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The glamorization of out-of-wedlock pregnancy
By Katharine DeBrecht
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Let’s take this out of Africa and to the US. According to The Family Research Council:
“Unwed mothers and fathers are less likely to marry and more likely to suffer from depression and to live in poverty than are those who do not have children outside of marriage. Children born to teen mothers are more likely than other children to have lower grades, to drop out of high school, to be abused or neglected, to have a child as an unmarried teenager, and to be delinquent.
Teen childbearing costs U.S. taxpayers an estimated $7 billion each year for increased welfare, food stamps, medical care, incarceration and foster care costs, as well as lost tax revenue due to government dependency. The gross annual cost to society of unwed childbearing and its negative consequences is $29 billion, which includes the administration of welfare and foster care programs, the building and maintenance of additional prisons, as well as lower education and reduced productivity among unwed parents.”
What new “social change” which Hollywood overtly seeks, are these celebrities now promoting? One-third of births in the United States are out of wedlock. Among women under age 20, 70 percent of all births are to single mothers.
Let us review. Brad Pitt commits adultery, but that’s OK because he is a celebrity. Angelina and Brad lie about their affair but that’s OK too. Angelina and Brad consummate an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Angelina announces to the world that she has no plans to wed Brad Pitt. Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt is born and celebrated as the wonderful product of this celebrity union. Jolie was never portrayed as a home wrecker, perhaps because of her work in Africa as a Goodwill Ambassador.
Heck, Kenneth Lay of Enron did charity work. Jolie was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the UN. Chris Janowski, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said Jolie “can naturally bring in our message to youth.” But what type of message is a woman, who has an affair with a married man, has a child out of wedlock and yet is received like royalty in Namibia, portraying to a continent that is ridden with AIDS and poverty?
We have seen the consequences of infidelity and divorce on the family and children. Children raised in a single-parent home are more likely to live in
poverty, engage in premarital sex, develop substance abuse problems, perform poorly in school and commit suicide. Sixty percent of inmates in US jails were raised by a single parent. Knowing that children of single parents are at a higher risk for failure, why is Hollywood glorifying single parenthood?
So where is the outrage with the latest antics of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie? Why do we glorify an unmarried couple having a child out of wedlock, who barely seem fit as parents?”
Will the Hollywood Idology indoctrination continue to shape us, or will we stand up for the values that protect children within a context of a family?
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