A Link between Christian Thought and Common Sense

Kathryn Jean Lopez had a great post on the Corner last evening where she excerpted from a Planned Parenthood website for Teens.
The bottom line of Planned Parenthood's advice for a pregnant girl is to consider if she is ready to take care of a baby around the clock. The consider this a good reason then to encourage her to strongly consider abortion. Lopez then mentions the abstinence movement in America and how it is so often sidelined by those who want to simply categorize it as "Crazy Christianity" that wouldn't work because kids are gonna do what they are going to do.
But the point Lopez then makes is a good one:

But what if you seriously said to kids, before they found themselves in an awful mess and I don't mean maybe: Are you ready to help a child feel wanted and loved 24 hours a day for the next 18 years and beyond? Are you mature enough? Are you ready to give up hanging out with your friends and going to college? Are you ready for the responsibility for another human being for as long as you live? Is that really just "Jesus freak" common sense or is it just common sense? What's so dangerous about reasoning with kids and making clear what their options are and helping them then, before they go too far?

This is exactly right. If the "Can you take care of a baby?" argument is a good one for having an abortion, than it is also a good one for promoting abstinence. I often wonder is people think that God sat around making random recommendations in the Bible or whatever. There are very common sense reasons behind the structure that God lays out for us in His word. He has our best interests at heart. He wants us to be free in Christ, but also free from the heavy chains of sin and pain. The good decisions that God wants us to make are good decisions even apart from Christianity. You don't have to be a Christian to know that if you cheat on your spouse, very bad things can happen. You don't have to be a Christian to realize that if you get really drunk, you can get into a lot of trouble that can last past that one big party night. You don't have to be a Christian to know that if you don't practice abstinence than you can get pregnant or get infected.
Now, these things obviously don't happen to everyone, but then can. And they can whether or not you believe that they can.

Of course, I fully support and encourage people to consider the love that God laid out for them through His Son...but if you can't consider that right now, at least consider practicing common sense, even if that common sense happens to be in line with what the Jesus freaks are doing. You may save yourself a lot of trouble in the end.