World Family Policy Center Newsletter

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Today’s Contents:

A. Featured Scholar: Michelle L. Kelley, Ph.D.: Fathers’ and

Mothers’ Work and Family Issues as Related to Internalizing

and Externalizing Behavior of Children Attending Day Care

B. Featured News Articles

1. Mass. lawmakers vote on gay marriage

2. U.S. out of love with marriage? [Part one of four]

Part Two: Selling couples on marriage

Part Three: Work making way for family life

Part Four: 'For better or for worse' takes a lot of work

3. Opponents of stem cell research see worst fears realized in the Ukraine.

4. 'Exported' Strategy Falls Flat in Irish Lesbians' Marriage Case

Related Article: Despite laws, gay wedding industry booms

5. Marriage and family, circa 2006

6. Attorney Regrets Georgia School Board's Decision to Settle

With Darwinists

7. Pro-Life Student Sues Virginia School for Prohibiting Abortion Fliers

C. Coming Events:

• World Congress of Families IV - Warsaw, Poland

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FEATURED SCHOLAR

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Michelle L. Kelley, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Developmental Psychology University of Houston, Old Dominion University:

Fathers’ and Mothers’ Work and Family Issues as Related to Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior of Children Attending Day Care

Relationships between work and family variables and children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior are examined in 132 dual-earner couples of preschool-age children. Mothers’ and fathers’ parenting stress and mothers’ work-family conflict predict children’s internalizing behavior; mothers’ work-family conflict, mothers’ and fathers’ parenting stress, the number of hours fathers’ worked, and mothers’ beliefs about father involvement predict externalizing symptoms in children. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of mothers’ and fathers’ work and family issues for children’s behavior.

Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 27, No. 2, 252-270 (2006)

DOI: 10.1177/0192513X05280992

For more information:

http://jfi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/2/25

or contact Professor Kelley at Mkelley@odu.edu

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FEATURED NEWS ARTICLES

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1. Mass. lawmakers vote on gay marriage

By STEVE LeBLANC

Associated Press

January 2, 2007

BOSTON - In a suspense-filled final day of the legislative session, Massachusetts lawmakers kept alive a proposed constitutional amendment Tuesday that would put a stop to gay marriage in the only state that allows same-sex couples to wed.

The vote came after weeks of mounting legal and political pressure on legislators from both sides in the debate.

With a combination of parliamentary maneuvering, flip-flopping and brinksmanship, lawmakers gave the first round of approval necessary for the amendment to appear on the ballot in 2008. The measure still needs the endorsement of the next legislative session.

If the amendment makes it onto the ballot and residents approve it, it will leave Massachusetts' 8,000 existing gay marriages intact but ban any new ones.

"This is democracy in action. It's not a vengeance campaign. It's not a hate campaign. It's just an opportunity for the people to vote," said Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a conservative group that opposes gay marriage.

To read entire article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070102/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage

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2. U.S. out of love with marriage?

By Cheryl Wetzstein [Part one of four]

The Washington Times

December 26, 2006

Americans seem to be swirling in a mist of confusion about family life. In many ways, they crave a world in which marriage and children are the pinnacles of life. But year after year, the country seems to be inching toward a culture in which adult pleasures and pastimes have a higher value than monogamy and minivans.

In this series, The Washington Times examines the changing views of marriage and what institutions such as religious groups, government and businesses are doing to preserve it.

"Too many young Americans are growing up with a radically wrong view of life," Paul M. Weyrich recently wrote in an article for the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative think tank that he founded. "They view marriage as a temporary bond between a man and a woman or, I fear, increasingly between a member of their own sex."

What children need is a "mother and father who honor their commitment to remain united 'for better or for worse,' and who instill a respect for God, their religion, their family and work," Mr. Weyrich wrote.

However, others see "family diversity," "good divorce," "childless by choice," same-sex "marriage" and "happily unmarried to each other" as inevitable and even culturally enriching options.

"It's time for all levels of society to adapt to reality: Stop penalizing people who don't conform to a rigid institution," said Nicky Grist, executive director of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, a group that advocates on behalf of "healthy relationships in all their diversity."

The question becomes: Can the model of marriage, in which one man and one woman raise their children together in a lifelong, loving union, survive in a culture that increasingly practices -- and approves of -- nonmarital sexual lifestyles and childbearing?

To read entire article:

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20061225-110521-7315r_page2.htm

Work making way for family life

Part Two: Selling couples on marriage

By Jon Ward

The Washington Times

December 27, 2006

[M]odern culture continues to question the definition and validity of marriage.

"Increasingly, it is not obvious to our young people, the singles, the twenty-somethings, why they should go ahead and get married," said Michael Lawrence, associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in the District. "That case has to be made."

Peter Murphy, family life director for the Archdiocese of Washington, agreed.

"The images of marriage are very negative," he said. "Couples think it's going to restrict their freedom. ... There is fear of commitment to something long term in a culture that is so short term and noncommittal."

In response, some churches are teaching more often and more robustly about marriage and challenging teens and singles on their attitudes about marriage.

To read entire article:

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061227-120626-4327r.htm

Part Three: Work making way for family life

By Gregory Lopes

The Washington Times

December 28, 2006

The daily grind is losing a bit of its bite.

Instead of 9-to-5 schedules, a growing number of Americans work personalized schedules that allow them to fulfill the responsibilities of their home lives while balancing the demands of their jobs.

Creating a positive work environment for married people has become a priority for both the employee and employer, according to pro-marriage organizations such as the Alliance for Marriage and the Families and Work Institute. An unbalanced work and family life can significantly increase the odds of marital instability and divorce, which can hurt employees' production, researchers said.

To read entire article:

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061228-121822-4132r.htm

Part Four: 'For better or for worse' takes a lot of work

By Gabriella Boston

The Washington Times

December 29, 2006

The risk for divorce in first marriages is about 50 percent. For second marriages, the rate of divorce is even higher.

"It's true, the risk is about 50 percent overall, but for some segments of the population, it is much lower," said David Popenoe of the National Marriage Project, which analyzes the state of marriage in America.

For example, the risk drops by 30 percent if the household income is more than $50,000; another risk reducer is some college education; a third one is having been raised in an intact two-parent household, according to the National Marriage Project.

"We call it the 'marriage gap,' " said Mr. Popenoe, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "For the college-educated segment, the institution of marriage has gained strength. ... For everyone else, it continues to weaken."

To read entire article:

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061229-122641-5774r.htm

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3. Opponents of stem cell research see worst fears realized in the Ukraine.

by Ryan T. Anderson

Weekly Standard

December 28, 2006

The Drudge Report recently highlighted a shocking story from the BBC that centered on "disturbing video footage" of "dismembered tiny bodies." "Healthy new-born babies" in the Ukraine, "the self-styled stem cell capital of the world," have allegedly been killed "to feed a flourishing international trade in stem cells."

Apparently this isn't an isolated problem. The Council of Europe "describes a general culture of trafficking of children snatched at birth, and a wall of silence from hospital staff upwards over their fate." Imagine the horror of young mothers who "gave birth to healthy babies, only to have them taken by maternity staff." What happened to these newborns was anybody's guess, but recent footage obtained by the BBC may provide insight into their fate: "The pictures show organs, including brains, have been stripped--and some bodies dismembered."

The BBC report comes as a complete shock to most readers. But to those steeped in biotech news and bioethical literature, the latest out of the Ukraine is only a partial shock. While no one expected baby-snatching in maternity wards, it seemed inevitable that the business of stem cell research would, at some point, produce an abomination of this kind.

At least publicly, supporters of various embryo-, fetus-, or infant-killing programs have always argued that these options were reluctantly chosen, out of dire necessity, and only on the least-human of subjects--so-called "spare" embryos, "unwanted" pregnancies, and gravely disabled newborns.

And so at first the abortion lobby argued that fetuses aren't human. Then, as embryology and developmental biology decisively demonstrated that an unborn child is most definitely a complete, though immature, human being, the rhetoric shifted to discussions of competing rights and interests between the mother and her unborn child, along with appeals to the right to privacy. It was conceded that the decision for abortion is tragic, and, though it entails the ending of a life, sometimes it is an absolutely necessary result of the conflicting needs between the mother and child. And it was insisted that it is best if doctors and women are allowed to adjudicate these situations, in private, for themselves.

Intellectual defenders of abortion painted a picture of simply ceasing a pregnancy: The unborn child has no inalienable right to inhabit the mother's womb. A woman doesn't make a choice to kill, simply a choice to end pregnancy--to remove the unwanted baby from her body. Her body, her choice.

Yet this didn't prove to be satisfactory. The further claim was made that the "right" to an abortion consisted in the right to an "effective abortion." And an effective abortion entails not the ending of a pregnancy, but the death of a child. Witness the phenomena of partial-birth abortion and born-alive abortion.

But the issue of stem cell research can not appeal to any of these claims of women's welfare, privacy, or "the right to choose." Though the case of embryonic stem cells doesn't pose a direct competition of rights or interests--unborn embryos do not pose a threat to anyone--public arguments were made about competing interests of patients: "You pro-lifers are favoring embryos over Parkinson's victims." When these arguments prove ineffective, defenders of embryo-destructive research turn to a utilitarian one: embryos can be put to better use as raw material for biomedical research.

To read entire article:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/103ocomz.asp

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4. 'Exported' Strategy Falls Flat in Irish Lesbians' Marriage Case

By Ed Thomas and Fred Jackson

AgapePress

December 21, 2006

An attorney for a pro-family First Amendment law firm says a decision by the High Court of Ireland rejecting recognition of same-sex "marriage" was affirmed on several points similar to those in U.S. law -- and defused a strategy that's now being explored outside of America.

Ireland's High Court last week rejected a bid by a legally married lesbian couple to have that marriage recognized in Ireland. The two women were legally married in Canada and subsequently returned to their home in Ireland to argue that, because homosexual marriage is internationally accepted, the Irish marriage law should be re-evaluated.

But Justice Elizabeth Dunne rejected that argument, saying marriage was understood under the 1937 Irish Constitution to be confined to persons of the opposite sex. She further stated that "having regard to the clear understanding of the meaning of marriage in the numerous authorities opened to the court ... I do not see how marriage can be redefined by the court to encompass same-sex marriage."

In her 138-page ruling, Justice Dunne also expressed concern about the effect of same-sex marriage on children, saying the lack of conclusive research into the results of homosexual parenting made it necessary to reserve judgment on the issue.

To read entire article:

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/12/212006b.asp

Related Article: Despite laws, gay wedding industry booms

By Dionne Walker, The Associated Press

USA Today

December 25, 2006

RICHMOND, Va. — He's no celebrity, but when Phillip McKee III tied the knot in September, he did it with all the pomp and circumstance of an A-lister: Custom-designed gold rings, a $2,000 kilt and a caviar-and-crepe reception at a five-star hotel.

McKee, 34, sank some $60,000 into his Scottish-themed nuptials, worth it he says for the chance to stand before a minister and be pronounced husband — and husband.

Even as lawmakers across the nation debate legislation banning same-sex marriage, couples are uniting in weddings both miniature and massive, fueling a growing industry peddling everything from pink triangle invitations to same-sex cake toppers.

Vendors say attention to the marriage issue has encouraged more gay couples to recognize their relationships, though in most states, the ceremonies are purely sentimental.

"For the longest time, there was so much shame and privacy around it that people didn't really give themselves permission to have ceremonies like this," said Kathryn Hamm, an Arlington-based wedding consultant who planned McKee's marriage to partner Nopadon Woods. "(Now) the market is growing as the headlines remain out there."

Unlike the multibillion dollar traditional wedding industry, experts say the gay wedding business is harder to track. Some estimates place its value at up to $1 billion.

In 2005, gays spent $7.2 million with vendors found at the Rainbow Wedding Network website, according to data collected by the site, which publishes a national magazine and hosts wedding expos. That's up from $2.1 million in 2002, according to Cindy Sproul, who co-owns the North Carolina firm.

To read entire article: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2006-12-25-gay-weddings_x.htm

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5. Marriage and family, circa 2006

Today's Editorial

Washington Times

December 27, 2006

As the year draws to a close, the National Marriage Project's "State of Our Unions 2006" examination of the state of marriage in America today reveals a mixed picture. Several of the worst trends of the 1960s and 1970s appear to have abated -- with some even beginning a reverse -- but the most important trend, the proportion of married Americans, continues to decline. So do some important others.

The negative trends include a rise in births to unmarried women, a rise in the number of single-parent households, a decline in attitudes favorable to marriage and the persistence of a historically low fertility rate which, though improving slightly, is still below replacement level.

In total, 55 percent of all persons over the age of 15 were married, down from 57.9 percent in 2000. Six years ago there were 46.5 marriages per thousand in the United States; by 2004, that number had fallen to 40.2. Breaking the numbers down by ethnic and racial grouping shows another discouraging trend, an even steeper decline in marriage among black Americans. Only 37.9 percent of black men are married and 30.2 percent of women, down from 42.8 and 36.2 percent respectively in 2000.

The percentage of children in households with two parents continues to fall. In 2006, 69 percent of all children under the age of 18 lived with both parents. That number is now 67 percent in the most current data (2004). The percentage of live births to unmarried women increased at an even greater pace: From 33.2 percent in 2000 to 35.7 in 2004.

The loss of "child-centeredness." One of the most troubling findings is the rise of attitudes highly disfavorable of married parenthood. "[L]ife with children is experienced as a disruption in the life course rather than one of its defining purposes," the authors write. "[I]t is life before and after children that American culture now portrays as the most satisfying years of adulthood."

To read entire article:

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20061226-093746-7931r.htm

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6. Attorney Regrets Georgia School Board's Decision to Settle With Darwinists

By Jim Brown

AgapePress

December 27, 2006

A constitutional attorney is expressing disappointment over a Georgia school district's decision to drop its efforts to expose students to the debate surrounding Darwinian evolution. The Cobb County School Board has abandoned its fight for a warning sticker in its biology textbooks that called evolution "a theory, not a fact."

In addition, the Cobb County School District's warning stickers stated that the material on evolution contained in the science textbooks "should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered." But despite what many supporters considered the accuracy and reasonableness of the stickers, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit on behalf of some local parents, arguing that the evolution disclaimer violated the so-called "separation of church and state," because the warning -- according to the plaintiffs' pretrial brief -- "singles out one scientific theory for disfavored treatment and supports religious theories."

Recently the Cobb County School Board settled the lawsuit and agreed not to edit materials on evolution in school textbooks. But Brian Fahling, senior litigation counsel at the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy (AFA Law Center), says he wishes the board had chosen to stay the course and fight to keep the stickers.

Fahling acknowledges that a number of factors can influence a school district's decision to cave in to pro-Darwinist pressure in a situation like this, including fiscal considerations and even "just a weariness that sets in," along with concerns over the fact that taxpayer dollars are having to be spent to defend the district's position.

Many times, he contends, school officials begin to ask themselves why they don't "just fold up the tent and go home," and that, unfortunately, is what happened in the case of the Cobb County School Board's decision to settle.

"Of course, I think that it's a disservice to the community overall," the AFA Law Center spokesman observes. "Evolution stands out alone as the only area of science that is absolutely cordoned off from any criticism," he says; "there is a great wall around it and they simply do not admit any dissenting voices."

To read entire article:

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/12/272006a.asp

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7. Pro-Life Student Sues Virginia School for Prohibiting Abortion Fliers

by Steven Ertelt

LifeNews

December 22, 2006

Harrisonburg, VA (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-life student prevented from distributing pro-life literature during a national pro-life day for students has filed a lawsuit against the Virginia school that limited his free speech rights. Andrew Raker was censored for distributing pro-life leaflets on campus during the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity.

On October 24, Raker wore a pro-life T-shirt and distributed postcard-size fliers in support of the pro-life day where students take a vow of silence to "speak up" for unborn children killed in abortions.

The following day, he was pulled from class by Millbrook High School’s principal and told that his literature distribution would no longer be permitted because other students might object or consider the materials to be religious in nature.

The principal also threatened to make him remove his pro-life T-shirt and spoke against his desire to start a pro-life group on campus.

Raker has previously distributed literature for years without any disruption or complaints.

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life law firm, filed a complaint and motion for preliminary injunction today against officials of the Frederick County Public Schools on Raker's behalf.

“The free speech rights of Christian and pro-life students do not end at the schoolhouse gate,” said ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman.

“Students are capable of freely handing a leaflet to their classmates in a non-disruptive manner. Much ignorance exists about what the Constitution really says about this," Bowman added. "Millbrook’s policy is hostile toward our client’s viewpoint against abortion, and it cannot be allowed to continue.”

To read entire article:

http://www.lifenews.com/state02006.html

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COMING EVENTS

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WORLD CONGRESS OF FAMILIES IV

Warsaw, Poland - May 11-13, 2007

Meeting in Rockford, Illinois (October 23-25, 2005), a planning committee of the World Congress of Families chose Warsaw, Poland as the site of the 4th World Congress. The Warsaw Congress will be held May 11-13, 2007 in the Palace of Culture and Science.

The Polish Federation of Pro-Life Movements, an organization with over 130 affiliates throughout the nation, will serve as the local host for WCF IV.

The Congress theme will be “The Natural Family: Springtime for Europe and the World.” Sub-themes will include:

1. We Will Renew Cultures of Marriage

2. We Will Celebrate More Babies and Larger Families

3. We Will Nurture Free, Vital, and Productive Homes.

For more information: Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.

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Note: The Featured Articles 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 (www.worldfamilypolicy.org)

J. Reuben Clark Law School

Brigham Young University

Acting Managing Director: A. Scott Loveless

Newsletter Editors: Joy S. Lundberg and Gary B. Lundberg

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