Family issues

TLC’s new television series “Virgin Diaries” has prompted many questions about what level of intimacy is appropriate between today’s unmarried Christian couples.

The premise of the show revolves around virgins who are past their mid-twenties, either by circumstance or by choice. Some of the content portrays the show’s participants in at times “toe curling awkwardness” as they navigate through an over-sexed society.

In the pilot episode of the series, the story of Christians Shanna and Ryan overshadowed every other participant on the show. The couple abstained from every sexual activity, including kissing until marriage, and shared an uncomfortable first kiss at their wedding ceremony. more >>

Hollywood elites are more interested in curtailing commercials of soda pop in prime time television than getting a grip on rampant profanity and over-sexed programming during children’s viewing hours, says a prominent media watchdog leader.

Media Research Center president L. Brent Bozell III said it amazes him how some find “sin” in sugary drinks, but no “sin in televised profanity and sexual gymnastics.”

Bozell expressed his concern in a CNS post he wrote, prompted by a recent column by former entertainment executive Laurie David in The Huffington Post, "Thanksgiving Conversation Starter: Is It Time to Ban Soda Ads on Prime Time Television?" more >>

The easiest way to infuriate the young is to lean into nostalgia. Nevertheless, it’s hard not to be nostalgic for a childhood in which the basic equipment for elementary school was pretty much limited to notebooks, pencils, and an occasional ruler. Those days are long gone.

Verizon Wireless recently released a national survey of parents. The study revealed that the average age at which parents give their children their first cell phone is 11.6. Do sixth graders really need a cell phone?

Well, hold on. The same survey indicated that ten percent of parents give their children a cell phone between the ages of 7 and 9. A recent Nielsen Company study indicated that the average age for a first phone in many families may be as low as 9.7. more >>

There is a direct correlation between the Occupy Wall Street movement and the feminist movement of the 1960s, says a Christian family and modern culture expert.

Author and speaker Rebecca Hagelin, who also serves on the board of directors for Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk radio show, said during her recent interview on the show that the worldview of today’s protesters is very similar to what women demanded 50 years ago.

Hagelin was asked by Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, about the “linkage between what was going on then, where there was just chaos and it was also godless,” and the Occupy movement. more >>

Pro-life evangelist and filmmaker Ray Comfort, whose controversial 33-minute anti-abortion video "180" recently upset Jewish groups, says billboard companies in Southern California have turned down his requests to put up signs promoting the film.

A Jewish advocacy group recently denounced the video, which juxtaposes the murders that took place during the Nazi-led Holocaust with abortions performed in the United States, as an outrageous abuse of the memory of the tragedy that occurred during World War II.

Comfort told The Christian Post that three of the largest billboard companies in the Los Angeles area, including Lamar Advertising, CBS Outdoor, and one he did not name, have “declined to promote the pro-life movie ‘180.’” more >>

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that proponents of Proposition 8 – the 2008 voter-approved ballot initiative that defined marriage as between a man and a woman – have legal standing to defend the amendment in federal court.

The appeals case by Prop. 8 supporters was in danger of being derailed when a district court in August 2010 struck down Prop. 8 and named defendants – then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and then Attorney General Jerry Brown – refused to appeal the ruling.

But the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that the ProtectMarriage.com legal team, including Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, have the right under state law to defend the amendment. more >>