Ruth Institute Blog

Delivered June 3, 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Faculty and Students of Providence Academy; Class of 2011; parents, friends and benefactors: this is a wonderful and memorable day. For many of you, graduating from high school was always a foregone conclusion. So maybe you feel this day is no big deal. For some of you, graduating from high school is the result of a significant effort. For all of you, this day is an important milestone, the first step away from the world of your childhood and into adulthood. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Sue Schellenbarger at the Wall Street Journal has put together a great article on the importance of dad-style parenting.

As an estimated 70.1 million fathers prepare to celebrate Father’s Day in the U.S., recent research shows that their distinct style of parenting is particularly worth recognition: The way dads tend to interact has long-term benefits for kids, independent of those linked to good mothering. Read more…

There will be a hearing next Wednesday, June 22, on SB 48–the bill that would require California schools to teach, not merely the accomplishments of historical figures, but their sexual preferences as well.  It would apply to students in kindergarten on up.

If you can’t attend the hearing, call your legislator.

From Bill May: Read more…

British Prime Minister David Cameron has taken a lead in the battle against the pornification of culture and the sexualisation of children. A review he commissioned has come up with recommendations that would give more weight to parents’ concerns and encourage retailers and television and music executives to protect children from sexual images. Read more…

I’m sure you’ve already heard about this, but let’s talk about it anyway. Is anybody for this idea of a gender-secret child?

by Margaret Somerville

A Canadian couple is keeping their baby’s sex secret as an experiment in gender creativity.

Watch the video clip.

With same-sex marriage, we saw the advent of arguments for “genderless parenting” – the idea that all a child needs is love and it’s irrelevant whether the loving persons are male or female. Now we have “genderless kids”. Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, the parents of Jazz (5), Kio (2) and three-month-old Baby Storm want to rear and love each of their children, not as their daughter or son, not as a girl or a boy, but as just their child. Read more…

Michael Reagan, adopted son of President Ronald Reagan, says,

The recent headlines about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s infidelities and the son he fathered out of wedlock have stirred many old memories and emotions…

I keep hearing chattering heads on TV referring to the boy as Schwarzenegger’s “illegitimate” son. It makes my blood boil. Listen, there’s no such thing as an illegitimate child. There are only illegitimate parents. Read more…

I found this news on the Women of Grace website:

LifeSiteNews.com is reporting that a proposed new law in California that recently passed out of Committee will mandate pro-gay indoctrination of all public school students by forcing the curricula to incorporate the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Known as SB 48, it was introduced by an openly homosexual state Senator, Mark Leno, and managed to pass the ten-member Education Committee last week by a 6-3 vote. The bill now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it will be considered in early April.  [Update:  the full California Senate passed the bill on April 14.]

The law, which is supposed to counter discrimination of homosexual youth, contains no opt-out provision for parents or teachers. If passed, it will affect the curriculum for students as early as kindergarten…. Read more…

In an op-ed from the Boston Herald, we learn the following:

Pay attention parents! It’s spring. And before you know it, Massachusetts public schools will begin their yearly sex-ed lessons for kids as young as 5.

Of course, they won’t call it “sex ed.” They’ll call it “health.” But a rose by any other name is still a rose….

Indeed, when specifically asked why the school presents lessons on HIV in the third grade, rather than in middle school, one school administrator made this shocking admission:

“The goal is to reach kids before they absorb their parents’ values. By middle school it’s too late.” (emphasis added)

Read the whole thing.

There’s a new movie on the way, from the makers of Fireproof.  And what Fireproof did for marriage, Courageous promises to do for fatherhood.

A reporter writes,

“Courageous,” which is expected to be released in 2011, is about four police officers in Albany, Ga., who while giving their best to their job are not putting in the same effort to being a father. Tragedy strikes one of the officers’ family that causes the others to unite around him and vow to be more committed fathers. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Special note: Prof. Brad Wilcox will be a speaker at this summer’s “It Takes a Family” Conference sponsored by the Ruth Institute.

In the realm of parenthood today nothing can be taken for granted — not even that a mother and father are the best thing for children, at least according to certain elites. Read more…

By Laura Donovan

Women have risen economically, professionally and academically since the 70s, but these accomplishments don’t substitute for a father’s love.

Dr. Peggy Drexler, an assistant professor of psychology at Cornell University’s Weill Medical College, has just released her new book, “Our Fathers, Ourselves,” which attests that father-daughter relationships remain a crucial part of development for girls.

Of the 75 women Dr. Drexler interviewed, the research psychologist wrote, “No matter how successful they were or how much they had achieved, and no matter how content they were in their own marriages and the families they had formed, they still wanted and in some cases hungered for their fathers’ love and approval.” Read more…

I haven’t seen many details on the Delaware case I posted the other day.  But one fact is clear: the non-mother in same sex couple did not do a second party adoption. If she had done an adoption, she would have the same parental rights as the woman who went to Kazakhstan to adopt the child in the first place.  With a second party adoption, there would be no case here at all. According to the story, “Delaware does allow such adoptions, and Guest intended to file those papers later.”  

She “intended” to file for adoption, but never did.  We can only speculate as to why.

1. Maybe she just didn’t get around to it, and there was no other reason.

2. Maybe she didn’t really want to.  Maybe she only wanted to after the sexual relationship broke up, and she wanted to be vindictive.  Dissolving sexual relationships can bring out the worst in people.

3. Maybe the adoptive mother decided, all things considered, that she didn’t want to allow her child to be adopted by someone else. 

To those of you who are defending this Delaware law, I have a couple of questions.

1. Does it make any difference to you, which of these reasons accounts for Guest’s failure to file the adoption papers?

2. Does it make any difference to you, whether Guest had a sexual relationship with Smith or not?  And if it does, explain why Guest’s sexual involvement with an adoptive mother should make her automatically a priveleged candidate for adopting her child?

Those of you who follow my speeches, articles and podcasts know that I have been saying that the push to redefine marriage will inevitably bring a redefinition of parenthood in its wake.  Well, This case in Delaware is what I’ve been talking about:

An order by the Delaware Supreme Court appears to have resolved a complicated 7-year-old custody dispute between two women whose same-sex relationship ended 13 months after one of them adopted a child.

The order, issued April 12 and released Monday, denies a request to re-argue the case and leaves standing the court’s decision in March to recognize the “de facto” parental rights of the woman who was neither a biological nor adoptive parent. The ruling acknowledges a 2009 change to Delaware law that grants legal status to de facto parents, those who have established a committed level of care and involvement with a child. That law is not specific to same-sex partners but applies to other unmarried partners and stepparents…. 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…

Some German parents continue to be jailed for protecting their children’s Christian beliefs.

Five sets of parents in a German town have been punished for refusing to allow their elementary school-aged children to participate in school sex-education programs (see earlier article). “[The children are] being put through an interactive sex-education play which teaches them that if something feels good, then you should do it,” explains Roger Kiska with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). Read more…

by Patrick Lee, Robert P. George and Gerard V. Bradley

Defenders of conjugal marriage must be careful to not obscure the true nature of marriage–and the state’s true interest in promoting it.

In Part One of this article, we argued that marriage is a union of a man and a woman, committed to sharing their lives together on the bodily, emotional, and rational-volitional levels of their being, in the kind of community that would be naturally fulfilled by having and rearing children together.  Since that kind of multi-leveled community cannot be formed by two persons of the same sex–such persons cannot unite biologically in the way that has always been understood to consummate marriage, and they cannot form the kind of community that would be fulfilled by conceiving, bearing, and raising children together–there cannot in reality be such a thing as same-sex marriage (any more than there can be such a thing as polyamorous marriage–that is, marriage involving three or more partners). Since same-sex (and polyamorous) partners cannot form what are, in truth, marriages, the state’s not granting them marriage licenses is not unjust discrimination. Read more…

An Arkansas law that allows only a married man and woman to adopt or foster children was up for debate recently before the state Supreme Court.

The measure, designated as Act 1, was approved by 57 percent of voters in November 2008.  It reads: “A minor may not be adopted or placed in a foster home if the individual seeking to adopt or to serve as a foster parent is cohabiting with a sexual partner outside of a marriage which is valid under the constitution and laws of this state. The prohibition of this section applies equally to cohabiting opposite-sex and same-sex individuals.”

The ACLU, however, challenged the law, claiming it discriminates against homosexuals — and a judge struck it down, ruling that the measure violated constitutional guarantees of due process and equal protection.  At the recent oral arguments before the Arkansas Supreme Court, Byron Babione — senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) — explained the law is about protecting kids. Read more…

by Lea Singh

Growing up, I wish I’d heard more about the roles of wife and mother. An Ivy League mom’s lament.

Recently, a possibly tragic event took place: a highly educated young woman I know got married. Radiant in her delicate lace dress, full of joy and optimism about the future, this blushing bride was not yet aware of the reality of her situation: that she has been groomed through her many years of education to be, well, the groom – and this fact is very likely to cause friction for her and her family as she tries to achieve the deepest hopes and dreams of her heart. Read more…

by Anonymous

An anti-bullying program’s political slant leads one mother to reflect on the real meaning of diversity and dignity.

When I pulled my minivan up to the curb of the school sidewalk, my daughter, instead of saying the customary prolonged goodbye to her 4th-grade classmates while I look on rather impatiently, approached the van door without the slightest hesitation, waving a bright yellow paper. As soon as she opened the door, she exclaimed excitedly that a day-long field trip to a local college was planned and all I had to do was sign the permission slip so she could go. I asked her what they were going to do at the college. She hesitated for a second as she looked down at the paper in her hands and said that they were going to learn about bullying awareness. Since there had been many incidents of bullying at the school during the past year, I was hardly surprised to hear this. And I was relieved that the school was trying to address the problem. Read more…

My husband and I were both really disturbed when we saw a commercial for some sort of laundry detergent (who ever remembers what a commercial is actually selling?) Perhaps you’ve seen this one: A man was working on the car (I think) and he had grease or oil all over his hands. Spotting an opportunity, he grabs his teenage daughter’s white mini skirt from the clothes line and wipes his filthy hands on them, in hopes of ruining them. . . outraged daughter, mom saves the day with the wonder detergent and the commercial ends with her strutting out the front door all smiles in her perfectly white glorified butt-cover. Seriously, this thing was little more than underwear. The mom looks on approvingly, giving her daughter an up-down look that she’ll likely be getting from every post-pubescent male in her path. It was a really disturbing look that went beyond approval and satisfaction to, “Damn, my girl is fine!” Meanwhile, the father has a defeated expression. In case the problems with this scenario aren’t obvious, I’ll illuminate them: Read more…