Family Research Council

The Social Conservative Review: May 9, 2013

by Krystle Gabele

May 9, 2013

Click here to subscribe to the Social Conservative Review.

Dear Friend,

It’s human nature to wish every victory could be final and decisive. For example, when we defeated Nazi Germany, it was a complete win. Clean, neat, done.

The battle for our culture is not like that. We can win heartening pro-life victories at the state level even as legislatures legalize same-sex “marriage.” The pregnancy care center movement is growing, even as abortion providers get federal money.

Two steps forward, one step - and sometimes two - back. So why do we keep fighting? Because the lives of the unborn and those of their mothers have value. Because without strong families, we unleash chaos and brokenness. Because without religious liberty, all other liberties are in jeopardy.

“Vindicate the weak and fatherless,” commands the God of the Bible. “Do justice to the afflicted and destitute” (Psalm 82:3-4). This is not a recommendation. It is a demand from our Creator and Redeemer. Thank you for helping FRC obey it.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

P.S. Download (at no cost) Dr. Wayne Grudem’s valuable new booklet, “Why Christians Should Seek to Influence Government for Good.”

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• “Texas Senate passes bill to allow home-school students to participate in UIL sports,” Dallas Morning News
• “New Changes to Military Enlistment for Homeschool Graduates,” Home School Legal Defense Association
• “How Can I Prepare My Kids for Standardized Testing?,” Crosswalk

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• “A Nation at Risk” 30 Years Later: The State of American Education,” Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• “Yes, Experience Matters, but Great Teaching Matters Most,” Education Week
• “Choice in Schools or Choice in Education?,” The Acton Institute

College Debt

• “Poll: 41% of College Graduates Underemployed,” Breitbart.com
• “Duke Raises Student Fees to Pay for Sex Change Surgery,” The College Fix
• “How Student Debt Affects Women, Minorities,” U.S. News and World Report

Government Reform
Regulation

• “Privatize almost everything,” The Washington Times
• “What Has Small Government to do with Conservatism?,” Intercollegiate Review
• “Is Obama Really Reducing Regulatory Burdens?,” The FedSoc Blog

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• “Transparency Delayed, Transparency Denied,” The Washington Free Beacon
• “Driving toward bankruptcy,” The Washington Times
• “Entitlements: What Difference Does it Make?,” American Thinker

Health Care
Abstinence

• “The End of Meaningless Sex,” The Public Discourse
• “The Good Lessons I Learned From Abstinence Education,” The Atlantic

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• “Laying bare your finances to apply for health care,” Associated Press
• “Would Congress have the nerve to exempt itself from ObamaCare?,” The Galen Institute
• “The Medicaid-Expansion Distraction,” National Review Online
• “Streamlined Obamacare Application Leaves Program Open To Insurance Fraud,” Forbes
• “Unravel Obamacare and You Get a Train Wreck,” The Fiscal Times
• “What Health Insurance Doesn’t Do,” New York Times
• “The Depressing Future of American Health Care,” Reason.com

Homosexuality

• “Is Gay Marriage a Moral Issue or a Civil Liberties Issue?,” Charisma Magazine
• “Archbishop Cordileone states case against gay marriage,” USA Today
• “Letter to Catholics on the Approval of “Same-Sex Marriage” in RI,” The Diocese of Providence
• “ESPN’s Chris Broussard sparks uproar with Jason Collins remarks,” The Los Angeles Times
• “Broussard, Bigotry, and the NBA,” Denny Burk
• “Update: Columbus Diocese Remains Resolute, Lesbian Teacher Basks in Spotlight,” Catholic Vote

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• “Plan B and the Demise of Parental Rights,” Family Research Council
• “The President, Planned Parenthood, and “Quality Health Care”,” The Public Discourse
• “So you think Kermit Gosnell is a one-off?,” Denny Burk
• “WashPost Actually Covers LiveAction Sting Video Where Abortionist Admits He’d Let Baby Die on Table,” NewsBusters
• “The Right to a Dead Baby,” CatholicVote
• “Poll: 55% of Americans Don’t Know Planned Parenthood Does Abortions,” LifeNews.com
• “U.S. to Defend Age Limits on Morning-After Pill Sales,” New York Times
• “Whispers of Doom,” Touchstone Magazine
• “The Coercive Freedom of Choice,” First Things
• “Revisit the Born-Alive Act,” The Weekly Standard
• “The Gosnell Case and My Heart For Tiny Babies,” Christianity Today
• “Obama admin. surrenders in abortion pill mandate case,” Alliance Defending Freedom
• “Abortion—The Looming Crisis in the Black Community (Research),” The Minority Republican
• “President Obama and the Primitivism of Planned Parenthood,” Crisis Magazine

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• “Multiple Sclerosis Management Revolutionized With New Treatments: Cure Soon?,” iTech Post
• “Bioethics Hates the Light,” National Review Online
• “Judges, Journalists, and Activists Re-Inventing Science,” Turtle Bay and Beyond
• “Made to Order Embryo Commodities Market,” Center for Bioethics and Culture

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• “Total Brain Death: Valid Criterion of Death,” The Public Discourse
• “Poor NHS Care Drives Assisted Suicide Support,” National Review Online

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC’s Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• “2-year-old girl gets windpipe made from stem cells,” Associated Press
• “Adult Cells Transformed Into Early-Stage Nerve Cells, Bypassing the Pluripotent Stem Cell Stage,” Science Daily
• “April Legislation Promotes Life in Kansas,” National Catholic Register
• “Brownback: Divert bioscience money to stem cell center,” Kansas City Business Journal

Human Trafficking

• “Human trafficking is happening right here,” Rare
• “Technology to Fight Modern Slavery,” The Huffington Post
• “Pols push to end child sex trafficking,” Politico
• “The Slave Next Door,” The Washington Free Beacon
• “Communist Vietnam — Human Trafficker Extraordinaire,” American Thinker
• “Hearing: Local and Private Sector Initiatives to Combat International Human Trafficking,” House Committee on Foreign Affairs

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• “The Good Heart of the Adoption Movement,” Christianity Today
• “Remember the Infertile on Mother’s Day,” Crosswalk
• “Paul Ryan Regrets Voting for Gay Adoption Ban,” The Christian Post

Family Economics

• “Increasing Distortions and Feeding Leviathan: The Internet Sales Tax,” The American
• “America’s entrepreneurial culture may be dying,” AEIdeas.org
• “Millennials: A Generation With Unrealistic Expectations,” The Pacific Standard
• “Meeting Needs In Unexpected Places,” Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics
• “The Idled Young Americans,” New York Times

Family Structure

• “Relationship Contracts Growing In Popularity With Married And Unmarried Couples,” CBS New York
• “Emotional Manipulators,” No Greater Joy
• “The Polygamy Slippery Slope,” The Christian Post
• “Our Open Marriage,” The Hipster Conservative
• “Flesh of My Flesh: Responding to Anthony Esolen on the Boy Scouts,” Mere Orthodoxy
• “Tony Campolo’s ‘Compromise’ on Marriage,” Touchstone Magazine
• “What Forgiveness Isn’t,” Recovering Grace
• “Marriage: You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Answers,” Alliance Defending Freedom
• “The Sex Lives of Unmarried Evangelicals,” Christianity Today
• “Do You Want to Be a Burden to Your Children?,” Moore to the Point
• “Something Rotten in the Boy Scouts,” Crisis Magazine
• “Baby, You’re the Greatest,” National Review Online

Media
Pornography

• “8 Reasons You Don’t Want to Look at Pornography,” Catholic Vote
• “Parents’ group fights FCC bid to loosen indecency rules,” PornHarms

Internet

• “Me, myself, and my selfie,” WORLD Magazine
• “When We Hate What We Love,” Challies.com
• “Facebook Rhetoric,” First Things

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• “Everywhere but in foxholes,” The Washington Times
• “Pentagon Defends Unconstitutional Policy Against Soldiers Sharing Faith,” Family Research Council
• “A Response to “Why Tolerate Religion?”,” Family Research Council
• “Religious Freedom Around the World,” The Acton Institute
• “Prayer - It’s Needed, It’s Right And It’s Legal!,” Alliance Defending Freedom
• “Muslims, Monasteries, Jews, Sikhs, and Scholars Urge Supreme Court to Hear Landmark Religious Liberty Appeal,” The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
• “The New Era of Religious Liberty,” The Catholic Thing
• “Michigan City Apologizes to Christian Missionaries Arrested in 2010 at Arab Festival,” The Christian Post

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton’s feature on Watchmen Pastors called “The Lost Episodes,” featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• “The rest of the story,” WORLD Magazine
• “How do Markets Handle Sin and Human Nature?,” Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics
• “Proud vs. Broken People,” FeedingOnChrist
• “Viewpoint: In the War Over Christianity, Orthodoxy Is Winning,” Time
• “When Christians become a ‘hated minority’,” CNN
• “High School Track Team Disqualified for Pointing to God,” Ricochet

Secularism

• “Ties that bind,” The Economist
• “Why I Don’t Believe in Atheism,” Crosswalk

International
Israel

• “An Irrelevant Middle East,” National Review Online
• “Change: The Establishment Cools Toward Obama’s Middle East Policy,” Via Meadia
• “The FAQs: Red Lines, Israeli Airstrikes, and Civil War in Syria,” The Gospel Coalition

International Economy and Family

• “Spain Is Beyond Doomed: The 2 Scariest Unemployment Charts Ever,” The Atlantic
• “Broken transmission,” The Economist
• “Pocketing the keys to prosperity,” The Washington Times
• “The British Evasion,” City Journal

Religious Persecution

• “Iran moves American Christian into solitary confinement over prayer protest,” Fox News
• “Christian Growth and Persecution in China,” Juicy Ecumenism

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• “Proposition 8 and Discrimination: Marriage on Trial at the Supreme Court,” The Public Discourse
• “The Supreme Court vs. Freedom of Information,” Reason.com
• “Justice Scalia Echoes Lord Acton’s Warning on Corrupting Power,” The Acton Institute

Other News of Note

• “American Carriers Victim of Government Cronyism,” Townhall.com
• “Who’s to blame for the GOP’s Golden failure?,” Campaigns and Elections
• “Capitalism and Conservatism,” First Things
• “Life, Like Baseball, Demands Order,” Crisis Magazine

Book reviews

• ““The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O’Connor” reviewed by Ralph C. Wood,” Touchstone Magazine
• “Adoption Horror Stories Aren’t the Whole Story,” Christianity Today
• “Blood Work,” Challies.com
• “Upon Further Review: A CRB Discussion of Theodore Roosevelt,” Claremont Review of Books
• “Humble Orthodoxy,” The Gospel Coalition
• “Free Speech on Campus and the Spirit of Louis Brandeis,” The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law

The Social Conservative Review: April 25, 2013

by Krystle Gabele

April 25, 2013

Click here to subscribe to the Social Conservative Review.

Dear Friends:

As the father of two Boy Scouts, it’s been hard to see the BSA teeter on the edge of moral irrelevance. The proposed “compromise resolution” regarding “open and avowed” homosexuality in Scouting is not the reaching of a middle ground. It is little more than a fall off of a cliff. As FRC President Tony Perkins put it:

The resolution requires all Scouting families and faith-based organizations that object to homosexuality on religious grounds to affirm its moral validity. It introduces open and overt sexuality into an organization that is designed to foster character and leadership, thereby clouding Scouting’s most fundamental purposes. And the proposal says, in essence, that homosexuality is morally acceptable until a boy turns 18 - then, when he comes of age, he’s removed from the Scouts. The policy is incoherent and, sadly, an affront to the notion that Scouts are brave, reverent, and “morally straight.”

It’s in the spirit of the Scout Oath and Law that FRC will be hosting a simulcast titled, “Stand with Scouts Sunday,” at 7:00 PM on May 5^th. The program will feature Eagle Scouts and religious and political leaders from across the country. Join us to learn what steps you can take to keep Scouting as its founders envisioned it - as a resource for boys and young men to develop in character, confidence, and leadership, without the intrusion of sexual controversy. Click here to register.

Theodore Roosevelt is the only American in history designated as Chief Scout Citizen. His words about the Scouts hold true today:

The Boy Scout movement is distinctly an asset to our country … It is essential that its leaders be men of strong, wholesome character; of unmistakable devotion to our country, its customs and ideals.

The Rough Rider had it right. Do we still, in our time?

On my honor,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• “Why the Romeikes’ Fight Is Our Fight,” The Patriot Post
• “HSLDA Files Amicus Brief in Homeschool Scholarship Case,” Home School Legal Defense Association
• “Arguments Heard Today in German Homeschoolers Deportation Case,” The Christian Post

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• “Time to Abandon the Egg Crate Approach to Education,” EducationNext
• “An object lesson in charter school creation,” Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• “Cutting to the Core,” City Journal
• “Another Question for Education Reformers,” Commentary Magazine

College Debt

• “The higher education bubble is starting to deflate,” AEIdeas.org
• “Student Loan Stats Paint a Gloomy Picture for College Grads,” The American Interest
• “Are Student Loans Destroying the Economy?,” The Atlantic

Government Reform
Regulation

• “House opposes international regulation for the Web but favors US censorship,” RT.com
• “Bloomberg Contributor Urges Government Regulation, Ownership of Broadband,” NewsBusters
• “Stuck With Big Government?,” RealClearBooks

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• “Why Expanding Social Security Is a Bad Idea,” The American
• “An Unexpected Benefit to the Earmarks Ban,” Ricochet

Health Care
Abstinence

• “‘Tinder Got Me Laid’ - College Hook-Up Culture Goes Virtual, Viral,” The College Fix
• “Give Them Condoms!,” Turtle Bay and Beyond

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• “Eden Foods doubles down in birth control flap,” Salon.com
• “Democratic Senator: Obamacare a “Train Wreck Coming”,” The Heritage Foundation
• “Florida Speaker Offers Alternative to Medicaid Expansion,” The Galen Institute
• “Putting Lipstick on the Obamacare Pig,” National Review Online

Homosexuality

• “Homosexual Activist Admits True Purpose of Battle is to Destroy Marriage,” Illinois Family Institute
• “The Inviolable Law of Nature and Nature’s God in Marriage: A Word of Warning to Republicans,” The Center for Vision and Values
• “Judaism’s Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism Rejected Homosexuality,” Catholic Education Resource Center
• “Redefine Marriage, Make Government Bigger,” The Heritage Foundation
• “Same-Sex Marriage Fever: Prohibition Parallels,” The Public Discourse
• “Should Gay Conversion Therapy Be Legal?,” The FedSoc Blog
• “Gay Rites,” Claremont Review of Books

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• “More regulations for abortion clinics,” The Deming Headlight
• “Preventing Future Gosnells,” Townhall.com
• “Quiet, please. Complacency at work!,” MercatorNet
• “How Mollie Hemingway Introduced the Nation to Kermit Gosnell,” The Gospel Coalition
• “North Dakota governor signs ‘fetal pain’ measure,” The Bismarck Tribune
• “Florida House gets moving on anti-abortion bills,” The Orlando Sentinel
• “Will the Republicans Abandon Pro-Lifers?,” The Catholic Thing
• “Cynthia’s choice,” WORLD Magazine
• “Pro-life laws did not cause miscarriage death in Ireland,” WORLD Magazine
• “The Legal Battle to End Taxpayer Support for Planned Parenthood Abortions,” Alliance Defending Freedom
• “‘Safe, Legal and Rare;’ Abortion is Detached from Reality,” The Christian Post
• “U.S. Supreme Court Petitioned to Reverse Colorado Ban on Graphic Images of Abortion,” Thomas More Society

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• “Human evolution: science’s golden child or spoilt brat?,” MercatorNet
• “High Court to Examine Whether Genes Can Be Patented,” The FedSoc Blog
• “The Sanctity of Life, Even in a Test Tube,” The Wall Street Journal
• “The Human Egg Rush,” First Things

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• “Poll Shows Elderly and Disabled Canadians Oppose Euthanasia,” LifeNews.com
• “Push for Paralyzed Assisted Suicide in UK,” National Review Online
• “The Dangers of an Aging World,” C-FAM

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC’s Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• “Catholic Church Brings Scientists Working on Stem Cells to Vatican,” The Wall Street Journal
• “Governor signs into law stem cell center bill,” KHI News Service

Human Trafficking

• “Will the State Department sanction China and Russia for human trafficking?,” Foreign Policy
• “Okla. Gov. signs 2 human trafficking victim bills,” Associated Press
• “European Union Report Details Growth Of Human Trafficking,” NPR
• “5 Things To Know About the Obama Administration and Human Trafficking,” The Acton Institute

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• “Given up for adoption, but not for lost,” Los Angeles Times
• “Emotions Run High As Supreme Court Hears Adoption Case,” NPR
• “Responses to ‘Hatchet Job’ Investigation of Evangelical Adoption Movement,” Christianity Today

Family Economics

• “The Progressive Income Tax Turns 100,” The Center for Vision and Values
• “Material Problems Have Moral Solutions,” Values and Capitalism
• “More Millennials get house before getting hitched,” USA Today
• “When Saving Is a Problem Not a Virtue,” The American
• “The Triumph of Capitalism,” First Things
• “The American Dream Lives On (But Can the Young Afford It?),” Via Meadia
• “Fighting Poverty with Toy Blocks and Economic Growth,” The Acton Institute
• “Economics: Part of God’s Created Order,” Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics
• “The Grave Evil of Unemployment,” Library of Economics and Liberty

Family Structure

• “Does Reason Still Matter?,” First Things
• “Slate: ‘Marriage Equality’ Includes Polygamy,” Breitbart.com
• “To Whom Do Children Belong?,” The Public Discourse
• “Elsa Walsh’s Journey….,” Commentary Magazine
• “Out-of-Wedlock Births Need to Be ‘Stigmatized,’ Welfare Expert Says,” The Christian Post
• “Men Like Christ, Head of the Church,” The Catholic Thing

Media
Pornography

• “Is “Just a Little” Pornography OK?,” PornHarms.com
• “India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises,” New York Times
• “Don’t Make George Soros Oppose Prostitution,” Christianity Today

Internet

• “Persecution and the Art Tweeting: 7 Tips,” Intercollegiate Review
• “Social Media a Source of Rising Incivility, Says Survey,” The Christian Post

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• “Religion: A Public or a Private Right?,” The Public Discourse
• “Hagel Grilled on Army Email Equating Christians to Racists and Terrorists,” Breitbart.com
• “Cardinal Ravasi’s Speech to TED Conference,” Zenit
• “Academic Freedom, Civility, and the Name of Jesus,” The Center for Vision and Values
• “Schragger & Schwartzman on Freedom of the Church,” Legal Theory
• “Park Service Reverses Decision and Allows Bible Distribution,” Liberty Counsel
• “Defending Christian Taxpayers and the Religious Freedom of Families,” Alliance Defending Freedom

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton’s feature on Watchmen Pastors called “The Lost Episodes,” featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• “Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled,” RedState
• “Why Does God Care About Charity?,” Values and Capitalism
• “The Trouble with Cussing Christians,” Christianity Today
• “Needed: Mere Christians,” Religion Today
• “New Research: Spiritual Maturity Tied to Strong Doctrinal Beliefs,” Ed Stetzer

Secularism

• “Can A Good Journalist Not Be Religious?,” The American Conservative
• “Christian Conservatives & “Secularism”,” National Catholic Reporter
• “The Passive Aggressive Tyranny Trick,” The Catholic Thing

International
Israel

• “Israel - The Happy Little Country,” CarolineGlick.com
• “Israeli General Convinced Assad Used Chemical Weapons,” Via Meadia
• “Rewarding Terror Against Israel While Denouncing It Elsewhere,” Commentary Magazine

International Economy and Family

• “The global economy is losing steam,” CNN
• “Will the Global Economy Be a Canary in Ford’s Coal Mine?,” The Motley Fool

Religious Persecution

• “Egypt Persecutes Christians and Americans Pay the Bill,” Townhall.com
• “Christian Widow in Somalia Killed Four Months After Husband Slain,” Religion Today
• “Pope Francis Informed of Kidnapping of Syrian Bishops,” Zenit
• “The Devil They Know: Regime Change and Christian Persecution,” The Christian Post

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• “Supreme Court Protects Corporations From Human-Rights Suits Under Alien Tort Statute,” The FedSoc Blog
• “Supreme Court Ejects Foreign Suits from U.S. Courts,” Liberty Counsel

Other News of Note

• “Ambition Explains America: From Benjamin Franklin to Ronald Reagan,” The Public Discourse
• “What is Social Justice?,” Library of Law and Liberty
• “State Funerals and Christendom,” The American Spectator
• “A Nation of Sludge,” Crisis Magazine

Book reviews

• “In Search of the City on a Hill,” The Gospel Coalition
• “A Discussion of “Blood of Tyrants: George Washington & the Forging of the Presidency”,” The FedSoc Blog
• “Taking Action Through Radical Kindness,” Christianity Today
• “Humor, Hope, and Christian Humanism: A Review of The Common Mind,” Intercollegiate Review

The Social Conservative Review: April 11, 2013

by Krystle Gabele

April 11, 2013

Click here to subscribe to The Social Conservative Review.

Dear Friends:

In recent days, major media outlets have been highlighting politicians who, while once supportive of marriage as it always has been known, now support same-sex “marriage.” They are doing so in much the same enthusiastic way as the sports pages keep a tally of basketball teams during “March Madness.”

Well, Christian teaching has never been a popularity contest. Rather, it has been about affirming, applying, and standing upon what the Bible teaches. That includes marriage, designed by God as the union of one man and one woman, for life, a teaching confirmed by Jesus Himself (Mark 10:7-8).

My distinguished colleague Ken Blackwell, who has served in many leading public roles including U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, a few days ago wrote a counterintuitive and very persuasive op-ed titled, “The illiberalism of assailing traditional marriage.” Take a few minutes to read Ken’s piece and learn why redefining marriage will hurt families and children in profound ways.

Basketball is one thing, but let’s not bring “madness” to marriage. Instead, let’s do all we can to make sure that the intact, stable family - headed by a husband and a wife - becomes once again the treasured norm for all Americans.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council

P.S. Be sure to join FRC on April 24 to hear Bob Fu, one of the world’s leading opponents of religious persecution, speak about “Freedom and Christianity in China.” If you can’t be with us in D.C., be sure to register, at no cost, and watch online.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• “School to Homeschool Family: Obtain Approval or Accreditation or Else!,” Home School Legal Defense Association
• “Over 73,000 Signers Support German Homeschooling Parents in Danger of Deportation,” The Christian Post
• “A legal battle for freedom of homeschooling,” Technician Online
• “On The Effects of Homeschooling: A Bet,” Library of Economics and Liberty
• “Schooling Dangerously,” First Things
• “Homeschooled Kids, Now Grown, Blog Against the Past,” The Daily Beast

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• “Disparities Found in N.Y.C.’s System for Matching Students to Schools,” Education Week
• “Combating the ‘Culture of Can’t’,” Education Next
• “In the knowledge economy, it’s knowledge that matters,” Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• “Scaling turnaround: A district-improvement approach,” American Enterprise Institute
• ““Good Thing I’m Not a History Major”,” The Public Discourse
• “Let’s Set a National Standard for Our Students—a Really Low One,” The Atlantic
• “School Choice as Social Justice,” The Catholic Thing

College Debt

• “Digging Deeper Into Student Loan Debt,” The Huffington Post
• “College ‘screening’ to lower student debt,” New York Post
• “One Idahoan’s debt woes mirror challenges faced by many college graduates,” The Idaho Statesman

Government Reform
Regulation

• “Grow the Economy through Small Businesses,” The American
• “Former Obama Regulator on the Future of Government,” The Wall Street Journal
• “Texas: Big, Hot, Cheap and Right in the New York Times!,” The Acton Institute

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• “Obama Administration Drops $21k on Rebounding Machines,” United Liberty
• “Taxpayers paid $1.3B to cover bad business loans,” Dayton Daily News

Health Care
Abstinence

• “Hooking Up on Campus: The Job of Sex,” Religion Today
• “Should sex-ed lessons focus on more than abstinence?,” The Arizona Republic

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• “Obamacare and the Concession on Its Higher Costs,” Values and Capitalism
• “13 State Attorneys General Want Broader Exemptions for Obamacare Mandate,” Newsmax
• “Federal Grant Funding is Key to Medicaid Reform in Texas,” Ethics and Public Policy Center
• “21^st Century Health Care Options for the States,” The Galen Institute
• “Some Small Businesses Opt for the Health-Care Penalty,” The Wall Street Journal
• “Blue States Spend More on Health Care While Reds Save,” Via Meadia
• “A Wise and Workable Strategy for Replacing Obamacare,” National Review Online

Homosexuality

• “Gay Rites,” Claremont Review of Books
• “The Bible and homosexuality,” WORLD Magazine
• “Army Email Labels Christian Ministries as “Domestic Hate Groups”,” Fox News
• “Wendell Berry’s Marriage Reversal,” First Things
• “Thoughts on Same-Sex Marriage, Part III: The Issue Is Civil, Not Religious,” The Center for Vision and Values
• “PolitiFact’s Pants on Fire,” Turtle Bay and Beyond
• “What You Should Know About ‘LGBTQ’,” The Gospel Coalition

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• “Johns Hopkins’s and Planned Parenthood’s troubling extremism,” The Washington Post
• “Abortion: The Personal is Political,” Juicy Ecumenism
• “Planned Parenthood’s defense of infanticide,” American Enterprise Institute
• “Party Like It’s 1984,” The Wall Street Journal
• “Is the Tide on Abortion Changing?,” Religion Today
• “Advocates Combat Abortion’s “Stigma” With Stealth Training,” C-FAM
• “New Orders, Old Fallacies,” The Catholic Thing
• “Does Plan B Cause Abortion?,” Christianity Today
• “Generation That Aborted Will Be Euthanized,” Turtle Bay and Beyond
• “Gosnell employee: baby ‘jumped’ when I snipped its neck during an ‘abortion’,” LifeSiteNews.com
• “Alabama Tightens Abortion Restrictions,” The Federalist Society
• “North Dakota Citizens to Vote on Defining Personhood in State Constitution,” Liberty Counsel

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• ““In vitro eugenics” is coming, predicts Australian bioethicist,” BioEdge
• “Bioethics Panel Urges Caution in Testing MCMs on Children,” Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• “Suicide Shouldn’t Be Easy to Accomplish,” National Review Online
• “Shocking 4,620% Increase in Belgium Euthanasia Cases Since Legalization,” LifeNews.com
• “The End Is Clear,” Touchstone Magazine

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC’s Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• “Adhesive force differences enable separation of stem cells to advance therapies,” Phys.org
• “Vatican gets behind adult stem cell research,” Religion News Service
• “Non-Embryonic Stem Cells: The Dawning of a New Era of Hope,” Speigel

Human Trafficking

• “Human Trafficking in India; My Family’s Personal Encounter,” The Christian Post
• “Polaris Project Launches Global Human Trafficking Hotline Network,” The Polaris Project
• “Google helps bring hotline to human-trafficking battle,” USA Today

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• “Open adoption fosters relationships that benefit child,” The Register-Guard
• “Fatigue, Unmet Expectations Tied to Post-Adoption Blues,” Psych Central

Family Economics

• “Poverty is Broken Relationships,” Values and Capitalism
• “Buying Off Discontent: The Economic Wreckage of Disability Benefits in America,” The Acton Institute
• “Is The Image of God An Engine of Economic Progress?,” Institute for Faith, Work & Economics
• “Who Lost the American Worker?,” National Review Online
• “The Dismal Future for Workers With Few Skills-Becker,” Becker-Posner Blog

Family Structure

• “If Knot Now, When? The Impact of Delayed Marriage Among Twenty-somethings,” The Public Discourse
• “Why Do Economists Urge College But Not Marriage?,” The Acton Institute
• “Sexuality more like religion than race,” USA Today
• “The M.R.S. and the Ph.D.,” New York Times
• “Thank Goodness Kids Do Belong to Their Parents,” The Atlantic
• “Believing in a Better Modesty Movement,” Her.meneutics
• “Cohabitation’s Transaction Costs,” First Things

Media
Pornography

• “Twitter’s Vine App: Innocent Social Sharing or Free Porn Market?,” PornHarms
• “Egypt moves to block access to pornography,” The Los Angeles Times
• “How porn is misshaping teenagers’ view of sex,” The Iona Institute

Internet

• “How to cope with cyber-bullying,” MercatorNet
• “Teen Commits Suicide After Photo of Alleged Rape Goes Viral,” Mashable

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• “Marriage, Religious Liberty, and the Ban Myth,” The Public Discourse
• “Supreme Court Asked to Weigh in on Religious Group’s Right to Live Communally,” The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
• “HHS contraceptive mandate threatens more than religious freedom,” MercatorNet
• “The Ongoing Fight for Schoolchildren’s Religious Freedom,” Alliance Defending Freedom
• “Thomas More Society Renews Effort to Intervene to Appeal Federal Ruling Striking Down Missouri Law for Contraceptive-Free Insurance Coverage,” Thomas More Society

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton’s feature on Watchmen Pastors called “The Lost Episodes,” featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• “Demographics & American Religion,” The American Conservative
• “Albert Mohler on Leadership, Stewardship, and the Sovereignty of God,” The Acton Institute
• “Biggest Reason for Declining Church Attendance: Children’s Sports?,” Religion Today
• “When a Loved One Takes His Life,” Patheos.com
• “The Bible vs. the Heart,” National Review Online
• “The Bible According to the History Channel,” The Gospel Coalition

Secularism

• “The Secularist’s New Clothes,” Values and Capitalism
• “British Christians fed up with ‘coarse, sneering’ mockery of Christianity,” LifeSiteNews.com
• “Faith and Depression,” First Things
• “What the New Atheists Ignore,” The American Spectator

International
Israel

• “With Gas, Israel Should Wean Itself off Foreign Aid,” Commentary Magazine
• “Persistent anti-Judaism,” The Jerusalem Post

International Economy and Family

• “Irrepressible Moscow,” City Journal
• “The West’s two big mistakes in the Arab world,” MercatorNet

Religious Persecution

• “Responding to Jonathan Merritt on Christian Persecution,” Juicy Ecumenism
• “Globe Trot: Attacks continue on Coptic Christians in Cairo,” WORLD Magazine
• “The U.S. and the Murders at the Cathedral,” Commentary Magazine

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• “Finding hope beyond the media and the Supreme Court,” WORLD Magazine
• “Experts Say Contraception Mandate Likely to Head to Supreme Court,” FedSocBlog
• “Originalism and the Colorblind Constitution,” The Library of Law and Liberty

Other News of Note

• “How Do We Measure ‘Progressives?’,” The Christian Post
• “King of Fearmongers,” The Weekly Standard
• “How Not to Defend the Liberal Arts,” The American Conservative
• “Peacemaking: A Gospel Necessity,” The Gospel Coalition

Book reviews

• “Review: The Man Born To Be King,” The Examined Life
• “A Bully’s Pulpit,” Claremont Review of Books
• “New Abraham Kuyper Volume: ‘Rooted and Grounded’,” The Acton Institute
• “An American Decline?,” The Public Discourse

The Social Conservative Review: March 28, 2013

by Krystle Gabele

March 28, 2013

Click here to subscribe to the Social Conservative Review.

Dear Friends,

Christianity teaches that all of us are born with a natural bent to do wrong and defy the God Who made us. “Indeed, I was guilty when I was born,” writes the Psalmist; “I was sinful when my mother conceived me” (51:5). It is the curse of the fall that renders us incapable of redeeming ourselves and makes us wholly reliant on salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Anglican theologian J.I. Packer explains it this way:

The phrase total depravity … signifies a corruption of our moral and spiritual nature that is total not in degree (for no one is as bad as he or she might be) but in extent. It declares that no part of us is untouched by sin … We cannot earn God’s favor, no matter what we do; unless grace saves us, we are lost.

Sounds pretty hopeless, except for a truth that can transform us: Through faith in Christ, God offers us new life and eternal hope. This Easter, may that hope be renewed as you consider a great, glorious fact: He is risen indeed!

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council

P.S. This week’s historic Supreme Court hearings on same-sex “marriage” have been covered carefully by FRC’s team of top legal and policy experts, some of whom were in the Court during oral arguments. Get their first-hand takes on what happened by going to FRC’s Website, www.frc.org.

P.P.S. Download, at no cost, FRC’s new brochure on the battle for the Boy Scouts, and learn both what the stakes are and how you can help.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• “Homeschooling and the Attack on Religious Freedom,” Family Research Council
• “Homeschoolers Help Stop Raytown Daytime Curfew,” Home School Legal Defense Association
• “Americans Warned: Home Schoolers Stripped of Rights,” CBN News

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• “Accelerated Learning Would Add Trillions of Dollars in Wealth,” The American
• “After Persepolis: Graphic Novels Challenged in the Classroom,” Education Week
• “Accountability Dilemmas,” EducationNext
• “Why Changing The GED To Incorporate Common Core Worries Adult Educators,” NPR

College Debt

• “Imagine No College Debt (It Isn’t Hard to Do),” The Atlantic
• “No more student loan debt at College of the Ozarks,” The Deseret News
• “Real World Impacts of Growing Student Loan Debt,” Fox Business
• “How Do Schools Stack Up?,” The Wall Street Journal
• “Student Loan Write-Offs Hit $3 Billion in First Two Months of 2013,” The College Fix

Government Reform
Regulation

• “Has government regulation slowed the recovery?,” Tampa Bay Times
• “Government by regulation,” The Washington Times

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• “Ridiculous government waste,” The Hill
• “Fiscal hawks say government waste, unspent funds could offset sequester,” Fox News
• “Kansas legislation would create redundant agency to cut government waste,” KansasWatchdog.org

Health Care
Abstinence

• “Sex education ‘should promote value of abstinence’,” The Telegraph
• “Abstinence added to sex-ed legislation by State Senators; House needs to reconsider the bill,” The Denver Channel
• “Hooking kids on sex: Start “saturation process” in kindergarten,” The Washington Times

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• “‘Not One Dime’: Health Care Law Projected to Add $6.2 Trillion to U.S. Deficit,” The American
• “Tennessee Gov. undecided on Medicaid expansion,” The Galen Institute
• “Why Health Care Needs Attention from Republicans,” The Houston Chronicle
• “Health Care and Republican Governors,” National Review Online
• “Happy Birthday, Obamacare!,” The Library of Law and Liberty

Homosexuality
With the Supreme Court deciding on same-sex “marriage,” read FRC’s Peter Sprigg’s blog posts on Defining Marriage.

• “Employment Non-Discrimination Act threatens free markets,” CNN
• “Don’t Do It, for the Kids,” U.S. News and World Report
• “Morning Bell: The Marriage Debate Through a Child’s Eyes,” The Heritage Foundation
• “‘Gay Marriage’ and Religious Freedom Are Not Compatible,” RedState
• “Same-Sex Marriage: We’re Playing Chess, Not Checkers,” The Public Discourse
• “Getting The Marriage Conversation Right,” Catholic Stand
• “Religious Liberty and the Same-Sex Marriage Cases: the Arguments,” The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
• “Young Opponents of Same-Sex Marriage Undaunted,” New York Times

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• “Mind-Boggling Abortion Statistics from China,” Family Research Council
• “Washington to Force Abortion Insurance?,” National Review Online
• “Abortion in France Gives Ireland the Benefit of Hindsight,” Turtle Bay and Beyond
• “Abortion Advocates Handcuffed By Previous Agreement,” C-FAM
• “MD Board of Physicians Refuses to Accept Complaints from 5,000 Citizens,” Students for Life of America
• “New bill could drastically reduce number of abortion facilities in Texas,” Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
• “North Dakota passes slew of pro-life bills, including heartbeat bill, ban on abortions for Down’s,” LifeSiteNews.com
• “China Admits to the Greatest Slaughter in Human History,” The Gospel Coalition
• “Kansas Becomes Third State This Year to Pass Sweeping Pro-Life Laws,” Liberty Counsel

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• “Health risks to egg donors ignored in ‘new eugenics’ consumerism,” The Washington Post
• “Bill Gates offering up to $1 million for ‘next-generation’ condom,” Fox News

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• “NICE’s end of life decision making scheme: impact on population health,” BMJ
• “Liberal Euthanasia Activists Redfining Sedation Into Killing,” LifeNews.com
• “Euthanasia should be option for humans, too,” The Daily Athenaeum

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC’s Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• “Despite No Cures, Scientists Still Hype Embryonic Stem Cells,” LifeNews.com
• “Stem cells use signal orientation to guide division, study shows,” Phys.org

Human Trafficking

• “New Jersey’s Human Trafficking Act Establishes Comprehensive Measures to Support Survivors and Stop Traffickers,” The Polaris Project
• “Why the game’s up for Sweden’s sex trade,” The Independent

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• “How Can a Lemonade Stand Change Someone’s Life?,” Bethany Christian Services
• “Adoption an elusive dream,” Reading Eagle

Family Economics

• “What Tocqueville Knew,” The Wall Street Journal
• “The Secret to Success for Social Entrepreneurs: Innovative Obedience?,” Values and Capitalism
• “What Economics Can’t Explain,” The Acton Institute
• “What Principles Are Important for Human Flourishing?,” Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics
• “The Trader Joe’s Lesson: How to Pay a Living Wage and Still Make Money in Retail,” The Atlantic
• “The Broken Trust of Money,” New York Sun
• “Why do economists recommend college for its benefits but not marriage?,” The Iona Institute

Family Structure

• “What I Stand For,” Townhall.com
• “New Report: 48 Percent of First Children Born to Unwed Mothers,” CNSNews.com
• “After Steubenville: 25 Things Our Sons need to know about Manhood,” A Holy Experience
• “Holy Matrimony: The Unexpected Connection Between Religion & Sexual Fulfillment,” Salvo Magazine
• “The Case for Getting Married Young,” The Atlantic
• “We Don’t Need to Redefine Marriage to Fix Policy Problems,” The Public Discourse
• “Give working families a rest,” The Briefing

Media
Pornography

• “Iceland, Pornography, and What Liberty Doesn’t Mean,” Evangelical Outpost
• “Kids are Victims in Our Culture of Pornography,” PornHarms.com

Internet

• “The Touch-Screen Generation,” The Atlantic
• “Facebook Turns Red as SCOTUS Marriage Equality Hearings Begin,” Mashable

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• “Professor Makes Students “Stomp on Jesus”,” Fox News
• “Behind the Campaign to Smear the Pope,” The Wall Street Journal
• “Our First Right: Religious Liberty,” The Public Discourse
• “Two Cases Illustrate The Discriminations Facing People of Faith Today,” Alliance Defending Freedom
• “Law Expanding Religious Liberty in Kentucky Gets Vetoed,” Christianity Today
• “Liberty Institute Submits Public Comment About Growing Religious Hostility Trend to U.S. Civil Rights Commission,” Liberty Institute

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton’s feature on Watchmen Pastors called “The Lost Episodes,” featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• “Did Mainline Christianity Win in the End?,” First Things
• “John F. Kerry’s State Department Gets Religion,” Touchstone Magazine
• “The Christian Fantasy,” Intercollegiate Review
• “History Channel’s ‘Bible’ Series Actually Teaching People—Especially Non-Christians,” Christianity Today
• “What Shames Us,” Challies.com
• “Why Christians Should Read Fiction,” Moore to the Point

International
Israel

• “Obama’s Middle East policy in tatters,” USA Today
• “Regarding Israel’s Aplogy to Turkey,” FrontPageMag.com

International Economy and Family

• “Measuring Freedom around the World,” The American
• “MF Global and the Cypriot Banking Crisis,” The Center for Vision and Values

Religious Persecution

• “Seeking Refuge: Where Do The Persecuted Go?,” Liberty Magazine
• “As crisis worsens, 4 million in Syria need humanitarian relief,” Baptist Press

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• “The Supreme Court v. Love and Marriage,” Family Research Council
• “Property and the Regulatory State at the Supreme Court,” The Public Discourse

Judicial Activism

• “Reforming the Law,” The American
• “New York Times Tells Supreme Court Liberals to Go Narrow on Gay Marriage,” American Thinker

Other News of Note

• “Diplomatic whirl,” The Economist
• “Libertarianism for Social Conservatives,” The American Conservative
• “True Happiness,” The Center for Vision and Values

Book reviews

• “The Problem of Evil,” The Gospel Coalition
• “The Wealth of Nations,” Claremont Review of Books
• “Best Commentaries on John,” Challies.com
• “On ‘Radical’ Christianity: My Latest for Christianity Today,” Mere Orthodoxy

The Social Conservative Review: March 14, 2013

by Krystle Gabele

March 14, 2013

Click here to subscribe to the Social Conservative Review.

The Social Conservative Review: February 28, 2013

by Krystle Gabele

February 28, 2013

Click here to subscribe to the Social Conservative Review.

Dear Friends,

Orthodox Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein has written a startling column on Patheos.com called, “Are Christians the New Jews?” Consider these words:

Even where Jews were tolerated, they were treated as the refuse of mankind … Today, Christians—especially those who take their faith most seriously—report that they feel like a scorned stepchild within general culture. They are mocked and derided, and treated as intellectual pygmies who have nothing to offer the better, more enlightened people around them.

The Rabbi’s perceptive comments reflect the growing sense among many American Christians that the collaboration of social and governmental forces working to diminish religious liberty is becoming stronger and more purposeful. We are not facing the physical persecution so many believers experience around the world, but rather its precursors: cultural isolation, political marginalization, and a general stereotyping that would be unacceptable were it directed toward virtually any other self-identified community.

Where does this leave us? Do we retreat into the quiet precincts of home and church, reducing our faith to an innocuous pietism, hoping that the forces that disdain us will leave us alone if only we keep to ourselves? Or do we face the reality that aggressive evil has an all-consuming appetite, and continue to labor “with grace and truth,” both, for our God-given rights and hard won liberties, not only for ourselves but for all of our fellow citizens?

Readers of The Social Conservative Review know what my answer to that question is, as it reflects their own. Cowardice and complacency are not part of the Gospel. Thanks for standing, bravely and for right.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

P.S. Be sure to sign FRC’s petition to the Boy Scouts of America in which we urge the Scouts to “show character and courage in the face of adversity.”

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• “German Homeschool Case May Impact U.S. Homeschool Freedom,” Home School Legal Defense Association
• “Protecting Homeschooling = Fighting for Liberty & Battling Indoctrination,” Smart Girl Politics Action
• “Conn. Bill to Require Homeschoolers to Undergo Behavioral Health Assessments,” The Christian Post

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• “Indiana Senate Passes Anti-Common Core Bill,” The Truth in American Education
• “A brief defense of school vouchers,” AEIdeas.org
• “School Choice in the Time of Calvin Coolidge,” The Foundry
• “A head start on another federal failure,” The Tribune-Review
• “Putting Charter School Conspiracy Theories to Rest,” EducationNext
• “Busting Bureaucracy and the Beginner’s Mind,” Education Week
• “The Arcane Rules That Keep Low-Income Kids Out of College,” The Atlantic

College Debt

• “The Ph.D Bust: America’s Awful Market for Young Scientists—in 7 Charts,” The Atlantic
• “More wiggle room for student-loan debt?,” Market Watch
• “The End of the University as We Know It,” The American Interest
• “College Students In Danger of Credit Debt,” The News Record

Government Reform
Regulation

• “Why All Your Impressions of Detroit Are Wrong,” This is Our City
• “California: A High-Revenue, Low-Services State,” Bloomberg
• “Salt Lake County Legalizes Kids’ Lemonade Stands and Eliminates Dozens of Silly Licensing Restrictions,” Institute for Justice
• “Is America the Federal Government?,” The Acton Institute
• “The California tax that terrifies tech,” CNN

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• “Insolvency, U.S.A.,” The American Spectator
• “The Spendaholics’ Offensive,” The Center for Vision and Values
• “A Business Perspective on the Federal Debt,” The American

Health Care
Abstinence

• “College Hosts Sex, Masturbation Tutorial - Inside A Church,” The College Fix
• “God Didn’t Make Our Bodies Only for Sex,” her.meneutics
• “Rural Teens at High Risk for Pregnancy,” Religion Today

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• “Fewer Americans Getting Health Insurance From Employer,” Gallup
• “5 ways to improve Obamacare,” AEIdeas.org
• “A Mandate Update,” The Catholic Thing
• “Why We Can’t Just “Lighten Up” Over the HHS Mandate,” The Public Discourse
• “Study: Young adults will pay more for insurance under health reform,” Insurance & Financial Advisor
• “Yale Considers Covering Sex Change Surgery,” The College Fix
• “Obamacare’s Grave Threat to Labor Unions,” The Washington Examiner

Homosexuality

• “The Southern Poverty Law Center and Violent Bullying,” The Christian Post
• ““The Time To Act Is Now” On LGBT Job Bias Order, Liberal Groups Tell Obama,” BuzzFeed.com
• “Marriage Equality Is a Conservative Cause,” The American Conservative
• “Hundreds of thousands march in Puerto Rico against gay rights,” RT.com
• “G. K. Chesterton: It’s Not Gay, and It’s Not Marriage,” Crisis Magazine
• “Morning Bell: Obama Administration vs. the Law on Same-Sex Marriage,” The Heritage Foundation

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• “Putting Fat on the Bones: Good News From the States,” Religion Today
• “Two More Iowa Planned Parenthood Locations to CLOSE!,” Caffeinated Thoughts
• “The Truth (About Abortion) Will Set You Free,” DesiringGod
• “Aggressive Incrementalism: A Winning Strategy for Pro-Lifers,” First Things
• “Abortion: Fear of Life as a Pretense of Wisdom,” Intercollegiate Review
• “Use of Morning-After Pill Is Rising, Report Says,” New York Times
• “Direct Killing as Intentional Killing,” The Public Discourse
• “Aggressive Incrementalism: A Winning Strategy for Pro-Lifers,” First Things
• “Abortion On Demand Violates European Human Rights Convention, Expert Says,” Turtle Bay and Beyond

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• “Who Am I? The Building of Bionic Man,” The Public Discourse
• “An awful loss, a beautiful life, a daunting task,” The Washington Examiner

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• “Death Panel Advocacy on This Week,” National Review Online
• “Belgium debates euthanasia for minors,” Business Standard
• “Euthanasia’s Euphemisms,” First Things

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC’s Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• “Flipping the ‘off’ switch on cell growth,” Phys.org
• “Parasitology: Rejuvenation through stem cells,” Nature
• “Scientists Explore Stem Cells to Treat Diabetic Blindness,” Voice of America
• “Senate panel passes stem cell legislation,” The Capital Journal

Human Trafficking

• “Wyoming Human Trafficking Ban To Become Law Next Week,” The Huffington Post
• “To Fight Sex Trafficking, Fight the Ideology That Creates It, Expert Says,” The Christian Post
• “Anti-human-trafficking efforts gain momentum,” USA Today

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• “A Heart for Adoption,” Tabletalk Magazine
• “Adopting? Prepare to Be Surprised.,” The Wall Street Journal
• “Adoption Law: New Rulings By The European Court Of Human Rights And The German Federal Constitutional Court,” Turtle Bay and Beyond

Family Economics

• “A Christian Approach to Economic Uncertainty,” The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics
• “Socrates and the minimum wage,” AEIdeas.org
• “The Image of God and the Dignity of Work,” The Acton Institute
• “From Aid To Enterprise: How To Intelligently Cure Poverty,” Forbes
• “Obscuring obvious overspending,” WORLD Magazine
• “California Becoming Less Family-Friendly,” New Geography

Family Structure

• “How to Stop the Bullies,” The Atlantic
• “Conservatives and Obama agree on the value of fathers,” The Star-Telegram
• “Where Have All the Babies Gone?,” The Daily Beast
• “Check Your Blind Spot: What Is Marriage?,” The Public Discourse
• “Black Marriage Matters,” The Acton Institute
• “Why the Afterlife Bores Us,” Moore to the Point
• ““Various Forms Of The Family” Unnecessary In UN Resolutions,” Turtle Bay and Beyond

Media
Pornography

• “Study: Watching Pornography Increases Support for Adultery and Same-Sex Marriage,” The Gospel Coalition
• “Tech Safety Tips: SNAPCHAT App Warning,” PornHarms.com

Internet

• “Obama’s Social-Media Gamble,” The Daily Beast
• “A Social Media Heart Check,” Challies.com

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• “Obama Admin. ‘Most Hostile’ to Religious Freedom in US History, Says Expert,” The Christian Post
• “NBC Declares War on Christians,” Human Events
• “Arkansas House Passes Bible Electives Measure,” Liberty News
• “Rick Warren advocates religious liberty for all,” Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
• “For-Profit Businesses Have Right to Religious Liberty Too, Lawmakers Tell Court in Hobby Lobby Case,” RedAlertPolitics
• “In Many States, Opponents Are Ramping Up The Legal Assault On Children,” Alliance Defending Freedom

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton’s feature on Watchmen Pastors called “The Lost Episodes,” featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• “The Differences (Or Lack Thereof) Between Young Protestant and Catholic Prodigals,” Christianity Today
• “Evangelicals in Political Society,” Values and Capitalism
• “WPost: Yes, we fear and loathe religious traditionalists,” GetReligion
• “The Prisons of Scientology,” The Catholic Thing
• “The God-Driven Family Vs. the Money-Driven Family,” Patheos

Secularism

• “Scholars seek to reclaim a dirty word: secularism,” Religion News Service
• “How pastors can inadvertently fuel the sacred/secular divide,” Jeff Haanen
• “Atheist Group Formed at Christian University Seeking Official Recognition,” Christian News Network

International
Israel

• “Israel: Iran closer than ever to nuclear bomb,” France 24
• “Arab Filmmakers to Celebrate Genocide,” Commentary Magazine
• “US government funding radical Israeli NGOs’ information operations,” Caroline Glick

International Economy and Family

• “The myth of disappearing Lebanese Christians,” MercatorNet
• “”Talibans of Austerity“,” Crisis Magazine
• “Euro-Zone Economy to Shrink in 2013,” The Wall Street Journal
• “Is America Becoming Europe? A Whiteboard,” The Acton Institute

Religious Persecution

• “What Will Kerry Do About Christian Persecution in China?,” The Huffington Post
• “How China Plans to Wipe Out House Churches,” Christianity Today
• “Religious Persecution and Safe Havens,” Commentary Magazine

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• “Why Clarence Thomas Uses Simple Words in His Opinions,” The Atlantic
• “How the Supreme Court Found the Wall,” First Things
• “Primer on Basic Constitutional Law for Some Police Superintendants,” Touchstone Magazine

Other News of Note

• “Hurray for Washington!,” The Independent Institute
• “Will President Obama Draft Julia?,” Maggie Gallagher
• “Dangerous Liaisons: Sex and the Military in the Age of Obama,” The American Thinker
• “The Fading Conservative Brand,” The American Conservative
• “‘The cavalry is not coming’,” WORLD Magazine

Book Reviews

• “Five Take-Aways From Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s Surprising New Book,” Values and Capitalism
• “The End Is Clear,” Touchstone Magazine
• “Lancelot And The Art Of Love,” The Examined Life
• “The Great Agnostic,” The Gospel Coalition
• “Nature’s God,” Claremont Review of Books

The Social Conservative Review: February 14, 2013

by Krystle Gabele

February 14, 2013

Click here to subscribe to the Social Conservative Review.

Dear Friends:

Sometimes it’s easy, as conservatives, to get discouraged. We’re not happy with the current Administration, the drift of our culture, or what’s happening in some of our churches. I fear we look like the man described by P.G. Wodehouse: “He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom.”

But there’s still a lot of good news, primarily in the states. Earlier this month, my FRC colleagues, Dr. David Prentice and Anna Higgins, J.D., testified before the North Dakota legislature about key pro-life measures under consideration. Subsequently, North Dakota lawmakers passed five of six pending pro-life bills. Or consider this from our friends at LifeNews and the Alliance Defending Freedom:

A newly completed U.S. Department of Health and Human Services investigation of New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital has resulted in additional policy and procedure changes to ensure that medical personnel are not forced to participate in abortions. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a Mt. Sinai nurse requested the HHS Office of Civil Rights investigation after the hospital forced her to assist in an abortion in violation of her religious beliefs in 2009.

These victories are not comprehensive and final, but they are real and, in their spheres, important. We must never lose sight of the fact that big victories derive from small ones - and right now, it’s at the state and local level where we have the greatest chance of making change.

On top of that, last time I checked, Jesus is still Lord, and “is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” That’s permanent good news we can always celebrate - and without ever finding a beetle in the cup.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council

P.S. Be sure to take a look at a new study by Dr. Henry Potrykus of how public policy causes change in the real world. It’s technical, but also - for policymakers and analysts, especially - important.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• “Bill Threatens Homeschool Freedom,” Home School Legal Defense Association
• “Online Classes Expand Homeschooling Options,” Reason.com

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• “National School Choice Week: Time for More Freedom, Less Red Tape,” Family Research Council
• “A former teacher and mom explains why American schools must allow competition,” Fox News
• “Cage-Busting Leadership,” Education Week
• “The Top 5 Lamest Core Courses,” Intercollegiate Review
• “Who’s The Boss?: Your Education And You,” The Enlightened Mind
• “Why Liberals Should Want Less Spending on Colleges,” Minding the Campus
• “Tweet Thine Enemy,” Education Next

College Debt

• “Student-loan Delinquency Rate Hits Danger Zone, Report Says,” Los Angeles Times
• “Student Loan Debt Crisis: How’d We Get Here and What Happens Next?,” Time
• “Best Value Colleges strive to cut tuition sticker shock,” USA Today
• “Student Loan Debt Is Creating Generation Of High-Risk Borrowers With Low Credit Scores,” The Consumerist
• “College will help with loans if grads don’t land a good job,” The Los Angeles Times

Government Reform
Regulation

• ““Pro-Business” or “Pro-Market”? And What’s the Difference?,” Economic Freedom
• “Washington D.C. at Work (or Not),” My Government Cost
• “USDA rules call for swing to healthier snacks in schools,” Reuters

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• “Head Start, Lies, and Government Programs,” My Government Cost
• “Not All Exchange Is Created Equal,” The Acton Institute
• “Hail Columbia!,” City Journal

Health Care
Abstinence

• “College Gone Wild: Classes on How to Achieve Orgasm, Yet Neglects Abstinence,” Family Research Council
• “Family Fact of the Week: Promoting the Value of Life and Good Teen Choices,” The Heritage Foundation
• “Abstinence Could Reduce Cervical Cancer,” The Christian Post

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• “No compromise in new contraception mandate,” USA Today
• “HHS Announcement Changes Little - Superficial Accounting Gimmicks Do Not Equate to Conscience Protections,” Townhall.com
• “Obama Loses Two HHS Mandate Cases In One Week,” Breitbart.com
• “Health Care Spending In America, In Two Graphs,” NPR
• “Bad Science and Failed Freedom Protections in the HHS Mandate,” The Public Discourse
• “Pathway to citizenship could increase Obamacare cost up to $300 billion over a decade,” The Daily Caller
• “CBO Is Increasingly Skeptical About ObamaCare,” RealClearPolitics

Homosexuality

• “Boy Scouts Should Stand on Principle, Not Bow to Pressure,” The Christian Post
• “Boy Scouts must stand firm for their values,” The Washington Times
• “Why Bar Homosexual Scouts, as Well as Scoutmasters?,” Family Research Council
• “Brown U to Pay for Student Sex Change Surgeries,” National Review Online
• “Homosexual Advocates Demand A Ban On Therapy,” Turtle Bay and Beyond
• “Pope Benedict on Homosexual “Marriage”,” SecretInfoClub.com
• “From a man of the French left, a passionate defence of marriage,” MercatorNet

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• “Reflections of a Former Fetus and Former Incubator,” The Public Discourse
• “Forty years later, Roe v. Wade still divides,” Kansas City Star
• “America’s Baby Bust,” The Wall Street Journal
• ““What to Expect When No One’s Expecting”: Book Reveals Left’s Dream of Child-Free America,” Breitbart.com
• “New York City Schools Putting Young Girls at Risk,” Students for Life
• “Sundance Film Festival “Hero” Leroy Carhart Kills Young Woman During 3rd Trimester Abortion In Germantown, MD,” Maryland Coalition for Life
• “Roe’s legacy of false freedom,” MercatorNet.com
• “Obama Development Council Full of Abortion Advocates,” Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute
• “The Guttmacher Institute Has A Bad Prescription For Mothers In Uganda,” Turtle Bay and Beyond
• “Ark. governor says he’ll OK abortion coverage ban,” Associated Press
• “NAACP Sensitive About its Abortion Ties,” Family Policy Network
• “Complaint Demands Investigation and Discipline Against Planned Parenthood for Botched Abortion and Death of Patient,” Thomas More Society

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• “Should Christians Pursue Prenatal Testing?,” Christianity Today
• “Yearning for Tyranny of Moral Enhancement,” National Review Online

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• “Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Changing Mores, Slippery Slope or Both?,” Decoded Science
• “Belgian Twin Euthanasia Story the Tip of a Chilling Iceberg,” LifeNews.com
• “How my mother died,” MercatorNet

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC’s Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• “Key protein revealed as trigger for stem cell development,” Phys.org
• “Ageing: Stem cells on a stress-busting diet,” Nature
• “Adult Stem Cell Clinic Moves to Mexico,” National Review Online

Human Trafficking

• “Underground Trade, Part One: Hiding in Plain Sight,” The Huffington Post
• “Okla. House panel supports human trafficking bill,” Associated Press
• “The Power of Survivor Voices on Human Trafficking Awareness Day,” The Polaris Project

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• “Michael Oher, Adopted Family Celebrate Super Bowl Victory,” ABC News
• “Benefits of transracial adoption,” New Rhythm Project
• “Adoption bill aims to maintain ‘loving, stable’ homes for children,” KSL.com

Family Economics

• “The Personal Income Tax at 100,” The American
• “The Wealth of Nations Depends on the Health of Families,” The Public Discourse
• “Congress’s Policies Steal Our Freedoms While Rewarding Irresponsibility,” Forbes
• “Underlying Causes of Poverty — Living Apart from the Rule of Law,” Poverty Cure
• “Government Will Take Almost Half Your Paycheck in 2013,” The Heritage Foundation
• “Boomers Stick Next Generation with the Gas Bill,” Via Meadia
• “Northern Ireland: Coming to America?,” The Acton Institute

Family Structure

• “Place Matters: What Do Millennials Want in a Home?,” Patheos.com
• “Advice For Parenting Young Kids,” Reformissionary
• “Go for the Yahtzee,” HOPE International
• “Shape or be shaped: Christians in an era of marriage decline,” MercatorNet.com
• “I’m Not Afraid to Raise Daughters,” The Gospel Coalition
• “Liberty Counsel Files Amicus Briefs In Defense of Marriage with U.S. Supreme Court,” Liberty Counsel

Media
Pornography

• “Pornographers to Use Facial-Recognition Technology,” PornHarms.com
• “Adult stars answer questions about porn,” Student Life (Washington University in St. Louis publication)
• “Policing Pills and Pornography,” Newsweek Pakistan

Internet

• “Twitter ‘Experimenting’ With Vine Porn Censorship,” Mashable
• “Study: Facebook Is Your Frenemy,” The Atlantic

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• “Religious Groups Remain Concerned About Contraception Mandate,” Time
• “Schools Tussle Over Sex Standards,” Christianity Today
• “Government shouldn’t define ‘church’,” Fox News
• “Inglorious revolutions,” WORLD Magazine
• “Religious Liberty, the HHS Mandate, and the Conscience that has Escaped our Attention,” Intercollegiate Review
• “Deciding Who Gets Religious Freedom: The Latest HHS “Accommodation”,” The Public Discourse
• “An Open Letter to Christians About Religious Freedom,” The Christian Post

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton’s feature on Watchmen Pastors called “The Lost Episodes,” featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• “Christian Athletes Are Not Role Models,” Christianity Today
• “Roman Catholics and Confessional Lutherans Explore Deeper Ties,” First Things
• “From Prison to the Pulpit: A Stunning Story of God’s Grace,” The Gospel Coalition
• “Martin Luther on the Passions of Evangelical Politics,” Mere Orthodoxy
• “The Most Offensive Word in America,” Relevant Magazine

Secularism

• “Vatican art exhibit is a challenge to secularism, archbishop explains,” Catholic Culture

International
Israel

• “Britain Is No Place for Jews,” FrontPage Magazine
• “The Folly of Containing Iran,” Commentary Magazine
• “About the next government,” CarolineGlick.com

International Economy and Family

• “China’s Cheap Labour Force Down by 3.45 million in 2012,” News Network of India
• “British Hospital Carnage a Window into US Future,” Via Meadia

Religious Persecution

• “Ai Wei-Wei / Chen Guangcheng Interview,” New Statesman
• “‘Insulting Quran’ Charges Snare Two Christian Children in Egypt,” Persecution.org

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• “Repeal the 17th Amendment,” The Independent Institute
• “An Occasion in Which National Security Trumps Civil Rights?,” The FedSoc Blog
• “Despising the Constitution,” The Library of Law and Liberty

Judicial Activism

• “Obama Nominates Two Government Lawyers to Federal Circuit,” The FedSoc Blog
• “Supreme Court, in upcoming marriage cases, urged not to ‘disqualify’ religious conviction,” Baptist Press

Other News of Note

• “Not All Politics Is Political,” The American Conservative
• “Privilege: the Real Postal Problem,” The Acton Institute
• “Missing a Chance at Greatness,” City Journal
• “The Stoning of Dr. Ben Carson,” The American Spectator

Book reviews

• “Finding the City on a Hill,” The Center for Vision and Values
• “Michelle Rhee: My Break With the Democrats,” The Daily Beast
• “Review: Auralia Thread,” The Enlightened Mind
• “Men of God and Country in World War II,” The Acton Institute

The Social Conservative Review: January 31, 2013

by Krystle Gabele

January 31, 2013

Click here to subscribe to the Social Conservative Review.

Dear Friends:

As the proud father of two Boy Scouts, this week’s news of Scouting’s apparent decision to allow each Troop to determine its own policy on admitting is dismaying.

Boys should not forcibly be introduced to controversial issues of sexuality. The Boy Scouts, grounded in Judeo-Christian moral teaching, have always argued that the only sexually intimate behavior honoring to God (yes, Scouts still take an oath to “God and country,” and mean it) exists between a man and a woman within marriage.

We now know the names of nearly 2,000 men who preyed on boys and teens from 1971 through 1991. Are all homosexuals predators? Of course not. But have predation and molestation in the Scouts been homosexual? Read the names: Undeniably and tragically, yes. This should give any parent pause.

Scouting has, in recent years, adopted rigorous policies to protect boys from these things on theological, practical and moral grounds. Scouting has long professed faith in absolute truth and unchanging moral values. Must we now ask if the pledge to remain “morally straight” and “reverent” still means anything?

Like every father, I want my sons to be around men whose character is above reproach and who model biblical moral virtues. The fathers in our troop do this. May God forbid that it should change.

On my honor,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council

P.S. Six women leaders have contributed to FRC’s latest publication, Forty Years After Roe v. Wade. You can download it, at no charge, here.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• “Common Core K-12 hits home,” The Orange County Register
• “HSLDA Defends Homeschooling Family in Supreme Court,” Home School Legal Defense Association
• “Back in the homeschool classroom: Blazing new trails,” SWAC Girl

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• “School Choice Under Attack in New Hampshire,” Institute for Justice
• “The ABCs of School Choice,” The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice
• “Mr. Obama: Most Schools Aren’t Like Your Daughters’ School,” Education Week
• “A Big Tent for Charter Schools,” EducationNext

College Debt

• “Some Pluses, Many Negatives for Higher Education,” Minding the Campus
• “Selling Their Futures: College Grads Promise a Slice of Their Future Income for Cash Now,” Time
• “College students turn to ‘Sugar baby lifestyle’ to beat college debt,” The District Chronicles
• “College costs too much, delivers too little,” The Orange County Register

Government Reform
Regulation

• “Governments Should Choose Growth Over Regulation,” American Banker
• “Big Bureaucrazy Versus Freedom To Farm,” National Center for Public Policy Research
• “Going from rule of law to rule of rules,” The Orange County Register
• “Arnold Kling on Tying Government’s Hands to Balance its Budget,” Cafe Hayek

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• “Reporting government waste or fraud? There’s an app for that,” WRAL.com
• “It’s the Waste, Stupid!,” The American Thinker

Health Care
Abstinence

• “Carlsbad pregnancy center steers young women away from abortion,” Carlsbad Current-Argus
• “Abstinence could reduce Cervical Cancer,” The Christian Post

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• “Confused professors shocked schools are cutting their hours to avoid Obamacare penalties,” AEIdeas.org
• “The ObamaCare-Induced Shift to Part-Time Work,” Hoover Institution
• “Why health costs are rising,” The Galen Institute
• “HHS Mandate Cases: A Scorecard,” Alliance Defending Freedom
• “Plumbing Company Sues Gov’t Over Birth Control Mandate,” The Christian Post
• “The insured and the unsure,” The Economist

Homosexuality

• “Same-Sex “Weddings” at National Cathedral Symbolize Decline, Not Advance,” Family Research Council
• “At Supreme Court, Gay Marriage Foes Make Their Strongest Case Yet,” The Atlantic
• “Rhode Island moves closer to approving same-sex marriage,” NBC News
• “The Attorneys in the Gay Marriage Case,” The Library of Law and Liberty

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

Check out FRC’s new resource, One Life, which is a one-stop shop for pro-life news.

• “The West’s Deafening Silence on China’s Forced Abortions,” Patheos.com
• “Abortion’s Forgotten Victim: The Aborted Baby’s Father,” LifeNews.com
• “Pro-lifers Win, Obama Loses in UN Abortion Battle,” WORLD Magazine
• “Forty Years Later: It’s Time for a New Feminism,” The Public Discourse
• “Abortion and the Contraceptive Mentality,” Crisis Magazine
• “New Study Challenges UN Statistics and Priorities,” Friday Fax
• “Roe turns 40. Here’s an amazing video of what you looked like about three months into your life,” The Washington Examiner
• “Abortion: U.S. Taxpayers Fund It Here and Abroad,” The Heritage Foundation
• “Why My Support for Abortion Was Based on Love…and Lies,” National Catholic Register

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• “Reprogramming Cells - and Souls,” The Catholic Thing
• “Protecting NIH Chimps Is Anti Science!,” National Review Online
• “The Coming Public Conflict Over Human Cloning,” First Things

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• “Dignity, Equality and Atticus Finch,” Values and Capitalism
• “Let’s Find a Way to Kill Alzheimer’s Patients!,” National Review Online

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC’s Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• “Stem cells: Tuning the death sentence,” Phys.org
• “Flouting the law barring embryo research,” The Washington Times
• “Stem cell research: Japanese scientists grow human kidney tissue out of stem cells,” Global Post

Human Trafficking

• “The truth about sex trafficking,” The Washington Times
• “Bending the Arc Towards Justice,” The Polaris Project
• “8th Circuit Court Decision Nabs Buyers,” Shared Hope International

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• “Russia’s Tragic Ban on U.S. Adoptions,” Family Research Council
• “The Shrinking Adoption Pool,” Family Research Council
• “US Embassy says some Russian orphans in limbo after adoption ban leave for US,” Fox News
• “Interview: Russell Moore on “Adoption Is a ‘Pro-life’ Policy for Evangelicals,” The Houston Chronicle

Family Economics

• “A New Reality: Higher Taxes for All,” Values and Capitalism
• “16 Tons of Keynesian Economics,” The American
• “The Economics of Downton Abbey,” The Acton Institute
• “The Young and the Economically Illiterate,” The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics
• “Here’s why we might actually be winning the war on poverty,” AEIdeas.org

Family Structure

• “The End of Courtship?,” New York Times
• “Lessons from France on Defending Marriage,” The Public Discourse
• “Music, Demons, and Little Girls,” The Catholic Thing
• “3 Things I Wish I Knew Before We Got Married,” Relevant Magazine
• “A man’s top 5 reasons to grow up and get married,” Fox News

Media
Pornography

• “Desire and Design,” The Catholic Thing
• “Internet Porn And Men: Has Pornography Warped Male Sexuality?,” The Huffington Post

Internet

• “How Facebook Can Make You Envious,” Mashable

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• “What Today’s ‘Proclamation on Religious Freedom Day’ Missed,” The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
• “Stanford Law Opens Nation’s First Religious Liberty Legal Clinic,” The FedSoc Blog
• “Religious Liberty Double Standards Indicated In New Poll,” The Huffington Post
• “Trigg on ‘Cleverly Nuanced’ Religious Liberty Rulings,” First Things
• “The Political Valence of Religious Liberty,” Commonweal Magazine

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton’s feature on Watchmen Pastors called “The Lost Episodes,” featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• “Theologians for Prayer (You Read that Right),” Family Research Council
• “Louie Giglio and the New State Church,” The Christian Post
• “The Evangelical Voter,” First Things
• “The Image of God: Three Implications for Your Life & Work,” The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics

Secularism

• “Godless chaplain,” WORLD Magazine
• “Onward, Secular Soldiers, Marching as to War,” The Independent Institute

International
Israel

• “Surprise, Surprise - Egypt’s Morsi Made Virulently Anti-Semitic Remarks,” Family Research Council
• “Illustrating the Link Between Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism,” Commentary Magazine
• “Israel Threatens Military Intervention in Syria if Rebels Get Chemical Weapons,” Via Meadia

International Economy and Family

• “Look to the More Stable Neighbors,” New York Times
• “Chile’s Strong Economy: A Case of Positive Policy and Freedom,” The Heritage Foundation
• “French Tax Hell,” City Journal

Religious Persecution

• “Egyptian court sentences Christian family to 15 years for converting from Islam,” Fox News
• “Yes More Christians Silenced in Europe…and American,” Crisis Magazine
• “Mr. Cameron’s Unsatisfactory Response to the Mistreatment of Christians,” Crisis Magazine
• “American Pastor Jailed in Iran Sentenced to 8 Years,” CBN News

Sharia law — U.S., foreign

• “Islamic Preacher Set to Lead ‘Million-Man March’ in Pakistani Capital,” The Christian Post
• “Our Old Grand Fantasies About Radical Islam,” PJ Media
• “Islamist extremists torch Timbuktu library full of historic manuscripts as French, Malian forces prepare to retake city,” National Post

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• “Ordo In Domum Publius: The Most Influential Of The Federalist Papers,” The John Jay Institute
• “The Constitution, in Text and Spirit,” The American
• “A Chance to Stop Judicial Forum Swapping After a 200-Year-Old Mistake?,” The FedSoc Blog
• “Does the Constitution Require Constitutional Amendments to be Presented to the President?,” The Library of Law and Liberty

Judicial Activism

• “7th Circuit Panel Overturns District Judge, Upholds WI Collective Bargaining Law,” The FedSoc Blog

Other News of Note

• “They Want to Be Like Abe,” The Library of Law and Liberty
• “The End of the Reagan Era?,” The Center for Vision and Values
• “Want Black Votes, GOP? Listen To Black Voters,” The Washington Times
• “Affirmative Action: Too Little, Too Much, and on the Wrong Track,” Mere Orthodoxy

Book reviews

• “A Liberal View of ‘Becoming Right’,” Minding the Campus
• “Has American Fiction Lost Sight of God?,” First Things
• “Review: Nile Gardiner on ‘Becoming Europe’,” The Acton Institute
• “Heart Work,” Touchstone Magazine
• “The Spirit of the Law,” Claremont Review of Books

The Social Conservative Review: January 10, 2013

by Krystle Gabele

January 10, 2013

Click here to subscribe to The Social Conservative Review.

Dear Friends,

“Human trafficking” is a term that sounds almost clinical.  In this sense, it is a misnomer, as human trafficking describes something that is evil in every way.

Thousands of American girls, boys, and young women are forced into sexual bondage each year, compelled under severe duress - sometimes, even the threat of death - to commodify themselves in prostitution, pornography, and other vices.

Thankfully, the Christian community is responding.  On Wednesday at FRC, former Congresswoman Linda Smith, founder of Shared Hope International, and Mark Blackwell, founder of Justice Ministries, gave an inside look at this brutal trade and how believers can help the people victimized by it in real, practical ways.  You can view the webcast here. 

There is no charge to watch the webcast, but you might find the cost high: Your prayer life, your time, and your understanding of our culture could be changed forever.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council

P.S. Be sure to tune into FRC President Tony Perkins’ new daily radio program, featuring some of America’s top political, religious, and cultural leaders and a call-in session where you can voice your views and ask questions.  Learn more by clicking here.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• “Keep it in the family,” The Economist
• “Common Core State Standards Initiative: Too Close to a National Curriculum,” Home School Legal Defense Association
• “The Winter Blues,” Crosswalk

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• “Reform Agenda Gains Strength,” EducationNext
• “Catholic Education, in Need of Salvation,” New York Times
• “Education in the Media, 2012: Hits & Misses,” The Hoover Institution
• “Lawmakers Gear Up for Action on K-12 Issues,” Education Week
• “The irrational fear of for-profit education,” American Enterprise Institute

College Debt

• “Community College Can Be a Better Deal than Four-Year Options,” Family Research Council
• “College Debt and Tuition Pushed Up By Administrator Salaries,” FrontPage Magazine
• “The Student Loan Debt Crisis: Welcome to the $1 Trillion Club,” Fox Business
• “Regulating U.S. Colleges for Student Debts Seen Winning Support,” Business Week
• “Families Shoulder Heftier Burdens as College Debt Swells,” ProPublica

Government Reform
Regulation

• “No Regulation? No Problem,” RealClearPolitics
• “Morning Bell: The 10 Worst Regulations of 2012,” The Heritage Foundation
• “After Election, Pace Quickens for New Government Regulations,” The Christian Post

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• “Almost $700,000 in government waste during second half of December,” TennesseeWatchdog.org
• “Federal Food Stamp Program Spent Record $80.4 Billion in Fiscal Year 2012,” Religion Today
• “Max Baucus rewards ex-staffers with tax breaks for their clients,” The Washington Examiner

Health Care
Abstinence

• “Premarital Sex?,” Moore to the Point
• “Sexual Iconoclasm,” Touchstone Magazine
• “The Millennial Generation’s Acceptable Sin,” The Gospel Coalition

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• “Victory Against HHS Mandate in Missouri,” The Acton Institute
• “State Contraceptive Mandates,” First Things
• “The HHS Mandate and Judicial Theocracy,” The Public Discourse
• “As 2013 Begins, Get Ready For An ObamaCare Tax Onslaught,” Forbes
• “Health Care Company Granted Temporary Relief From HHS Mandate,” Thomas More Society

Homosexuality

• “Petitioners on White House Website Call Roman Catholic Church a ‘Hate Group’,” Family Research Council
• “Same-Sex Marriage and Social Change: Exceeding the Speed of Thought,” The Public Discourse
• “Court Upholds Firing of College Official Over Op-Ed Against Gay Rights,” The Chronicle of Higher Education
• “My Take: Let’s protect religious counselors amid ‘conversion therapy’ debate,” CNN
• “Illinois Legislature Warned of the Irreparable Harm the Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage Would Cause,” Thomas More Society
• “Liberty Counsel Files Brief at Appeals Court Against California’s Ban on Change Therapy,” Liberty Counsel

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• “Viewpoint: Pro-Life and Feminism Aren’t Mutually Exclusive,” Time
• “Planned Parenthood Reports Record-High Taxpayer Funding, Abortions,” Susan B. Anthony List
• “Fetal and political pain,” WORLD Magazine
• “Is the Pro-Life Cause Winning?,” Moore to the Point
• “Roe at Forty, part 1: The Court’s Failure to Address the Question of the Unborn’s Moral Status,” The Catholic Thing
• “Pregnancy Centers Gain Influence in Anti-Abortion Arena,” New York Times
• “The Pro-Life Movement Really is Winning the Abortion Battle,” LifeNews.com
• “Pope Benedict Criticizes Efforts To Legalize Abortion,” Turtle Bay and Beyond
• “RH Reality Check legal analyst says unborn babies neither natural nor legal persons, botches both categories,” LiveAction
• “Sex Selection Abortion Behind India Rape Crisis?,” National Review Online
• “Nursery Crimes,” Touchstone Magazine

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• “Babies begin learning the distinctive sounds of their native language while in utero,” New York Daily News
• “Gene Patents Face Reckoning,” The Wall Street Journal

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• “Euthanasia Movement Promotes “Kill Me” Living Will in Australia,” LifeNews.com
• “Euthanasia for Alzheimer’s, ‘Accelerated Deaths’ Considered by European Neighbors,” Christianity Today

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC’s Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• “Case dismissed,” WORLD Magazine
• “Stem cell materials could boost research into key diseases,” Phys.org
• “Supreme Court Tosses Suit to Stop Obama Embryonic Research Funding,” LifeNews.com

Human Trafficking

• “The State of Modern Slavery,” Relevant Magazine
• “Between pronunciation lessons, a friendship forms between a volunteer and a survivor.,” The Polaris Project
• “Weekend of Prayer: Ending Human Trafficking and Slavery,” The Acton Institute

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• “Welcome the Little Children,” Family Research Council
• “Responding to Russia’s Adoption Ban,” RedState
• “Why Adoption Became Russell Moore’s Personal Cause,” Christianity Today

Family Economics

• “Strolling Along the Fiscal Cliff,” Family Research Council
• “‘Fiscal cliff’ deal penalizes married couples,” The Washington Times
• “The Biblical Foundations of Economic Principles,” Institute for Faith, Work & Economics
• “Poverty as a Consequence of Sin,” Values and Capitalism

Family Structure

• “Marriage May Promote Safer, Healthier Pregnancies,” Family Research Council
• “The New French Resistance: Pro-marriage demonstrations erupt,” The Addison Eagle
• “A Million First Dates,” The Atlantic
• “It’s Better To Be Raised by a Single Mom,” Slate
• “Can the President Have a Marriage Agenda Without Talking About What Marriage Is?,” The Public Discourse
• ““I must watch over you”: The virtue of familial responsibility,” The Clarion Review
• “The Key to a Strong Marriage: Humble Repentance,” Owen Strachan

Media
Pornography

• “Porn Use and Supporting Same-Sex Marriage,” The Public Discourse
• “Why the new movie about ‘Deep Throat’ could be important,” The Atlantic

Internet

• “In Defense Of Instagram,” The Examined Life
• “Christian Broadcasters Group Warns of Troubling Trend of Online Censorship,” Religion Today
• “Safety in social media comes down to lifestyles,” MercatorNet

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• “Next front in religious liberty fight: Military chaplains and “ceremonies”?,” CatholicVote
• “Religious Liberty in the Military,” Bench Memos
• “Hobby Lobby Defies Obama Administration With Civil Disobedience For Religious Liberty,” Breitbart.com
• “New PBS Documentary “First Freedom” Explores Faith of U.S. Founding Fathers & the Path to Religious Liberty in America,” The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
• “FRC Submits SCOTUS Brief on Behalf of 49 Members of Congress in Public Prayer Case,” StreetInsider.com

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton’s feature on Watchmen Pastors called “The Lost Episodes,” featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• “On Predestination, Politics and One’s True Faith,” Religion Today
• “God Is Alive and Well: The Future of Religion in America,” The Gallup Blog
• “Showing Grace When Evangelical Leaders Speak Intemperately,” Philosophical Fragments
• “The Gospel According to the Hobbit,” RealClearReligion
• “Are the Metro-Evangelicals Right?,” Mere Orthodoxy
• “Was Jesus a Capitalist?,” National Review Online

Secularism

• “Stanford Hires a Chaplain…for Atheists,” Owen Strachan

International
Israel

• “Extreme Makeover, Israel,” New York Times
• “Israelis Await New Government Amid Old Security Perils,” RealClearPolitics
• “Rand Paul: Less Aid to Israel Would Increase Its Sovereignty,” Newsmax
• “I Knew Obama Would Betray Israel,” Commentary

International Economy and Family

• “The World Economy 2013: Illusions and Reality,” Global Research
• “Economy must adapt to changes,” China Daily

Religious Persecution

• “The Most Persecuted Religion,” The Wall Street Journal
• “Exporting insurgency,” WORLD Magazine
• “Nigeria - 30 Christians killed in eve of New Year massacres,” Compass Direct News
• “Chinese Labor Camp Reform,” New York Times

Sharia law — U.S., foreign

• “Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s “Mein Kampf”,” Touchstone Magazine

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• “Free Speech Still Not Free on College Campuses,” The Acton Institute
• “Senator Harry Reid’s Filibuster Proposal and the Future of the Supreme Court,” The FedSoc Blog
• “New York Times: Throw Off Bondage of ‘Evil’ Constitution,” Breitbart.com

Judicial Activism

• “Borked,” The Daily Caller
• “Obama to fill four positions in 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,” The Topeka Capital-Journal

Other News of Note

• “College Park couple says front yard vegetable garden is under fire again,” Click Orlando
• “American Un-Exceptionalism,” The Catholic Thing
• “Study: U.S. College Freshmen Think They’re More Special Than Ever,” Crosswalk
• “A California Drought: Not Enough Children,” The Wall Street Journal

Book reviews

• “Review: Alan Wallace on ‘Becoming Europe’,” The Acton Institute
• “Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Sanctifying Vision,” The Examined Life
• “Human Freedom Matters,” The Center for Vision and Values
• “The Trite Stuff,” Claremont Review of Books
• “The Harm in Hate Speech Laws,” Policy Review

The Social Conservative Review: November 29, 2012

by Krystle Gabele

November 29, 2012

Click here to subscribe to The Social Conservative Review.

Dear Friends:

To participate in public life is to recognize that periodic defeat is inevitable. Sometimes, defeat occurs far more often than we would like.

Earlier this month, conservatives in four states lost battles to defend marriage as the union of one man and one woman. President Obama’s re-election presages almost invariably the appointment of men and women to our Supreme Court and the lower federal courts who believe Roe was decided rightly and that the Constitution’s meaning is malleable. The list could go on, but the point would be the same: This was a heartbreaking month for social conservatives.

So, do we quit? Certainly not. We consider ways of reframing our enduring message and means of persuading those wary of our vision for the country. Yet abandonment of truth is never a morally acceptable alternative to those who believe that right and wrong are defined not by popular consensus but by the self-revelation of an eternal God in the Bible and in the “laws of nature.”

Moreover, all is not gloom and doom: In the 2011-2012 sessions of their legislatures, states enacted 131 laws that in some way temper access to abortion on demand. These include ” bans on abortions at 20 weeks; 24- to 72-hour waiting periods; and a requirement to inform women of suicide risks if they seek an abortion” (Source: CBS News). Massachusetts voters rejected physician-assisted suicide, and in Montana voters passed a measure that requires every young woman of 15 or under who seeks an abortion to notify her parents.

In all of this, there is a larger point we dare not lose: Although we play for very high stakes - among them, the sanctity of unborn life, the dignity of women, the centrality of religious liberty, and marriage as defined in Scripture and practiced for 3,500 years of recorded history - we must never delude ourselves that these battles ever will be fully or finally won.

The ultimate triumph of truth rests in the hands of a King Whose guidance of time and history often is mysterious and Who alone has the power to ensure that right prevails. Until He chooses to consummate our fallen human affairs, it is out duty always to champion righteousness and justice in the public square. As T.S. Eliot wrote, “Combat may have truces, but never a peace.” Why? Because as long as man exists, so will evil and its manifestations in society and government. Thus, although permanent wins are impossible, fighting for all the victories we can, for as long as we can sustain them, is essential.

For however long Christians win or lose on the field of moral combat, we remain faithful, animated by the courage and confidence of those for whom victory is assured not by human effort but the sovereignty of a good and omnipotent God. It’s a fight worth waging, and never quitting.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council

P.S. Be sure to join us, in person or online, for Dr. Russell Moore’s upcoming presentation on adoption and its relevance to Christian compassion and calling. It takes place this coming Tuesday, December 4 at 12:00 noon EST. Register or watch here.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• ““Come Peacefully Now or by Force Later”,” Home School Legal Defense Association
• “Kenya To Outlaw Homeschooling?,” OneNewsNow
• “Home-schooling pioneer Susan Wise Bauer is well-versed in controversy,” The Washington Post

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• “Court: Schools Can’t Sue Parents of Disabled Children over Religious Vouchers,” Christianity Today
• “Americans Are Proud of U.S. Colleges but Not of Their Direction,” The Chronicle of Higher Education
• “New Graduation Rate Data Show Large Achievement Gaps,” Education Week
• “Evaluating Teachers AND Administrators,” Education Next
• “The Case for Educational Pluralism,” First Things

College Debt

• “Children’s Education, but Parents’ Crushing Loans,” New York Times
• “Student Loan Debt is a Losing Gamble for Many Central Valley Students,” Modesto Bee

Government Reform
Regulation

• “Here Comes the Regulatory Flood,” The Wall Street Journal
• “Let’s Raise Taxes on the Middle Class,” The American
• “Does government need to grow?,” American Enterprise Institute

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• “How to Approach the ‘Fiscal Cliff’,” National Review Online
• “Heat without Light,” The American

Health Care
Abstinence

• “Young Blood and Good News: A Report from the Sex Wars in Princeton, NJ,” The American Thinker
• “Bishop: Abstinence, fidelity sure ways to avoid HIV,” GMA News
• “’Two and a Half Men’ star chooses sexual purity over $350,000 weekly salary,” LifeSiteNews.com

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• “What do the Waiters at Red Lobster and Some Adjunct Profs Have in Common? Obamacare.,” Family Research Council
• “Another Victory for Challengers of HHS Mandate,” National Review Online
• “Tightening the Noose: Hobby Lobby vs. Sebelius,” Economics for Everybody
• “Three More States Approve Ballot Initiatives to Block Health Care Mandate,” The Galen Institute
• “Massive Fines and Growing Anxieties: The HHS Mandate,” The Acton Institute

Homosexuality

• “The Irony of the November 2012 Marriage Votes,” Family Research Council
• “The Wisdom of Upholding Tradition,” The Wall Street Journal
• “The Marriage Debate and the History of Homosexuality,” National Review Online
• “National Post-Election Survey Reveals Widespread Support for Defining Marriage as the Union of One Man and One Woman,” National Organization for Marriage
• “What the latest poll on same-sex marriage really says,” The Iona Institute

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• “Chinese study shows abortion increases breast cancer risk,” Family Research Council
• “How Obama’s ‘Life of Julia’ Prevailed,” The Wall Street Journal
• “US abortions drop 5 percent during recession; more birth control, bad economy likely causes,” Associated Press
• “Michigan Republicans trying to pass law that would give tax breaks (i.e. personhood) to fetuses,” God Discussion
• “Media misleads on reasons behind abortion decline,” LifeSiteNews.com
• “Potentiality Rightly Understood,” The Public Discourse
• “Disabilities group opposes UN treaty,” WORLD Magazine
• “How Many Women Have Pro-Life Laws Saved?,” First Things
• “Planned Parenthood: A Rose by Any Other Name…?,” Alliance Defending Freedom

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• “Bioethicists Say Researchers Should Advocate for Use of Newborn Screening Samples,” GenomeWeb
• “UPenn offers new queer bioethics course,” CampusReform.org
• “AI Might Emulate the Brain But Never the Mind,” National Review Online

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• “Enlightened Death: The Argument for Assisted Suicide,” Family Research Council
• “One-sided reports in Canada and the UK ignore data concerning euthanasia in Belgium and the Netherlands,” National Right to Life

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC’s Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• “Remembering Pioneers in Patient Treatments,” Family Research Council
• “Paralyzed Dogs Walk Again,” National Review Online
• “Transposable elements reveal a stem cell specific class of long noncoding RNAs,” Phys.org
• “Adult Stem Cell Research Pioneers Deserve More Attention,” LifeNews.com

Human Trafficking

• “Nigerian Sex Trafficking Victims Abandoned,” Voice of America
• “Christian Workers Save Trafficked Girls in India,” Patheos
• “An Escape From Sex Slavery,” Newsweek

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• “With adoption, it’s not who you are - it’s how you parent,” The Guardian
• “National Adoption Month raises awareness,” Fox News
• “Social media now playing a role in adoptions,” News4Jax.com

Family Economics

• “Is Capitalism Over?,” Family Research Council
• “Blasted Twinkie Killers!,” The Center for Vision and Values
• “Lenders and Spenders: Confronting the Political Reality of Debt,” The American
• “It’s Not Just the Economy’s Fault,” Values & Capitalism
• “Stability and “Creative Destruction” in the Home and Economy,” Mere Orthodoxy
• “Family’s economic situation influences brain function in children,” MedicalXpress

Family Structure

• “Better Bystanders or Moral Courage?,” Family Research Council
• “The Blessing of Children,” The New Atlantis
• “Opting Out of Parenthood, With Finances in Mind,” New York Times
• “The Disappearing-Family Problem,” The Weekly Standard
• “The Future of Marriage: Why “The Inevitable” Is Not Inevitable,” The Public Discourse
• “The Abolition of Man-and-Woman: On Marriage, Grammar, and Legal Strategy,” The Public Discourse
• “The chemistry of marriage,” WORLD Magazine
• “FactChecker: Who Really Started the Family ‘Culture War’?,” The Gospel Coalition

Media
Pornography

• “Appalachian State Chancellor Defends Discipline of Professor Who Showed Film About Porn,” The Chronicle of Higher Education
• “My porn addiction,” LifeSiteNews.com

Internet

• “Are Your Facebook Friends Stressing You Out? (Yes.),” The Atlantic
• “Social Media in Warfare: The New Battleground,” The Heritage Foundation

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• “UK Catholics might lose charitable status for not offering communion to everyone,” LifeSiteNews.com
• “Religious Freedom, Persecution Of The Church, And Martyrdom,” Papal Nuncio
• “The Naked Private Square,” The Acton Institute
• “At EU, Faithful Christians Need Not Apply?,” First Things
• “Supreme Court Says No to Hypersecularist Attack on Religious Freedom,” The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
• “Judge Denies Request for Nativity Displays in Santa Monica,” The FedSoc Blog
• “Montana Denies Tuition Benefits To Religious Preschoolers,” Alliance Defending Freedom

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton’s feature on Watchmen Pastors called “The Lost Episodes,” featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• “Responding to Peter Wehner on Moral Issues and the “Mind of God”,” Family Research Council
• “Sacrifice and Self-Interest,” The Acton Institute
• “Four Principles of Biblical Stewardship,” Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics
• “What is a Christian’s Responsibility to Government?,” Ligonier Ministries
• “The Church & Violence Against Women,” Moore to the Point

Secularism

• “Solzhenitsyn: ‘Spiritual Death Has… Touched Us All’,” The Washington Post
• “God and Thanksgiving: Secularism Must Not Remove God From This Day,” PolicyMic

International
Israel

• “A Time for Courage, and Action,” Caroline Glick
• “The Party of Victory,” National Review Online

International Economy and Family

• “Beyond Gaza: The Foreign-Policy Implications of Morsi’s Power Grab,” The Atlantic
• “The Comedy Version of Greece v Germany,” International Liberty

Religious Persecution

• “A Tale of Three Converts,” Religion Today
• “Another Church Bombing in Nigeria Kills 11 People,” The Christian Post

Sharia law — U.S., foreign

• “al-Qaradawi, Asks Allah to Destroy the Jews,” Jihad Watch
• “Obama Doesn’t Have Four More Years To Combat Iranian and Other Forms of Inflammatory Extremism in the Middle East,” David Alton

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• “Stripping the Constitution,” The Public Discourse
• “Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Derails Dr. King’s Dream,” National Association of Scholars

Judicial Activism

• “Judicial Usurpation: Then and Now,” National Review Online
• “How Picking a Supreme Court Justice Became Partisan,” The FedSoc Blog
• “The Most Dangerous Branch,” National Affairs

Other News of Note

• “Liberty and a Free Press,” The Public Discourse
• “Liberty Is a Slow Fruit,” The American Scholar
• “No sex? Permission to speak freely, Sir.,” The Washington Post
• “The Disappearing White Catholic Voter,” The Catholic Thing
• “The Americanness of the American Revolution,” City Journal

Book reviews

• “Holy Homemaking: A Response from Rachel Held Evans,” Christianity Today
• “Altared: A Book on Marriage that Everyone Should Read,” Mere Orthodoxy
• “Just Kidding,” First Things
• “Recommended: ‘That Hideous Strength’,” The Acton Institute
• “Perfectly Unique,” The Gospel Coalition
• “A Stalemate, Not a Mandate,” Claremont Review of Books