Ruth Institute Blog

Delivered January 23, 2012 in Olympia, Washington

by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse

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…

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…

Is There Really That Much at Stake?

by Douglas Farrow

Why fight same-sex marriage? Even in America, where the outcome is not yet decided, there appear to be good reasons not to. The optics are poor and the mandate seems uncertain. Prospects for victory appear slim. Resources that might be reserved for more important fronts—abortion, for example—are squandered in defense of an institution to which our modern urban society is no longer committed. Industrial economies, reprogenetic technologies, and new ideas of autonomy—not to speak of new moralities—have called into question many of the assumptions on which that institution has always been based. Read more…

Christian Examiner staff report

SPRINGFIELD, Ill, — A bed and breakfast in central Illinois is struggling to keep its right not to host civil union ceremonies on its premises. Read more…

Cooper’s rebuttal:

If the judge has an interest in the outcome, he has an obligation to reveal it.

It was the plaintiffs who continually put forth evidence that 64% of gays in CA, in committed long-term relationships, would want to get married.  Hence, it is the fact that Walker was in a relationship, not the fact that he is gay, that merits disclosure at least, and possible recusal. Read more…

Therese Stewart:

A seal order doesn’t preclude the parties from revisiting the question of whether the seal should be opened.  She seems to think that the Proponents shouldn’t have relied on this promise so seriously.

Rhinehart: the potential for broadcast has been eliminated.

Stewart seems to say that rule only pertains to media coverage immediately of the court proceedings, basing this only on the letter by Judge Kozinski. Read more…

3:05 PM, PST,

Judge Hawkins:

Were your clients under the impression that the tapes would be sealed forever?

David Thompson:

No, only for 10 years, at which time, an extension could be asked for, and possibly given.

Plaintiffs want to know, what are the harms?

DT says, four harms: Read more…

3: 30 PM PST, Thomas Burke, from Media Coalition

First brings up the claim that since Walker’s objectivity is in question, we should have access to the tapes.

Rhinehart stops him and urges him to stick to the point: which is the issue of the video tapes.

The guy is in over his head. Read more…

Sitting here in the federal court building at the corner of Mission and 7^th in Down town SF.  Things are much calmer, both inside and outside the court, compared with other times I’ve been to these hearings.  Only a handful of people were outside at the Pre-Game warm-up Equality rally. They have the same signs they had a year ago, from the looks of it, and fewer people holding them. Read more…

The “marriage equality” movement is based on faulty logic and is not about creating “equal rights.” Leaders in the “marriage equality” movement either are not honest with their followers, or truly do not understand their own arguments. Whichever is the case, they need the concept of “marriage equality” to contain an element that is simultaneously false and unstated. Like I said, I have no idea if the leaders are willful on this point or not. I am nearly 100% sure the rank and file members of that side have not even begun to think about it like this.

Here is the part that is both false and unstated: Read more…

from The Manhattan Declaration

Our friends at the Family Research Council have produced a documentary detailing some of the repercussions that have already begun to arise as a result of so-called same-sex “marriage.” The evidence and the impact that same-sex “marriage” is already having is astounding and shows the dangers it presents to our country and our culture. Watch the trailer for the documentary here and comment on our blog. Particularly chilling is the effect the gay-rights movement has had on our children: to the point where some young kids think that having friends of the same sex is homosexual.  You need to talk frankly with your children about this issue.  The question isn’t when are they going to learn about so-called same-sex “marriage,” but who is going to be the one to teach them about it?

Chad Groening

A Mississippi senator has successfully inserted into the Defense Authorization Bill an amendment that would prevent military chaplains from being forced to perform same-gender “weddings.” Read more…

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2011

Tomorrow afternoon beginning at 2:30 pm PT / 5:30 pm ET, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit will be hearing oral arguments on California’s Proposition 8.

The three-judge panel, while continuing to deliberate on the constitutionality of Prop 8, will additionally be hearing oral arguments on whether Judge Walker broke the law when he allowed the public release of videotapes of the original Prop 8 trial and whether Judge Walker’s decision to overturn Prop 8 should be reversed because he was involved in a same-sex relationship at the time. Read more…

Anyone who cares about the future of our society should read this book. Children are among those most affected by same-sex marriage. This book discusses the impact same-sex marriage has on the culture and gives you real answers to the central questions surrounding this important issue. Read more…

In response to a recent “Orthodox” same-sex marriage ceremony conducted in Washington, D.C. by Rabbi Steve Greenberg, – who is openly gay, and married Yoni Bock and Ron Kaplan at the 6th & I Synagogue in Washington in November – over 100 Orthodox Rabbis – among them some of the most prominent rabbinic figures in the Orthodox Jewish world, including Rabbi Hershel Schachter and Rabbi Hershel Reichman of Yeshiva University and Rabbi Elie Abadie of the Safra Synagogue  – issued a statement declaring that, Read more…

by Maggie Gallagher

August 23, 2011 http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/08/3761

Presidential candidates in the next election should uphold marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

The mainstream media have labeled marriage the “hottest front in the culture war.” Much to the media’s surprise, several of the GOP candidates have already signed the National Organization of Marriage’s (NOM) Marriage Pledge. They were surprised by major candidates’ willingness to sign NOM’s pledge because this was supposed to be the year the social issues did not matter. 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 Carolyn Moynihan

Marriage and family advocacy groups have greeted with enthusiasm a Canadian court decision upholding the country’s ban on polygamy, published yesterday.

British Columbia Supreme Court Chief Justice, Robert Bauman, has ruled that the government of Canada may continue to prohibit polygamy because, although the law does impinge on the right to freedom of religion, that harm is outweighed by the harms that polygamy inflicts on women and children, and to the institution of monogamous marriage. “There is no such thing as so-called ‘good polygamy’,” said Bauman. Read more…

Washington, DC — The National Organization for Marriage’s Corporate Fairness Project today announced that both Bank of America and the Cisco Corporation have promised not to discriminate against employees or vendors who publicly oppose same-sex marriage. Read more…