Ruth Institute Blog

by William West

A time traveller from the 20th Century would very likely be shocked by how standards have plummeted in the film industry in a little over a decade – particularly with movies aimed at the teen market. Even parents from the swinging ’60s and ’70s would have thought twice about the explicit films now routinely sanctioned by censors for viewing by teenagers. Read more…

by Joanna Hyatt

This past summer, I spent a fantastic weekend as one of about 40 international students who attended the Ruth Institute’s “It Takes a Family” 2011 conference (ITAF). While there, I met two students from the University of Pittsburgh, Joseph Petrich and Alex Souchuns. Both are involved in the Anscombe Society on campus, with Joseph the current president. The Anscombe Society is connected with the Love & Fidelity Network and seeks to educate and raise awareness on issues of life, fidelity, love, and sex within marriage. These groups are beginning to crop up on campuses across the country, and while they may go by any number of names, their purpose is the same. In a culture that seeks to remove all boundaries on sex and encourages college students to simply practice ‘safe’ sex, these students call their peers to something better, something higher, something that is the best for not only their body, but also their heart. Read more…

by Carson Holloway

November 17, 2011 http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/11/4311

The Supreme Court has helped to foster a culture that encourages the sexual exploitation of children.

The child sexual abuse scandal now engulfing Penn State has given rise to much commentary on how people’s values can be distorted by the desire to protect a successful and venerated football program. The point is well-taken. Nevertheless, we also should consider another distortion in our values even more directly related to the kind of abuse in question. The roots of this distortion are in the decisions of an even more venerable and authoritative institution. Specifically, we must consider the role of the Supreme Court in fostering a culture that encourages the sexual exploitation of children. Read more…

This used to be called prostitution–now it’s just debt reduction:

…There is a plethora of on-line dating sites, calling themselves arrangement sites, where young women looking to pay down college debt are matched to older, wealthy donors. What is not advertised, but is clearly understood by reading young women’s confessionals in a recent Huffington Post piece about “sugar daddies” and the financially beleaguered “sugar baby” girls, is that these arrangements are for paid sex, and the industry is booming. Read more…

By Melissa Henson, Special to CNN

Editor’s note: Melissa Henson is the director of communications and public education for the Parents Television Council, a nonpartisan education organization advocating responsible entertainment.

(CNN) — Kids having sex on prime time broadcast TV? Must be sweeps month.

It’s so predictable, it’s almost laughable. Almost. That is, it would be if it weren’t for the fact that there are real-world consequences for these brazen, ratings-boosting publicity ploys. Read more…

by Brent Bozell

In Hollywood, the only truly serious sexual disease is virginity. It’s a dire and embarrassing condition, desperately in need of elimination. Teenagers that still have “it” are woefully immature. They might as well consider themselves to be walking the school hallways in diapers.

Along comes Fox Entertainment to enlighten us. Get ready. It’s sick. Read more…

by Catherine Palmer

John Blake’s recent CCN article, “Why Young Christians Aren’t Waiting Anymore,” sparked a flurry of thousands of responses. Released in September 2011, the piece cited an article in Relevant magazine entitled “(Almost) Everyone’s Doing It,” exploring the sexual activity of Christian singles. But one finding, in particular, stood out from the miscellany: According to a December 2009 study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 80% of evangelical young adults (18 to 29) reported having had sex—just under the 88% statistic of unmarried adults overall. “Relevant theorizes about why it’s so hard for so many young Christians to wait, including the saturation of sex in popular culture, the prevalence of pornography and a popular ‘do what feels good philosophy,’” Blake writes. But are these listed sociocultural factors solely to blame? Or is there a concomitant reality at play here? Read more…

by Terrell Clemmons

Okay, I need to understand this ‘victory,’” Jeannie started in. The governor of our state had just signed legislation stripping abortion giant Planned Parenthood of about $4 million in annual taxpayer funding. “First, you do not want to teach sex-ed and provide condoms in schools. Second, you do not want to fund an organization that provides contraception to prevent pregnancy. And you do not want abortion as an option. Do you really think that more teens will practice abstinence because of this?” Read more…

More good news. Praise God we are heading in the right direction.

by Carolyn Moynihan

On the Family Scholars blog, David Lapp draws attention to official figures showing that the proportion of teenagers having sex has dropped over the past two decades or so. He writes: Read more…

Way to go Britain! Why don’t we do more of this here?

by Carolyn Moynihan

The latest move in Britain’s clampdown on the sexualization of children is a warning to broadcasters to keep offensive lyrics off the radio waves at times when children are likely to be listening. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Pressure and lack of self control lead teens in developing countries to regret sex, a new study shows.

Next week a British television channel begins the second series of a show called “The Joy of Teen Sex”. The programme promises “A bold, informative look at the love lives and sex lives of teenagers that tells it like it really is, and is definitely not just for teens.” Not justfor teens? Is a show with such a misleading title useful for teens at all? Read more…

This is good news.

by Carolyn Moynihan

Britain’s advertising watchdog has taken on board concerns about the exposure of children to sexual imagery and will be taking a firmer line on outdoor ads in response to complaints. Read more…

by Mariette Ulrich

When I saw ads for the recently released Friends with Benefits, I thought I was experiencing déjà vu. Wasn’t that film released last year? Why no, the movie I had in mind was different, and it was titled No Strings Attached.

Well, not entirely different; same frivolous treatment of self-centred loveless sex; different week. When I did some IMDb research to find out a bit more, I came up with yet another title on the same theme, Friends (with Benefits), made in 2009.

Really? Three movies on the same ghastly topic in two short years? What’s up with that? Read more…

by Dr. Michael L. Brown

The recent cover of the French edition of Vogue magazine caused considerable controversy, and it was not because of the all too typical, female model featured in a sensual pose. Instead, it was the fact that the model this time was a 10-year-old girl. Read more…

by Anthony Esolen

The body has a language of its own, and the sexual revolution is founded upon a lie.

Recently in Public Discourse, I challenged readers to defend the sexual revolution on the grounds that it has conduced to the common good. No one took up that challenge. It would be, I suppose, rather like asking someone to defend the forced collectivization of farms in the Ukraine, while speaking to ten thousand people in Kiev. It is not going to happen. Read more…

“This is what happens when you take bad advice.”

By Maggie Gallagher, Chairman of the National Organization for Marriage

John Garvey, the new President of Catholic University, announced last week that the university will return to single sex dorms. Many feathers were ruffled. It is a measure of the unisex madness in which we have become enmeshed that a Catholic university’s decision to house unmarried young men and women in separate dorms could be described as “controversial.” Read more…

by Marcus Roberts

Last week I mentioned that the number of centenarians is predicted to increase to over one million in five different countries by 2100.   I thought that this was, in part at least, a testimony to better medical practices and aged care in many parts of the world.  Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

A professor of sociology wrote a week or so ago in the New York Timesthat American family life might be much improved if parents in the US were more like those in the Netherlands who — typically, it is implied — allow their teenage daughters to have their boyfriends sleep over in the family home, or sons to have their girlfriends do the same. Read more…

This doesn’t surprise me:

BOSTON (Reuters) – Men who pay for sex are more likely than men who do not pay for sex to commit a variety of offenses including violent crimes against women, according to research conducted in the Boston area. Read more…