Ruth Institute Blog

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…

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…

By Dr. Karen Y. Palasek

Under my Christmas tree this year sit some of our favorite Christmas picture books, placed there when the (artificial) tree first went up, around Thanksgiving weekend. The Night Before Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas decorated the empty space nicely before the holiday gifts and packages began to appear. I haven’t had a chance yet this year to read them aloud with my kid — but still hope to. The fact that my kid is 20, has a car, and can drive to visit with friends during Christmas break is almost certainly a minor holdup on that plan, but only a minor one. The fact is, we would still really both enjoy it. Read more…

From the frc.org article:

A large and growing body of scientific evidence indicates that the intact, married family is best for children. In particular, the work of scholars David Popenoe, Linda Waite, Maggie Gallagher, Sara McLanahan, David Blankenhorn, Paul Amato, and Alan Booth has contributed to this conclusion.

This statement from Sara McLanahan, a sociologist at Princeton University, is representative: Read more…

Kind of a fun, funny article. I’m with the author on this one.

by Mariette Ulrich

One hates to be cynical, but I often cringe when I see an article that begins with the words: “Psychologists have found…” Usually, they have found something that wasn’t lost. Or else they find something that works for some people, but not for others, or for some people some of the time, but not at other times. That’s not a discovery; that’s the breadth and scope of human experience.

“Men should concentrate on playing with their children and leave the care to women” the London Telegraph heading announces. Read more…

Here we go. More info on the schools issue.

by Bill Bumpas

Organizers for the first-ever “National School Choice Week” are hoping to spotlight the need for effective educational options for every child in America.

National School Choice Week is set for January 23-29, and executive director Kyle Olson tells OneNewsNow that more than 150 state and national organizations will host major events across the country. Citing extensive documentation, he points out education spending has increased by more than 200 percent over 25 years — but student academic achievement has remained stagnant and unacceptable. Read more…

My guess is that this growth is largely because parents don’t trust public schools and private schools are expensive, if trustworthy themselves.

by Bill Bumpas

A newly released study estimates that more than two million U.S. children were home schooled in 2010.

The National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) used information from government and private sources to reach that estimation. Group president Brian Ray tells OneNewsNow that his report shows home education continues to grow, even though many people wonder if the popularity of home-based schooling is on the decline. Read more…

Kind of weird, right?

by Mariette Ulrich

A former Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, once famously quipped: “The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.”

Unless, it would seem, the “nation” means schoolchildren ages 12-17, and the “state” is local school board bureaucrats and/or the provincial Ministry of Education. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (Ontario, Canada) plans to issue a survey which asks, among other things, for children to disclose their gender (four choices) and sexual orientation (nine choices). Proponents claim the survey is voluntary, but rather than requiring parental permission for the survey to be administered, the onus is on parents to opt out in writing (by Nov. 19), if they do not wish their child to participate. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Who knew that video games could be such a big deal? Currently the United States Supreme Court is weighing arguments in favour of banning the sale of graphically violent video games to minors, but the case is not as straightforward as some of us might think. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

One of the most studied aspects of childhood in recent decades is early, non-maternal childcare. Research tends to show benefits for a child’s cognitive development but not for emotional wellbeing and behaviour. Now a study has found that youngsters are less likely to succeed at school if their mothers return to work within a year of their birth. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

September 27 was CASA Family Dinner Day in the United States and a report from the research centre confirms the important role of family dinners in keeping teenagers connected to their parents and free of substance abuse. Read more…

I thought this was interesting enough to share. Anyone with children should take heed.

by Mary Rice Hasson

James, a teacher-friend of mine, lamented recently how “morally challenged” his high school students seem to be. “They don’t think twice about lying or slamming someone’s reputation. Cheating on tests is no big deal. They only worry if they’ll get caught.” Read more…

What happens when the girlfriend of a recently divorced father of two gets pregnant—and she wants the baby, he doesn’t? Should men, too, have the right to choose?

By Stephanie Fairyington, Elle Magazine

Greg Bruell and his girlfriend of a year and a half, Sandra Hedrick, had a pact. “We agreed that if we got pregnant, we’d terminate because we were not in a stable family unit,” Hedrick says. Or as Bruell more starkly puts it, “I resumed sexual relations with her on the condition that were birth control to fail, she’d abort without waffling.” Read more…

I recently reviewed Red Families vs. Blue Families. (I didn’t like it much.) The authors’ constant refrain was “The Blue State Script works. Delay marriage and childbearing until the mid-thirties, with the help of unapologetic use of abortion and contraception. The marriages last longer and are more stable. The kids are better off. Be like us. The Blue State Script works.”

It all depends on what you mean by “works.” Here is an article in The Weekly Standard that shows a bit of Trouble in Paradise. It seems that the Parents in one of the tonier, Bluer regions of the Nation’s Capitol, are inflicting themselves on the Non-Parents, or as they prefer to call themselves, “the Child-Free.” Listen to them complain in these blog entries:

“Keep your nasty little snotty kid away from me, PLEASE!!!! Do not let your stickly offspring rush up to me in Whole Foods and grab my $250 Ralph Lauren silk skirt with its grubby crusty hands.” Read more…

Still more to come on this front, but ITAF’s closing lecture is featured in this week’s newsletter, so it’s up out of order.

Dr J delivers the closing lecture (also entitled “It Takes a Family to Raise a Village”) at Ruth Institute’s summer student conference.  She traces the roles of marriage in society and gives examples of how the devaluation of marriage has hurt women and children (particularly among the poor and those in Marxist states).

It Takes a Family to Raise a Village

There are a few more podcasts up for your listening pleasure–one from our recent “It Takes a Family” conference, and the other two are interviews of Dr J on Issues, Etc.

Dr J gave the opening talk at ITAF 2010; entitled Marriage and Freedom in Society, it discusses what marriage does for society and some of the consequences (especially those relating to children) if we choose to dissolve or weaken it.  Some of the areas she covers include divorce law, state intervention, and parenthood.

The two Issues, Etc interviews discuss the response to Judge Walker’s attitude about the Prop 8 case (Shot in the Arm…or the Foot?) and another group of Mama Grizzlies, this one opposed to Sarah Palin (Sarah Palin vs. Mama Grizzlies).  Dr J’s exposition on the arrogance of both subjects is excellent.

This is a refreshing headline. Family time is important for good mental health, especially family dinners, which would be totally cramped by sports.

By SUE SHELLENBARGER

Mark Breier sees big benefits for his three sons in playing sports. But when his teenage son Travis, dreaming of a pro career, wanted to join an elite traveling basketball team in junior-high school, Mr. Breier said no. Read more…