World Family Policy Center Newsletter
* News
relative to protecting the family worldwide *
Volume 3 Issue 43 - November 16, 2004
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Quote of the Day: “Erase
all thought and fear of God from a
community, and selfishness and sensuality would absorb
the
whole man.”
—
William Ellery Channing
as
quoted in The Family in America, March 31, 2004
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Today’s Contents:
A. Featured Articles:
1. Arkansas
Governor Pushes Covenant Marriages
2. In
Texas, a Stand to Teach 'Abstinence Only' in Sex Ed
3. TV and
Children: Tuning In to a Problem
4. Liberal
Christians Challenge 'Values Vote'
5. Pro-Life
Groups Applaud Guilty Verdict in Scott Peterson Murder Trial
B. Coming Events
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FEATURED ARTICLES
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1. Arkansas Governor Pushes Covenant
Marriages
November 09, 2004
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Gov. Mike Huckabee (search) and
his wife plan to convert their nuptial vows into a covenant marriage (search)
during a mass ceremony on Valentine's Day, giving a public push to the movement
that seeks to strengthen marital ties and make it harder to get divorced.
The governor, a former Baptist minister, said Monday
he hopes more than 1,000 other couples will join him for the conversion
ceremony at a North Little Rock arena. Arkansas has one of the highest divorce
rates (search) in the country.
Covenant marriages, which also are an option in
Louisiana and Arizona, usually require pre-wedding counseling and allow divorce
only in cases of adultery, imprisonment, abandonment, abuse and after a
substantial waiting period.
To read entire article:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137995,00.html
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2. In Texas, a Stand to Teach 'Abstinence Only' in Sex Ed
By Stacy A. Teicher
The Christian Science Monitor
Presidential politics isn't the only realm where the
Texas way prevails. As a heavyweight in the $4.3 billion textbook market, the
state puts its stamp on materials bound for many of the nation's classrooms.
On Friday, two messages came through loud and clear as
the State Board of Education voted on a new list of approved health books: That
abstinence should be taught without any textbook discussion of contraception.
And that the books should be explicit about marriage as a union between a man
and a woman.
Texas is one of 21 states with a centralized process
to review textbooks, but it's the second-biggest market. "If [interest]
groups can be successful in California and Texas in getting some restrictions
as to what content is covered, that will have a major influence on textbooks
that are sold nationally," says Martha McCarthy, chancellor's professor of
education at Indiana University in Bloomington.
To read entire article:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1109/p12s01-legn.html
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3. TV and Children: Tuning In to a
Problem
A Worried Mom Pursues the Facts About What TV Does to
Its Youngest Viewers
By Lisa Guernsey
The Washington Post
November 9, 2004
In April, a study appeared in the journal Pediatrics
that gave new parents another reason to lose sleep: Evidence had emerged that
children who had watched a lot of television as toddlers were having attention
problems at age 7.
While I read the study, my 3-month-old daughter
Gillian was strapped into her bouncy chair, which happened to be facing the TV.
The set was turned on for my 26-month-old daughter, Janelle, who had taken a
liking to "Playhouse Disney."
New data on TV use among the very young had made news
a few months earlier. Nearly 60 percent of children under 2 watch television in
a typical day; 43 percent watch every day, the Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation reported. Twenty-six percent of children in that age group have a
television in their bedroom.
To read entire article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35188-2004Nov8.html?sub=AR
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4. Liberal Christians Challenge 'Values Vote'
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
November 10, 2004
Liberal Christian leaders argued yesterday that the
moral values held by most Americans are much broader than the handful of issues
emphasized by religious conservatives in the 2004 presidential campaign.
Battling the notion that "values voters"
swept President Bush to victory because of opposition to gay marriage and
abortion, three liberal groups released a post-election poll in which 33
percent of voters said the nation's most urgent moral problem was "greed
and materialism" and 31 percent said it was "poverty and economic
justice." Sixteen percent cited abortion, and 12 percent named same-sex
marriage.
But the religious leaders acknowledged that the
Christian right had reached more voters than the Christian left. Some said it
was time for "moderate and progressive" religious groups, as well as
the Democratic Party, to rethink their positions.
To read entire article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38001-2004Nov9.html
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5. Pro-Life Groups Applaud Guilty Verdict
in Scott Peterson Murder Trial
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 12, 2004
Redwood City, CA —
Pro-life groups on Friday applauded the guilty verdict that convicted
Scott Peterson of double murder in the trial over the deaths of his wife and
unborn son, Laci and Conner Peterson. The Peterson case and controversy
generated additional support for laws that protect pregnant women from acts of
violence.
Carrie Gordon Earl of Focus on the Family said the
Peterson verdict, "is further evidence of the growing shift in U.S. law
regarding protection for all human life, including young humans who still
reside in their mother's wombs."
California has an unborn victims law that allows
prosecutors to charge criminals with two crimes when they kill or injure an
unborn child in the course of an attack against the pregnant mother.
The outcry over the deaths of Laci and Conner also
prompted Congress to pass the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as
Laci and Conner's Law. The measure, which protects mothers and their babies
throughout pregnancy, was signed into law by President Bush in April.
To read entire article:
http://www.lifenews.com/nat957c.html
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COMING EVENTS
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November 29-30, 2004
The Doha International Conference for the
Family
Doha, Qatar
The Doha International Conference for the Family
follows upon the
celebration of the International Year of the Family
and will be a
two-day conference in Doha, Qatar, under the patronage
of Her
Highness Sheikha Mouza Bint Nasser Al-Misnad., Consort
of His
Highness The Emir of Qatar and President of Supreme
Council for
Family Affairs, State of Qatar.
The conference represents an international assemblage,
bringing
together international VIPs, governmental and
non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), scholars, academicians, and
civil society
leaders who will be invited by the State of Qatar to
participate in
a family conference.
This conference will call upon all nations of
the world to restate the principles related to family
life embodied
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to
adhere to
values and endeavor to promote the role of the family
as it is the
natural and fundamental group unit of society and is
entitled to
protection by society and state.
To register online: www.dicf.org.qa
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Note: The preceding article excerpts are highlights of
current events and
do not necessarily represent the views of the World
Family Policy Center
or Brigham Young University.
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Newsletter created and distributed by:
World Family Policy Center
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University
Managing Director:
Richard Wilkins
Executive Director:
A. Scott Loveless
Newsletter Editors: Joy S. Lundberg and Gary B.
Lundberg
If you have any articles, editorials, or papers you
would like
circulated through the WFPC News network, you may
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lundberg@lawgate.byu.edu
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