According to a story on CNN Mississippi just soared past Texas and New Mexico for the top spot in the births to teenagers rankings.  We were the worst, by a long shot, but this dubious distinction is part of a national trend.
(quotes from article in blue)

“More than a year ago, a preliminary report on the 2006 data revealed that the U.S. teen birth rate had risen for the first time in about 15 years. But the new numbers provide the first state-by-state breakdown.

“The new report is based on a review of all the birth certificates in 2006. Significant increases in teen birth rates were noted in 26 states.

“‘It’s pretty much across the board’ nationally, said Brady Hamilton, a CDC statistician who worked on the report. “

Any time news such as this is comes out the hand-wringers who incredulously ask why ?!? and the agenda driven spinmiesters come out of the wood work.

The racialists will like the second paragraph from the aforementioned story :

“Mississippi now has the nation’s highest teen birth rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title, a new federal report says. Mississippi’s rate was more than 60 percent higher than the national average in 2006, according to new state statistics released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The teen birth rate for that year in Texas and New Mexico was more than 50 percent higher.

The three states have large proportions of black and Hispanic teenagers — groups that traditionally have higher birth rates, experts noted.”

The liberals & libertines blame “right-wing” abstinence programs (ignoring the fact that prior to any sex education the teen pregnancy rates were miniscule compared to today) :

“Some experts have blamed the national increase on increased federal funding for abstinence-only health education that does not teach teens how to use condoms and other contraception. They said that would explain why teen birth rate increases have been detected across much of the country and not just in a few spots.”

Of course these same left wingers likely take particular relishment in the fact that the worst teen pregnacny rates are in so called “Bible belt” states while the lowest are in deep “blue” states in New England & on the left coast :

 

 While traditionalist conservatives blame three generations of non-abstinence based sex ed since the sixties, the degenerate culture of Hollywood, a liberal move to break down the family, “traditional values” etc ( whether they think it started with Gramsci, or Freud,or Woodstock,  or Murphy Brown, or someone/ something else ) :

“Some conservative organizations have argued that contraceptive-focused sex education is still common, and that the new teen birth numbers reflect it is failing . . . .
. . . Glowing media portrayals of celebrity pregnancies don’t help, either”

Of course the abortion lobby ( particularly the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a front group for Planned Murderhood) is quick to throw their “wisdom” into the fray — and their allies in the MSM are anxious to help.

“A variety of factors influence teen birth rates, including culture, poverty and racial demographics. For those and other reasons, kids in mostly white New England likely would delay child birth, said David Landry, a researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based organization which supports abortion rights and gathers research on sexual and reproductive health.”

* We can be sure abortionists would be quite ready to “help” with the problem of live births to teens. While the Genocidal Planned Parenthood/ Guttmacher Institute (founded by consistent Darwinist/ Eugenist & Nazi ally Marget Sanger for the wiping out of  ”undesireable” “lower races“) will anxiously use the billions of taxpayer dollars that Democrats AND Republicans have given them to try and eleminate the “races” that currently are most caught in this vicious cycle.

** And many well-meaning bleeding hearts will decide that we just need another government program or at least more government money .

But the real questions remain :
What are the causes of the teen birth rate going up ?
Why is it even higher in Mississippi ?
What can be done ?

I’ll start with a very practical answer to the second question. And oddly enough, I to some degree agree with PP & Guttmacher — but what they think is a bad thing, I beleive is a good thing.
Mississippi has more births to teens because it is much harder to get an abortion here than nearly anywhere in the country. Teen pregnancy is a tragedy, but an even greater tragedy is when the solution to one tragedy is to compound the problem by executing the most innocent person involved in the pregnancy — the unborn child.
So, if in the short term, the number of live births to teens increase because the number of dead children is decreased, then let the live births increase. 

I would invite you to make the killing of all persons even harder in Mississippi by helping pass a Personhood Ammendment acknowledging the personhood of the unborn & challenging all “legalized” abortion. – (updates soon – preview of site)

Ulitmately, though Mississippi having only one abortion mill and some of the strictest regulations on child-killing only partly explains the increase in teen births.
*As does the poverty & lack of education in the Delta;
*As does the welfare state & dependancy;
*As does generations of fatherlessness;
*As does the acceptance — and even glorification – of young, single motherhood in certain sub cultures of our black, Hispanic, and “cracker” populations;
* As does the influence of Hollywood, socialist programs, and a variety of other outside influnces that elevate fornication to the highest level of entertainment;
*As do a hundred other factors that wiser men than I could list.

But these are not the main cause of the problem of the escalating teen birthrate — and they certainly cannot offer any hope of a solution.

The Cause and the Cure of this and many other “social ills” (aka consequences of sin) can be found in the same place : the Church of Jesus Christ.

What percentage of the teens giving birth or visiting abortion clinics (as well as the daddies) do you think regularly attend church ? I’ll bet the answer would surprise you.

Ultimately in a state that is possibly the most churched in the country; in  a region that is the most churched; of a country that is the most churched in the world the appalling rate of teen pregancy must been seen as a failure of these churches — and to get more personal, a failure of us as individual Believers,  joined to our Head, Christ, and to the rest of the Body, the Church regardless of the pitiful state of the visible church.

We have not preached the whole counsel of God. We have not lived as if we had a King as well as a Saviour. We have not loved our neighbors. We have not carried out the Great Commission. We have not plead the cause of the fatherless. We have not defended the poor. We have not visited the widow and the orphans. We have not “sought justice, loved mercy, and walked humbly with our God “. We have not loved Christ by loving the least of these here or in the far reaches of the world.

The great news is that we still have a great Hope. Our hope is in Christ. Our failures do not alter His faithfulness.
Our sin; our heresies; our lack of obedience; the horrid state of the culture in a nation founded upon such lofty things; and ailing, failing, fickle, forgetful, rebellious, ungrateful, unsubmissive, unloving, Bride for such a perfect Husband; a weak visible church; individual churches that have fallen into such shameful apostacy;
Huge sins; enormous social ills; growing tyranny in a nation granted freedom.

 

 

NONE of these can alter one iota the Covenant of Grace. None of these can alter the plans or promises of our Blessed Redeemer — the Ruler of nations. None of these can dimish His faitful love for His elect. None of these can slow or otherwise affect His ongoing work of doing perfectly all those things that will bring Him ultimate glory, and ultimate, eternal good to His people.
Our great hope is in a God that has a rich storehouse of mercy.
Our great hope us in Christ who has an imeasurable ocean of love.
Our great hope is in a Father, Son, & Holy Spirit who delight in answering our prayers when we come in faith & repentance — pleading forgiveness for our failures, for help for the desperate, and for Him to move again.
Our great hope is that God repeatedly says of Himself in his Word that He gives help to sinners, to beggars, to the fatherless, to the widow, to the orphan, to the distressed, to the desperate.
Our great hope is that this God is not only willing, but able, to do all His good pleasure completely and perfectly. Just as His mercy and lovingkindness are vast, so is His power and wisdom limitless.

Yes. We must discern the times to try and determine what best to do. Yes. We must repent of viewing children the way we do. Yes. We must vigorously oppose ideas that are wrong/  dangerous and give Biblical answers to all of life’s questions. Yes. We must fight for liberty and justice in the political/ legal realm. But these are fruit issues – not root issues.

 

 

Ultimately, nothing less than Christ or nothing different than Christ or nothing added to Christ offers any hope. And the glorious blessing we have is that He works through us.
The answer to the problem of teen births and teen abortions — of all fatherlessness — is found in Christ through His people.

Not programs. Not politcal parties. Not money. Not education. Not worldly wisdom. Not even conservatism or a return to “traditional familiy values”.

The answer must come through Christians. The answer must come from the Scriptures. The answer is the Gospel. The answer is the Church. The answer is Christ.

The Cause & the Cure :
Cause — we have not loved and obeyed Christ
Cure — love and obey Christ