I learned two new facts today about the state of Christianity and its history. The first is obvious. Christian teens in the bible belt have the highest birth rates in the nation.
It’s easy to understand why New York City schools are handing out morning-after pills to teenage girls. Although teenage pregnancy and birth rates are declining nationally, teenage girls still give birth to hundreds of thousands of babies a year. To be precise, they gave birth to 367,678 in 2010 alone, according to the CDC. This map shows the birth rate among girls aged 15 to 19 by state. And it clearly shows that more conservative states have higher rates of teenage births.
Read more: Red States = Teen Moms
The second fact is less obvious. Syphilis, which was brought to Europe from the New World by Columbus and his crew, was known as the Christian disease by the Turks. I realize this was largely a racial/ethnic slur, but I’m sure it bears a grain of truth. I’m reading Bill Bryson’s At Home. It’s chock full of nefarious Christian trivia.
