I wasn’t prepared for what Catherine was about to tell me.
“I’m going to try to get pregnant next week,” she blurted out without any context.
Catherine just turned 19 years old. She still lives at home with a controlling mother. Her father killed himself when she was young. She doesn’t yet know how to drive and has to beg for rides to and from a menial job. She’s never had any romantic relationships, but she’s recently started slipping away from home to meet men for sex.
Just last week, she told me about how one such man — who she met online — picked her up and took her to a camper about an hour away from her. (She told her mother she was at a friend’s house.) They had sex for a couple of days, then he abruptly brought her back home — and then he disappeared from her life.
Now, she’s met another man online and she plans to meet him Sunday night. She’s never seen him in real life, but she’s planning to make sure he gets her pregnant. And she looked shocked when I told her that this plan was stupid and selfish.

X-ray scanners used by TSA banned in Europe over health concerns
What if most money spent for university degrees is useless?
My love of ‘fur friends’ stems from the callousness I saw in my father
What if Jesus was serious about all those things He told His followers?
FRIDAY FUNNIES
Continued collapse of competence points toward decline of a culture
If you believe watching porn won’t hurt anyone, you’re wrong
In cold and dehumanized culture, many yearn to feel human again
Love & Hope — Episode 13: