Jon and Kate May Lose Eight...

My family once enjoyed the adventures and reality TV exploits of professing Christians "Jon & Kate Plus 8" (including sextuplets) on the TLC network. We were once fascinated and yes, entertained by the struggles and mundane mishaps of a married couple trying to live life and raise eight small children and then came black monday, on the heels of tabloid reports proclaiming the divorce and demise of the Gosselins.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ (Philippians 3:7)

The season 5 premiere of the show wracked up nearly 10 million viewers Monday night. Why? We, like the other 10 million couch potatoes, driven by a good bit of morbid curiousity, tuned into to watch the anger (mostly Kate's), angst and selfishness of two parents, who were overcome by the celebrity of book tours and papparazzi on their way to a collision course with classic 21st century dysfunctionality. One blogger known as "Think Christian" described the fall well, "I was hoping to see how a Christian family is working though tough marital times. Instead, it was a sad look into how fame can corrupt a family of eight...not one mention of God or faith from the Christian couple...The family that once was compelling to watch because of their realness has now become a victim to the drama filled, conflict-driven reality television realm...For me one of the toughest moments of the show came at the sextuplet's birthday party when one of the girls told Jon she didn't want him to leave anymore..."

Tales of Jon's alleged adultry, may have led to their current state of affairs, however the lure of fame and fortune - the height of self-exaltation and pride, seem to appear as cracks in this crumbling family foundation. by contrast, toward the end of Christian pop star Rich Mullins's career, it was known that he made a lot of money, but you'd never know it by looking at how he lived. Though he made hundreds of thousands of dollars, he chose to live on $24,000 a year. He told his accountant not to tell him how much money he had. It was easier to give it away if he didn't know how much he had, he would say with a smile. Rich's sister, Debbie, recalls a time when she saw how little he cared for fame and its trappings: "I went with a friend to see him when he was playing with Amy Grant at Radio City Music Hall. After the concert we were standing outside, and this white limousine someone had provided for him pulled up to take him back to the hotel. He told the driver to go on because he wanted to ride with the guys in the equipment van. We said good-bye, and he left in the van. "My friend said, 'Do you ever get tired of people treating your brother like he's different from you or anyone else?' "When I said no, she asked why. I said, 'Because he is different. I would have gotten into the limo." What would Jon and Kate do? Would they bring the kids along for the ride?

The Pro-Life Movement's Not Dead Yet?

The black knight of Monty Python fame might have best described the current trend of the pro-life movement with the slogan, "we're not dead yet- we're feeling better." A new Gallup poll claims that for the first time since 1995, when the question was first asked by the organization, most Americans consider themselves to be "pro-life" rather than "pro-choice." The straightforward question asked of participants was this: "With respect to the abortion issue, would you consider yourself to be pro-choice or pro-life?" Fifty-one percent responded that they were pro-life and 42 percent said they were pro-choice. These percentages are the reverse found in the same poll in 2006.

What happened? Why the change in public opinion? the past several years of pro-life work, education and family-friendly policies may have contributed greatly as well as the technological advances of our day (e.g early preemies, sonograms and crisis pregnancy centers), which make it practically impossible for pro-aborts to deny the reality of unborn, human life. Whatever the case may be, there is change coming, as noted recently by an atheistic columnist from the Denver Post, David Harsayni who wrote, "After a life of being pro-choice, I began to seriously ponder the question. I oppose the death penalty because there is a slim chance that an innocent person might be executed and I don't believe the state should have the authority to take a citizen's life. So don't I owe an nascent human life at least the same deference? Just in case?"

The fight is far from over however, Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare recently ruled that women are permitted to abort their children based on the sex of the fetus. In the United States, a woman can have an abortion for nearly any reason she chooses. In fact, a health exemption for the mother allows abortions to be performed virtually on demand. That said, maybe this poll tells us that the dynamics of the abortion debate are about to change, that Americans are getting past the politics and into the morality of the issue. If true, that makes this war once again, a fair fight.