Ponderings

Admittedly, I am culturally challenged. I’m illiterate when it comes to sports and my radio is tuned to NPR, I depend on CNN’s daily “quick news” to keep me from totally embarrassing myself. I fear that I may be passing this liability on to my daughter. Yesterday, she came home bewildered by ways in which the news of the day had filled the hallways at school. Luckily I had scanned the news enough to know that Britney is an entertainer and the news was scandal not celebration, just enough knowledge to carry on a conversation with my own teen.

To be fair, the news of the day is Britney’s sister, not the diva herself. Apparently, Brittney’s younger sister, age 16, is following not only Brittney’s musical footsteps but also her ability to gather scurrilous press. Jamie Lynn Spears is sixteen years old, single, and pregnant. But what’s the fuss? Given that nearly 1/3 of teenage girls get pregnant, one might wonder what is particularly newsworthy here.

Despite the high number of teenage pregnancies, teen pregnancy is still a cultural taboo. The pregnancy is newsworthy (apparently) because once again, a celebrity is breaking the mythical rules. Tragically, the only thing we do more quickly than raising folks on pedestals is devouring them when they fall.

But what of the taboo?

This taboo is perhaps authored by our religious convictions, but it is enforced by our economy. In a society where high school takes us to age 18 and college to age 21 (at least!), babies in our teen years invariably impede our education. Although some schools provide innovative and quality childcare options, an estimated 2/3 of teenagers with children will drop out. Even after the babies are themselves in school, the moms, without completing an educational course themselves, cannot compete in our increasingly high tech work force. Teenage pregnancy unwittingly paves the way for a lifetime of poverty.

With the ‘news’ of a high profile pregnant teen on the eve of our spiritual pilgrimage to the Bethlehem, we have an opportunity to revisit the religious roots of our judgment. Timing is essential to good irony, and the timing of this unexpected pregnancy just happens to coincide with our Christian celebration of an unwed pregnant teen. Around the world this week, children will don bathrobes and tie scarves on their heads, re-enacting Mary and Joseph’s fateful trek. As the opening words of Matthew and Luke are again read this weekend, we cannot help but see the irony.

In our telling of the story, of course, there was no backseat passion, but the scandal was every bit as damning. Yet our story doesn’t stop with the scandal. Our story promises it is in the unexpected, the vulnerable, and the culturally despised that the messiah comes. If we would seek the messiah, the incarnate presence of the Holy One, we might look at the base of the pedestal. In the remains of the public scorn, the long awaited one might be beckoning.

As we read the news, we need not settle for scandal. Maybe it’s because I’m a mother of teens, but I am increasingly loathe to cast moral judgment. Beyond the judgment there is room for concern, concern for the health and safety of the teen, her mother, and her baby. My yearning is for a world where pregnancy is safe and babies are welcomed with food, clothing, and shelter. As we seek the Holy One in unexpected places, I cannot help but pray that we might have the grace to work a society more welcoming of life.

And I pray that Jamie Lynn will be lucky enough to have a daughter like mine with whom she can, even in the rubble, ponder the meaning of our cultural iconography and the costliness of our judgments.