals AND conservatives should remember - Matthew 7:2-5 goes on to say "get the log out of your own eye before trying to get the sliver out of someone else's". Unless we can all prove that no other "important" or "favorite" person's son or daughter on our own side has ever turned up with an unwed pregnancy on their hands, we must look elsewhere for our criticisms.

Another popular philosophy is "character in your personal life doesn't matter, as long as you carry out your public duties." I've surprisingly heard some conservatives agree with liberals on this. It was used very recently in the John Edwards adultery case, and of course to defend President Clinton. So how does this pregnancy reflect on how Palin might handle things in office?

People are willing to make every excuse in the world for Edwards..he's a man...all men do it...Well, can we stop shouting with glee at this puncture in Palin's armor just long enough to give Bristol the benefit of the doubt? How do we know she just didn't give in to peer pressure? What if all the kids around her SAID they were having sex, and she wasn't? What if her boyfriend said stuff like "If you love me you'll do it?" At that age you are often head over heels in puppy love and you'll do anything not to lose him. And at that point, you forget what your parents taught you.

How does that make Bristol a bad person, or villify her mother?

Some liberals are blaming Bristol's pregnancy on Sarah Palin for not staying home enough with her kids.Why? Isn't Sarah Palin the epitome of the Liberal feminist woman? She broke through the glass ceiling. She's got a man's job. She's working and running a household. She's a boss over men at work. Yet now she's being criticized for not being home with her kids enough. Well, which way do the feminists want it? Isn't she doing everything you dream of?

(By the way, Sarah Palin is a member of "Feminists for Life", a feminist group in all causes, except that they don't believe in abortion. Here is the page where they confirm Palin's membership since 2006.)

Bristol Palin is the liberal educators' dream and the Sunday School teacher's nightmare. First, the liberal aspect:
Granted, even the Vice Principal of her former high school, Wasilla High, has trouble stating whether the high school teaches abstinence only (see this Times Union blog), while the principal says the school advocates abstinence (see this Boston Herald article). But many younger teachers in public schools are caught up in the National Education Association's very liberal idea that kids no longer need to accept their parents' values. Kids are being taught to judge for themselves and "do whatever feels right". If Bristol doesn't fit the supposition I gave earlier about giving into peer or boyfriend pressure, then she was possibly just following suit in this "do whatever feels right" philosophy.

"Kids are going to have sex no matter what". It is also liberal adults in the education system, the "safe sex" businesses and people like Dr. Ruth who have been pumping out this quote for years. Plus, Hollywood portrays its stars who get pregnant out of wedlock as very admirable. Why bother trying to wait? Go with your animal instincts. So Liberals should be very proud of Bristol.

Now, the conservative problem:
Sunday school and church teen social groups, as a majority, are not being totally effective in teaching kids to remain abstinent. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 1 in 5 evangelical Christian women or unwed girls are having abortions (and 29% of Catholics). Although I couldn't find overall church figures for unwed pregnancies, this abortion figure probably means there's a higher total of churched girls getting pregnant out of wedlock including those keeping the babies.

Why is this? Josh McDowell, a Christian authority on youth education and trends and author of "Right from Wrong", sites many figures in his books about how church kids think the same way as other teens. The biblical idea of abstinence until marriage is just not being accentuated. Passages about "values" are being glossed over in favor of the usual "Bible hero" stories because everyone's afraid they will offend someone. And while Sunday School teachers still find the subject of sex taboo and only to be taught at home, many parents think their kids will learn it in Sunday school.

(For those interested in some verses concerning sexual purity being God's desire for us outside of marriage, see Mark 10:6-9, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, 2 Timothy 2:22, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6).

Aside from all these notions...What teenager listens to everything their parents say, anyway? Can Sarah Palin be held responsible for this? When our daughter was about 15, she decided that all adults were stupid, and why should she listen to us? Don't most kids go through this stage? So we told her, then you better watch out, because when you turn 21, you'll be just as stupid as us.

She never turned up pregnant, and my congrats go to all those liberals and conservatives whose daughters haven't gotten pregnant before marriage and whose sons aren't caught in that boat.

But let's remember what our own philosophies are before stomping on someone else for them.