The Unbearable Wrongness of Roe

January 23rd, 2012 Comments off

by Michael Stokes Paulsen

January 23, 2012 http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/01/4577

39 years ago, the Supreme Court delivered a radical, legally untenable, immoral decision. It has forfeited its entitlement to have its decisions respected, and followed, by the other branches of government, by the states, and by the people. Read more…

Categories: Abortion Tags:

Author gives another look at purity

January 23rd, 2012 Comments off

by Bill Bumpas

She’s not the first one to challenge teens to remain pure before marriage.  But author Elsa Kok Colopy tells OneNewsNow what she’s talking about in her book is real purity — not just about a bunch of” do’s and don’ts.” Read more…

Where states stand on life

January 23rd, 2012 Comments off

by Charlie Butts

Americans United for Life (AUL) has released its seventh annual “Life List” revealing how states are moving closer to a pro-life America.

Forty-seven states considered more than 460 abortion-related measures and enacted more than 70 of them. At least 86 bills were introduced in 32 states that were based on the pro-life group’s model language. The ranking of all 50 states is based on the way each deals with a comprehensive list of life issues. Among the top states this year are Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Arkansas. Read more…

March to recognize lost generation

January 23rd, 2012 Comments off

by Charlie Butts

Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. The Annual March for Life is under way in the nation’s capital with as many as 200,000 pro-lifers braving poor weather conditions in Washington to march to the steps of the Supreme Court, where abortion was legalized on January 22, 1973. Read more…

Open marriage? A terrible idea for kids

January 23rd, 2012 Comments off

by Carolyn Moynihan

US Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich was accused by ex-wife number two last week of wanting, at one stage, an “open marriage” in order to accommodate an affair he was having with present wife (number three). The New York Times has rounded up some experts to discuss the merits of such arangements. Brad Wilcox of the National Marriage Project, who can be relied on for common sense and objectivity, says: Read more…

Book Review: Precious Babies – a donor conceived person’s view

January 20th, 2012 1 comment

By Rachel Pepa [Please note the other resources at the bottom of the article when you click "Keep reading."]

A review of Precious Babies: Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting after Infertility By Kate Brian

As an informal guide to having children after fertility problems, Precious Babies has much to recommend it. There is, however, an omission which, as a donor conceived (DC) person, I found particularly troublesome – the book is entirely devoid of DC voices. Read more…

Sexual Orientation and Reason: On the Implications of False Beliefs about Homosexuality

January 20th, 2012 Comments off

Note: This is a longer version, with citations, of the article posted just previous to this on the Ruth blog.

by Stanton L. Jones is Provost and Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College (IL).  PDF version of this paper and the Resources available for download at our Print Resources Page.

Homosexuality in particular, and sexual orientation, sexual identity and sexuality in general, are enormously complex topics, about which religious and social conservatives are prone to believe a number of falsehoods. This reality exposes us to derision in the public arena and weakens our capacity to engage this issue effectively. These false assertions include that: Read more…

Categories: Homosexuality Tags:

In Praise of Evelyn Hooker

January 20th, 2012 Comments off

by Stanton L Jones

Dr. Evelyn Hooker is arguably history’s most revered gay-affirming activist scientist, and so it is that, at a time when social science is frequently abused in public discussions of same-sex issues, Hooker should be remembered and praised for her clearheaded allegiance to proper scientific standards. Read more…

Categories: Homosexuality Tags:

He sings like an angel

January 19th, 2012 Comments off

My two-year-old son was singing, or rather, belting out, the Alleluia in his best voice. The only problem was that he replaced the word “Alleluia” with…

Keep reading.

Judge Can’t Order Mentally Disabled Woman to Have Abortion

January 19th, 2012 Comments off

by Rob Schwarzwalder

A judge’s decision to order the abortion of “a mentally ill woman’s unborn baby and sterilize her — if it meant she had to be ‘coaxed, bribed, or even enticed … by ruse’ into the procedure” has drawn appropriate fire from officials in the Bay State. Read more…

Categories: Abortion, Eugenics Tags: ,

Support Marriage While Walking for Life West Coast Jan 21

January 18th, 2012 Comments off

Meet at the Stand with Children Info Booth
8th Annual Walk for Life West Coast on Saturday

Join us to promote marriage and family while walking for life at the 8th Annual Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco this Saturday, January 21, 2012. Read more…

Are we free to speak about parenting research?

January 18th, 2012 Comments off

by Carolyn Moynihan

It’s difficult today to say anything in favour of the intact, married family without putting somebody’s nose out of joint. Last week it was a blogger at the LBGT site ThinkProgress who took umbrage at a comment by Focus on the Family’s Glenn Stanton. I’ll let Mr Stanton tell you how from his post on NRO’s Home Front blog: Read more…

A noisy week for parenting studies

January 18th, 2012 Comments off

First of all this week, there was a big (about 5,000 observations) sophisticated (University of Chicago Business School) study of bad behavior in little boys. Conclusion: little boys benefit substantially from living with both their biological parents. The second study was a little (78 observations) simplistic (unrepresentative sample, ideologically motivated researchers) of the Quality of Life of the children of lesbian couples. Conclusion: the children of lesbian couples are just as happy and well-adjusted as their peers.  Read more…

Maryland catering to cross-dressers

January 17th, 2012 Comments off

by Charlie Butts

Council members in Baltimore are introducing a “Peeping Tom” ordinance that reportedly creates “serious safety issues for women.” Read more…

What’s wrong with lesbian parenting studies

January 17th, 2012 Comments off

By Michael Worley, First year law student at J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, and a 2011 graduate of the Ruth Institute It Takes a Family to Raise a Village program.

It is common knowledge that TV reports don’t tell the whole story.  Frequently a group of 75 undecided voters gather to share their responses immediately after a debate.  Such people provide instant commentary that the theorists of network TV may not be able to perceive.  However, these groups tend not to be predictive of overall election results. Random polling via phone calls shows us much clearer results.  Read more…

How the West’s Fertility War Has Left Women at Risk

January 16th, 2012 Comments off

by Jennifer Roback Morse

This article was first published at familyinamerica.org on January 10, 2012.

Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men
Mara Hvistendahl
Public Affairs, 2011; 314 pages, $26.99

This brave and timely book has many strengths and one glaring, but understandable, weakness. The strength of this book is the reporting. Mara Hvistendahl, a liberal, pro-choice feminist, painstakingly documents the catastrophic consequences of the worldwide “choice” for male babies: gender imbalance leading to prostitution, sex slavery, and male frustration and aggression. The weakness of this book is the political analysis. She doesn’t understand how deeply Roe v. Wade changed American political culture, particularly within the conservative movement broadly conceived. But both these strengths and weaknesses work together to yield an honest and courageous book that should be read by anyone who considers himself (or herself) well informed. Read more…

Dying teen’s video inspires millions

January 16th, 2012 Comments off

by Katie Hinderer

I often get asked why I like social media so much. Parents are concerned at the amount of time their children spend online and the relationships that are suffering as a result. They see the constant need to be in the know and the increasingly short attention spans as something detrimental. And while I agree, there are serious downsides to social media, there are also amazing upsides that if tapped properly can make a huge difference. Read more…

Categories: Teenagers Tags: ,

How to compensate for lost fertility?

January 16th, 2012 Comments off

by Shannon Roberts

Past Eugenics and sterilisation programs in the United States are coming back to bite them, with North Carolina currently the first State to address compensation for victims.

According to the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, at one time 31 states in the United States had government-run eugenics programs. In North Carolina alone, close to 8,000 men, women, and children, largely poor, black, disabled or uneducated, were forcibly sterilized from 1929 to 1974.  The programs were aimed at creating a better society by eliminating those considered undesirable.  Read more…

Movie morality is plummeting

January 16th, 2012 Comments off

by William West

Film censors are allowing teens to access much more explicit content and few parents seem to care

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…

Cruel genius children?

January 16th, 2012 Comments off

Random chance? Prank of the fitness gods? Yes, I know I’m getting big, but seeing this on my fridge is just spooky.

See it to believe it.