Hello everyone,

Whatever your opinions on Jon & Kate, we thought you'd be interested in this video series we just posted on Beliefnet: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach interviews Jon Gosselin.

Watch Gosselin talk about:

-Divorce and faith

-Whether he'll have more children

-Forgiveness

and more.

Enjoy!

Rebecca

Beliefnet Community

Nov 5, 2009 -- 12:50PM, appy20 wrote:

Who are the Duggar children?

Another reality show. They have 18 (or 19) children-I believe.  They built them all the old-fashioned way- without IVF.  

Irene.

8 kids, but only 2 pregnancies, both with fertility drugs. Why is this a reality show? Because of the multiples, of course. by allowing their lives to be filmed, it was a way to control access and determine that if anyone made money off of their family, it should be the family. Have the kids been exploited? Yes, to a degree--and so have the Duggar children. I can't imagine having spent so much of your adult life pregnant!

However, the exploitation is nothing comparred to what the Dionne Quints went through. Not only were they the first set of quintuplets that survived birth, they were identical and just the kind of "miracle" the Depression era needed. the doctor who delivered them to their French Canadian parents convinced the parents that the only way to keep the girls alive was to sign away their parental rights to him. They grew up at Quintland, where paying tourists could come and stare at them and take pictures 3 times a day while they grew up in basically glass zoo cages. There were Dionne dolls, Dionne paper dolls, and the only ones not seeing any of these profits were the girls themselves. They were physically, mentally, and emotionally abused by the doctor who literally owned them. He of course took full claim to being the doctor who delivered them...no credit for their mother enduring carrying them to full term.

The remaining women live in seclusion; after living  as headliners on a freak show, they prize no longer being in the public eye on anyone's term than their own.

I'm not sure if these reality show children are under the same protections that child entertainers are subject to, but I sincerely hope so. That way they'll be provided for and be able to go to college. Since the Gosselin children have been in front of camers since before they were born, I hope that having the show end will not be devasting event for them.

As for Jon, I read part of an interview with him. He was discussing his Jewish girlfriend's religious practices by liking the food and saying how much easier it was for his mother to go shopping on Yom Kippur because of the reduced number of people going into the city that day. Right--take one of the High Holy Days and equate it with reduced transit time getting around. I found it to be pretty self-serving and boring.

He may be young to have this many kids to take care of, but so does Kate. Once you bring any children into the world, you have to realize that your "Me time" is going to be reduced by having "our time". I mean, he was going out drinking in bars and cozying up to other young women when Kate was home getting them cleaned up and put to bed. I'm sure that it has seemed overwhelming at times to both of them, but it isn't the kind of thing you just get up and walk away from.

Nov 3, 2009 -- 7:43PM, REteach wrote:

We could have all kinds of TV shows to satisfy our interest in how people struggle.  We could have one about parents with a kid who is dying.  There would be an interesting struggle.  Just how do people do that.  We could start with the doctor telling them and watch from there.  And one on 16 year old single mothers.  How about following the struggles of a family with ALS or Alzheimers? How about one with a kid on a ventilator in a 2 bedroom apartment who needs 24 hour nursing care? We can pretend that having a camera focused on your life doesn't change things, either.  I'm sure I could be honest with my husband and 23 million viewers about something personal bothering me (not).  

Where do we draw the line?

From what I see, the line is moving on a daily basis.  All that you listed will most likely be part of some tv show in the future which I think is horrible.

As aggravating as these people are, they are human.  This is or will be horrible for their kids who may suffer some kind of lasting harm from all this.  No one could withstand a camera on them 24/7 without becoming a character.  I don't watch the show but everywhere I turn, there is something on about them.  They even make the news sections. 

I am getting old and just have seen enough of life that is uninspiring without seeking out the very same drudgery in television entertainment.