Star Parker guest hosted. After a week of boring, the show finally has some substance.

***

What an intro by BW: This is a woman who had 4 abortions, stole, did drugs, was on welfare is now a conservative, heads a conservative think tank. How did you turn your life around? That is quite a (unintelligible)
SP: I needed a lot of help.

****

She explains some about her past and tried to explain that the pressure to live the life she had been leading was great:

***

SP: In our community you are not supposed to mainstream your life

***

She explained how she tried to earn money to supplement her welfare check but the people she approached wouldn’t pay her under the table. They challenged her to turn her life around and encouraged her to go to church with them until she finally agreed:

Funny comment by Parker:

***

SP: Had I known a lawyer from the ACLU I may have sued them for religious harassment but I didn’t known any lawyer so I ended up at their church

***

As they try to have a serious discussion about Parker’s conversion to Christianity, Joy has to break in with a joke:

***

Joy: Being born once was enough for me. What does it mean to be born again? Does it hurt?

***

This show was an opportunity for Parker to offer her experiences as a Black woman in America as an example of how a woman can turn her life around. Joy’s bias against evangelical Christians is painfully obvious at times like this. She really can not imagine how a woman with Parker’s background could possibly be a conservative. It is as though the slowly turning wheels are saying to her- “she’s been brainwashed” over and over again.

Parker, being very tolerant of the patronizing tone, says:

***

SP: Yes, it does hurt. You have to change your world view.

***

Parker goes on to explain, in terms that Joy might understand, how she came to believe what she does and how she lives her life making choices every day to do the right thing. She sees the tragedies in her life as a gift from God, and that her suffering will lead her to other opportunities.

When asked by Barbara if she was conservative Parker explains she is extremely conservative. Joy then has to throw out the most controversial issue she can:

***

Joy: What do you think about gay marriage? That’s a family value- when two people love each other they get married
SP: That’s not a family value. That’s not what family is. When you talk about
Joy: Why not?
SP: lets take biblical world view versus secular world view: That’s probably the struggle we have in our society today. Those that come from the biblical world view say “I believe that these 10 things I should try to live up to” well when it says “Honor your father and your mother” he’s talking about a household here. When Jesus said “For this reason a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife” we’re talking about family development and the people who come from a biblical world view have to take that seriously.
Joy: There are things in the bible that

***
They all talk over each other

***
EH: That is something that I often times struggle with because I think okay the first law of the Bible is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself.” Love is the ultimate I think law in terms of the Bible itself so I see that is loving another person truly for who they are- I don’t see it as anything better than that.
SP: That is New Testament

***

Then they all talk over each other so Barbara takes over and moves on to a different subject, abortion:

***

BW: Do you think women have the right to choice?
SP: No and I believe that we have done a disservice to them not to tell them their full choice. I work with Carenet and
Joy, interrupting before Parker can explain her position: How about birth control? How do you feel about that?
SP: No-
Joy again interrupting her: That’s not allowed either
SP: Allowed? What does that mean? We were talking about me and my personal choices and a biblical world view does not include birth control according to the way that I interpret
EH: Ideally
SP: Ideally because you are to be fruitful and multiply n the context of marriage

***

They all talk over each other so Barbara again changes the subject:

***

BW: Do you believe in evolution?
SP: Do I believe in evolution, like did we evolve from apes? How can I believe that when I believe scripture that says God created? Why would I believe evolution?
Joy: People say they can believe in both. I have heard that from many people
SP: I am thinking now how in the world do you do that? If you really sat this is my world view this is what I am going to do- This is my faith. Of course I won’t know until I cross over
BW: So do you think the world is 5000 years old?
SP: I haven’t thought about adding it up. I know one thing- there is a scripture that says “A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day” so I think that God has time that we can’t even relate to. I know another thing that when he thinks about our lives he thinks about our lives over our lifetime not just one little part of it So you know there are issues that we all work through but once you make the decision that

***

They talk over each other and then Joy with a deep thought:

***

Joy: It’s interesting that you went from one extreme to the other- there’s no middle ground
SP: Who says they’re both extremes? There isn’t middle ground for people that choose
EH: It’s interesting that when you talk about the whole abstinence thing I think that’s a huge hot button with most people because you think about practically speaking alone, abstinence works better than anything else- 100% secure right so why won’t people take that and say this works?
SP: They don’t want to do it That’s why- it’s hard
Joy: But wait a minute- if you’re abstinent, according to the Bible, you can’t even masturbate. Now I don’t understand that at all. If you’re gonna be abstinent, at least love yourself.

***

The conversation begins to take a turn but Parker gets back on track:

***

SP: Sex ed works. When we started sex ed in our schools 20% of kids were sexually active. Today they’re at 50%. You keep this sex ed stuff up and eventually 100 % will be sexually active and the next thing you know they’re gonna be at the junior high
Joy: So ignorance is bliss according to you
SP: No ignorance is about
Joy: According to what you’re saying it is

***

Barbara then breaks in because Parker is being put in the hot seat repeatedly

Parker explains people can read about her life and views in her two books: “Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats” and “Uncle Sam’s Plantation” and furthers tries to make Joy understand that the problem facing people today is the politicization of the issues they are talking about.

She makes a good point- there used to be right and wrong. Then people began to push the limits of morality. When others pushed back questioning those decisions, the Democratic Party began the call to arms. Conservatives, trying to slow the slide towards immorality became labeled as judgmental, biased…

If something is morally wrong, it is wrong. No amount of political pressure, no Supreme Court decision and no law can change the wrongness of an act.