The Social Conservative Review: March 14, 2013
by
March 14, 2013
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Dear Friends,
Parents matter.
That truth increasingly is not self-evident in a society where gender identity, marriage and even any common cultural understanding of what masculinity and femininity mean are up for grabs.
So, let me go out on a limb and assert that children need a female mother and a male father who stay married and create a home where love, discipline, fidelity, work, and worship are the steady undercurrents of life. And that masculine and feminine, derived fundamentally from one's gender, are terms with objective meaning.
Can children survive without a mom and a dad who live together in the covenant of marriage? Sure. Can they do as well psychologically, economically, educationally, or spiritually without a traditional parental arrangement? No - check out the data documented by FRC's Marriage and Religion Research Institute.
The Boy Scouts of America is under attack by those who want to pretend that gender, sexual attraction, and parental guidance in matters of human sexuality don't matter. FRC is leading the charge to stop them. Why? Because of our enduring confidence that (get ready) men are men and women are women, and that the differences (a) are real and (b) should be celebrated and honored.
This is not about denying opportunity, stereotyping, misogyny, or anything appertaining thereto. It's about common sense, and the future of our children. Thanks for partnering with us in their defense.
Sincerely,
Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council
P.S. Please plan to join FRC - in person at our DC headquarters or online, at no cost - for an event next week featuring two of America's leading historians. On March 20th, we'll be joined by Drs. Daniel Dreisbach (American University) and James Hutson (chief manuscript historian at the Library of Congress) as they talk about "Scripture, Rights, and Religion in American History."
Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling
- "Obama Justice Department Fighting to Deport Christian Homeschooling Family Seeking Asylum," Christian News Network
- "Homeschooling Adventure," The Christian Post
Legislation and Policy Proposals
- "Put Down the Common Core Kool-Aid," The Truth in American Education
- "Taking Back Teaching," EducationNext
- "Kasich's school plan is on the right track," Thomas B. Fordham Institute
- "The Alliance to Reform Education Leadership: Opening the Principal Pipeline," Education Week
- "Sky Fall: Gender Ideology Comes to the Schoolhouse," The Public Discourse
- "Yes, School Choice Does Help Poor Kids," Cato@Liberty
College Debt
- "Higher Education is Still a Very Good Investment-Becker," The Becker-Posner Blog
- "A Dangerous 'New Normal' in College Debt," New York Times
- "How Washington Could Make College Tuition Free (Without Spending a Penny More on Education)," The Atlantic
- "Chart: The explosion in college debt," AEIdeas.org
Government Reform
Regulation
- "Are Bureaucrats Free of Cognitive Bias?," The Library of Law and Liberty
- "BREAKING: Judge Slaps Down Bloomberg Big Gulp Ban," Townhall.com
Waste/Fraud/Abuse
- "Taxpayers footing the bill for college football stadium frenzy," Fox News
- "Michigan Gets Flying Monkeys for $40 Million," Mackinac Center for Public Policy
Health Care
Abstinence
- "Some Ivy League Students Turn Down Hook-Up Culture," The College Fix
- "To Speak of Woe that is in Teen Pregnancy," City Journal
- "Confessions of a 25-year-old Christian virgin," WORLD Magazine
- "Sex-ed for kindergartners mandated in Chicago," Baptist Press
Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts
- "Natural Law, Public Policy, and the Uncanny Voice of Conscience: An Orthodox Response to David Bentley Hart," Ethika Politika
- "Expanding Medicaid: The Conflicting Incentives Facing States," Economics21
- "Companies Are Dropping Health Coverage for Spouses to Cut Costs," MarketWatch.com
- "Health care for the poor, or poor health care?," American Enterprise Institute
- "10 Stories of Job Loss as Consequences of Obamacare," The Heritage Foundation
- "House Republican leaders offer solution to depleted pre-existing condition fund," The Galen Institute
Homosexuality
- "Obama's acrobatics on homosexual 'marriage'," The Washington Times
- "Research: Same-sex marriage is civil rights issue, Americans say," The Gospel Coalition
- "I'm Gay and I Oppose Same-Sex Marriage," The Public Discourse
- "To Save Marriage, Conservatives Have to End Marriage," JHPolitics.com
- "Homosexual Marriage, Parenting, and Adoption," First Things
Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion
- "Surrogate offered $10,000 to abort baby," CNN
- "Rural teens let their babies live," WORLD Magazine
- "Where all 50 states stand on abortion, in two charts," The Washington Post
- "Activists Promote Abortion at UN Commission on the Status of Women," LifeNews.com
- "She's a Person, Not a Uterus," Her.meneutics
- "Saving New York's Women," National Review Online
- "USAID Report Highlights Family Planning Over Maternal and Child Health," Turtle Bay and Beyond
- "U.S. Supreme Court Petitioned to Reverse Colorado Ban on Graphic Images of Abortion," Thomas More Society
- "Pro-life legislature recognizing preborn pain," One News Now
Bioethics and Biotechnology
- "The War on HIV," National Review Online
- "Playing God Without the Wisdom of God," Crisis Magazine
- "Brain explosion: big neuroscience teams up with Obama," MercatorNet
Euthanasia and End of Life Issues
- "Kansas: Bill Introduced to Legalize Assisted Suicide," LifeNews.com
- "Pro Suicide Advocacy in Globe and Mail," 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.
- "KS Research Center: No Embryonic Allowed," National Review Online
- "Protein lost in tumors blocks normal cells from being reprogrammed into stem cells," Phys.org
- ""The Healing Cell" Touts Enormous Success Using Adult Stem Cells," LifeNews.com
Human Trafficking
- "Abortion and Sex Trafficking: Loving the "Unwanted" Women, Children," LifeNews.com
- "Sex trafficking in Denver," The Denver Post
- "Sex and labor trafficking in the U.S.: A Q & A on the 21st century slave trade," NJ.com
Marriage and Family
Adoption
- "The Anti-Kremlin History of the Man Behind Putin's Adoption Ban," The Atlantic
- "Orphans in Limbo," Christianity Today
- "Orphan Annie and You: Together for Adoption," The Cripplegate
Family Economics
- "Welfare Spending Equals $47,000 and a Ford Fiesta Per Family," The Acton Institute
- "Are Riches and Righteousness At Odds?," Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics
- "Myths of American 'Cowboy Capitalism'," The American
- "Economy at an inflection point," Ken Vaughn
Family Structure
- "Cheating Advice: Try Love!," Family Research Council
- "The New Fight for Marriage," The Gospel Coalition
- "Marital Cheating Increases Dramatically in 15 Years," Religion Today < li>"
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- "CCJ Files Brief in Defense of Marriage Act Case," The Claremont Institute
- "Marriage: What It Is, Why It Matters, and the Consequences of Redefining It," The Heritage Foundation
- "A Woman's Right to Work," Intercollegiate Review
- "Current Positive Family Relationships Linked to Healthy Marriages Later," Crosswalk.com
- "The key to a strong marriage: humble repentance," Baptist Press
Media
Pornography
- "Ban Internet Porn... Can They Do That? Iceland Can," Religion Today
- "A Warped Worldview: Another Moral Effect of Pornography," AlbertMohler.com
Internet
- "From 'Moneyball' to Money Bombs: What Sports Analytics Can Teach Political Nerds," The Atlantic
- "America's Broadband Service Is Not Falling Behind," The American
- "Disruptions: Digital Era Redefining Etiquette," The New York Times
- ""The Competition for Coolness Never Stops" - How Facebook and Twitter Affect Teens," Trevin Wax
Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty
- "Canadian Supreme Court Ruling Has Implications for Christian Witness," The Gospel Coalition
- "Are There Limits to Religious Liberty?," Juicy Ecumenism
- "More Student Prayer Coming to Mississippi Public Schools," Christianity Today
- "Censorship of Religious Expression at Graduation Ceremonies... Here We Go Again," Alliance Defending Freedom
- "Needy Kids 1, Anti-Catholic Bigots 0," The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
- "Lawsuit Threat Prompts School To Readmit Christian Speaker," The Western Center for Journalism
- "Do Evangelical Kids' Clubs Deserve Freedom of Speech in Public Schools?," The Atlantic
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.
- "Five Faith Values to Practice at Work," The High Calling
- "Here Come the Radicals!," Christianity Today
- "Why Public Schools Should Teach the Bible," The Wall Street Journal
- "Output Over Input Times One Hundred Percent = Religion," Intercollegiate Review
Secularism
- "Spreading secularism on conservative campuses," WORLD Magazine
- "New Atheism is dead," The Catholic Herald
- "The First Freedom: Religious liberty in a secular age," One News Now
International
Israel
- "US government funding radical Israeli NGOs' information operations," Caroline Glick
- "The Truth About Pollard," Commentary Magazine
- "How Effective Is Israel's Iron Dome?," Via Meadia
International Economy and Family
- "South-to-North Thinking," Metropolis Magazine
- "Not so fast: Conflicting deadlines for the TPP and US-EU FTA," American Enterprise Institute
- "Europe, unemployment and instability," MercatorNet
Religious Persecution
- "Better or Worse? The State of Persecution in China," The Gospel Coalition
- "Iran puts five Christians on trial for their faith," Fox News
The Courts
Constitutional Issues
- "The Constitutional Liberty of the Antifederalists," The Library of Law and Liberty
- "A Right, Not a Gift," Commonweal Magazine
- "Rockford Police to Take Classes on Citizens' Constitutional Rights," Thomas More Society
Judicial Activism
- "The Supreme Court's First Assault on Marriage," The Public Discourse
- "Do Obama's "Diversity" Appointments to the Federal Bench Constitute Illegal Discrimination?," The Fed Soc Blog
Other News of Note
- "The Power of Truth: Reagan's 'Evil Empire' Turns 30," The Center for Vision and Values
- "Upon Further Review: A CRB discussion of Political Extremism," Claremont Review of Books
- "The Party of Prison Reform," The Weekly Standard
- "Virtue And Hypocrisy," The American Conservative
Book reviews
- "Capitalism vs. the Free Market," The University Bookman
- "Serious Catholics Are Evangelical," Christianity Today
- "Defending Marriage," First Things
- "Love Is Not Irritable," Desiring God
- "In Pursuit of Humility," The Cripplegate