Ruth Institute Blog

by Anne Morse (no relation)

The signs are encouraging.

Thirty years ago this July, I stayed up to watch the fairy-tale wedding between a shy young pre-school teacher and the prince of Wales. Fifteen years, two children, and considerable adultery later, the fairy tale had fractured beyond repair.

This Friday, Charles and Diana’s elder son, William, 28, will marry Catherine Middleton, 29 — and such is the cynicism about royal marriages these days that bookies are already taking bets on when the royal divorce will occur. Read more…

Prepared remarks for Minnesota House of Representatives, hearings on the marriage amendment Dr Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of the Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage    May 2, 2011, St. Paul, Minnesota

I am Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of the Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage.  My doctorate is in economics, from the University of Rochester, in NY. I have taught at Yale and George Mason Universities. I have had fellowships with the University of Chicago, Cornell Law School, and the Hoover Institution at Stanford.  I have written two books on the social purpose and significance of marriage. I am the mother of an adopted child and a birth child. My husband and I were foster parents in San Diego County for three years. Read more…

Join Dr. J tonight from 6-7 p.m. PST, as she interviews Mr. Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling.

Listen to Dr. J and Andy Crouch as they discuss these crucial questions:

• What is culture and how do we change it?

• Can ordinary people really do anything meaningful to change the world, especially on marriage and life issues?

• What can a handful of people do to create a “culture of life” or a “marriage culture?”

• What is the difference between a metaphorical “culture war,” and an honest-to-goodness shooting war?

• Are Catholics and Protestants different in the ways they approach the “culture war” issues?

• How can we work more effectively together with our Protestant brothers and sisters?

As always, you can listen live in Southern California at AM 1000 KCEO, or listen live on the Internet at www.catholicradioofsandiego.com. Or, look for this and many other programs in the archives! We are adding new programs to the archives all the time, so be sure to check back frequently. And while you are there, consider supporting Catholic Radio of San Diego with a financial contribution.

The program is called “Promoting Marriage on Campus.” This is an interview with Dr. Morse being aired on EWTN’s show, “Faith & Culture.” Click here for air times and viewing information.

by Jennifer Roback Morse

As an advocate of conjugal marriage, I am often told that I am on the “wrong side of History.” The justice of “marriage equality” is overwhelming; the younger generation favors it; same sex marriage is inevitable. But this analysis is false. Indeed, there is ample reason to think that the March of History storyline will be proven incorrect. The reason? We were told all these same things about abortion. Read more…

Today CatholicVote.org published an article that covers a lecture Dr J gave in early February. In fact we already have a thread about it. (Pro-Family Speaker Challenges Students) But apparently people are still writing about her talk, it is a presentation well worth revisiting, and the author of the article very succinctly sums up what I consider be one of the greatest dangers – if not the very greatest danger – of same-sex ‘marriage’. (See the second quote box below.) Read more…

This powerful video captures Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse’s (Ruth Institute) testimony to the Rhode Island House Judiciary on March 1, 2011. Reportedly, silence followed her testimony in our nation’s most Catholic state.

Click here.

Dr. Morse will be on the radio with Dennis O’Donovan today at 3:30 pm EST in florida. Listen live by following this link: http://www.rpconradio.com/index.html

Listen to Dennis O’Donovan’s radio interview with Maggie Gallagher:

Click the following link prior to 3/08:
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/1057678867/d926832052fe6db36f20bd9b5e7ad731

by Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D.

Download a PDF of this essay

In a 1972 decision widely hailed by the political classes, the Supreme Court opined in Eisenstadt v. Baird, “If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right to be free from unwarranted government intrusions into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.”¹ Imagining that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was coercing her citizens to have children against their wishes, the Eisenstadt decision struck down a statute that had been amended to comply with the requirements of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). That earlier decision had demanded that states allow the sale of contraceptives to married couples, as the Court held that prohibiting the use of contraceptive devices in marriage would be an unacceptable invasion of marital privacy.² In Eisenstadt, however, the Court moved to claim that “whatever the rights the individual to access contraceptives may be, the rights must be the same for married and unmarried alike.”³ Read more…

Aquinas College and Ruth Institute plan conference, featuring Janet Smith, Jennifer Roback Morse and Bradford Wilcox, to strengthen marriage in a hostile world.

STEUBENVILLE, OH—”Marriage will be what this generation makes of it,” said Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of the Ruth Institute. “My generation had its turn. It’s time for the millennials to step up to the plate.”

Morse answered the question “Same-Sex Marriage: Why Not?” before a packed house Wednesday, February 2, as part of Franciscan University’s Distinguished Speakers Series.

“Marriage in every society is the preferred place for sex and childbearing. Childbearing and sex are somehow related,” said Morse, author of Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village. “The sexual revolution took these three things—marriage, sex, and childbearing—apart.” Read more…

And why not throw this older article back into the mix.

by Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D

One proposed solution to the divisiveness of the same-sex marriage debate is to have the government get out of the marriage business altogether. This proposal is appealing because it seems to remove marriage from the realm of political contentiousness. We could mimic a market-type solution, in which individuals can make their own decisions about the meaning of marriage, and we need not make any collective decision. But these appearances are deceiving. We need to think through what it actually means to say that the government should “get out of the marriage business.” Read more…

By Katherine Gregg and TOM MOONEY

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE. (Sorry. Couldn’t get it over here.)

PROVIDENCE — The same-sex marriage debate played out at high volume at the State House on Wednesday, with advocates waving “vote for love” signs, and opponents arguing that nothing less than the soul of Rhode Island, the well-being of its children and the “sanctity of marriage” are at stake in a year when the state’s new governor and openly gay House speaker are enthusiastically backing gay nuptials. Read more…

I am here today to address those of you who have already made up your minds to  redefine marriage. History will not be kind to you. Previous generations of social experimenters have caused unimaginable misery for millions of people. Particular people advocated the policies that led to today’s 50% divorce rate and 40% out of wedlock childbearing rate. None of these people has ever been held accountable. Read more…

‘Love and Life in the Divine Plan’ scheduled for Feb. 25-26, 2011

Contact: Mary Beth Hutchins, CRC Public Relations, 703-683-5004 ext 105, mhutchins@crcpublicrelations.com; Twitter: @MBwithCRC

NASHVILLE, Feb. 8, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ — In an age when traditional marriage is under assault from all sides, Aquinas College is preparing to equip area youth and young adults with the knowledge to defend what they know to be true. Read more…

To put it simply, it’s been deleted. I think it’s been publicly agreed upon that Ari has gone over the top with this one, and his post isn’t being helpful to anyone. His comments were insensitive and received a just backlash. So, in order to get back to more germane matters, we will simply proceed without that particular post in place. Thank you for understanding.  Betsy, blog-mistress.

To our readers: I heartily concur with Betsy. Ari’s original post was in questionable taste. But his sarcasm in the comments  was beyond bad taste. Hurtful to some people.  Not helpful to anyone.  All heat, no light. Negative on balance. Down comes the post.

I enjoy running a free-wheeling, open discussion over here at the Ruth Institute.  In that environment, people sometimes step over the line. We’re pulling in the reins a bit on our own side. We still value an open and civil, exchange of ideas.

Thanks to everyone who participates in the Ruth Blog.

Dr J

By Stephanie Samuel|Christian Post Reporter

The National Organization for Marriage is encouraging youths to consider lifelong marriage with a video making contest called Reel Love Challenge.

The Ruth Institute, an offspring of the National Organization for Marriage, is hosting a video contest it hopes will open up dialogue about marriage. The Reel Love Challenge encourages millennials to send in video entries answering one or both of these questions: What makes lifelong love possible? And, why is it worth the effort? Read more…

by John-Henry Westen

SAN MARCOS, CA, January 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage Education Fund, has announced its first annual Reel Love Challenge, a video contest for young adults, aged 18-30. The contest is open to all young adults, married or single, male or female, in college, out of college, or never been anywhere near a college. “This contest is for everyone in the next generation to give their ideas about what sustains love over the course of a lifetime,” says Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of The Ruth Institute. Read more…

by Jennifer LeClaire

There’s plenty of talk about the attack on marriages and family. Now, the Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage Education Fund, is encouraging creative young adults to become part of the solution with a video contest.

The Ruth Institute just launched its first annual Reel Love Challenge, a video contest for young adults aged 18 to 30. The contest is open to all young adults, married or single, male or female, in college, out of college, or never been anywhere near a college. This contest offers a platform for a generation to offer ideas about what sustains love over a lifetime.

“Marriage will be what your generation makes it,” says Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of The Ruth Institute. “Divorce, adultery, even incest are all over the news. I urge all emerging adults to take matters into their own hands and begin to create a culture of fidelity and love.”

Roback says the Reel Love Challenge gives young adults a forum to start asking and answering, the right questions, such as “What makes lifelong love possible?” and “Why is it worth the effort?” She says the videos can be professional looking, or just done with a cell phone camera. The Ruth Institute is more interested in content, thoughts, and ideas, than Hollywood production quality.

Here’s the skinny on entering the contest: Read more…

Dr. J has often discussed the essential public purpose of marriage.  Many of our commenters have dismissed her account of that purpose because it emphasizes the procreative aspect of marriage as the public purpose.  They seem to think that this purpose was made up in order to exclude certain non-favored groups from marriage.

Well, here’s a definition of marriage that has been with us since time immemorial, encoded in the Yoseph Karo’s immortal Shulchan Aruch, the basic code of Jewish Law.  It’s the very first paragraph in the very first chapter in the volume containing the laws of marriage (emphasis added.  The Rem”a, by the way, is a slightly later gloss added by a different author, Rabbi Moshe Isserles).

1. Every man is obligated to marry a women in order to be fruitful and to multiply and anyone who doesn’t engage in being fruitful and multiplying is as if he spills blood, and lessens the appearance, and causes the divine presence to depart from Israel. Rem”a: He who does not marry is not allowed to make a blessing or to engage in Torah etc. and he is not called a man, and when he marries a woman his sins are cast into doubt, as it is said: “One who has found a wife has found goodness and obtains favor in the eyes of God.” (Prv. 18:22)

While this purpose somewhat differs from Dr. J’s purpose in detail (and somewhat in practice as well), I think the case that marriage is about procreation (and always has been) is well nigh overwhelming.

Lest you think the sentence, “anyone who doesn’t engage in being fruitful and multiplying is as if he spills blood” is wholly without basis, I quote from a recent article about our nation’s second least fruitful city:  Seattle.  “There’s something missing from many Seattle neighborhoods: the sound of children’s laughter.” The same thing would likely be missing following a general massacre.  Surely, Jewish Law does not literally consider a childless person a murderer.  Nevertheless, it is essential to note that childlessness and murder share some practical results.  (Seattle is the second least fruitful city.  Any guesses as to the very least fruitful?  No points for correct guesses.  That one was just too easy).