DriveThru – Get What You Need

A new marriage publication, “The Marriage Index,” is a significant contribution to measuring the health of marriage in America. 

The five indicators (listed below) combined to give the U.S. a score of 60.3, down from 76.2 in 1970.  The marriage index for African-Americans is much lower, 39.6 down from 64 in 1970.

“The Marriage Index” was released (published by the Institute for American Values and The National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting) at a marriage conference held at Virginia’s Hampton University.  The goal of the conference was to bring together various experts to talk about how to reverse trends such as high divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births.

The conference also marked the launch of the school’s National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting, set up to “conduct research and collect data about issues that affect black marriages and families, and provide resources to help parents” according to this article. Hampton is a historically  black university, and the emphasis on marriage is pertinent to black Americans who have suffered disproportionately more than other ethnic groups due to the breakdown of marriage.

The five indicators used to calculate the combined score include:

• percentage of adults married (ages 20-54)
• percentage of married persons “very happy” with their marriage (18 and up)
• percentage of first marriages intact (ages 20-59)
• percentage of births to married parents
• percentage of children living with their own married parents

Gallup reports a significant swing in Americans’ view of whether the “government should promote traditional values.” Last year’s numbers were 48% – 48%, the first time Gallup had reported anything but a majority in support of the question.. However, this year the numbers are 53% – 42%. Interestingly, the biggest shift in views come from Independents, who went from 37% – 55% favor/disfavor last year to a 54% – 40% favor/disfavor – an astounding turnaround.

Byron York, the political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, has a theory to explain the startling results:

“In the last few years, public opinion on the role of government was driven by the intense unpopularity of George W. Bush and the Republican Party as the party of traditional values – - even though they basically held to those traditional values in their own lives. Now, however, with a government completely controlled by Democrats, that is, by the anti-traditional values party – - in last year’s poll, Democrats were 60-37 against the government promoting traditional values – - the public has abruptly returned to its basic pro-traditional values position.” (emphasis added)

York points out that the Gallup survey shows that Americans are pretty much polling in favor of traditional values in the same numbers they did pre-2005, suggesting that Americans’ views overall have not changed. He says that Democrats have fundamentally missed the meaning of their 2008 election victories. The entire column is here.

Shifting from penguins, yet another media story focusing on purported homosexuality in the animal kingdom has surfaced – this time involving vultures in the Holy Land.

While it’s tempting to revisit the topic of “gay” penguins, we’ve already covered that base here.

Instead, what’s fascinating about this story – reported in Ha’Aretz from Israel and Fox News – is the unmistakably pro-gay media bias.

Specifically, both stories speak about Dashik and Yehuda – two male Griffon vultures – as having been a “gay vulture couple.” While Ha’Aretz offers details going back ten years, in neither story is there an explicit recognition that this “couple” is past tense and that there has quite evidently been a shift in the respective sexual orientations of these males – who have subsequently dated, mated and procreated with female vultures.

Indeed, this ex-gay perspective is conveniently ignored – lest the obvious get in the way of promoting the politically correct view that homosexuality is innate and unchangeable.

Even more striking is the portrayal by Fox News that Dashik and Yehuda had previously “fathered” a chick together – as if it were possible for two males, of any species, to physiologically reproduce. However, buried in the details of the Ha’aretz piece we see that Dashik and Yehuda were part of a program to reestablish their dwindling aviary species in Israel. Zoo keepers gave them an artificial egg some years ago to care for – one that was later replaced by a live chick with the apparent goal of training Dashik and Yehuda to nurture it.

Beyond this, Fox characterizes the breakup of Dashik and Yehuda as two gay males who have “gone back into the closet.” The implication here is that these carrion creatures are suppressing “who they really are” and “living in denial” – sentiments that align with invective hurled by gay activists at those today who choose to walk away from homosexuality and instead steward their sexuality in alignment with their values and faith.

The assumption reflected by these media outlets is known as the “essentialist” theory on homosexuality – a view which says that humans (and animals, apparently) are, somehow, at their essence, homosexual. Never mind that valid and reliable evidence to support this bias-driven theory continues to elude researchers.

Eighty-three percent of U.S. voters, says Rasmussen, want legislation to be posted online in final form and available for everyone to read before Congress votes on it. Eighty-three percent!

After rushing through a stimulus bill earlier this year that even legislators didn’t have time to read before voting, and demands by Democrats to do the same with healthcare earlier this summer, it’s no wonder that voters are distrustful of their elected representatives and want commonsense measures in place to keep Americans informed.

Rasmussen didn’t ask me, but count me in as well.

Policy: No sex while the other roommate is in the room, and no sexual activity should interfere with a roommate’s privacy, study, or sleep.

There’s obviously a problem at Tufts, and it’s not the only college facing such awkward dilemmas. In fact, on most Friday nights many college dormitories bear a greater resemblance to Chicago taverns and Nevada brothels than to supposed scholarly institutions.

Culture has transformed sex from a private, sacred act – within the confines of marriage – to a public display of privates, particularly in college dorms.

For those college students majoring in Libertine Dorm Sex, a bit of education may prove beneficial:

• About two-thirds of all college students are sexually active (yes, a third actually are not having sex), and one in three college students have had sex with six or more different people – yuck!
• Nearly two out of every five births are to unmarried women, and the majority of unwed pregnancies occur in college-age women, 20 to 24 years of age.
• HIV/AIDS incidence nearly triples from high school to college-aged populations. One-fourth of HIV/AIDS-infected people are undiagnosed, and most remain sexually active.
• HPV vaccines only protect women against four of the forty or so known strains of HPV (13 high-risk strains total), and condoms offer little to no protection against HPV’s genital warts and cervical cancer.

College students having sex should evaluate their risk of STD infection with the CDC’s STD Wizard.  Better yet, save sex for marriage!

The American Library Association (ALA) claims its annual Banned Books Week—being celebrated right now in public  and school libraries nationwide —is about “the freedom to read” and “open access” to ideas that are “unorthodox or unpopular.”

This provides an excellent opportunity for social conservatives to challenge the ALA to uphold its own principles. You can do that by simply going to your community library, or school library, and donating books that communicate a Christian and/or socially conservative perspective on hot-button issues like abortion and homosexuality.

Donating books is also a great way for your family to act as the “salt and light” in your community by giving others access to a redemptive perspective. Even though Banned Books Week officially ends after Oct. 3—your family can donate books any time of the year!

For  tips on how to donate books that offer alternative viewpoints, as well as information exposing the truth about ALA’s “banned books” claims, visit our new resource page.

Kelly Shackelford, an attorney and friend of Focus on the Family who heads up the Liberty Legal Institute in Texas, has agreed to defend Hannah Giles, the “prostitute” in the now-famous undercover investigatory videos now playing all over the blogosphere. Hannah and her fellow journalist James O’Keefe (who played Hannah’s “pimp” in the videos) attempted to seek tax help from ACORN in facilitating their sex trafficking “business.” (The videos are a “must see.” Just plug  “ACORN videos” into any internet search engine.) This is undercover watchdog journalism at its finest. The thought of taxpayer funding going to such an organization is revolting. More on Kelly, Hannah and the lawsuit at National Review Online’s “The Corner.”

See our CitizenLink story about the drop in the U.S. birthrate.  Great quotes from Steve Watters, director of marriage and parenting preparation at Focus on the Family.

The 2005 Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London caused a national uproar of sorts over the 5th Amendment issue of taking private property for a public use. The AP reports this week that the City of New London, CT’s grand scheme to sell Suzette Kelo’s and others’ land to a private developer who promised to build a big-old-wonderful-commercial-and-residential-tax-providing-economic-miracle for the city turned into a bust. The private developer couldn’t get financing. The land is still sitting there, vacant now but for the weeds. New London is getting zip by way of tax revenue from the property. And Suzette Kelo goes on with her life in a different home after spending 10 years of her life unsuccessfully fighting the city.

In one of those “supremely” aggravating 5-4 decisions from our highest court, the usual liberal offenders of the Constitution – Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer – decided that a city condemning private land to sell to a private developer in order to spruce it up and get more by way of tax revenue was just as much a “public use” for 5th Amendment purposes as taking the land in order to build a highway, or library, or airport. That reasoning was so popular that 40 states immediately passed laws forbidding it.

In dissent, Justice Thomas noted that the majority relied on a string of poorly reasoned precedents that strayed too far from the “original meaning” of the 5th Amendment:

When faced with a clash of constitutional principle and a line of unreasoned cases wholly divorced from the text, history, and structure of our founding document, we should not hesitate to resolve the tension in favor of the Constitution’s original meaning.

Original meaning. Kelo is just one more object lesson in why we should stick to the Constitution. Too late for Ms. Kelo, however.

Another post about the British, but this one has a positive spin. 

A newly-married British couple has taken to the road in search of answers for a successful marriage.  They are traveling by motorcyle and sidecar, interviewing couples of all ages in various countries along the Pan-American highway.  Let’s hope they hear quite a bit about the cornerstone of every marriage that goes the distance: three cheers for C-O-M-M-I-T-M-E-N-T! 

It’s impressive that this couple so desires lifelong marriage that they would go to these lengths to find ingredients for success (and a documentary).  It’s also striking that a young couple would consider the answers so elusive that an extended roadtrip is necessary. 

The working title for the documentary is “Going the Distance.”