Reluctantly posting about Jamie Spears

NEW YORK (AP) - Nickelodeon is considering a special for its young audience about sex and love following the news that 16-year-old "Zoey 101" star Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant.
The television network has made no announcement about the future of "Zoey 101," its popular program aimed primarily at youngsters aged 9- 14. Filming for the show's fourth and final season has finished, and episodes are scheduled to begin airing in February.

For the special, Nickelodeon said it's talking with Linda Ellerbee, the veteran newswoman who has stepped in frequently in the past with shows on talking to children about difficult issues in the news. She's done shows about same-sex parents, AIDS, the Columbine shooting and President Clinton's impeachment scandal.

"I think it's important that something be done," Ellerbee told The Associated Press on Thursday. "But I think it's important that it be done in a measured way, and not just to feed the beast of news stories.

A Nickelodeon spokesman, Dan Martinsen, confirmed the discussions but said no decision had been made.

Spears, the younger sister of pop star Britney Spears, told the OK! celebrity magazine this week that she was pregnant. The father is her 19-year-old boyfriend, Casey Aldridge. She said she plans to raise the baby in her home state of Louisiana.

Nickelodeon has made no comment beyond a supportive statement for its star: "We respect Jamie Lynn's decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn's well being."

The company has received a mixed response so far from its viewers, and the news has launched a public discussion about how parents should deal with it.

"This is a great opportunity for parents at this moment to talk to their kids about this—more important, to listen to their kids about this," Ellerbee said.

The reason that I'm taking any note of this now is that I've been hearing commentators say stuff the past few days like "this was the only way Jamie Lynn could "out-slut" her older sister".

Now I don't know Jamie Lynn Spears, if fact I didn't even know she existed until this story broke, but the fact that we haven't heard a constant stream of stories about her antics would seem to be proof positive that she isn't cut from the same cloth as her older sister.

The fact is that the kid had sex without taking precautions and got knocked up. This is a good reason (along with the moral issues) why teenagers shouldn't be sexually active. They lack the maturity to take responsibility about things like pregnancy and STD prevention.

However we have all "sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" so I am not going to throw stones.

I am also going to offer a few words in Ms. Spears defense. Please take note of the fact that she did not just "pee on the stick" then head down to the abortion mill to have the child chopped into pieces and sucked into a jar. She could have done this and no one would have ever been the wiser. Instead she chose to take responsibility, let her child live and tell the truth about what had happened. She did this in spite of the fact that it could cause Nickelodeon to cancel the last season of her series. Something which would cause her considerable loss of income.

As Presbyterian theologian R.C. Sproul has observed being obedient to God is not about drinking, dancing or wearing makeup. It is, rather, about doing the right thing even when it costs you money. So far Jamie Lynn Spears has done the right thing. Until that changes I urge people to give her the benefit of the doubt.