Premature Sexualization

LifeSiteNews.com 7/14

"Premature Sexualisation" Pushing Young Girls into Depression and Self-Harm: New Study

By Hilary White

July 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) -

"When I was 11, I read a teenage magazine for the first time and that is when it kind of clicked, 'I should be like this'," says one young girl surveyed in a study by Girlguiding UK and the Mental Health Foundation, that has revealed three leading potential "triggers" for serious mental health problems in girls: premature sexualisation, commercialisation and alcohol misuse.

More generally, the report reveals a loss of childhood innocence and says girls today experience high levels of "stress, anxiety and unhappiness". The study found that premature sexualisation and pressure to grow up too quickly are two "key influences" in the anxiety felt by girls.
"Sexual advances from boys, pressure to wear clothes that make them look too old and magazines and websites directly targeting younger girls to lose weight or consider plastic surgery were identified as taking a particular toll," the report says.

Dr. Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation which worked on the study, said, "Girls and young women are being forced to grow up at an unnatural pace in a society that we, as adults, have created and it's damaging their emotional well-being."

"We are forcing our young people to grow up too quickly and not giving them the spaces and experiences they require to be safe and confident. We are creating a generation under stress."
The study, commissioned by the Girl Guides and the Mental Health Foundation, questioned 350 Girl Guides aged 10 to 14 and includes detailed interviews with teenaged girls from across the country. Two-thirds of the girls surveyed online feel "anger and sadness" at least some of the time and half find those feelings difficult to manage. A quarter are "often worried," while half find their anxiety hard to handle.

Many of the girls said they have friends or family members who have suffered mental health problems. Two-fifths know someone who has self-harmed, a third had a friend who suffered from an eating disorder and almost two in five know someone who had experienced panic attacks. Many feel strongly that self-harm could be within the spectrum of "typical teenage behaviour" and that it was not necessarily symptomatic of a mental health problem. A quarter said they know someone who has taken illegal drugs, while two-fifths have experienced someone drinking too much alcohol.

The girls see supportive families and friendship groups as the "most important factor" in dealing with these problems.

This latest study supports previous research conducted by the Guides that found girls are especially under pressure to look like the celebrities they see in magazines and on television. Two-thirds of the girls admitted they felt worse about themselves when they saw pictures of models in magazines and on TV.

An earlier survey of members of Girlguiding UK found that the role models most often cited by girls between 10 and 25 included the skeletally thin Victoria Beckham, a former Spice Girls singer and wife of football superstar David Beckham, English singer Leona Lewis, Kate Moss, the "supermodel" who pioneered the "heroin chic waif look" in the 1990s, and the singer Amy Winehouse, a crack cocaine addict whose problems with alcohol and self-destructive behaviour have become regular tabloid news since 2007.

44 percent admitted they could name more WAGS (wives and girlfriends of professional footballers) than female politicians. Forty-two percent of the girls surveyed named celebrities as the greatest influence on girls and young women.

"Young girls today face a new generation of pressures that leave too many suffering stress, anxiety and unhappiness," said Chief Guide Liz Burnley. "All of us who care about young women have a part to play in helping them find a way through these conflicting demands to build the confidence they need to be themselves."

Last year, a report by the American Psychological Association (APA) recommended the removal of all 'sexualized' images of women in media, calling them harmful to girls' self-image and healthy development.

Eileen L. Zurbriggen, PhD, chair of the APA task force that ran the study said, "The consequences of the sexualisation of girls in media today are very real and are likely to be a negative influence on girls' healthy development."

"We have ample evidence to conclude that sexualisation has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development."

Christian and Religious Families Happier

Christian & religious families happier, less likely to divorce

New research says faith important

Posted on Jul 15, 2008 by Michael Foust

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Men who attend religious services regularly are more likely to have happy and stable marriages, more likely to be involved with their children and less likely to divorce, new research says. Additionally, mothers who attend church weekly are half as likely to have children out of wedlock, the study says.

The research by the University of Virginia's W. Bradford Wilcox analyzed data from three national surveys: the General Social Survey, the National Survey of Families and Households, and the National Survey of Family Growth. The research also drew partially from data in Wilcox's book, "Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands." "[R]eligious men (and their wives) enjoy happier marriages, they are less likely to father a child outside of wedlock, and they are more likely to take an active and affectionate approach to child rearing, compared to secular or nominally religious men," Wilcox wrote. "Therefore, any effort to strengthen men's ties to their children and families must acknowledge and incorporate the important role that religious institutions play in directing men's hearts toward home."The research -- titled "Is Religion An Answer? Marriage, Fatherhood, and the Male Problematic" -- was posted on the website of The Center for Marriage and Families in June. It was commissioned by the National Fatherhood Initiative. The research paper noted that over the past 50 years large numbers of men have become disconnected from family life.

The "percentage of children living in father-absent homes rose from 11 percent in 1960 to 27 percent in 2000," the paper said. Additionally, 38.5 percent of babies in 2006 were born out of wedlock, it said. The breakdown of marriage, the sexual revolution, declining real wages and the rise of individualism all have contributed to distancing men from their families, the research said. Religion, though, can play a role in bringing men closer to their families, it said.

The research found that:-- 70 percent of husbands "who attend church regularly report they are 'very happy' in their marriages," compared to "59 percent of husbands who rarely or never attend church."-- men and women who attended religious services several times a month or more "were approximately 35 percent less likely to divorce between 1988 and 1993, compared to their married peers who rarely or never attended religious services."-- fathers who attend church several times a month or more "devote at least two hours a week more in youth-related activities," "are significantly more likely to engage in one-on-one activities with their school-age children" and "are also at least 65 percent more likely to report praising and hugging their children very often" compared to fathers who don't any religious affiliation.-- mothers "who attend church weekly or more are about half as likely to have a child outside of wedlock, compared to mothers who attend church less often or never. "Marriages are strongest when the husband and wife attend religious services together, the research said. "This finding is important because men, women, and children who are fortunate enough to live in families centered around high-quality, stable marriages enjoy a range of benefits: better health, greater wealth, and more happiness than their peers," Wilcox wrote. "Thus, insofar as this brief finds that religion binds husbands to their wives in stronger marriages in the United States, it also suggests that religion indirectly fosters the physical, economic, and emotional well-being of adults and children.

"Why does religion have such a positive impact on fathers and families? The paper cited four reasons. Churches and religious institutions: 1) teach moral responsibility to fathers; 2) provide fathers with opportunities, such as youth groups, to spend time with their children and families; 3) offer encouragement and advice on being an effective parent; and 4) provide a "meaningful order" to life, thereby helping fathers "deal constructively" with trials, such as unemployment and death.

The research also cited data showing that cohabitation -- that is, couples living together before marriage -- do not provide stability. "Men living in cohabiting unions are unlikely to stick around and develop abiding ties to their children, because cohabiting unions are much less likely than marriages to endure," Wilcox wrote. "One study found that a child born to a cohabiting couple had a 50 percent risk that her parents would part in her first five years of life; by contrast, a child born to a married couple had only a 15 percent risk that her parents would part in her first five years."

Michael Foust is an assistant editor for Baptist Press.

http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=28473

Black genocide

Abortion: Protesters want the NAACP to speak up on the slaughter of unborn African-Americans

By: Alisa Harris

If someone wiped out the entire African-American population in Oakland, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., the number still wouldn't equal the number of black babies lost to abortion in one year: 683,294. According to the Allan Guttmacher Institute, African-American women are nearly five times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost one in every two African-American pregnancies ends in abortion.

These are facts, say pro-life blacks, that the NAACP can't afford to ignore. On July 14, the pro-lifers—including Alveda King (niece of Martin Luther King Jr.) and Clenard Childress of Life Education and Research Network—picketed the NAACP's 99th Annual Convention to address what Childress calls "black genocide." King said of Planned Parenthood, "It has led the way in eliminating African-Americans to the point where one quarter of the black population is now missing because of abortion. Planned Parenthood is anti-life and we are here to say enough is enough!"

Childress said the group was protesting the censorship of a pro-life resolution from the NAACP chapter in Macon, Ga. In February 2004, the NAACP made a statement endorsing the pro-abortion March Against Fear. In 2004 and 2007, the Macon chapter proposed a pro-life resolution calling on the NAACP to abandon its pro-abortion language and start educating the black community on the issue.

The NAACP now says it has no official policy on abortion, but the national resolution committee has rejected the resolution so the NAACP has never read it on the convention floor or discussed it. Childress said pro-lifers only want to discuss the resolution and present the facts: "It would be gross negligence not to address the issue."

At the NAACP picket, which took place the same day Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama addressed the gathering in Cincinnati, about 100 people passed out over 10,000 pieces of literature as documentary makers shot film footage. "We had women who were hurt, harmed by abortion—African-American women—there handing out pamphlets," said Childress. The pamphlets gave information on the statistics of abortion in the black community, the alleged racism of Planned Parenthood, and research on the possible link between abortion and breast cancer.

Childress said almost all the NAACP delegates took the information: "Most of them were very shocked at the information, surprised, especially when we invited them to please investigate what we said: 'Don't take our word for it.'"

Walter B. Hoye II, founder and president of Issues4Life, said he has talked to other African-American leaders who respond in the same way when they hear statistics like these: Black women account for 6 percent of the population, but 56 percent of abortions. "First there's denial," said Hoye. "Then there's stunned silence."

Hoye noted that of the five abortion clinics in Alameda, Calif., four are in the heart of Oakland's African-American neighborhoods. He estimated that blacks and Hispanics together account for 88 percent of abortions, and he said this is an opportunity for the NAACP to work with other minorities on reducing abortions.

The NAACP could help first by acknowledging that black abortion is a problem, argued Hoye. Then it could incorporate pro-life principles into the anti-poverty and education programs it already runs. Childress suggested a health forum highlighting the physical and psychological toll abortion takes.

Poverty and lack of education can't be the only cause of black abortion, Hoye pointed out, because blacks have always faced difficult times and have pulled their families together and taken care of their children. He blames a silence in the pulpit: "They're pregnant, they have a problem, and there's absolutely no one to talk to about it."

Hoye said when he does sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics, a woman ignores him on the way into the clinic but comes out crying afterwards: "She's not experiencing the freedom she thought she would." Childress said, "It's up to moral and religious people to go to the streets and to the public square and let the cause and purpose be known in that fashion—peacefully—which is what we did."

Copyright © 2008 WORLD MagazineJuly 26, 2008, Vol. 23, No. 15

Teen Pregnancies Increase

LifeNews.com

7/14/08

Washington, DC

The number of teen pregnancies rose last year for the first time in 15 years, according to the National Institutes of Health. The new numbers follow the decisions of several states over the last couple of years to refuse the federal abstinence education funding the government sends to states. The number also follow new figures in January showing the number of abortions declining to their lowest levels since the year after Roe v. Wade as more teenagers keep their babies or give them up for adoptions than kill them in abortions. The report also comes after a spate of high-profile teen pregnancies: that of 17-year-old TV star Jamie Lynn Spears, who recently gave birth to a daughter, as well as the pregnancies of numerous students at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts. Federal health experts said they don't know why the teen pregnancy numbers went up from 2005 to 2006, and that not enough data have been collected to say whether it's a trend. Pregnant teens aged 15 to 19 are less likely to get prenatal care and gain appropriate weight, experts say. They are also more likely smoke than pregnant women aged 20 years or older. Teen pregnancy is "one of the key indicators for the health of the teen population because it not only reflects their health at this point, but it reflects their health and well-being for the next 20 to 40 years," Sondik said.

Meet Toni Henry

Toni Henry, Founder of Lois' Lodge
By: Jamie Dean

Most people may not associate golf with ministry, but Lois’ Lodge board member Toni Henry says the two have at least one thing in common: Sometimes people are reluctant to step up and swing hard. What if they miss? What if it’s messy? In the end, timidity leads some to barely swing, or not swing at all.

"But God’s not called us to that," says Toni. "God’s called us to go and really take a swing."

Toni took a giant swing at ministry in 1994 when she began praying about starting a Christian maternity home in the Charlotte area. Though the Furman University graduate and mother of four had been a longtime pro-life activist, she knew little about starting a non-profit ministry, and less about creating a residential home for young women.

But during her years of pro-life work, including local marches and rallies, Toni developed a growing conviction. "I knew we were against abortion," she says. "But I began to ask: ‘What are we for?’" Though marches and rallies were valuable, Toni says, "I really began to feel like we needed to do more than just stand on the sidewalks. We needed to provide a place for these women."

The conviction grew stronger with the sudden death of a dear Christian teenager in Toni’s church. Jennifer Greene had been committed to personal purity, and had volunteered at the Charlotte Crisis Pregnancy Center uptown. Toni and a group of friends began praying about a way to honor Jennifer’s memory and her devotion to the pro-life cause.

The group wanted to follow the Bible’s admonition to care for the fatherless, and to provide a cup of cold water in Christ’s name, especially to young women facing unplanned pregnancies.
In the years that followed, the concept for Lois’ Lodge slowly began to take shape. Toni charged headlong into a steep learning curve that included navigating zoning laws and state regulations, and learning about successful Christian maternity homes.

After a period of "actively waiting" for the right setting, the Lois’ Lodge board moved to open the ministry’s first home in Matthews in 2003. Several board members, including Toni, rolled up their sleeves to help make the ministry work: They vacuumed, cleaned, and blew leaves off the sidewalk.

The board also provided guidance and direction, and moved the ministry to the Dilworth area in 2006. Over the years, Toni says she has been thankful for the 60-plus young women who have found care and gospel hope at Lois’ Lodge, and for the board’s consistent unity. "To me, that’s how you know the Holy Spirit is there," she says. "You walk away refreshed and encouraged."
In the coming months, Toni will join several others in rotating off the ministry’s board. She’s looking forward to helping other non-profits get started, and investing time in her family: The high-energy real estate agent is married to Tom Henry, director of World Serve, a local missions organization assisting indigenous pastors in needy countries. She’s also mom to four children, ages 20-24 (including twins), and eagerly anticipates welcoming her first grandchild this fall.
Toni says she’s also looking forward to watching Lois’ Lodge continue to grow and reach more young women with the hope of Christ. "I want us to always say: ‘We are for Jesus Christ and Him alone,’" she says. "We want people to come to Jesus Christ."

And Toni hopes that more people will step up and take a good, hard swing at ministry. Even if they don’t get a hole-in-one, at least they’ll get the ball off the ground.