World Family Policy Center Newsletter
*News relative to protecting the family worldwide*
Volume 7 Issue 152 - June 19, 2007
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Quote of the
Day:
"The home gives us our greatest chance to
align our public and private
behavior, to reduce the hypocrisy in
our lives—home life is high
adventure! Life in a family means
we are known as we are, that
our frailties are exposed and,
hopefully, we then correct
them."
— Neal A. Maxwell
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Today’s Contents:
A. Featured Scholar: David C. Dollahite
B. Featured News Articles
1. Gays aim to expand Massachusetts 'marriages'
Related Article: New York Assembly Poised to Pass
Gay-Marriage Bill
2. Rice: Human Trafficking Is 'Modern-day Slavery'
3. House Bill Aims to Curb Indecent TV Programs
4. President Bush to Veto Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Bill Wednesday
C. Coming Events
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FEATURED SCHOLAR: David
C. Dollahite
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David C.
Dollahite, professor School of Family
Life, Brigham Young University, Ph,D. Family Social Science Univ of Minnesota
St Paul 1988 , MS Marriage & Family Therapy Brigham Young University
1985, BA Family Living Brigham Young
University 1983
Forsaking All Others: How Religious Involvement Promotes Marital
Fidelity in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Couples
Abstract:
This study reports
results from in-depth interviews with 57 highly religious, middle-aged married
couples from the major Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) living
in New England and Northern California. Grounded theory was employed to create
a conceptual model describing the ways that religious couples draw on their
beliefs and practices to stay faithful to their marital vows. Couples reported that
religion promoted marital fidelity in four important ways: (1) religious belief
and practice sanctified their marriage and thereby improved marital quality,
which indirectly promoted fidelity; (2) religious vows and involvement
fortified marital commitment to fidelity; (3) religion strengthened couples’
moral values, which promoted fidelity in marriage; (4) religious involvement
improved spouses’ relationship with God, which encouraged them to avoid actions
such as infidelity that they believed would displease God.
For
more information contact Dr. Dollahite at david_dollahite@byu.edu
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FEATURED NEWS ARTICLES
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1. Gays aim
to expand Massachusetts 'marriages'
By Cheryl Wetzstein
The Washington Times
June 17, 2007
The defeat of a Massachusetts
marriage amendment last week may re-energize efforts to repeal a law blocking
same-sex couples from out of state from "marrying" there, warns the
leader of a group that seeks to protect marriage in the U.S. Constitution.
The larger goal of
homosexual-rights activists has always been to redefine marriage at the
national level, said Matt Daniels, president and founder of the Alliance for
Marriage.
If Massachusetts lawmakers
repeal the legal barrier to marriage in their state, same-sex couples from
across the nation will travel there, get "married" and sue in federal
court to strike down any laws or state amendments in their home states that
protect traditional marriage, Mr. Daniels said. The goal, he added, is to make
Massachusetts' same-sex "marriage" policy "the new social norm
for America."
Massachusetts has allowed
same-sex "marriage" since a 2003 court ruling; however, a 1913 law
blocks couples from marrying in Massachusetts if they cannot marry in their
home states. Because no other state allows same-sex "marriage," this
law has effectively restricted same-sex "marriage" to couples who
live in Massachusetts.
On Thursday, the state
legislature voted 151-45 to kill a citizen-supported amendment aimed at ending
same-sex "marriage." Lawmakers are expected to move quickly to strike
the 1913 law, Mr. Daniels said, adding that the Democrat-led Congress is
unlikely to do anything to discourage the de facto opening of same-sex
"marriage" to the nation.
Lawmakers have filed bills to
repeal the 1913 law, and Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray
and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, all Democrats, have said they support
such a repeal.
Same-sex "marriage"
supporters will find resistance in legal arenas.
In 1996, Congress passed the
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) explicitly to prevent one state from
unilaterally exporting same-sex "marriage" to other states. Forty
states have passed their own DOMAs, and voters in 27 states have amended their
constitutions to outlaw same-sex "marriages."
To read entire article:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070616-105549-9183r.htm
Related
Article: New York Assembly Poised to Pass Gay-Marriage Bill
CitizenLink, June 12, 2007
The
New York Assembly is set to pass legislation to legalize gay marriage within
the next two weeks, The New York Sun reported.
"It's
very likely that we will pass it this session," said Assemblyman Richard
Gottfried, chairman of the Health Committee.
In
April, Gov. Eliot Spitzer introduced a program bill that would legalize
same-sex marriage. Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, brother of Rosie O'Donnell, is
the main sponsor of the Assembly bill.
"I
think it's very important for the overall fight for equality that it does come
to the floor," he said.
The
Coalition to Save Marriage in New York said the bill would completely redefine
the bedrock institution of marriage in an effort to please a special-interest
group.
"Our
state government should do everything possible to strengthen and reinforce the
institution of marriage," the group said in a statement. "The proposed
legislation would do the opposite."
To read entire article:
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLBriefs/A000004822.cfm
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2. Rice: Human Trafficking
Is 'Modern-day Slavery'
NewsMax.com, June 12, 2007
The Bush
administration on Tuesday added seven nations, including several key U.S.
allies in the Middle East, to its human trafficking blacklist for failing to
halt what it called the scourge of "modern-day slavery."
Countries on the list are subject to possible sanctions for not doing
enough to stop the yearly flow of some 800,000 people, 80 percent of them
female and more than half of them children, across international borders for
the sex trade and other forms of forced and indentured labor.
Among U.S. friends getting a failing grade were Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and
Qatar, which along with Algeria, Equatorial Guinea and Malaysia joined for the
first time perennial offenders like Myanmar (Burma), Cuba, Iran, North Korea
and Syria in the State Department's annual "Trafficking in Persons Report."
Sixteen states in all - four more than in 2006 - were given so-called
"Tier 3" status in the 236-page survey of global efforts to combat
trafficking in people, many of whom are seeking to escape poverty in Eastern
Europe, South and Southeast Asia and are sold into the commercial sex trade,
manual labor or mistreated as domestics.
Despite the
additions, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said "more and more
countries are coming to see human trafficking for what it is - a modern-day
form of slavery that devastates families and communities around the
world."
"We hope this
report encourages responsible nations across the globe to stand together, to
speak with one voice and to say that freedom and security are nonnegotiable
demands of human dignity, and to say ... 'No one is fit to be a master and no
one deserves to be a slave,'" she told reporters.
To read entire article:
http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/6/12/120102.shtml?s=ic
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3. House Bill Aims to
Curb Indecent TV Programs
NewsMax.com Wires,
June 15, 2007
WASHINGTON --
Lawmakers introduced a bill on Thursday aimed at protecting children from
indecent television programs by forcing cable and satellite providers to offer
a modified form of la carte programming or make other changes in the way they
operate.
Democratic Rep. Dan
Lipinski of Illinois, and Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska
introduced the measure.
Also supporting the
legislation is Kevin Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission,
a longtime advocate of so-called a la carte programming which would allow
parents more control over what their children watch.
A la carte
programming would allow consumers to pay for the channels they wish to receive.
The bill would force
cable and satellite television operators to comply with one of three options.
Companies could
offer an "opt-out" a la carte option, requiring them to make refunds
to consumers for unwanted channels in a programming package.
Under a second
option, cable operators could create a package of child-friendly programs, news
and sports that omits channels with more mature content.
The third option
would be for cable companies to comply with the same rules that govern
broadcasters, which are restricted from airing indecent material between 6 a.m.
and 10 p.m. Those restrictions do not now apply to cable or satellite services.
"Americans
deserve greater control over content and their cable bills," FCC Chairman
Martin said at a news conference with the lawmakers. "Our message today is
very simple: No consumer should have to pay for content they do not wish to
receive. Period."
To read entire
article:
http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/6/14/222757.shtml?s=us
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4. President Bush to
Veto Embryonic Stem Cell Research Bill Wednesday
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com
June 19, 2007
Washington, DC
(LifeNews.com) -- President Bush will veto a bill tomorrow that forces
taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research involving the destruction of
human life. This will be the second time the president has protected the
American people from a Congressional bill making the public pay for research
that destroys days-old unborn children.
Bush renewed the moral line he made with the previous bill in a statement
shortly before the House sent him the bill this time.
"American taxpayers would for the first time in our history be
compelled to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos," he
said. "For that reason I will veto'' the bill.
After Bush vetoes the bill, the Senate will have the first chance to
override it.
It approved the bill in April on a 63-34 with three Democrats who support
the measure absent at the time. The 66 vote total was one short of the
two-thirds needed to override the veto but, since that time, pro-life Sen.
Craig Thomas of Wyoming passed away.
Unless his seat is filled by the time the Senate votes on the override,
only 66 votes are needed to overturn Bush's veto and make the bill law.
If the Senate vote is successful, the House will follow suit on
attempting to override the veto, but backers of embryonic stem cell research
don't have enough votes.
The House voted 247-176 in support of S. 5 on June 7, which was more than
30 votes short of two-thirds.
Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat who was the lead sponsor of the
House bill, confirmed those numbers in an interview with Bloomberg News.
"We think we have 66'' votes in the Senate, she said. "So we
just need one more and then it will go to the House, where we are short but are
picking up more.''
To read entire
article:
http://www.lifenews.com/bio2145.html
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COMING EVENTS
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EIGHTH WORLD FAMILY POLICY FORUM
July 9 - 11, 2007
Provo, Utah
Sponsored by the World Family Policy Center, Brigham Young
University. The
theme for this year's Forum is "Achieving Development
without Losing Our Families."
Participation and attendance at the Forum is by invitation only. For further information, contact Sarah
Stewart 801-422-5192
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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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