Ruth Institute Blog

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…

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…

by Carolyn Moynihan

In the last post on the new State of Our Unions (SOU) report from the National Marriage Project we read that “the benefits of generosity were particularly pronounced among couples with children”. Parents who were very generous with each other were more likely to be very happy as well. But there’s more. Generosity in having children is also part of the happiness equation. Read more…

I think conservatives and libertarians err when they refer to “gay marriage” as such. They unwittingly concede a tremendous amount of ground when using that term. If I was on the left I would secretly be quite happy every time I saw a conservative or libertarian use it.

But since I’m not on the left, I cringe. In my view, the issue is really about the redefinition of marriage. Calling it a redefinition is the correct viewpoint since that is what is at stake. The historical definition of marriage included two important concepts.

1. The innate procreative abilities between men and women. No such ability exists in same sex sexual activity. This point alone makes it very clear that sexual activity between a man and a woman is not equal to sexual activity between people of the same sex. Read more…

By Cheryl Wetzstein

In the eyes of children, is it paramount that they were “planned” and “wanted”? Or does the family structure of their home matter more?

These are two of the many thought-provoking questions about donor-conceived children and “diverse” family forms in a report released Thursday from the Commission on Parenthood’s Future at the Institute of American Values (IAV). Read more…

by Pia on November 10, 2011

Over the weekend, I was sifting through a pile of mail and got distracted with a Brooks Brothers catalog (pictured right). Something bothered me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I realized, this cover picture had nothing to do with a family, except perhaps a broken one. Read more…

by Charles Capps, Stanford alumnus and co-founder of the Anscombe Society at Stanford University

November 9, 2011

Last weekend, a group of students and young professionals converged on Provo, Utah, for the second annual Strengthening the Family conference, put on by Students for the Family.  The conference planners selected a timely theme—“Engaging Issues with Courage and Civility.”  Anyone who reads the news knows that, when it comes to current debates about marriage and the family, civility is in short supply.  This makes courage in speaking the truth about these issues difficult but crucial. [Editor's note: The Ruth Institute was one of the sponsors for this conference.] Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Family minded people often complain, with reason, about the United Nations approach to family issues. Watch this video, though, and listen to a UN officer who seems to hit all the right notes. Read more…

I’m on my way to Provo UT for the Students for the Family Symposium. I will
be leaving San Diego later today, with the top of my convertible down. I
wonder how far north I can go on the I-15 before I have to put the top up! I
can’t wait for this conference!

by rnewman

I’d like to start off by thanking Elizabeth for inviting me to be a guest blogger. For those who don’t know me (most of you) my name is Rickard Newman, I’m a recent transplant to New York and I’m engaged to Alana S. Since I met Alana I went from knowing nothing about the fertility industry to being knee-deep in near constant immersion in the topic. A year ago I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a fertility “industry”. Today I’m making my own documentary about it. Thank you for letting me share some of my thoughts with you. Read more…

by Laurie deRose

Gobal data shows majority support for the traditional family, despite some erosion.

In the last section of the Sustainable Demographic Development report Laurie deRose surveys global statistical evidence on international family strcuture, children’s trends, family culture, and family economic wellbeing. Here MercatorNet reproduces his findings on family culture, which are generally positive. The third and last in this series. Read more…

by Phillip Longman

The state of the family in many advanced societies is unsustainable. Which public policies could reverse this decline?

In the central part of the Sustained Demographic Development report, The Empty Cradle, Phillip Longman and others track in detail the patterns of demographic decline globally and their causes. At the end, the authors propose 10 key policies for reversing this decline and reinvigorating the economy. MercatorNet reproduces those policies here, in the second of three excerpts from the report. Read more…

by Leila Miller

October 21, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A few months back, I told my readers on my blog how to raise eight children without even trying. Today, I’m going to tell you why I never should have had eight children in the first place: had I listened to the devil and modern conventional wisdom, that is. Read more…

by Simcha Fisher

by Carolyn Moynihan

Programmes in the United States that promote marriage or fatherhood have received a new round of funding from the federal government — nearly $120 million, all up. The funding was begun by President George W Bush. Read more…

by Christopher White 

Based on projections from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), world population will reach seven billion by the end of this month. According to Hania Zlotnik, director of DESA’s Population Division, “It is very important for the future of humanity that the young people of today have on average fewer children than their parents did.” Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Most couples who marry, even today, probably intend to have one or two children at least. Marriage and the baby carriage (as family scholar Brad Wilcox likes to pair them) have always gone together. But this is not what is meant by the new catch-phrase “intentional parenthood”. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Have you read the latest on the Greek bailout? Last I heard people who were lucky enough to have government jobs are on strike because they are about to lose them, thanks to austerity measures being forced on the country by the EU and the IMF. Read more…