World Family Policy Center Newsletter

World Family Policy Center Newsletter

* News relative to protecting the family worldwide *

Volume 4 Issue 13 - April 14, 2005

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Quote of the Day: “Where there is an unrestrained exposure to

one’s emotions and of one’s body, a parading of secrets, a

wonton intrusion of curiosity, [it has] become hard to express

tender feelings, feeling of respect, of awe, of idealization,

of reverence . . . The culture of shamelessness is also the culture

of irreverence, of debunking and devaluing ideals.”

—Leon Wurmser, psychiatrist (Parade Feb. 27, 2005, P. 5)

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Today’s Contents:

A. Featured Articles:

1. Kansas voters approve gay marriage ban

2. Annan: U.N. Needs New Human Rights Body

3. Christian Student Group Sues Ill. University

4. Lasting Strains from Foster-care Childhoods

5. How Gambling Can Affect Family Finances

6. Egg Freezing May Offer Fertility Freedom

7. Outpouring for Pope masks Europe's spiritual crisis

B. Coming Events

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FEATURED ARTICLES

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1. Kansas Voters Approve Gay Marriage Ban

Constitutional amendment wins by big margin

The Associated Press

Updated: 1:14 a.m. ET April 6, 2005

TOPEKA, Kan. - Voters in Kansas overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday banning same-sex couples from marrying or entering into civil unions.

With 97 percent of the vote reported, 395,468, or 71 percent, voted “yes,” and 163,766, or 29 percent, voted “no.”

Gay marriage is already banned under Kansas law, and the law is not being challenged. But supporters of the ballot measure said the ban must be in the Kansas Constitution to insulate it from legal challenge.

To read entire article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7399375/

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2. Annan: U.N. Needs New Human Rights Body

By Bradley S. Klapper

Associated Press Writer

April 6, 2005

GENEVA (AP) -- The United Nations needs a new, permanent human rights body if it is to prevent appalling suffering around the world, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday.

Speaking at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Annan said that the world body is failing to protect against human rights abuses, particularly in Sudan's conflict-ravaged Darfur region, and should be replaced by a council with greater authority.

We have reached a point at which the commission's declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole and where piecemeal reforms will not be enough," Annan told delegates.

"The commission's ability to perform its tasks has been overtaken by new needs and undermined by the politicization of its sessions and the selectivity of its work," Annan said.

As part of a package of reforms unveiled last month, the secretary-general proposed a human rights council to replace the present commission. The new council would be a permanent body, possibly on a par with the Security Council.

As a standing organ of the United Nations, the body would meet when necessary, addressing human rights violations as they arise. At present, the commission can only address issues during its annual six-week session.

To read entire article:

http://ap.washingtontimes.com/dynamic/stories/U/UN_ANNAN_RIGHTS?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME

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3. Christian Student Group Sues Ill. University

April 06, 2005

FoxNews.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. — A law school student group that requires members to pledge to adhere to Christian beliefs — including a prohibition against homosexuality — has sued Southern Illinois University (search) for refusing to recognize the organization.

A chapter of the national Christian Legal Society (search) at the university's law school filed the lawsuit Tuesday in federal court, alleging school officials violated the group's constitutional rights (search), including the right to free speech, by revoking its status March 25.

To read entire article:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152703,00.html

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4. Lasting Strains from Foster-care Childhoods

Half of all 'alums' of the turbulent foster-care system have mental health problems, a broad new study finds.

By Alexandra Marks

The Christian Science Monitor

April 7, 2005

NEW YORK – For the first time, researchers are beginning to understand the pivotal mechanisms that help children in foster care thrive after they've undergone the double trauma of being abused by a loved parent and then forcibly removed from home.

The key has turned out to be "foster care alumni" - the adults who as children survived a system that is often overwhelmed, underfunded, and lacking enough caring homes to take in an estimated 800,000 US children each year.

A look at the lives and early experiences of these alumni provides a view that is at once stunning and disturbing, but ultimately hopeful because their stories provide the tools needed to ensure that more foster children flourish as adults.

While about 20 percent of foster care alumni are doing well, graduating from school and succeeding in their professional lives, more than half, 54 percent, have what doctors diagnose as mental health problems, from depression to anxiety.

To read entire article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0407/p02s01-usgn.html

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5. How Gambling Can Affect Family Finances

Though disputed, new study finds personal bankruptcies rise after a casino has been in town for several years.

By Alexandra Marks

The Christian Science Monitor

April 7, 2005

NEW YORK – When a casino operator wants to set up shop in town, he usually comes equipped with an array of economic studies touting the great boon in business and tax revenues to expect once the slot machines and blackjack tables are set up and the roulette wheel starts spinning.

But as the nation's states and localities become ever more dependent on gambling to keep their revenue coffers full - some for as much as 10 percent of revenues - an increasing number of studies are raising questions about the losing side of that equation.

The most recent, released this week, has found that when a casino comes to town, personal bankruptcies do decrease slightly, but only in the short term. After it's been up and operating for nine years, then personal bankruptcies increase at a rate of 2 percentage points each year, compared with counties where there is no gambling.

"What this suggests is that in a lot of communities, the full impact of bankruptcy and the negative consequences of gambling are yet to be felt," says Edward Morse, a law professor at Creighton University School of Law in Omaha, Neb. "This is especially true as casinos continue to proliferate."

To read entire article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0408/p02s01-ussc.html

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6. Egg Freezing May Offer Fertility Freedom

April 08, 2005

By Darragh Worland

It may sound as far-fetched as cryogenics (search), the deep-freeze technique whereby baseball great Ted Williams' body was submerged in liquid nitrogen in a post-mortem attempt at cheating death.

But the technology of egg freezing (search), which allows young women to harvest and preserve their fresh, healthy eggs for later-in-life pregnancies, is not so much science fiction as it is the latest fertility frontier in cheating Mother Nature.

At least one ambitious entrepreneur is betting that the technology will lead to a reproductive revolution.

To read entire article:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152545,00.html

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7. Outpouring for Pope masks Europe's spiritual crisis

by Mona Charen

April 8, 2005

They stood in a line that stretched at least a mile, sometimes 30 abreast. Huddled in blankets in the evening cold, and gratefully accepting bottled water from priests patrolling the line during the hot daylight hours, the mourners -- who wanted one last glimpse of Pope John Paul II -- waited patiently for as long as 12 hours. The funeral of this modern pope has become the greatest Christian pilgrimage of all time. Accordingly, images out of Rome this week give the impression of a still-vibrant European Christianity.

And yet, this outpouring, fattened by the presence of 2 million Poles, is somewhat misleading. For while believers have not disappeared (particularly in the newly free countries of Eastern Europe), they have become a distinct minority in a continent that is decidedly post-Christian.

George Weigel, the theologian who produced John Paul II's masterful authorized biography "Witness to Hope," has a new slender volume out that addresses Europe's sickness of the soul. In "The Cube and the Cathedral," Weigel begins with a series of questions that limn the problem:

What accounts for disturbing currents of irrationality in contemporary European politics? Why did one of every five Germans (and one third of those under 30) believe that the United States was responsible for 9-11, while some 300,000 French men and women made a best-seller out of 'The Appalling Fraud,' in which author Thierry Meyssan argued that the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by the U.S. military. ... Why is European productivity dwindling? ... Why does Sweden have a considerably higher level of its population living below the poverty line ... than the United States? ... Above all ... why is Europe committing demographic suicide, systematically depopulating itself in what British historian Niall Ferguson calls the 'greatest sustained reduction in European population since the Black Death of the 14th century'? What is happening when an entire continent, wealthier and healthier than ever before, declines to create the human future in the most elemental sense, by creating a next generation?

To read entire article:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/monacharen/mc20050408.shtml

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COMING EVENTS

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Sixth World Family Policy Forum

July 11 - 13, 2005

Provo, Utah

Sponsored by the World Family Policy Center, Brigham Young University. The theme for this year’s Forum is “Building on Doha: Marriage and Parenting in the Third Millennium.” Participation and attendance at the Forum is by invitation only. For further information, contact Emily Parks 801-422-8549.

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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

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circulated through the WFPC News network, you may submit them to

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