Yes, these are REAL family values

After all the mudslinging and vile rhetoric from the Kossacks, Alan Colmes, Andrew Sullivan and their ilk about the Palin family, the McCain campaign (oops - forgot to type that originally) decided to break the news today that Bristol Palin is pregnant. The Independent offers a more detailed quote from the Palins:

"Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support," the Palins said.

The Palins asked the news media to respect the young couple's privacy.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media, respect our daughter and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates," the statement concluded.

Senior McCain campaign officials said McCain knew of the daughter's pregnancy when he selected Palin last week as his vice presidential running mate, deciding that it did not disqualify the 44-year-old governor in any way.

See, now while - if Bristol Palin were my daughter (and obviously she's not) - I would have preferred the marriage to come before the baby, I agree that the support her family is offering is entirely appropriate. Instead of sweeping this under the carpet, Bristol has stepped up to do the right thing and committed herself to her young man and their child.

Of course, the feminazis and the looney left will excoriate young Bristol because she has chosen not to abort this child. You see, they're only supportive of women's coices, and women's control over their own bodies when those choices and that control follow the anti-life, nihilistic worldview that N.O.W., NARAL and the looney left espouse. The hypocrisy will hopefully be glaringly evident to all in the coming days.

Even people with true family values make mistakes. However, they accept them, and then step up to the plate and deal with them. They bear the consequences, and they rejoice when a new baby arrives to prove that God brings beauty from ashes, and can make all things work together for good for those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.

Bristol, may He bless you and your young man with a Christ-centered marriage. May you live and love each other and your children for many glorious years. May He guide, keep and protect you as you raise your child in Him with courage and honor.

UPDATE: OK, for all you who are convinced that the "family values Nazis" of the right will condemn Bristol...? How about the reaction of Mr. Family Values himself - Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family? Here's their input:

"Being a Christian does not mean you're perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord. I've been the beneficiary of that forgiveness and restoration in my own life countless times, as I'm sure the Palins have.

"The media are already trying to spin this as evidence Gov. Palin is a 'hypocrite,' but all it really means is that she and her family are human. They are in my prayers and those of millions of Americans."

Family values must include the concept and actions of grace - for who among us has never made a mistake? We all make mistakes, we all sin. It is how we bear the consequences of that sin that shows how well we follow our family values.

UPDATE again (and now I'm just going to update with more links):

The Anchoress advises us to watch out for who is actually tolerant and intolerant

Kim Priestap at Wizbang reminds us that babies are blessings, not punishment

From the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission:

“This is the pro-life choice. The fact that people will criticize her for this shows the astounding extent to which the secular critics of the pro-life movement just don’t get it. Those who criticize the Palin family don’t understand that we don’t see babies as a punishment but as a blessing. Barack Obama said that if one of his daughters made a mistake and got pregnant out of wedlock he wouldn’t want her to be punished with a child. Pro lifers don’t see a child as punishment.”

More reactions from the Christian right:

Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America called the pregnancy private. "It's a matter that should stay in the family and they have to work through it together. My prayers go out to them."

Added Combs: "We're excited about the governor and think she's going to do well."

Mathew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law, said: "We're all sinners."

"We all make mistakes. Certainly, the ideal is not to get pregnant out of wedlock. But she made the right decision after her mistake," he said.

Protein Wisdom weighs in:

That the Palin family — by dint of ugly rumor mongering from “progressive activists” and a compliant left-leaning press that was cynically situating itself to pretend that these rumors “needed investigating” — was all but compelled to release information about their teenage daughter, is precisely the kind of thing that drives real civil libertarians and privacy advocates crazy, especially because the information has nothing whatever to do with Governor Palin’s candidacy, but instead invades the privacy (and quite possibly affects the “choice”) of a minor.

This kind of savage smear campaign by leftists and so-called “feminists” — a campaign that forced a young woman to make public a very private matter in order to stop vicious rumors about the Palin family — suggests that, when it comes to “privacy concerns” (NSA data mining for terrorists = bad; demanding the release of a Governor’s medical records = good; parental notification for abortions performed on women under a certain age = bad; insisting that the world be privy to the private sexual and family concerns of the seventeen-year-old daughter of a conservative = good), “progressives” care about such things only insofar as it protects their political interests and advances their political agenda.