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(From FotF Pastor's Weekly Breifing)

I've made my feelings well known on Joel Osteen and his weak (at best) theology. Is praying for this book to flop un-Christian of me? Uggh.


Joel Osteen — pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston and author of Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential — has signed a book deal with Free Press that publishing insiders say is potentially one of the richest for a nonfiction book and could bring the author more than $10 million. Osteen and his agent, Jan Miller of Dupree, Miller & Associates, were seeking a guarantee of close to $13 million for the right to publish his next book, according to The New York Times.


Abortion Declines With Parental Notification

Parental notification laws reduce abortions among minors, suggests a study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Baruch College at City University of New York.

Researchers studied the records of teen abortions and births in Texas for the two years before a parental notification law took effect in January of 2000, and for three years afterward. Texas is the biggest of 35 states that require minors to notify their parents or get their consent before obtaining an abortion, although a judge can usually grant a waiver. The study found that among 15-year-olds, abortions declined by 11 percent; among 16-year-olds, they declined by 20 percent; and among 17-year-olds, they declined by 16 percent.

Texas State Sen. Florence Shapiro, who sponsored the notification law, said the findings show that more parents are becoming involved in their daughters' "life-altering decisions." "That was my intent," she said. Last year, Texas went further and enacted a law requiring parental consent. The Baruch researchers studied Texas because of its large and ethnically diverse population and because more girls there live far from states that do not require parental involvement before an abortion.

Related Tags: Joel Osteen, Lakewood Church, Houston, Best Seller, Osteen Book, Abortion, Parental Notification, Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, Anti-abortion, New England Journal Medicine, Texas Abortion, Florence Shapiro, Teen pregnancy, Unwanted pregnancy, Adoption, Baruch College, City University, New York, Teen Abortion, Notification Law