Ruth Institute Blog

(July 20, 2010) We’ve already podcasted Dr J’s talk from this rally, “Why Not Privatize Marriage?“  She also recorded two of the other speakers.  Bishop John Smith, the ninth bishop of Trenton, discussed how marriage compliments the uniqueness of men and women.  Jim White, former Supreme Director of the Knights of Columbus, encouraged civic participation and accountability of government officials.

Bishop John Smith

Jim White

(July 21, 2010) This podcast is a rebroadcast of Family New in Focus’s coverage of NOM’s bus stops in Rhode Island and Annapolis.  The original is available here; listen below or on our podcast page.

NOM Summer Marriage Tour

(July 21, 2010) Though NOM’s Summer Marriage Tour continues through August 15, Annapolis, Maryland is Dr J’s last stop.  Her final talk is entitled “It Takes a lot of Faith to Believe in Same-Sex Marriage.”  Listen below or at our podcast page.

Annapolis, Maryland

Dr J updates Todd’s listeners at Issues, Etc. on the progress of NOM’s Summer Marriage Tour–especially the intolerance they experienced in Providence, Rhode Island when a well-organized group of same-sex “marriage” supporters tried to shout them down (as well as intimidating and threatening the listeners).  They also discuss a settlement in Mississippi, where a school student wants to bring a same-sex date to prom.

[In]tolerance

Chris Plante, president of NOM’s Rhode Island Chapter, and Brian Brown, president of NOM, were also at Providence’s “Summer of Marriage” rally with Dr J (see “The Problem(s) with Same-Sex Marriage, Part 2″).  The shouting and chanting you hear are the rainbow protestors, who also attended the rally.  We also have a few other reports of how they tried to disrupt the rally (here, here, here, here & here, here, and here) as well as audio and video (here, here, here, and here).  Much of this is on our blog, too.

Plante & Brown

Dr J is in Providence, Rhode Island with the NOM Summer Marriage Tour.  (You can also listen on our podcast page.)  This talk, from July 18, answers the question “Why not privatize marriage?”  She’s got a pragmatic answer for a slightly utopian viewpoint.

Click here to listen!

Providence, Rhode Island

News reports from other sources also covered our rally in print (here, here, here, here & here, here, and here) as well as with audio and video (here, here, here, and here).  Some of these detail the behavior of the rainbow protestors, who were holding a counter-rally nearby, and their attempts to engage and threaten those listening to the speakers from the Summer Marriage Tour.

Still traveling with the NOM Summer Marriage Tour, this July 17 talk by Dr. J comes from Albany.  (You can also listen to it on our podcast page.)  This time around she addresses some of the problems with same-sex marriage and the dissolution of the biological basis of the family.  Midway through her address, a group of rainbow protesters approached and surrounded the Marriage Tour assembly (Dr J refers to them in her speech around 7:35).

Click here to listen!

Albany, New York

Fifty years ago, if you were to say that the definition of marriage should be expanded to include the union of two men or two women, you would have gotten some strange looks.

Nowadays, if you say that the definition of marriage should NOT be changed, you are immoral.  Strangely, you are NOT immoral if you harass, yell at, condemn or kick someone in the jimmies for saying that the definition of marriage should not be changed.

Does anybody else think this turn of events is strange?  How did such a strange thing happen? Read more…

Dr J is on NOM’s Summer Marriage Tour for the next several days–she’ll be traveling down the Eastern seaboard, meeting new people, and giving short talks in each city at which the bus stops.  These talks are also available on our podcast page.

In this 10-minute talk (delivered July 15 in Manchester, New Hampshire), Dr J answers the question “Is it true that same-sex marriage affects everyone?”
Click here to listen!

Manchester, New Hampshire

Dr J is on NOM’s Summer Marriage Tour for the next several days–she’ll be traveling down the Eastern seaboard, meeting new people, and giving short talks in each city at which the bus stops.  These talks will soon be available on our podcast page, but in the meantime, they’re available here.

In her first 10-minute talk (delivered July 14 in Augusta, Maine), Dr J answers the question “What is the essential purpose of marriage?”
Click here to listen!
Augusta, Maine

Some of our readers are shocked that we quote people with whom we have some disagreements.

Well, it’s time for them to be shocked again.

Because right now I’m about to quote Gay Patriot on the topic of Gay Marriage.  I may be mistaken, but I think that Mr. Patriot is somewhat in favor of it.  But it’s certainly a breath of fresh air to see somebody break down the issue in an intelligent and non-histrionic way.

Now, you may say, as do many of our critics, that, well, didn’t the citizens of California vote to ban gay marriage when they passed Proposition 8?

And I will tell you that in fact they didn’t.  Prop 8 had nothing to do with making gay marriage illegal.  It had everything to do with what type of unions the state recognizes as “marriage.”

Let me build on my answer with a question:   in the 19 months since Prop 8 passed, can you name one person who has been arrested or otherwise punished by authorities from the State of California for getting married? Read more…

Fred Reed writes some provocative stuff.  I often disagree with him, but he’s smart as a whip and always interesting.  In this article, he takes on hooking up.

I see where women, or college girls anyway, are honking and blowing most fierce about how they don’t like the way sex works nowadays. Yeah. It seems that the hook-up is in flower. Read more…

This one’s sure to earn some comments.

By: Chuck Colson

We’ve warned before that same-sex “marriage” will weaken the foundations of traditional marriage. New research shows us why.

Same-sex couples just want the right to be married like everyone else, or so the argument goes. They call it a civil right. You could hardly find a more innocuous argument, perfectly designed to appeal to all of us who believe in equal rights and fair play. Read more…

Hmm…States not acting according to voters’ wishes on marriage. That sounds awfully familiar. Do these politicians consider their own re-election chances? But that’s not the issue.

Charlie Butts – OneNewsNow -

Courts in two major Texas cities, Austin and Dallas, have granted two lesbian couples divorces — in direct defiance of voters who amended the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman. Read more…

Here’s something from our friend Brian Brown, Executive Director of NOM–National Organization for Marriage, on the Prop 8 case in CA that Jennifer Morse has been involved in.

Brian S Brown

Proposition 8 appeal judge Vaughn Walker seems to have had one goal: to generate sympathy for gay marriage supporters.

In a story last Sunday the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Proposition 8 judge Vaughn Walker is gay and called his orientation, “The biggest open secret in the landmark trial over same-sex marriage.” Read more…

by Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D.

State-sanctioned same-sex marriage restructures the incentives for child-rearing arrangements, and much else. Few are thinking through how people will react. Read more…

I just found out that I have been published over at The American Thinker. I’m very excited, as they have very intelligent readers over there.  Here is the beginning of the article.

Normally, economists and libertarians take pride in tracking the changes in incentives as far through society as possible. Yet on the subject of same-sex marriage, these economists seemed uncharacteristically incurious. They seem to think same sex-marriage will affect only the handful of people who 1) currently identify Read more…

Judith Stacy and Timothy Biblarz have a publication coming out in February, claiming that children raised by same sex couples do as well as those raised by opposite sex couples. No, I have not seen the study yet. I’ll let you know what I think, once the study has been published and I’ve had a chance to look at it.

Here’s something relating to Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse’s big article, also on this blog.

The Case Against Ted Olson [Maggie Gallagher]

In the NYT, Ed Meese strikes back hard against the idea there’s anything conservative about using the federal courts to overturn the free and fair election that produced Prop 8. Read more…

By Jennifer Roback Morse

Two high-profile lawyers are challenging California’s constitutional ban on gay marriage.

California’s high-profile federal lawsuit against Proposition 8, which begins in court on January 11, appears to be about creating a federal case for same sex marriage. But in fact, much more is at stake. Lurking in the shadows of this case is a breathtaking expansion of judicial interference with perfectly valid elections. Whatever your views about Proposition 8, we surely should be able to agree that special interest groups can’t go into court to overturn elections they don’t like. Read more…