So a group of Gloucester high school girls supposedly made a pact to get pregnant, and 15 or so succeeded. You can read about it in Time.
For some reason, Time focused in on contraception. Superficially, it makes sense: Use contraception and you won't get pregnant. But these girls wanted to get pregnant, so why bring it up? Time started out by suggesting the girls may have been inspired by a couple of Hollywood chick flicks, but quickly changed the subject to Gloucester's sagging economy. The once-proud fishing boomtown has gone bust, leaving girls no choice but to get pregnant, concluded Time.
The real issue here is one of morals. Orthodox Jewish, Catholic, Baptist, Stoic, Secular Humanist... the brand doesn't matter. Pick one--stick to it. Our popular culture is amoral: it knows no right or wrong, which makes personal morality even more important, especially for adolescents.
Human society has always had its ills. Every 21st century sin can be found in some form in the Old Testament. So what's changed, you may ask? Here's what's changed: People used to do these things in seclusion, confining their activities to private clubs and other out of the way places. Nowadays, it's everywhere. The average person can't escape the spillover. Our society is becoming a toxic waste dump.
The real damage here is to the soul. Rampant consumer marketing, money worship, and an obsession with the human body are squeezing the poetry and beauty from our lives. It's a mad, howling 24/7 crush of YouTube, TV, advertisements, porn, booze, drugs, Hollywood, news, glorified violence, shouting, get rich now, unbridled anger...
All these things conspire to distort the meaning of man and woman. They desensitize the soul. Not just to vice, but also, tragically, to life's intrinsic beauty. Does anyone out there remember how to enjoy themselves without an electronic device or some consumer product?
Life is beautiful. But not to a soul pregnant with society's child. You can give kids condoms, but what they really need is a contraceptive for the soul.
