Lie to Me Does Just That About Sex

I’ve got to admit that I love Fox’s new TV show Lie to Me. On the show, Dr. Cal Lightman, the brilliant main character and walking lie-detector, and his team can watch a person, observe his body language and micro-expressions, and determine whether he’s telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They’re “experts in deception and witness veracity.” It’s fascinating — especially when they show pictures of well-known figures from current events exhibiting the same facial expressions when faced with similar predicaments (see picture below).



Another reason I enjoy the show is that, for the most part, it doesn’t push the envelope in terms of sexually explicit content. I was disappointed, however, in a recent episode.

The plot: A group of high school girls make a pact to lose their virginity to college boys because they think high school boys are “tools.” To attain their goal, they crash fraternity parties and pretend to be college-aged in order to assure that they won’t be rejected as jailbait.

During one such escapade, a girl sleeps with a college football star. After finishing “the deed,” she goes home upset and intoxicated and tells her father where she was (leaving out her part in the act). Fuming, the father has the college student charged with statutory rape. Cal and his team of psychologists use their expertise to discover that the girl purposely hid her age, and the rape charges are dropped.

The teenage girl’s father, a protective single parent, is furious that his precious daughter, who can do no wrong in his eyes, had her innocence stolen. In denial that it was of her own will, he wants someone to pay. He blames the justice system and murders the district attorney who dropped the rape charges. One big tragic mess, right?

Side plot: Dr. Lightman’s teenage daughter, Emily, happens to go to the same school as these sex-pact girls. When he finds birth control pills and a fake ID in her room and learns that she’s been going to college bars, he is furious. Holding the birth control, he wisely exclaims, “I hope for your sake these are just tic tacs! …Do you realize there are consequences for your actions?” and puts them in his pocket.

His ex-wife, however, nonchalantly responds, “There are consequences to not having those, too…She’s not on the pill yet…but I think it’s best that she have them for when she is ready.”

Now, this is typical “safe” sex propaganda (The faulty idea that we should give out birth control “just in case,” but hope that teens don’t use it until “they’re ready” — whatever that means), and I’ve dealt with it in other blogs. But, I still held out hope that Lightman would be the voice of reason and practice morally upright parenting.

At the end of the episode, in what is supposed to be a tender father/daughter moment, Emily laments the death of the DA and the fact that her young classmate’s only living parent will now spend the rest of his life in jail — all because of one act. “A man’s dead, Susan doesn’t have any family. How’d all this get so messed up?”

Her dad rightly uses it as a teachable moment, “See this is what I mean about consequences, you can’t predict them.” If only it had stopped there. Roll the credits. Lessons learned. Dad took his daughter’s birth control away; daughter realizes the complications and downright mayhem that can come from sexual sin. No such luck.

In the closing scene, Lightman reaches in his pocket and hands the birth control back to his 16-year-old daughter. They embrace and exchange “I love you’s.” The end.

So let me get the message straight: One girl’s need to feel accepted and have sex with an older boy leads to a distraught father who murders an innocent man, leaving a girl orphaned and traumatizing a careless college student, but “since they’re going to have sex anyways, let’s give them birth control pills”?

Apparently, no one really learned anything in the whole salacious ordeal.

The writers ignored the consequences of returning the pills. The truly loving thing would’ve been for him to throw the poisonous permission-slips-for-promiscuity pills away and protect his daughter from the physical, spiritual and mental repercussions of premarital sex by instilling in her the importance of chastity. Maybe that’s a bit much to ask from a secular TV show. But even a nice politically correct “you’re not old enough” speech, followed by pitching the pills in the trash, would’ve made more sense considering the devastation they’d just witnessed that was caused by one sexual act.

HEY YOU, BARBARIAN! LOVE CAREFULLY!

While perusing a flea market booth comprised of old photos, news clippings and other vintage paraphernalia, I came upon a pre-Roe Planned Parenthood bumper sticker and promptly purchased it. Evidently, before PP ditched any effort to connect sex with love, they came out with this gem of a marketing scheme: “Love Carefully.”

In case you can’t see the picture well enough, I’ll describe it. On a bright pink background, a cave woman, holding a club, is deviously dragging an unconscious cave man with a flower in his mouth. Then in big letters, it says, “LOVE CAREFULLY! Planned Parenthood.”



Um, what? Not only is the picture perpetuating the now-pervasive theme of de-masculinized and feeble men, but it begs the question: What does an androgynous woman yielding a weapon and pulling along a lifeless man have to do with “love” or “being careful”? Should women hit men with sticks to avoid the “dangers” of sex? Is rendering another human unconscious an act of love? Okay, maybe I’m reading into a bumper sticker too much.

The barbarian theme, though, is strikingly appropriate. That’s what Planned Parenthood wants — a bunch of zombie-like, pleasure-seeking, responsibility-shirking Neanderthals mindlessly engaging in sexual acts. But, they expect these same hormone-crazed people who can’t control their natural impulses, to take certain “precautions.” I’ve always wondered how, on one hand, PP thinks that humans are too weak, animalistic or overwhelmed with hormones to practice chastity and yet they expect those same humans to be thoughtful, controlled and mature enough to take a pill at the same time every day or stop “in the heat of the moment” and use a condom?

Pick a side; do you believe we are highly evolved animals who should give in to our every desire? (This has far-reaching, frightful implications.) Or are we moral agents, made in the image of God, who should say ‘no’ to “ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:12)?

Apparently, when this sticker was created, PP recognized that most people associate sex with love (a connection that they’ve now successfully severed). “Love Carefully” was an early rendition of the now ubiquitous phrase “safe sex.” And I’ve written plenty on the true meaning of that phrase.

If you truly want to know what it means to “love carefully,” read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Netcast 55: Debunking Myths of ObamaCare; Jeff & Erik Return

Netcast 55: Debunking ObamaCare Myths; Erik & Jeff Return!


RFL Netcast 055

Featured Band: Human Flight Committee




Stories from the road: Jeff and Erik share inspiring tour stories

News & Commentary

RH Reality Check Calls Judie Brown the "grandmother of the modern anti-choice movement" and lists ALL as top “anti-choice” crusader for personhood!

University of Louisville Pro-Life Student Group Wants Rick Pitino Dismissed

Choice Cuts

"While the anti-choice movement is motivated primarily by a desire to control sex and stomp out women’s liberation, they realize that this position isn’t going to fly over well with a public that enjoys sex and households that rely on female income. That’s why they came up with The Almighty Fetus as a way to spin it."
-Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check "Birthers and Anti-Choicers: One and the same"

"...I don't think there is any one right age, right time, or right kind of relationship for everyone when it comes to what makes sex right or best. That varies from person-to-person a lot, and isn't usually based on something as simple as only how old we are."
-RH Reality Check, Heather Corinna, Scarleteen

"When I counseled a Hindu woman who...wanted the abortion because...the fetus...was female...my feminism and pro-choice philosophies collided violently... But...ultimately, women do and should have the right to make what may be to others the wrong choice."
-"Selecting the Same Sex," Merle Hoffman, On the Issues Magazine “

Just because something is legal -- and should be legal -- does not mean it is always ethical."
-Frances Kissling (formerly of Catholics for Choice)

"The key thing is we don't want abortion to enter this debate and sabotage health care reform. Neither side should try to win political gains on abortion during the health care debate."
-Rev. Jim Wallis, Sojourners

FEATURE: Debunking the myths of Obamacare

Listen to Erik, Jeff and Kortney discuss:
-"But we already pay for abortions."
-"Christians should support Obamacare because it's helping the poor."
-"Why are you against reform?"

Listen now!

Rock for Life Calls on Christians to Unite in Opposition to Obamacare

Obamacare is creating discord within the ranks of Christian social justice organizations, which are sponsoring competing advertisements and campaigns.

Rock for Life, American Life League’s youth outreach, called on all Christians Thursday to unite in condemning President Obama’s health care “reform” plan, which would mandate abortion coverage, among other evils.

The call is in response to an ad just released by the leftist Faithful America organization in support of the Obamacare. The ad was cosponsored by other leftist groups, including PICO National Network, Sojourners and the misnamed Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. It features a number of “people of faith” calling on Congress to support Obamacare.

The ad counters American Life League and Family Research Council’s public opposition to the Obama plan, which would mandate tax-subsidized abortion, euthanasia and health care rationing.

Faithful America’s ad is part of the “40 Days for Health Reform” campaign, which, like the ad, is sponsored by a coalition of hard-core left-wing groups operating as religious organizations.

Kortney Blythe, Rock for Life’s chapter and street team coordinator, commented, “I find the fact that Faithful America co-opted the name of a pro-life campaign, ‘40 Days for Life,’ and replaced ‘life’ with ‘health reform’ reveals its true intentions. A more appropriate title for its campaign would be ‘40 Days for Death.’”

Faithful America’s web site claims, “The health reform proposals currently before Congress will ease the burden on us all, from middle class families to those most in need.”

Blythe disagrees: “The health care ‘reform’ proposal will not ease the burden of all. In fact, it will target those most in need of protection – the preborn, the elderly, the seriously ill and the disabled – by determining whether their ‘quality of life’ is worth sustaining.”

In the 30-second Faithful America ad, a handful of clergy and lay people supposedly representing various Protestant traditions and the Catholic Church, tout their support for Obama’s health care plan. The Rev. Stevie Wakes, of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Kansas City, Kansas, tells viewers, “God has given us a spirit not of fear, but of love and action.”

“Shouldn’t this love extend to all persons, regardless of their status, age or condition?” Blythe responded. “And shouldn’t our actions defend the cause of the widow and the fatherless? No amount of misusing Scripture will change the facts about the evils included in H.R. 3200.”

The ad ends with the Rev. John Hay of Indianapolis, Indiana declaring, “Millions of people of faith are supporting health insurance reform.”

Blythe set the record straight: “Yes, my generation of young people supports reform, but not at the expense of human lives, particularly those of babies in the womb or the elderly. We will applaud changes to health care that safeguard the lives of all – both born and preborn."

Abortion on TV: Reflection of Cultural Shift?

Television not only mirrors a society, but can also shape it. Could how abortion is portrayed reflect the changing views of abortion in our culture? When Fox TV network announced they would be censoring a Family Guy episode dubbed “the abortion episode,” the abortion advocates came out in force.

Amanda Marcotte of RH Reality Check (a radically anti-life website) called Fox’s move “systemic sexism,” part of a trend to “write [abortion] off as fringe” and “taboo.” Another RH Reality Check blogger, Sarah Seltzer, complained, “The lack of abortion jokes creates this hyped-up atmosphere of tragedy and controversy around something that is quite common and needs to be discussed more.”

Pro-abortion activists like to legitimize child-killing using numbers. Since so many women procure abortions —1.2 million per year—it must be right. Basically, a “might makes right” mentality. Marcotte points out there are 694,000 open heart surgeries, 600,000 hysterectomies and 193,000 hip replacements, making abortion the most common procedure. Those other surgeries are shown on medical TV shows and talked about in passing conversations without hesitation.

Why is abortion still a sensitive subject despite its frequency? Why is there an “atmosphere of tragedy” surrounding abortion? The answer is quite obvious, if one is willing to take off the “pro-choice” blinders. Abortion leaves women hurting, regretful and sorrow-filled when they realize that they allowed someone to end the life of their child. Much to the dismay of abortion “rights” groups, most TV shows reflect this reality.

A new ABC show, Defying Gravity, is about astronauts in 2052. In it, abortion is criminalized. Within the first two episodes, a character who gets an illegal abortion hears babies crying everywhere she goes.

Similarly, on the show Six Feet Under, Claire visits a lifeless, cold abortion clinic. TV reviewers and commentators described the scene as “a slaughterhouse” or “a cattle-call.” After the abortion, Claire has a breakdown, and the thought of babysitting her infant niece makes her nauseous. Later, she dreams of heaven and sees her aborted daughter there.

Abortion advocates hate these depictions. Yes, they want abortion on TV. But they want it portrayed as quick and easy, devoid of long-lasting consequences. Pro-abortion radicals would like nothing more than pop media renditions of obnoxiously rebellious, promiscuous women having carefree abortions with no lasting repercussions. They want abortion treated like any other outpatient operation. No big deal. That’s not gonna happen. Why? It’s not authentic. “The longer legalized abortion is with us, the more stigmatized it becomes, as reflected even in liberally-made movies and television…There is increasing evidence to [people] on the street that abortion kills children, and that aborting mothers do hear crying babies, have mental breakdowns, and suffer infertility,” explains pro-life blogger, Jill Stanek.

When TV shows deal with unexpected pregnancies, more of them are showing happy women and men of all ages embracing parenthood or choosing adoption. Abortion promoters hate this, too. What about their own hijacked use of the word “choice” don’t they understand? Why are they angered when a person, fictional or not, chooses not to abort. I thought they were supposed to be pro-multiple-choices? MTV’s show 16 and Pregnant displeases them because all the girls choose parenthood instead of “barrenhood.”

On an episode of One Tree Hill, a pregnant Peyton freaks out at the prospect of abortion, yelling, “It’s not an ‘it.’ This is our baby. You saw its heartbeat. You saw its little tiny fingers and its toes.” At this, an abortion supporter wrote, “[The characters] couldn’t get past…the anti-choice rhetoric of the unborn child’s potential and cute little arms and legs.” Let me get this straight, you want them to get past the “rhetoric” of their child’s body parts in order to dismember their baby instead? Is that what you’re insinuating?

Another pet peeve of the pro-aborts is how caring for one’s child is always viewed as the “right thing” to do and results in a happy ending. For instance, The O.C. was deemed “conservative” on abortion because the show’s website said a teen father, “did the right thing and moved back to Chino to help raise [his baby].” One anti-life blogger responded, “Since when is dropping out of high school to work construction and raise a child while you are still basically a child yourself considered doing the right thing for anyone?” To which I ask: is the “right” alternative your choice? The abortion choice?

Why am I spending time discussing abortion on TV? Media impacts culture, specifically the culture of young people. Kids spend an average of four hours per day glued to the tube. The messages they hear blared from the screen stick with them longer than a lecture or a presentation. Although it seems strange that Hollywood could contribute anything good, the honesty with which they tackle the complex and devastating issue of abortion may just help the pro-life movement in our battle against “the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

RFL Netcast 053

Featured artist: Rachel Merchand

Erik was on the road headed to Soulfest, so...

Meet guest co-host Stephanie: Chapter leader & ALL intern

1. How do you like interning?
2. What activities does Saint Michael's chapter have planned?
3. How did you get involved with pro-life work/RFL?

Check out our updated chapter list. If you want to start a chapter send Kortney an e-mail.

News & Commentary  

Largest Pro-life web event in history 

NY Representative Defends Margaret Sanger 

Pence Amendment Voted Down

National Pro-life Memorial Day is October 5 - Promo postcards available, start recruiting now, visit website, buy t-shirt, sign up to participate

FEATURE: Obama-bots, We Love the Obamas, but have no idea what they stand for

    * Listen as Stephanie and Kortney recount Monday's activities in D.C. in front of Pelosi's office where a press conference was held spotlighting how the abortion mandate will affect the African American community, followed by an afternoon of activism confronting Michelle Obama.
    * Listen to interviews with attendees on abortion as tax-funded healthcare.

Choice Cuts

"The last time I can remember a romantic comedy with a real, relatable, capable-of-growth, possessing-an-inner-life heroine (albeit a quirky, eccentric one) was Juno. And that was wrapped in a creepily-anti choice, pro-female self-sacrifice plot structure which made the film a mixed bag for feminists. It was almost as if a three-dimensional female protagonist was only allowed through the gates of existence by doing penance--fulfilling the conservative fantasy of the willing baby-giving-up teen mom--within her film's storyline."
-Sarah Seltzer, RH Reality Check, "Indie Movies Can Be Sexist, Too"

"The United Nations recently reported that the world population will double in the next 40 years if growth rates go unchecked. India...was specifically mentioned...[and] came up with a solution: To bring electricity to rural villages so people can watch television at night instead of having sex. According to...India's Health and Family Welfare Minister:'When there is no electricity there is nothing else to do but produce babies...I am serious. TV will have a great impact. It's a great medium to tackle the problem ... 80 percent of population growth can be reduced through TV.'"
-Amy Dempsey, RH Reality Check, "Roundup: Obama's Abortion Pledge to the Pope"

"Each side in the abortion debate has its Achilles' heel. For advocates of choice it's the fetus."
-Frances Kissling (former president of Catholics for Choice), "What's Wrong With the New Pro-Lifers," RH Reality Check

Listen to Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) Equate Abortion To A Tonsillectomy

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You can also find the Rock for Life Netcast on Myspace or on Podomatic. You can also listen to the Rock for Life Netcast on National Pro-Life Radio every Wednesday at 1pm. To ask us questions or to give us comments, ideas or suggestions write us at Netcast@RockForLife.org or call us at 866-552-3368.

Preventing the Pregnancy Disease: One of the 10 Great Health Achievements of the 20th Century?

In a recent blog, the president of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund, Sarah Stoesz, claims to give “The Simple Truth about Family Planning.” Actually, all she manages to do is treat birth control like the discovery of penicillin.

According to a report from the obviously-unbiased-attached-at-the-hip-buddy-of-Planned-Parenthood research group, the Guttmacher Institute, “the typical American woman, who wants two children, spends about five years pregnant, postpartum or trying to become pregnant, and three decades – more than three-quarters of her reproductive life – trying to avoid pregnancy.”

Watch out! Duck and dodge! Get down! Put on your pregnancy-proof vest and wear protective gear as you navigate through those dangerous reproductive years! Heaven forbid you allow God’s blessings to penetrate your anti-life armor. The results could be disastrous: hearing the joyous laughter of more than two children filling your house! Lollipops, toddlers and bottles, oh my!

Even the CDC recognizes the importance of “family planning,” also known as technologies that rescue “unsuspecting” women from the horror of pregnancy and childbearing. They list it as “one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.” You know, right alongside such medical advances as controlling infectious diseases, decline in deaths from heart disease and stroke, and healthier mothers and babies.

Really, CDC? In the same breath that you list “healthier mothers and babies” and “decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke” as achievements, you also include “family planning”? Go ahead and ignore the fact that so-called family planning has resulted in at least 51 million dead babies and grieving women, in addition to hormonal birth control increasing female deaths from stroke, pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrest, hypertensive diseases and heart failure.

Wait - C … D … C. Doesn’t that stand for the Centers for Disease Control? Why, yes, it does. And what disease is being controlled with “family planning”? Oh, that’s right; abortion advocates think pregnancy is a disease. I guess we all just began our lives as little diseases in our mother’s wombs. I think I’m going to get a complex.

Explaining why it made the list, the CDC asserts “family planning has provided health benefits such as smaller family size.” And what health “benefits” come from a smaller family size? I can only think of disadvantages such as creating spoiled, self-centered kids who, despite their parents’ claim that limiting the number of children provides more time and focus on the kids they do have, have poor, strained relationships with their parents, and don’t know the meaning of sacrifice or service.

Stoesz then tries to appeal to fiscal conservatives, saying they should “embrace family planning,” for “it costs less to fund contraceptive services than it does to pay for prenatal care, delivery, and infant care associated with unintended pregnancies.” Sorry, Ms. Stoesz, but unlike some who are labeled as “far right” or “conservative” for their view on government spending, true pro-lifers care not how much money a precious child costs to keep alive and don’t consider humans as financial burdens. Regardless of what box we’re put in, we believe that a human being's life is more important than money or trees or tax debates.