World Family Policy Center Newsletter

Wayne Grudem, Ph.D., University of Cambridge , B.A., Harvard University, M.Div., Westminster Theological Seminary.

Dr. Grudem became Research Professor of Bible and Theology in 2001 after teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for 20 years. He has served as the president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, as President of the Evangelical Theological Society (1999), and as a member of the Translation Oversight Committee for the English Standard Version of the Bible.

He has written more than 100 articles for both popular and academic journals, and his books include: Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, The First Epistle of Peter (TNTC), Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, and Business for the Glory of God. (See: http://www.phoenixseminary.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=155)

He has also co-edited Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism.

Book Description

A controversy of major proportions has spread through the church. Recent generations bear witness to the rise of “evangelical feminism”—a movement that has had a profound impact on all of life, challenging some of our basic Christian beliefs.

In this new edition of [Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood] an influential and award-winning best-seller, more than twenty men and women have committed their talents to produce the most thorough response yet to this modern movement. Combining systematic argumentation with popular application, this volume deals with all of the main passages of Scripture brought forward in this controversy regarding gender-based role differences.

Anyone concerned with the fundamental question of the proper relationship between men and women in home, church, and society will want to read this book.

See: http://www.amazon.com/Recovering-Biblical-Manhood-Womanhood-Evangelical/dp/0891075860

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FEATURED NEWS ARTICLES

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1. Maine Middle School to Offer the Pill

Associated Press, Time.com in partnership with CNN

Oct. 17, 2007

(PORTLAND, Maine) — Pupils at a city middle school will be able to get birth control pills and patches at their student health center after the local school board approved the proposal Wednesday evening.

The plan, offered by city health officials, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

There are no national figures on how many middle schools, where most students range in age from 11 to 13, provide such services.

"It's very rare that middle schools do this," said Divya Mohan, a spokeswoman for the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care.

The Portland School Committee voted 5-2 for the measure.

Chairman John Coynie voted against it, saying he felt providing the birth control was a parental responsibility. The other no vote came from Ben Meiklejohn, who said the consent form does not clearly define the services being offered.

Opponents cited religious and health objections.

Diane Miller said she felt the plan was against religion and against God. Another opponent, Peter Doyle, said he felt it violated the rights of parents and puts students at risk of cancer because of hormones in the pill.

A supporter, Richard Verrier, said it's not enough to depend on parents to protect their children because there may be students who can't discuss things with their parents.

Condoms have been available since 2002 to King students who have parental permission to be treated at its student health center.

About one-fourth of student health centers that serve at least one grade of adolescents 11 and older dispense some form of contraception, said Mohan, whose Washington-based organization represents more than 1,700 school-based centers nationwide.

To read entire article:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1672782,00.html

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2. Muslim scholars reach out to Pope

BBC News, October 12, 2007

More than 130 Muslim scholars have written to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders urging greater understanding between the two faiths.

The letter says that world peace could depend on improved relations between Muslims and Christians.

It identifies the principles of accepting only one god and living in peace with one's neighbours as common ground between the two religions.

It also insists that Christians and Muslims worship the same god.

The letter comes on the anniversary of an open letter issued to the Pope last year from 38 top Muslim clerics, after he made a controversial speech on Islam.

Pope Benedict sparked an uproar in September last year by quoting a medieval text which linked Islam to violence.

The letter coincides with the Eid al-Fitr celebrations to mark the end of Ramadan.

Koran and Bible

It was also sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the heads of the Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist churches, the Orthodox Church's Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I and other Orthodox Patriarchs.

The letter, entitled A Common Word Between Us and You, compares passages in the Koran and the Bible, concluding that both emphasise "the primacy of total love and devotion to God", and the love of the neighbour.

With Muslims and Christians making up more than half the world's population, the letter goes on, the relationship between the two religious communities is "the most important factor in contributing to meaningful peace around the world".

To read entire article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7038992.stm

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3. 'Mom' and 'Dad' banished by California

Schwarzenegger signs law outlawing terms perceived as negative to 'gays'

October 13, 2007
WorldNetDaily.com

"Mom and Dad" as well as "husband and wife" effectively have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose.

"We are shocked and appalled that the governor has blatantly attacked traditional family values in California," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute.

"With this decision, Gov. Schwarzenegger has told parents that their values are irrelevant. Many parents will have no choice but to pull their children out of the public schools that have now become sexualized indoctrination centers."

"Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered young children into the hands of those who will introduce them to alternative sexual lifestyles," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, which worked to defeat the plans. "This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms.

"Shame on Schwarzenegger and the Democrat politicians for ensuring that every California school becomes a homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination center," he said.

To read entire article:

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58130

Related Article: California 'Mom,' 'Dad' ban garners international scorn

World Congress of Families condemns promotion of 'polymorphous perversion'

By Bob Unruh

WorldNetDaily.com, Posted: October 17, 2007

An international organization promoting families says California families have no choice but to abandon the public school system after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new "anti-discrimination" bill into law, effectively making terms like "mom" and dad" obsolete.

As WND has reported, some family advocates in California already had come to the same conclusion as that reached now by the World Congress of Families.

World Congress of Families Global Coordinator Allan Carlson said the measure, SB 777, is "a blatant attack on the natural family orchestrated by the alternative-lifestyles lobby."

The exodus call had been issued just one day earlier by Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families. "We're calling upon every California parent to pull their child out of California's public school system," he told WND.

"The so-called 'public schools' are no longer a safe emotional environment for children. Under the new law, schoolchildren as young as kindergarten will be sexually indoctrinated and introduced to homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality, over the protests of parents, teachers and even school districts," he said.

The law at issue went through the California legislature as SB 777, and now bans in school texts and activities any discriminatory bias against those who have chosen alternative sexual lifestyles, Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for Capitol Resource Institute, said.

The World Congress noted the law prohibits "instruction" or "activity" that is perceived to "promote a discriminatory bias" against "gender," including cross-dressing and sex-change operations as well as "so-called sexual orientation."

"It will prohibit anything that suggests that the natural family – a man and a woman, married, with children – is normal or typical," said Carlson. "Thus, under this latest advance toward a Brave New World of polymorphous perversion, California textbooks will no longer be able to use words like 'mother and father' and 'husband and wife,' because they suggest that heterosexuality is the norm – even though that is manifestly the case, even in California."

The organization's statement called it "unbelievable" that teachers and students who oppose same-sex marriage and suggest homosexuality isn't innate, or disapprove of cross-dressing and sex-change operations, could be disciplined as "harassers," and students may use the restrooms designated for the gender with which they identify.

"California parents who don't want to see their children subjected to gender indoctrination will now have no alternative but to withdraw from the public education system – which they will be required to fund, nonetheless," Carlson said.

To read entire article:

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58185

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4. Joining Trend, Bulgaria Won’t Allow Prostitution

The New York Times, Published: October 6, 2007

By NICHOLAS KULISH

SOFIA, Bulgaria - Oct. 5 — The Bulgarian government, which had been planning to legalize prostitution, abruptly reversed itself on Friday, part of a broad trend in Europe to impose bans as a way to combat sexual trafficking.

“We should be very definite in saying that selling flesh is a crime,” Rumen Petkov, the interior minister, said at a forum on human trafficking on Friday, also attended by the president, the minister of justice and the United States ambassador to Bulgaria.

Bulgaria is only the latest European country to shift its approach to prostitution. Finland last year made it illegal to buy sex from women brought in by traffickers, and Norway is on the verge of imposing an outright ban on purchasing sex.

Even in Amsterdam, the city government has proposed shutting down more than a quarter of the famed storefront brothels in the red-light district. And in the Czech Republic and the three Baltic republics, attempts at legalization similar to the Bulgarian one have been turned back.

Prostitution now exists in a legal gray area in Bulgaria, a small but important country for the European sex trade. Women are sent abroad by the thousands each year to work as prostitutes, often against their will, and many others are forced into prostitution within the country’s borders.

Opponents of legal prostitution argue that illegal operations flourish in environments where paying for sex is permitted, and that human trafficking follows the demand. The goal of prohibiting sex-for-money is to reduce the demand, and thus curtail trafficking if not stamp it out entirely.

“It has turned around,” said Gunilla Ekberg, formerly a special adviser to the Swedish government on the subject and now a co-executive director of the nonprofit Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-International. “There’s a recognition, both politically and in civil society, that Bulgaria is not going to be a haven for prostitution.”

The fight against legal prostitution has been led by an unusual coalition, including the Bush administration, feminist groups and the Swedish government. Proponents of measures like the Swedish model, which punishes customers rather than the prostitutes, say it has succeeded in Europe precisely because it singles out those who pay for sex without criminalizing those who provide it. The prostitutes, mostly women, are the real victims of the transactions, the proponents say.

While increasingly appealing, the Swedish model is hardly the only one. The Hungarian government announced last month that it would give entrepreneur permits to prostitutes to help bring them into the legal economy and collect tax revenues.

The most common arguments against the Swedish model are those long used in the legalization debate: because prostitution is all but impossible to eradicate, it is better to keep it in the open, with some control.

Even if it is not a crime for the women, critics say, they still must hide to protect their clients. “If they make prostitution illegal, it will go much more underground, more inaccessible for services and help, for police and for protection,” said Nadia Kozhouharova, a psychotherapist who works with abused women, including victims of trafficking, through a Sofia group, the Animus Association.

On the streets of Sofia, several women engaged in prostitution said they took advantage of the distribution of condoms and the free health checkups now available. A 23-year-old woman, who declined to give her name to keep her family from finding out about her occupation, said that she preferred working on the street rather than from a brothel, because she could make a judgment about whether to go with a client.

“If you’re in a club, you go to addresses and you don’t know what will happen,” she said through an interpreter. “They may beat you.”

To read entire article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/world/europe/06bulgaria.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

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5. Austria holds first divorce fair

BBC News, October 18, 2007

Austria is to host the world's first "divorce fair" this month, aimed at helping couples untie the knot as painlessly as possible.

The event, taking place in Vienna, then Linz and Graz, will allow would-be divorcees to consult lawyers about their rights and seek advice.

The divorce rate in Austria hit an all time high of 50% in 2006, with 66% of marriages in Vienna ending in divorce.

The two-day fair is being held under the motto "New beginning".

The Vienna event takes place over 27-28 October, with Saturday reserved for men, and Sunday for women, so couples can avoid awkward encounters and retain a degree of anonymity.

Organiser Anton Barz says it is a world first and hopes it will become a twice-yearly event.

"Until now, I organised wedding fairs but while talking to associations and lawyers who told me about the difficulties of divorce, I had this idea," he said.

Up to 20 exhibitors have registered so far, not only lawyers and mediators, but also estate agents, life-crisis experts, private detective firms and DNA laboratories offering paternity tests.

To read entire article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7049224.stm

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6. Planned Parenthood facing 107 criminal charges

Judge finds probable cause for counts citing illegal abortions

WorldNetDaily.com, Posted: October 17, 2007

A 107-count criminal complaint has been filed against a Planned Parenthood operation in Kansas, alleging its operators not only failed to diagnose required conditions for late-term abortions but also performed illegal abortions and provided false information about them.

"Yippie," said Cheryl Sullenger, a spokeswoman for the nearby Wichita-based Operation Rescue. "This is what we've been saying all along, that they've been breaking the law."

The complaint was filed by Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline, who said in a prepared statement that he would not be commenting on the case against the Olathe business.

But the statement noted that the counts against Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri were reviewed by Johnson County District Judge James Vano, who found probable cause on each count.

The corporation has been ordered to appear in court on Nov. 16, and if convicted on all counts could face more than $2.5 million in potential fines, officials said.

WND attempts to obtain a comment from Planned Parenthood were unsuccessful. But Peter Brownlie, the organization's president, told the Associated Press he's heard nothing about the charges.

"We always provide high-quality care in full accord with state and federal law," he told AP.

"This is the first step in obtaining justice for the preborn children and finally putting abortions and the abortion cartel behind bars," said Operation Rescue's Troy Newman. "This is vindication for the pro-life movement and all the work that pro-lifers have done throughout the years to expose the lies and criminal activities of the likes of Planned Parenthood."

He said he expects other investigations in other jurisdictions now to result. "We're going to be demanding it," he told WND. "If you don't comport with national Planned Parenthood policies … you're not a Planned Parenthood."

And if there is a conviction, he suggested the financial penalties could go far beyond the impact of the fines. The hundreds of millions of federal tax dollars given each year to Planned Parenthood are tied to a requirement that state and local laws be followed. Absent compliance with those laws could trigger a forfeiture of those funds, he noted.

The organization is facing 23 felony counts of "Making a False Information" and a total of 84 misdemeanor counts. Those include 26 of "Unlawful Failure to Maintain Record," 29 of "Unlawful Failure to Determine Viability for a Late-Term Abortion," and 29 of "Unlawful Late-Term Abortion."

To read entire article:

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58206

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COMING EVENTS

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NINTH WORLD FAMILY POLICY FORUM

July 7 - 9, 2008

Provo, Utah

Sponsored by the World Family Policy Center, Brigham Young University. 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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