Family Research Council

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Dear Friends,

This week's massive Indian blackout demonstrates again how reliant all of us are on an intricate and largely unseen web of hyrdo-electrical, electronic, and computer-related support systems.

A similar network, one seldom celebrated in media or academia, is composed of families, churches, synagogues, associations, charities, corporations and businesses. They form the undercarriage of our society and are equally critical to the well-being of us all.

As conservatives, it's our job to strengthen this essential cultural power-grid. At the Family Research Council, our job is to help sustain and empower the institutions of marriage, church, and family so that the moral power failures we are experiencing don't become overwhelming. With your God's help and yours, we will continue doing just that.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council

P.S. As this week marks the beginning of the Obama Administration's contraception/abortifacient mandate on health insurance plans, be sure to visit FRC's website to learn what we're doing to support religious liberty and the rights of conscience.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• "The True Story of Homeschooling," The Huffington Post
• "Homeschooling Goes Mainstream (And Here's Why)," The New London Patch
• "Before You Leave: College Advice from Homeschool Grads," Home School Heart Beat

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "How Do We Measure and Value Effectiveness?," Education Week
• "A Rare Case For Active Investing - In Public Education Reforms," Forbes
• "Rich Kid, Poor Kid: How Mixed Neighborhoods Could Save America's Schools," The Atlantic
• "The Curriculum Reformation," City Journal
• " Moral Formation and the School Choice Movement," The Acton Institute
• " Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators," The Wall Street Journal
• "Milton Friedman, Father of School Choice," The American Thinker

College Debt

• "Consumer Advocates Urge Congress to Make the Private Student-Loan Market More Borrower-Friendly," The Chronicle for Higher Education
• "Young doctor deep in debt gets a financial plan to ease worries," The Seattle Times
• "Student Loan Debt Tied To U.S. Home Sales Lag, Soss Says," Bloomberg
• "Student-loan Debt; the Next Bailout?," HotAir

Government Reform
Regulation

• "Reforming Regulation: Some Sensible Steps," The Heritage Foundation
• "Businessmen Versus Bureaucrats," Smart Money

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "How to end 'too big to fail'," AEIdeas
• "2012 Pig Book Summary," Citizens Against Government Waste
• "Penniless in Paradise," National Review Online

Health Care
Abstinence

• "Just Say No: Why Abstinence is the Better Way to Go," LifeSiteNews.com
• "International AIDS Conference Provides Forum for Promotion of Risky Sex," C-FAM

Conscience Protection

• "Missouri governor vetoes measure on birth control," St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• "Mix-and-Match Morality," National Catholic Register

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• "ADF Scores First Victory Against Obama's Unconstitutional HHS Mandate," Breitbart.com
• "How Much Is The Obamacare Mandate Going To Cost You?," The Galen Institute
• "CBO Punts on Obamacare," Ethics and Public Policy Center
• "Moral Case Against ObamaCare," ObamaCare Watch
• "Evangelical heavyweight sues," WORLD Magazine
• "The family factor in health care," The Philadelphia Inquirer
• "Catholic business owner: HHS mandate violates our fundamental principles," The Washington Post
• "The President's Pelvic Politics," Independent Women's Forum

Homosexuality

• "Is Voter Intimidation on the Rise?," Crystal Clear Conservative
• "Chick-fil-A chief stirs clucking over values," The Washington Times
• "An Academic Auto-da-Fe," The Chronicle of Higher Education
• "Target takes out ad featuring same-sex 'married' couple," LifeSiteNews.com
• "Truth and Lies, Nature and Convention: The Debate Over Same-Sex Marriage," The Public Discourse

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• "The 14^th Victim at Fort Hood," The American Thinker
• "Abortion proponents press (again) for dangerously low clinic regs," Richmond Times-Dispatch
• "The Truth about "Morning-After Pills"," Family Research Council
• "Abortion, Conscience, and Health Care Provider Rights," The Public Discourse
• "Appeals court upholds South Dakota abortion suicide advisory," WORLD Magazine
• "Rep. Stearns calls for hearing on Planned Parenthood following death of woman," Fox News
• "When Moms Reject Abortion Suggestion, Miracles Happen," LifeNews.com
• "Chinese officials: One-child policy has helped prevent 400 million births," LifeSiteNews.com
• "Hidden Abortion Agenda in UN Convention on Disability Rights," LifeNews.com
• "Gruesome discovery alerts world to Russian abortion policy," OneNewsNow
• "A Eugenics Common Sense?," The Public Discourse

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "Are Science Journalists Biased?," Secondhand Smoke
• "Love is the Antidote to Prenatal Eugenic Cleansing," First Things
• "History Says Praise Drugs, Addiction Sufferers Are Just Pretending," Scientific American

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• "Assisted Suicide Backers Confident They'll Win in Massachusetts," LifeNews.com
• "Legal Euthanasia Didn't Raise Death Rate, Researchers Say," Bloomberg BusinessWeek

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.

• "Two Men HIV-Free After New Adult Stem Cell Breakthrough," LifeNews.com
• "Court ruling: FDA can regulate stem cell clinics ," Science
• "The Path to Ethical Stem Cell Research ," The Catholic Thing

Human Trafficking

• "Top human traffickers need not fear Obama," The Washington Times
• "Three Teens Sue BackPage.com Over Sex Trafficking," ABC News

Women's Health

• "Bowing Down to Your Birthing Ball?: Dismantling the Idol of the Perfect Birth," Christianity Today
• "Study: Proof That We Sexually Objectify Women," The Atlantic

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "New Documentary Highlights Broken International Adoption System," The Christian Post
• "A heart big enough for two: Navigating an open adoption," Deseret News
• "Adopted for Life, Ten Years Later: What I've Learned Since," Moore to the Point

Family Economics

• "Undoing welfare reform," AEIdeas
• "Capitalism Or What?," Values and Capitalism
• "Is Personal Responsibility An Anachronism?," Mere Comments
• "Learning to Be an American," National Review Online
• "The Gender Pay Gap: Not as Bad as You Think," Christianity Today
• "Why Welfare Should Respect the Dignity of Work," The Gospel Coalition

Family Structure

• "Cohabiting women having more babies," USA Today
• "Marriage, Religious Liberty, and the "Grand Bargain"," The Public Discourse
• "Many 'emerging adults' 18-29 are not there yet," USA Today
• "Why Divorce Calls Children's Existence into Question," Christianity Today
• "Why the Last Things Matter for All of Life," The Gospel Coalition
• "(How Not) To Train Up a Child," Challies.com
• "A searing new report on radically dysfunctional families," The Iona Institute

Media
Pornography

• "What I Wish I'd Known Before Watching Porn," The Huffington Post
• "Food : Sex :: Pornography : Tobacco-Is Analogy Enough?," First Things
• "Sisters and daughters: facing the faces of porn," LifeSiteNews.com
• "FRC Keeps Up the Fight Against Pornography ," Family Research Council
• "Study: Parents should protect children from porn," OneNewsNow

Internet

• "The 'myth' of the invention of the Internet," AEIdeas
• "Inside the Weird World of Tracking Gangs on Social Media," The Atlantic
• "When Your Social Media Feeds Get You Down," Mere Orthodoxy

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "Religious Freedom's Legal and Moral Basis," The Public Discourse
• "Freedom By Association," First Things
• "Defining Religious Liberty Down," New York Times
• "Building a Culture of Religious Freedom," The Public Discourse
• "Gov't official trying to restrict pastor's speech," OneNewsNow
• "Cross the Crux of Steubenville Showdown With Atheist Group," National Catholic Register

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.

• "Yeshiva Lessons," First Things
• "Our Civic High Priest," The Center for Vision and Values
• "The Grounding Power of Grace," Patheos
• "My Mind in God's Hands," The Acton Institute

Secularism

• "Secularism and Aged Care," Patheos
• "As secularism spreads, Archbishop Chaput charts path for renewal," Catholic News Agency

International
Israel

• "Obama Loses Pro-Israel Surrogates," Commentary Magazine
• "The Muslim Brotherhood's American Defenders," Caroline Glick
• "Mandate for Palestine," Mandate for Palestine

International Economy and Family

• "The Economic Crisis and Europe's Rule of Law Problem," The Public Discourse
• "A Different Kind of Aid in Africa," Values and Capitalism
• "51% of Germans Believe Germany Better Off Outside Eurozone, 71% Favor Greece Leaving," Townhall.com

Religious Persecution

• "The State Department and International Religious Freedom," National Review Online
• "Outside the camp," WORLD Magazine
• "China: Caesar Demanding What is God's," National Review Online
• "In Uganda, Don't Touch Anybody," The American Conservative

Sharia law -- U.S., foreign

• "Way Forward in Syria Is Not Via Iran," Commentary Magazine
• "Expert: Officials ignorant on sharia," OneNewsNow

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "The Limits of the Constitution?," Library of Law and Liberty
• "The organization man," WORLD Magazine
• "Justice Scalia's Place in Judicial History," Commentary Magazine

Judicial Activism

• "Prop 8 Certiorari Petition," National Review Online
• "Senate Showdown Coming for Appellate Judicial Nominees," The FedSoc Blog
• "Senate Blocks Tenth Circuit Nominee; Could Be Last Such Vote Until After Election," Legal Times

Other News of Note

• "EPA Declares Water in Pa. Town Safe to Drink Despite Fracking," The Washington Times
• "Big Lies in Politics," Townhall.com
• "Aurora Beyond Us," City Journal

Book reviews

• "The Political Philosophy of John Calvin," Library of Law and Liberty
• "Innocence IDed," WORLD Magazine
• "A Review of Mara Hvistendahl's Unnatural Selection," First Things
• "Book Review: 'The Higher Education Bubble,'" The Washington Times
• "Political Thought," The Gospel Coalition
• "Tocqueville and America," Claremont Review of Books