Ruth Institute Blog

by Jim Tonkowich, Oxford House Research

ene Simmons, lead singer of the rock group KISS, recently married former Playboy model Shannon Tweed. It was billed as “the rock-and-roll wedding of the year” and the climax of the couple’s reality television show, “Gene Simmons Family Jewels.” (Wedding merchandise is available here.) Simmons and Tweed tied the knot and went off on their honeymoon after cohabitating for 28 years and raising two children, Nick (age 22) and Sophie (age 19). Read more…

by Maggie Gallagher

October 20, 2011 http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/10/4164

The decline of manhood and norms around sex, marriage, and family produces for young women what may in fact have to be endured. But it shouldn’t be celebrated.

In the cover story of the November Atlantic magazine, Kate Bolick declares her liberation from marriage: “It’s time to embrace new ideas about romance and family–and to acknowledge the end of ‘traditional’ marriage as society’s highest ideal.” Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Divorce, a major contributor to unhappiness and social disorder, is happening much more than it ought to — much more than even the spouses involved even want — according to a new report from the Institute for American Values.

Some 40 per cent of US couples already well into the divorce process say that one or both of them are interested in the possibility of reconciliation. 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…

Advice to incoming freshmen — from someone with experience. Oct. 23 issue feature.

by ASHLEY CROUCH

By Taylor Pettit

A group of individuals have come together on campus with the intent of reminding Eastern of what they said is a forgotten value: marriage between a man and a woman.

The group, Love and Truth, was approved by Student Life two weeks ago and immediately began advertising and recruiting around campus several planned events this year. Read more…

WASHINGTON, September 1, 2011– R&B Pop Superstar Beyonce Knowles’ recently announced pregnancy has ignited lots of interest but also social debate about controversial issues like the high rate of out-of-wedlock births in urban cities. Read more…

Consultants brought to Topeka by Gov. Sam Brownback to help outline a new pro-marriage initiative considered development of a “family preparatory” curriculum for high school students and elimination of financial penalties suffered by couples who marry while on public assistance. Read more…

from Rome Reports

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

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…

by Peter Jon Mitchell

So the sexual avant garde would have us believe. It’s the oldest trick in the book.

Secret infidelity within marriage is dishonest. On that, there is widespread agreement. But the prevailing question in our culture today seems to be whether monogamy itself is dishonest about human desire and personal fulfilment. Read more…

Admit you were wrong. Owning up to your own imperfection allows you to be human. Your spouse has an opportunity to forgive you, and to connect with you, as one frail, fragile, imperfect, blundering human being to another. Read more…

The 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth shows that adults who grew up in intact families and currently attended weekly religious services are least likely to “ever assault someone.”

This article comes from the Marriage and Religion Research Institute. Read more…

This is really, really distressing. Let the downward spiral of marriage begin!

Reform would allow couples to decide on the length of their commitment

MEXICO CITY — Mexico City lawmakers want to help newlyweds avoid the hassle of divorce by giving them an easy exit strategy: temporary marriage licenses. Read more…

By: Jim Tonkowich

“Treat yourself,” my friend said. “It will be a shot in the arm for your marriage.” He was encouraging me to read Pius XI’s December 1930 encyclical, Casti Connubii (Chaste Marriage). As it turns out, it’s more than a treat. It’s strong medicine for what ails marriage more than eighty years after it was penned. Read more…

California Republican Party Votes to Maintain One Man-One Woman Marriage In Party Platform

SAN MARCOS, CA – The Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage Education Fund, commended the California GOP today in response to their vote at the September 16-18 convention to maintain a strong defense of traditional marriage: Read more…

Take note of the parts in blue at the bottom.

by  Maggie Gallagher

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011, was a good day for marriage.

North Carolina legislators voted to send a marriage amendment to the people of that state in 2012.

And in New York, the first clear Democratic casualty of gay marriage emerged: David Weprin. Read more…

By William C. Duncan and Bryce Christensen

Politically educated Utahns remember the French political thinker Montesquieu largely for one reason: It was from Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws (1748) that America’s Founding Fathers drew their inspiration for the system of checks and balances they built into the U.S. Constitution. The framers of the Constitution were persuaded by Montesquieu’s argument that because “every man invested with power is apt to abuse it,” political liberty would survive only so long as “power should be a check to power.” “When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty,” Montesquieu explained. “Again,” he wrote, “there is no liberty if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive. … There would be an end of everything, were the same man or the same body … to exercise those three powers, that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and that of trying the causes of individuals.” ¹In the clear separation of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, Americans see a lasting monument to Montesquieu’s wisdom as a political theorist. Read more…

by Chuck Colson

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. Read more…