Ruth Institute Blog

Note: This is a longer version, with citations, of the article posted just previous to this on the Ruth blog.

by Stanton L. Jones is Provost and Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College (IL).  PDF version of this paper and the Resources available for download at our Print Resources Page.

Homosexuality in particular, and sexual orientation, sexual identity and sexuality in general, are enormously complex topics, about which religious and social conservatives are prone to believe a number of falsehoods. This reality exposes us to derision in the public arena and weakens our capacity to engage this issue effectively. These false assertions include that: Read more…

by Stanton L Jones

Dr. Evelyn Hooker is arguably history’s most revered gay-affirming activist scientist, and so it is that, at a time when social science is frequently abused in public discussions of same-sex issues, Hooker should be remembered and praised for her clearheaded allegiance to proper scientific standards. Read more…

My two-year-old son was singing, or rather, belting out, the Alleluia in his best voice. The only problem was that he replaced the word “Alleluia” with…

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by Rob Schwarzwalder

A judge’s decision to order the abortion of “a mentally ill woman’s unborn baby and sterilize her — if it meant she had to be ‘coaxed, bribed, or even enticed … by ruse’ into the procedure” has drawn appropriate fire from officials in the Bay State. Read more…

Meet at the Stand with Children Info Booth
8th Annual Walk for Life West Coast on Saturday

Join us to promote marriage and family while walking for life at the 8th Annual Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco this Saturday, January 21, 2012. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

It’s difficult today to say anything in favour of the intact, married family without putting somebody’s nose out of joint. Last week it was a blogger at the LBGT site ThinkProgress who took umbrage at a comment by Focus on the Family’s Glenn Stanton. I’ll let Mr Stanton tell you how from his post on NRO’s Home Front blog: Read more…

First of all this week, there was a big (about 5,000 observations) sophisticated (University of Chicago Business School) study of bad behavior in little boys. Conclusion: little boys benefit substantially from living with both their biological parents. The second study was a little (78 observations) simplistic (unrepresentative sample, ideologically motivated researchers) of the Quality of Life of the children of lesbian couples. Conclusion: the children of lesbian couples are just as happy and well-adjusted as their peers.  Read more…

by Charlie Butts

Council members in Baltimore are introducing a “Peeping Tom” ordinance that reportedly creates “serious safety issues for women.” Read more…

By Michael Worley, First year law student at J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, and a 2011 graduate of the Ruth Institute It Takes a Family to Raise a Village program.

It is common knowledge that TV reports don’t tell the whole story.  Frequently a group of 75 undecided voters gather to share their responses immediately after a debate.  Such people provide instant commentary that the theorists of network TV may not be able to perceive.  However, these groups tend not to be predictive of overall election results. Random polling via phone calls shows us much clearer results.  Read more…

by Jennifer Roback Morse

This article was first published at familyinamerica.org on January 10, 2012.

Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men
Mara Hvistendahl
Public Affairs, 2011; 314 pages, $26.99

This brave and timely book has many strengths and one glaring, but understandable, weakness. The strength of this book is the reporting. Mara Hvistendahl, a liberal, pro-choice feminist, painstakingly documents the catastrophic consequences of the worldwide “choice” for male babies: gender imbalance leading to prostitution, sex slavery, and male frustration and aggression. The weakness of this book is the political analysis. She doesn’t understand how deeply Roe v. Wade changed American political culture, particularly within the conservative movement broadly conceived. But both these strengths and weaknesses work together to yield an honest and courageous book that should be read by anyone who considers himself (or herself) well informed. Read more…

by Katie Hinderer

I often get asked why I like social media so much. Parents are concerned at the amount of time their children spend online and the relationships that are suffering as a result. They see the constant need to be in the know and the increasingly short attention spans as something detrimental. And while I agree, there are serious downsides to social media, there are also amazing upsides that if tapped properly can make a huge difference. Read more…

by Shannon Roberts

Past Eugenics and sterilisation programs in the United States are coming back to bite them, with North Carolina currently the first State to address compensation for victims.

According to the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, at one time 31 states in the United States had government-run eugenics programs. In North Carolina alone, close to 8,000 men, women, and children, largely poor, black, disabled or uneducated, were forcibly sterilized from 1929 to 1974.  The programs were aimed at creating a better society by eliminating those considered undesirable.  Read more…

by William West

A time traveller from the 20th Century would very likely be shocked by how standards have plummeted in the film industry in a little over a decade – particularly with movies aimed at the teen market. Even parents from the swinging ’60s and ’70s would have thought twice about the explicit films now routinely sanctioned by censors for viewing by teenagers. Read more…

Random chance? Prank of the fitness gods? Yes, I know I’m getting big, but seeing this on my fridge is just spooky.

See it to believe it.

by Carolyn Moynihan

Here’s a question of special relevance to regions where there is a high incidence of HIV/AIDS — in particular, sub-Saharan Africa: Does marriage protect a person against the disease? An editorial published in the official Zimbabwean newspaper, The Herald, this week scoffs at the idea, saying, “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Read more…

By Peter Johnson Jr.

Wednesday the United States Supreme Court delivered a knockout blow to the White House in the cause of religious liberty.

Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for a unanimous court swatted away the government’s claim that the Lutheran Church did not have the right to fire a “minister of religion” who, after six years of Lutheran religious training had been commissioned as a minister, upon election by her congregation.  Read more…

When my daughter was about four, I was telling her that while we were in church everyone needs to be extra quiet. When we are, Jesus can talk to us in our hearts. And if we are quiet, we can hear Him.  She said, “Okay, Mommy,” and about a minute later she said, “Oh Mommy, I hear him.”  I said, “Really? What is He saying?”

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by Douglas W. Allen

The institution of marriage must be fundamentally redefined to accommodate same sex couples, says a Canadian economist.

Douglas Allen is a Canadian expert on the economics of social institutions. He has discussed same sex marriage from an economic point of view in articles in leading law journals. MercatorNet interviewed him about the consequences of legalising same sex marriage. Read more…

Review of Mitch Pearlstein’s From Family Collapse to America’s Decline: The Educational, Economic, and Social Costs of Family Fragmentation (ISI, Aug 2011) ISBN: 978- 1607093626. Paperback, 165 pages; $24.95. Read more…

Now Available as an E-Book!

Scholarly evidence continues to point to the enormous benefits of marriage to couples, children, and the society. Released by a group of eighteen family scholars, the latest edition of Why Marriage Matters offers important new findings from the social sciences on the state of marriage in the United States, including why recent increases in cohabitation and family instability pose a risk to children. Read more…