Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

"A PLACE IN THE CHOIR"

Time for some fun!  A friend sent me the following video which delighted me no end!  Enjoy!

 

This family rendition, with children participating, might inspire other families to join in the fun, too!

FAMILIES: THE WORLD-CHANGING, GOD-PLANNED WAY OF LEARNING AND LOVING

WHAT DOES AN INTACT FAMILY HAVE TO DO WITH THE AMERICAN (ECONOMIC) DREAM?

Everything!  This article has convinced me that perhaps the most important focus of our time should be on strengthening the American family.  

In a new report released this week from the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for Family Studies, we find that about one-third of recent increases in family-income inequality and male joblessness, and a significant share of median family-income stagnation, can be linked to the declining share of Americans who are getting and staying married.

The article has easy-to-read graphs and charts and offers arguments and insights that should make us all try to strengthen families, our own first, and also those around us.  

SINGLE PARENTING AND INCOME INEQUALITY

Harvard University -  In its latest analysis, experts insist that single parenthood is one of the largest obstacles in moving up the income ladder. "The study found the prevalence of single parents to be a much larger factor in determining social mobility than income inequality -- something President Obama and Democrats speak of ad nauseum." That also helps explain why Americans have thrown $20 trillion at the war on poverty with next to nothing to show for it. Why? Because money can't replace marriage as a lasting antidote to the poor's problems. In this instance, we do need government -- a government that won't devalue family or stand in the way of its formation. A government that is more committed to affirming the family than infirming it.     -  From the Family Research Council

FATHERLESS BOYS AND SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

Advocates of dismantling the traditional family should reflect soberly on W. Wilford Cox's post, "Sons of Divorce, School Shooters."  Cox writes:

Another shooting, another son of divorce. From Adam Lanza, who killed 26 children and adults a year ago at Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Conn., to Karl Pierson, who shot a teenage girl and killed himself this past Friday at Arapahoe High in Centennial, Colo., one common and largely unremarked thread tying together most of the school shooters that have struck the nation in the last year is that they came from homes marked by divorce or an absent father. From shootings at MIT (i.e., the Tsarnaev brothers) to the University of Central Florida to the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, Ga., nearly every shooting over the last year in Wikipedia’s “list of U.S. school attacks” involved a young man whose parents divorced or never married in the first place.

MAGGIE GALLAGHER'S THOUGHTS ON PUTIN

I found Gallagher's thoughts on Putin's Russia novel and arresting.  Is she way off the beam or could she be correct?  On other matters (such as traditional marriage) she is spot on.  Is Putin really fighting the relativism of the West?   Gallagher writes:

Friends are sending me copies of Putin’s speech. It is extremely clear to me that Putin is trying to create a Russian resistance to Western decadence, melding a revived Russian Christianity with Islamic moral values to create an alternative to the emerging non-pluralism of the West.

The West’s new pluralism was in evidence recently at a public university in Ireland when it kicked out the venerable Legion of Mary for distributing “anti-gay” pamphlets suggesting that Catholics should dedicate themselves to a life of interior chastity and which included the line “I’m a child of God, don’t call me gay.”

The university explained: “NUIG has a pluralist ethos and will not condone the production and dissemination of any material by students which discriminates against other students.  Discrimination or implied or direct harassment, on the basis of sexual orientation and/or religion, is contrary to Irish and European law.”

But you don’t have to look any further than the Center for American Progress for the American version, in which panelists agree that religious-liberty exemptions constitute “slavery.” . . .

Me: That Western elite thought has caved in to accepting, and even celebrating, homosexual behavior is widely recognized.  Is Russia self-c0nsciously resisting Western decadence as Gallagher suggests?  If true, is that not remarkable?

HOW DO CHILDREN FARE RAISED IN SAME-SEX "FAMILIES"?

John Stonestreet writing for "Breakpoint" reports:

Over the last decade or so, scholars have been saying that households headed by homosexual or lesbian parents are not only as good as those of traditional, heterosexual parents, but that in some cases they are even better, in terms of outcomes for the children.

One researcher noted that “non-heterosexual” parents experience significantly better relationships with their children than do heterosexual ones on average, and that the kids in homosexual-headed families exhibited no differences in cognitive development, psychological adjustment, or gender identity.

The prestigious American Psychological Association asserted, “Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents.” Case closed then, right?

Hardly. Mark Regnerus is associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He thought the accepted data were suspect, partly because there were so few families actually studied and partly because the research subjects were usually self-selected, leading to bias.

So Regnerus and his colleagues set up the New Family Structures Study, in which they randomly screened over 15,000 Americans aged 18-39, asking them if their biological mother or father ever had a romantic relationship with a member of the same sex.

The study appears in the July issue of the Social Science Research journal. From this huge grouping the researchers came up with 248 young adults who fit the profile. And the study shows clearly that kids raised by parents involved in same-sex relationships do not fare as well as children from traditional homes.

A FATHER'S GIFT TO HIS DAUGHTERS

Max Lucado writes in his book, A Love Worth Giving:

The whirlwind of adolescence was making regular runs through our house, bringing with it more than our share of doubts, pimples, and peer pressure.  I couldn't protect the girls from the winds, but I could give them an anchor to hold in the midst.  On Valentine's Day, 1997, I wrote the following and had it framed for each daughter:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I have a special gift for you.  My gift is warmth at night and sunlit afternoons, chuckles and giggles and happy Saturdays.

But how do I give this gift?  Is there a store which sells laughter?  A catalog that offers kisses?  No.  Such a treasure can't be bought.  But it can be given.  And here is how I give it to you.

Your Valentine's Day gift is a promise, a promise that I will always love your mother.  With God as my helper, I will never leave her.  You'll never come home to find me gone.  You'll never wake up and find that I have run away.  You'll always have two parents.  I will love your mother.  I will honor your mother.  I will cherish your mother.  That is my promise.  That is my gift.

                                                               Love, Dad

~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Me:  This struck me as worth posting.  Gifts need not be bought in a store.  Naturally I feel badly for those who, for one reason or another,  were unable (or in some cases unwilling), to give their wife and daughters the gift that Max Lucado gave.  May the Lord bring His comfort and restoring grace to all.

THE STATE OF "INTACT FAMILIES" IN AMERICA TODAY

The Family Research Council reports:  (my bolding)

Today, at FRC headquarters, our Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI) released its second annual Index of Belonging and Rejection. This year's Index took a deeper look at what an intact family means for children's poverty, educational attainment and teenage out-of-wedlock birth rates. The study found that only 46% of American children reach the age of 17 with both their biological parents married (since before or around the time of their birth). The Index of Family Belonging is highest in the Northeast (50%) and lowest in the South (42%). Family belonging is strongest among Asians (66%) and weakest among African-Americans (17%). MARRI Director Dr. Pat Fagan commented, "This year's Index of Belonging and Rejection shows that the family is hugely important in determining a child's future success or failure. The report shows that family structure is more closely linked to educational outcomes than government spending. Research at the individual family level shows that adolescents in single-parent families or stepfamilies are more likely to have out-of-wedlock births. This continues the endless cycle of broken families and childhood poverty." Clearly, the traditional, intact family matters. For a free download of the report, click here.

Me:  Can you guess which state had the lowest percentage of intact families?  Answer: Mississippi (34 percent).  States with the highest Index of Family Belonging were Minnesota (57 percent) and Utah (56.5 percent).

Love Lift Us up Where We Belong...

Today, at FRC headquarters, our Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI) released its second annual Index of Belonging and Rejection. This year's Index took a deeper look at what an intact family means for children's poverty, educational attainment and teenage out-of-wedlock birth rates. The study found that only 46% of American children reach the age of 17 with both their biological parents married (since before or around the time of their birth). The Index of Family Belonging is highest in the Northeast (50%) and lowest in the South (42%). Family belonging is strongest among Asians (66%) and weakest among African-Americans (17%). MARRI Director Dr. Pat Fagan commented, "This year's Index of Belonging and Rejection shows that the family is hugely important in determining a child's future success or failure. The report shows that family structure is more closely linked to educational outcomes than government spending. Research at the individual family level shows that adolescents in single-parent families or stepfamilies are more likely to have out-of-wedlock births. This continues the endless cycle of broken families and childhood poverty." Clearly, the traditional, intact family matters. For a free download of the report, click here.

"COURAGEOUS" AND "THE MIGHTY MACS" - BOTH MOVIES WORTH SEEING!

I saw "Courageous" today, the 4th movie put out by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, and thought it excellent.   If enough people would go see it, there could be a real change in families around the world. (I look forward to hearing of its international release).  It alternates between tears and laughter,  tears and laughter.   Solid stuff!  Well done.

 

I love movies that involve athletic competition.  The Mighty Macs tells the true story of Cathy Rush taking over a nondescript women's basketball program and producing a national championship team.  Really entertaining!   And a movie you can take all the family to.

 

Update 11/1/11:  Following is "The Resolution" featured in the movie, "Courageous":

CATHOLIC BISHOPS APPEAL TO OBAMA TO QUIT ATTACKING DOMA

The Family Research Council reports:

This week, Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a letter to President Obama asking his administration to "end its campaign against DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act), the institution of marriage it protects and religious freedom." The New York-based Archbishop, speaking on behalf of his brother Catholic Bishops, praised Obama for his Presidential declarations on both Mother's Day and Father's Day, yet pointed out the inherent hypocrisy of the Obama administration's other actions, which seek to diminish the truth that "every child has the right to be loved by both a mother and a father." The letter to the President included detailed documentation of the administration's assault on marriage and related religious liberty issues. It is well worth the read.

Me:  Those of us who aren't Roman Catholics readily join Archbishoop Dolan in seeking to persuade the Obama administration to cease its attacks on marriage.  The appended detailed analysis of administration policies included these concerns:

THE UNMENTIONABLE: THE RELATIONSHIP OF SINGLE PARENTING TO CHILD POVERTY

Heather MacDonald writes:

The cardinal rule for writing about child poverty if you are in the mainstream media is this: Never, ever mention single parenthood. This New York Times article on a study showing that one in three young families with children were living in poverty in 2010 scrupulously obeys the rule. The Times offers several possible reasons for this recent rise in child poverty, including the high-tech, high-skills economy and the greater difficulties of going on welfare following the 1996 federal welfare-reform law. It never articulates, however, what is overwhelmingly the largest predictor of child and family poverty: The family is not a two-parent household. In 2007, single-parent families were nearly six times more likely to be poor than married-parent families; that ratio has not significantly changed. The closest the Times comes to acknowledging the role of single parenthood in child poverty is to note that blacks and Hispanics have the highest rates of child poverty. Why that would be, the Times does not say, but it’s just what you’d expect from groups whose illegitimacy rates are 73 percent and 53 percent, respectively.

PARENTS: BEWARE THE LEFTIST ASSAULT ON YOUR CHILDREN

Marybeth Hicks has written a book that seems "Must-reading" for parents.  It's titled, Don't Let the Kids Drink the Kool Aid:  Confronting the Left's Assault on Our Families, Faith, and Freedom.  I saw her interviewed on the 700 club yesterday.  

 

Her book receives praise from people I highly respect:

“Fellow moms and dads: It’s time to unite and reclaim the hearts, minds, and souls of our children from socialist indoctrinators! In shocking detail and with investigative zeal, Marybeth Hicks exposes the Left’s cradle-to-grave campaign to undermine religion, the traditional family, and free market capitalism. The best defense against this corrosive culture of entitlement and grievance is a good offense. Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid provides an invaluable playbook for parents who reject the Nanny State.”
—MICHELLE MALKIN, nationally syndicated columnist and author of the New York Times bestseller Culture of Corruption

“This is a tremendously important and timely book about the greatest disaster that could befall our country. No, it’s not economic—as bad as the economy is—it’s cultural, with a generation growing up utterly divorced from traditional American ideals. As Marybeth says, if we want to perpetuate America we need Americans, but our culture is rapidly undermining our children’s commitment to faith and freedom. Reading Marybeth Hicks’s Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid might be the most patriotic thing you do this year. If you care you about this country, please buy it, please read it, and please spread the word.”
—ERIC METAXAS, the New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery

“As important as it is to win the political battles, as Marybeth Hicks shows in her stunning new book Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid, if we don’t win the cultural battle for our children’s minds and hearts, we’ll have no future at all. Too many of us dismiss the propaganda of the liberal media, the public schools, and popular culture as harmless, but as Marybeth shows, it has demonstrably changed the way the next generation of Americans is thinking. Buy this book, be warned, and better yet—follow my friend Marybeth’s advice and take action.”
—DAVID LIMBAUGH, nationally syndicated columnist and author of the New York Times bestseller Crimes Against Liberty

Her columns for the Washington Times can be found here.  Previous books include Bringing Up Geeks: How to Protect Your Kid's Childhood in a Grow-Up-Too-Fast World and The Perfect World Inside My Minivan -- One mom's journey through the streets of suburbia.

THE COHABITATION REVOLUTION: KIDS PAY THE PRICE

Chuck Colson writes:  [my bolding]

One of the best ways couples can protect their children is also the most simple -- by getting married.

I have some good news and bad news on the marriage front. First, the good news: According to a new study by the Institute for American Values and the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, the divorce rate for married couples with children has fallen nearly to the rate of the early 1960s, when JFK was president.

But this news is not as good as it seems. That’s because the bad news nearly cancels it out. Fewer of us are bothering to tie the knot at all. The rate of cohabitation — “living together”— has exploded. The study finds that cohabitation has increased fourteen-fold since 1970. This means that about 24 percent of children are born to cohabiting couples today. Meanwhile, another 20 percent are part of a cohabiting household at some point during their growing-up years.

That means nearly half of all American children have lived in a home where the adults are merely living together rather than married.

Today’s advocates of “modern family structure” will tell you that this is no big deal, that having a wedding ring is overrated. The kids, they say, will do fine either way. Well, the fact is, an intact marriage puts children way ahead of children in other types of households. National Review editor Rich Lowry, who labels the current trend a “cohabitation revolution,” notes, “Children in cohabiting households tend to lag children in intact married families on key social indicators and are not much better off than children in single-parent families.”

THE LATEST "SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE REVIEW: THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO PRO-FAMILY NEWS, FEBRUARY 3, 2011

These compilations from a variety of sources by the Family Research Council continue to offer interested people a gold mine.  A new edition appears every two weeks.  Readers will find in each a wealth of information not readily found elsewhere. For previous reviews I've posted, click here.   For a complete list of articles from this latest edition,  click "continue reading" below.

Meanwhile here's a quote from Hadley Arkes' article on Ave Maria University in south Florida:  (my underlining)

But a collision of worlds – and a serious challenge – came out at dinner with a dear friend, an accomplished professor, a graduate of Harvard transplanted from the Northeast. He has two daughters at Ave Maria and he said, when I pressed him, that he wouldn’t send any of his children to Harvard. The new sexual ethic, whether on pornography, promiscuity, abortion, homoeroticism, is so pervasive, touching every aspect of life, that there is little room for those who will not pay homage to that reigning ethic. I do think that it is mainly the schools with a religious character that can offer now real academic freedom and a course of study in the humanities not warped by ideology.

Me: What an extraordinary admission!  For "real academic freedom" and a "course of study in the humanities not warped by ideology,"  it is to religious schools one must go.

THE LATEST "SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE REVIEW: THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO PRO-FAMILY NEWS" - JANUARY 20, 2011

These compilations of articles from a variety of sources by the Family Research Council continue to offer interested people a gold mine.  A new edition appears every two weeks.  Readers will find in each a wealth of information not readily found elsewhere. For previous reviews I've posted, click here.

TECHNOLOGY AND THE FAMILY

"When the whole family is staring at screens, time to try a tech detox," so concludes a timely Wall Street Journal article.

Update 1/23/11 - The U.K. Guardian posted an interesting article: "Social Networking Under Fresh Attack..." (HT: Drudge)  Paul Harris writes:

The way in which people frantically communicate online via Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging can be seen as a form of modern madness, according to a leading American sociologist.

"A behaviour that has become typical may still express the problems that once caused us to see it as pathological," MIT professor Sherry Turkle writes in her new book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, which is leading an attack on the information age.  [more . . .]

FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL (FRC) COLLATES VALUABLE ESSAYS AND ARTICLES

The Family Research Council is launching The Social Conservative Review.  An e-mail states it will constitute

"a unique summary of news of interest to social conservatives. The focus of this comprehensive collation of stories, journal articles, and op-eds is the intersection of moral  concern and public life, the issues that reflect and shape not only events and legislation, but the nation's very soul.

FRC will send the Review out twice monthly.

It will feature important pieces from the country's leading newspapers, magazines, journals and conservative Web sites. FRC's goal is to help keep you informed -- and ready to act -- about the policies and proposals, research and reports that bear directly on life, liberty, family and Christian faith.

Me: I have reproduced the e-mail below, complete with links.  It looks to me like a fabulous service.

---

The Social Conservative Review: The Insider's Guide to Pro-Family News

April 29, 2010

Educational Freedom and Reform

• "The ACLU: Unwelcome Schoolyard Bully?"
  Cynthia Hill, Family Research Council
• 2010 April School Reform News (full text pdf)
  Edited by Ben Boychuk, The Heartland Institute
• "Making Men without Chests: The Intellectual Life and Moral Imagination"
  R. J. Snell, First Principles Journal
• "Are There Harms of Home Schooling?"
  Christopher O. Tollefsen, The Witherspoon Institute
• "Expulsion may await campus pro-lifers"
  Bill Bumpas, OneNewsNow
• "Teach Social Justice-Or Else"
  Mark Bauerlein, Students For Academic Freedom
• "Education Spending in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Stimulating the Status Quo"
  Lindsey Burke, The Heritage Foundation

Environmental Issues

• "How a Climate Change Treaty Threatens You, Your Nation and Your Church"
  Dr. Cal Beisner, FRC Family Policy Lecture
• "My Tribute to Earth Day"
  Jeanne Monahan, Family Research Council
• "Titles You Can't Make Up: Cleaner Air Could Speed Global Warming"
  Tom McClusky, Family Research Council Action
• "Creation and Man"
  Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship
• "Getting Into Hot Water: Evangelicals and Global Warming"
  Benjamin B. Phillips, Acton Institute, Journal of Markets and Morality
• "Polls on the Environment and Global Warming"
  Karlyn Bowman, Andrew Rugg, American Enterprise Institute
• "Celebrate Earth's Best Friend"
  James M. Taylor, Heartland Institute
• "The Green Shepherd: The White House Wants Churches To Advance It's Climate Change Agenda"
  Meghan Clyne, The Weekly Standard
• "Environmentalism is now a religion, and being overtaken by extremism"
  Robert H. Nelson, The Catholic Thing

Faith and Policy

• "Fiscal Conservatism Is Not Enough: What Social Conservatives Offer the Party of Lincoln"
  Robert W. Patterson, The Family in America Journal
• "Prophet Jim Wallis and the Ecclesia of Economic Ignorance"
  John Couretas, The Acton Institute
• "Living Under God"
  Ken Blackwell, Family Research Council

Health Care

• "States Face Their First ObamaCare Test"
  Grace-Marie Turner, The Wall Street Journal
• "Hospital Visit Horrors? Here's the Rest of the Story"
  Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council
• "Ten Ways Consumer-Driven Health Care Is a Proven Success"
  Greg Scandlen, The Heartland Institute
• "The Separation of Health and State: What happens when all medical decisions are political"
  Opinion, Wall Street Journal
• "Krugman Admits Rationing (Death Panels) From Obamacare"
  Wesley J. Smith, First Things
• "The Tea Party Spirit and Lawless Health Care Reform"
  Charles R. Kesler, Claremont Review of Books
• "Bad Medicine: The Public Square"
  Joseph Bottum, First Things
• "US Is Turning Into Dependency Society"
  Lee Edwards, Ph.D., The Heritage Foundation
• "Where's the Administration's Cost Estimate?"
  James C. Capretta, National Review

Homosexuals in the Military

• "FRC's Tony Perkins Condemns Franklin Graham's Rescinded Invitation" to participate in Pentagon prayer event.
  FRC Press Release
• "Sex Matters in the Military"
  Peter Sprigg, The Washington Times
• "Homosexuals in the Military"
  Mackubin Thomas Owens, The Ashbrook Center
• "The Real Anti-Christian Bigotry"
  Jay Sekulow, American Center for Law and Justice

Judiciary

• The Judicial Review
  Family Research Council Action's Constitutional and Legal Commentary
• "The Coming Constitutional Debate"
  Judge Stephen Markham, Imprimis
• "Koh Fails the Democracy Test"
  John Fonte, Hudson Institute
• "Delegitimizing the Roberts Court"
  David Marion, The Ashbrook Institute
• "ADF on striking down the National Day of Prayer Statute"
  Alliance Defense Fund
• "More Prayer than Protests"
  Tobin Grant, Christianity Today

Marriage and Family

Family Economics

• "The Family GDP: How Marriage and Fertility Drive the Economy"
  Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D., Family Research Council
• "The Economics of the Family Household"
  Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D., Family Research Council Family Policy Lecture
• "Family Policy Lecture: The Crushing Burden of Student Loans on Family Formation for Generation X+"
  Dr. Allan Carlson, The Howard Center, Family Research Council Family Policy Lecture
• "Obamacare Update: About That Only Tax the Rich Thing . . ."
  Tom McClusky, Family Research Council Action
• "The VAT's in the Fire"
  Ken Blackwell, The Patriot Post

Marriage

• "Facing the Bad News (on out-of-wedlock births)"
  Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D., The Catholic Thing
• "Culture Clash: Monogamy vs. Polyandry"
  Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D., Family Research Council

Pornography

• "The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family and Community"
  Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D., Family Research Council
• "Standing for Truth"
  Daniel Weiss, Citizen Magazine
• "Pornography and the Muslim World"
  Carson Holloway, The Public Discourse
• "Public urged to take action to prevent .xxx web domain"
  Erin Roach, Baptist Press

Religious Liberty

• "Wall of Separation Between Church and State: Myth, Reality, Results"
  Dr. Kenyn M. Cureton, FRC Lecture
• "High Court Says Mojave Cross in California Can Stay"
  Robert Barnes, The Washington Post
• "Supreme Court Protects War Memorial Cross"
  Jay Sekulow, American Center for Law and Justice
• "Texas students see religious bias with 'year of Our Lord'"
  Casey Curlin, The Washington Times
• "Homeless in Binghamton"
  Faith J.H. McDonnell, Front Page Magazine
• "Western Civilization on Trial"
  Paul Marshall and Nina Shea, National Review Online Symposium
• "Hastings Case Tests Religious Freedom on Campus"
  By Newt Gingrich, Jim Garlow, The Washington Post

Sanctity of Life

Abortion

• "Post-Abortion Suffering: A Psychiatrist Looks at the Effects of Abortion"
  Dr. Martha Shuping and Chris Gacek, J.D., Ph.D., Family Research Council
• "Virginia Cuts Funding of Abortions"
  Jeanne Monahan, Family Research Council
• "Abortion Isn't Painless"
  Editorial, The Washington Times
• Oklahoma Senate overrides governor's vetoes to pass abortion laws
  Joe Sterling, CNN
• Legal status of induced abortions around the globe
  CBC News

Adoption

• "A Passion to Serve, A Vision for Life"
  Family Research Council Publication
• "Louisiana Senate panel rejects gay adoption expansion"
  Bill Barrow, Times-Picayune
• "Visits to mission result in adoption"
  Rob Hedelt, Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

Cloning

• "UK Scientists Clone 3-Parent Embryos"
  Dr. David Prentice, Family Research Council

Bioethics

• "Obama Administration Eyes a More Active Role in Genomics"
  Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, BNET
• "Panel to take broad view of bioethics: President Obama appoints commission to advise on stem cells, clinical trials and more"
  Brendan Borrell, Nature
• "The First Christian Voices Against Euthanasia"
  David W.T. Brattston, The Weekly Standard
• "Euthanasia Bill turned away, but work goes on"
  Charlie Butts, One News Now

Stem Cell Research

• Family Research Council's major adult stem cell initiative, "Adult Stem Cells Saved My Life" ("Stem Cell Research Facts") features compelling video stories of persons whose lives have been transformed through adult stem cell implantation. The site also contains leading-edge information on this dynamic, transformative and entirely ethical type of stem cell treatment.
• "Vatican Funds Adult Stem Cell Research"
  Dr. David Prentice, Family Research Council

Other Articles of Note for Social Conservatives

• "Apologist in chief"
  Ken Blackwell, World Magazine
• "A Crisis Republicans Should Not Waste"
  Hadley Arkes, Weekly Standard
• "After Virtue: Localism and the Restoration of Character and Community"
  Austin Lipari, First Principles Journal
• "How America became a 'secular-socialist machine'"
  Newt Gingrich, The Washington Post
• "Schumer: Obama's 'counter-productive' Israel policy 'has to stop'"
  Ben Smith, The Politico
• "The Foreign Policy of Self-Abasement"
  Mona Charen, National Review
• "When Free Speech Wins"
  Eric Giunta, Front Page Magazine

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE'S LETTERS TO HIS CHILDREN

Mark Early of Prison Fellowship writes:

You’re probably familiar by now with William Wilberforce, the great Christian statesman who led the fight against the British slave trade. You probably know, too, that Wilberforce is an inspiration for so much of the work we do here at Prison Fellowship and BreakPoint. But how much do you know about William Wilberforce the father?

Wilberforce and his wife, Barbara, had four sons and two daughters. Despite the overwhelming weight of his religious and political duties, Wilberforce made his children a priority. And when they were away at school, he showered them with letters. Those letters tell the story of a father who was loving, encouraging, and always anxious for their spiritual welfare.

My friend Stephanie Byrd thought that this side of the great man deserved attention. And she’s right. She’s put together a book called Amazing Dad: Letters from William Wilberforce to His Children.

In the extensive excerpts from his letters, we see him advise his children about education, career, time management, and financial generosity, but most of all on the importance of a strong and secure faith in God. Without that faith, he told them over and over again, none of the rest mattered.

Having misspent his own youth before his dramatic conversion to Christ, Wilberforce wanted to make sure his children were grounded in the faith from their earliest years. Unlike many other parents in early 19th-century Britain, Wilberforce was far more concerned with their spiritual success than with their worldly success.

His priorities for them were always in the right order. When he wrote to his son Robert, he said,

WHY DOESN'T OBAMA INITIATE ANY PRO-FAMILY POLICIES?

Good question.  The Family Research Council points out things we may have missed in listening to President Obama's State of the Union speech:

"Tonight the President also proposed expanding the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit which would only benefit families if: both parents work, a single parent works, or one parent works and the other is in school. In other words, it completely discriminates against families with stay-at-home parents, who wouldn't see a penny from this plan. The President's plan further drives a wedge between parents and children as it would encourage parents to place their children in government approved day-care rather than encouraging one parent to stay home and personally care for their off-spring.

"This new socialized child care proposal comes on the heels of a proposed major marriage tax penalty included within the President's health care bills. A tax penalty on married couples only serves to discourage couples from marrying while encouraging societal instability through cohabitation and divorce.

"If this administration cared about getting families back on their feet, it would double or triple the across-the-board child tax credit and let parents decide how to spend the money. For many, it may be all the incentive they need to stay home and care for their kids.

And what about this on improving education?  

The President said, "The best anti-poverty program is a world-class education," when volumes of FRC research will tell you that the best anti-poverty program is an intact marriage and family.

DALE KUEHNE - "SEX AND THE iWORLD" (CAN WE BE HAPPY WITHOUT SEX?)

Big subject.   Discussion needed.  Enter Dale Kuehne's  Sex and the iWorld: Rethinking Relationships beyond an Age of Individualism.   Reviewers  of this book (including Chuck Colson and Mark Earley), give the book rave reviews.  From what I can tell, the book looks like "must reading" to counter the propaganda that is ruining lives.  A few introductory pages (worth reading) are available here.

THE ONE ARTICLE YOU SHOULD READ CONCERNING "GAY MARRIAGE"

I am referring to Princeton University professor Robert George's article published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal.  (HT: Wintery Knight who regards it as the best single article he has read on same-sex marriage.  I tend to agree.)  The article needs to be read in full.  For those who won't, some excerpts: 

Opponents of racist laws in "Loving" ["Loving v. Virginia" which invalidated laws against interracial marriages] did not question the idea, deeply embodied in our law and its shaping philosophical tradition, of marriage as a union that takes its distinctive character from being founded, unlike other friendships, on bodily unity of the kind that sometimes generates new life. This unity is why marriage, in our legal tradition, is consummated only by acts that are generative in kind. Such acts unite husband and wife at the most fundamental level and thus legally consummate marriage whether or not they are generative in effect, and even when conception is not sought.

Of course, marital intercourse often does produce babies, and marriage is the form of relationship that is uniquely apt for childrearing (which is why, unlike baptisms and bar mitzvahs, it is a matter of vital public concern). But as a comprehensive sharing of life—an emotional and biological union—marriage has value in itself and not merely as a means to procreation. This explains why our law has historically permitted annulment of marriage for non-consummation, but not for infertility; and why acts of sodomy, even between legally wed spouses, have never been recognized as consummating marriages.

Only this understanding makes sense of all the norms—annulability for non-consummation, the pledge of permanence, monogamy, sexual exclusivity—that shape marriage as we know it and

PSALM 127 - "QUIVERFULL FAMILIES"

NPR published an even-handed account of large families, the parents of which (no surprise) shun birth control.   (HT: HotAir)  From the article:

. . . Those in the Quiverfull movement shun birth control, believing that God will give them the right number of children. It turns out, that's a lot of kids.  (More . . .) 

Me:  But there seems to be more to it than the NPR article indicates.  The article, to its credit, mentions two books:  Nancy Campbell, Be Fruitful and Multiply and  Kathryn Joyce, Quiverfull: Inside The Christian Patriarchy Movement.  The latter evaluates the evangelical patriarchy movement that remains under the radar screen of many, including probably most conservative Christians.  I didn't know of it until very recently.  I learned of it through a friend who encountered it in his small church.  Vyckie Bennett offers a major Amazon review of the latter book.  Her review mentions other books and authors associated with the movement.

THE ENDURING CRISIS OF THE BLACK FAMILY

Kay Hymowitz offers an update on the sad persistent facts and statistics.  Can the example of Obama's  family help?

CAMILE PAGLIA CONTINUES TO BUCK THE "DEMOCRAT TALKING POINTS" ON SARAH PALIN

I posted on Paglia's positive, disarmingly readable views on Palin last month.  Paglia continues to see Palin positively.  In her latest post, Paglia says that Palin

. . .  has been subjected to an atrocious and at times delusional level of defamtion merely because she has the temerity to hold pro-life views.

How dare Palin not embrace abortion as the ultimate civilized ideal of modern culture? How tacky that she speaks in a vivacious regional accent indistinguishable from that of Western Canada! How risible that she graduated from the University of Idaho and not one of those plush, pampered commodes of received opinion whose graduates, in their rush to believe the worst about her, have demonstrated that, when it comes to sifting evidence, they don't know their asses from their elbows. . . 

I like Sarah Palin, and I've heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is -- and quite frankly, I think the people who don't see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn't speak the King's English -- big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns -- that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.

Complications Associated with New Reproductive Technologies

Chuck Colson spotlights Liza Mundy's new book, Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World. Colson says he "cannot recommend this book strong enough, especially for would-be parents who may face difficult decisions about childbearing in the near future."  He writes:

Mundy is not writing from a Christian viewpoint or even from a pro-life viewpoint, but she covers the murky field of reproductive technology, and its effects on families, thoroughly and unflinchingly. And she takes seriously the ethical dilemmas that arise in a largely unregulated field where

Living Unexpectedly Without Power (Electricity)

Have you ever found yourself living unexpectedly without power for several days?   Bishop G. Porter Taylor tells of coming home one Sunday evening to a surprise.

When I opened the door of our house, I didn't hear the customary noises: no CD's, no TV's, no clicking of computer keys.  Instead, there was a mechanical silence broken only by murmurs of voices.  I went into the living room and all became clear; the power was off.  My family was gathered around the fireplace with oil lamps, candles, and flashlights reading the newspaper and just taking about the routine matters of daily life.

Our power stayed off the rest of Sunday and all of Monday and most of Tuesday. . .  I noticed how slow life became and also how mutual life became.  I was no longer "productive" without power to run my computer for very long or adequate light to work at my desk.  Making coffee with a Coleman stove just

THE RADICAL DECONSTRUCTION OF THE FAMILY

Stanley Kurtz updates developments as follows:

Last week, Canada took an important new step toward a radical deconstruction of the family: a court ruled that a child could have three, simultaneous legal parents. (“Boy can have two mothers and a father, Ontario appeal court rules”) I first wrote about this case almost four years ago, in “Heather Has 3 Parents.” I don’t think it’s a coincidence that

The Same-Sex Marriage Debate is About Children

Mitt Romney got it right when he said about a month ago:

Marriage is not primarily about adults. Marriage is primarily about the nurturing and development of children. A child’s development is enhanced by the nurturing of both genders. Every child deserves a mother and a father. Of course, the principal burden of the Court’s ruling doesn’t fall on

Radical Family Ideas Go Mainstream

Stanley Kurtz keeps on top of issues related to the family.  He posts today on the mainstreaming of radical redefinitions of the family. 

Update - Here's a story of a get-together of several women impregnated with the sperm of  the same anonynmous donor.   Their children are with them and playing together.

"Many of the women were pregnant at the exact same time with these chidlren who share half the same DNA.  Two of them are just 10 days part, and most, it turns out, have similar dispositions and temperaments." 

There's no embarassment here.  Lesbian couples with children are treated as completely mainstream.