Guarding over a generation’s future

Standing on guard for Canada is more than a line in a song to me. It is a lifestyle, a life calling, a mandate, as a citizen and as a Christian. As I see the unrest peaking in our present world, where questions are many and answers are few, I feel even more burdened for the next generation’s welfare and future.

Few generations have had to face what this generation has had to face. They are the smallest generation in history. They survived the pill and escaped abortion. They are survivors. They have been raised in the most sex dominated and disease ridden culture in modern history, and many of them have lost their childhood innocence.

My life as a baby boomer was a dream compared to the complexities of surviving in this world. I didn’t have all the distractions. We had one TV channel, and that was black and white. We had phones that we shared with people in the neighbourhood – we could tell when one was listening in. We didn’t have Internet: we had libraries.

Our schooling was not complicated: you listened to your teachers, or you wound up in the Principal’s office. There was a sense of law and order, respect for politicians, police and pastors, and everyone carried a sense of civic responsibility. You could walk the streets and feel safe. You knew your neighbours, and they knew you. We took care of each other.

Abstinence – Embracing Life

On January 27th, the Canadian bishops exhorted the youth of Canada to embrace the challenge of chastity by “dedicating themselves to prayer, surrounding themselves with supportive friends, dressing modestly, and choosing entertainment wisely.” This call to chaste living came on the heels of a protest by Washington University students to the administration’s invite of Bristol Palin to participate in a panel discussion on abstinence.

Bristol Palin, 18-year-old daughter to Republican politician Sarah Palin, in a Fox interview after the birth of her son Tripp, stated “having a child is not glamorous at all” and “kids should just wait.” In her opinion, contrary to her mom’s, abstinence-only education was “not realistic at all.” However, she has since become a poster child in the battle for abstinence through the Candie Foundation, releasing two YouTube vignettes on “Pausing” before having sex.

No one is saying that it is an easy thing for a teen to say “no” to premarital sexual contact. This is a sex-saturated society, and our youth have been introduced to a secular culture that has had difficulty saying “no” to anything – drugs, alcohol, tobacco, materialism, etc. In a generation that has been suckled on situational ethics and brought up to believe that all morality is subjective, abstinence is a hard sell.

However, the statistics on unwed pregnancies in Canada should still astonish the thinking person. Though there has been an overall decline in teenage pregnancy within the last 25 years, it may not be for morally appropriate reasons. Teens are aware of available contraceptives and are more aware than ever of the increased health risks of unprotected sex – ie. AIDS, but more 15-19 year olds are choosing abortion over choosing life for their child.