Dockers, the khaki brand of Levi Strauss & Co., is asking men to man up and wear the pants. In a world of advertising that constantly buffets men (and women) with distorted views of manhood and womanhood, the campaign seems like a breath of fresh air. Yes, they are trying to sell pants — but there are good ways to sell pants and bad ways to sell pants. This seems like a pretty good way.

In an interview with Brandweek, Jennifer Sey, Dockers’ vice president of global marketing, said that “sensitivity, chivalry, ambition and decisiveness” are the traits they wish to highlight. The new promos hopefully will “inspire today’s men to be men,” she told Brandweek. In today’s world that is pretty bold.

Check out the “man-ifesto” on their website and then come back here and share your thoughts. What do you think about Dockers’ vision of manhood? In what ways is it accurate? In what ways is it inaccurate? What really makes a man a man?

+ Join the Discussion / View the Man-ifesto +

Twenty-year-old Lila Rose and her pro-life student group, Live Action, have been hard at work the past three years uncovering the medical lies and manipulative counseling offered at Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain.

“They will do or say anything in order to sell more abortions to more women, whether it is covering up sexual abuse or lying to women about medical facts,” says Rose. “Our team has visited dozens of Planned Parenthood clinics undercover. Planned Parenthood, while claiming to support patient self-determination, operates with an ‘abortion-first mentality.’”

The video is the first in Live Action’s “Rosa Acuna Project,” a multi-state undercover audit documenting Planned Parenthood’s abortion counseling. Planned Parenthood has come under fire recently after Live Action’s investigations found them willing to conceal sexual abuse and accept donations targeted to abort African-Americans only. Videos of abuse cover-up prompted state investigations of Planned Parenthood and diversion of the abortion giant’s public subsidies.

Take the time to watch the video (above), share it with others, and support Lila and her team with your prayers as they continue their new media movement for life!

Learn More About Live Action / Help Spread the Word

One thing about being in college is that time can slip away from you. Homework builds up and the next thing you know five days have past and your family back home thinks you’re dead (we’re still alive mom!). This phenomenon also seems to negatively affect our blogging (and our sleeping).

For instance, a little less than a month ago we had the incredible privilege of speaking at the first ever National Bible Bee competition. We intended to post about it immediately, but then paper season hit. We wrote a lot — just not about the Bible Bee (and not for our blog). The good news is that by waiting we are now able to provide complete transcripts of our remarks (download links below), as well as announce that a DVD of the event is now available.

Sometime in the next week (i.e. before finals start) we will also be posting an inspiring message from Truman Falkner, a rebelutionary from Kansas City and 2nd Place Prize-Winner in the competition’s Senior category — so check back in!

• Alex’s Remarks (full transcript): Alex emphasizes the importance of Scripture memory — especially for young people — and shares a neat story about our dad’s devotion to Bible memory as a young man.
• Brett’s Remarks (full transcript): Brett challenges competitors not to separate head knowledge from heart reality — and shares the story of how he learned that lesson during high school.
• Official DVD from BibleBee.org: Contains our full remarks plus our lengthy Q&A session with the audience. Hopefully some of it is helpful!
• Audio from Family Life Today: We were blown away when Family Life Today chose to air our remarks! They had to cut out large chunks for the sake of time, so download the transcripts to see what you missed.

Check out the promo video for our new book, Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are. The video was shot and edited by our brother Isaac — with footage from our last conference in DC. The book hits March 16, 2010.

We can’t wait to share what we worked on all summer with all of you!