World Family Policy Center Newsletter

Stanton L. Jones is provost and professor of psychology at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. During his tenure as chair of the psychology department (1984-1996), he led the development of Wheaton's Doctor of Psychology program in clinical psychology. He received his B.S. in psychology from Texas A & M University in 1976, and his M.A. (1978) and Ph.D. (1981) degrees in clinical psychology from Arizona State University. He is a member of the American Psychological Association and served on the Council of Representatives, the central governing body of the APA, representing the Psychology of Religion division from 1999 to 2001. In 1994 he was named a Research Fellow of the Evangelical Scholars Program of the Pew Foundation. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Divinity School of the University of Cambridge and a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, for the 1995-1996 academic year.

Jones authored the lead article, "Religion and Psychology," for the Encyclopedia of Psychology, jointly published in 2000 by the American Psychological Association and Oxford University Press. His article in the March 1994 American Psychologist, titled "A Constructive Relationship for Religion with the Science and Profession of Psychology: Perhaps the Best Model Yet," was a call for greater respect for and cooperation with religion by secular psychologists. Jones has also written, with his wife, Brenna, a five-book series on sex education in the Christian family called God's Design for Sex. He is also the coauthor of Modern Psychotherapies (with Richard E. Butman) and Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in the Church's Moral Debate (with Mark A. Yarhouse) and editor of Psychology and Christianity: Four Views. He has published many other professional and popular articles and chapters.

New Book by Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse: Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation

Author statement regarding the research for this new book (from http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000005470.cfm):

The research on change is very complicated. Over the years, there have actually been dozens of studies conducted suggesting that change is possible for some people. However, the research is not of the highest quality and has been deeply and highly criticized. So, we first studied all the criticisms of those studies to look at what a high-quality study would look like, concluding that our proper methodology would need to be both prospective and longitudinal. Prospective means that you catch people before they begin the change process and follow them through the process, while longitudinal means that you’re actually following people over time to see if the change is stable. The scientific characteristics of the study are unique, in that no one has ever started early and then followed people over a long period of time like we did.

We then went out to a variety of ministries and asked for research volunteers that we could track over time. We then conducted long, detailed interviews with them at three stages: as they began the change process, a year and a half later, and again, a year and a half after that. In our new book, we’re reporting on the changes we observed in these subjects over roughly a three-year period.

http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/author.pl/author_id=386

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FEATURED NEWS ARTICLES

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1. State's same-sex marriage ban upheld

By Tom LoBianco, Washington Times, September 18, 2007

ANNAPOLIS — The state's highest court today upheld a state law banning homosexual marriage.

The Maryland Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that would have allowed homosexuals to marry, upholding a 1973 state ban that limits marriage to one man and one woman.

Four judges on the seven-member panel ruled that the state's equal protection clause did not apply to sexual orientation. Three judges dissented.

To read entire article:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/METRO/109180095/1001

Related Article: Million voters overruled by 54 lawmakers

Deadline approaches for petitions to keep traditional marriage

WorldNetDaily.com, September 14, 2007

For 148 years Oregon has recognized marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and voters four times have addressed the issue, most recently in 2004 when they collected more than a million votes and by a substantial 57-43 percent margin decided to keep traditional marriage.

But 54 state lawmakers and a Democratic governor, Ted Kulongoski, have rejected the expressed will of the people to approve and sign into law House Bill 2007 and Senate Bill 2 this year, opponents say.

The two laws make up a combination that bestows on same-sex couples all the rights given married couples, critics said, and provides vast new legal power for those who choose homosexual, bisexual, or other alternative lifestyles in their newly designated status as protected minorities.

There must have been at least some concern about the mandate from citizens about marriage, because the newest incarnations include a requirement for a public education program, which horrified opponents say specifically seeks to change the attitudes of those who don't support homosexual duos.

Marylin Shannon, a former state lawmaker, is working with Let Oregon Vote, one of the multiple family-oriented groups that have taken on the goal of collecting nearly 55,000 petition signatures (actually 55,179) to bring those legislative votes before the people of Oregon.

She said Oregonians have never given a million votes to any other issue or candidate, yet the Legislature went ahead with its moral agenda anyway.

Now, she said, a Sept. 26 deadline is fast approaching for the petition signatures to be assembled and presented to the state, for a determination on whether the people of that state will get their way, or whether the politicians will impose a change that has been described as "transforming."

"Thirty-four of 36 counties said, 'We want marriage to be between one man and one woman,'" Shannon told WND. "But the legislators from Portland put their values on the whole state."

To read entire article:

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57638

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2. The Abortion Wars Hit Illinois

By Steven Gray, Time Magazine, September 17, 2007

In Illinois today, a federal judge is expected to hear an intriguing argument in the abortion debate. At issue: Is Aurora, Ill., a city of nearly 175,000 about an hour's drive west of Chicago, trying to stop Tuesday's scheduled opening of the nation's largest Planned Parenthood clinic because of political pressure from anti-abortion activists? Or was the clinic's true nature — that is, its Planned Parenthood genesis — not readily apparent to city officials when they originally approved permits for the building? Or is it a bit of both? The case is already one of the most heated in the nation's grassroots abortion wars, and protests in Aurora this past weekend drew hundreds of anti-abortion demonstrators.

Crisis pregnancy centers are fielding an anti-abortion guerrilla army to win over one woman at a time. Are they playing fair?

The story began last winter, when Gemini Office Development LLC applied to build a 22,000-square-foot clinic on land zoned for medical use. The design's details included surgical rooms and various security features, such as bullet-proof glass. Construction proceeded. In July, however, local newspapers reported that Gemini is, in fact, a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood's local branch. Still, in August, the city routinely issued a temporary permit allowing the $7.5 million clinic to open on Sept. 18 with just two relatively minor provisions: install more exit signs, as well as glass at service counters. There seemed to be little legal questions about it at the time: It is normal for commercial concerns to use subsidiaries to conduct business and set up offices.

Of course, Planned Parenthood is not just a company. And abortion opponents in this historically conservative suburb abutting cornfields were outraged. An assortment of groups, including churches, organized around-the-clock protests outside the clinic, which is tucked between a supermarket, a Blockbuster Video, and a cluster of upscale homes. The debate embroiled this city as has few other issues: City council meetings began drawing hundreds of abortion opponents.

And so, amid the outcry over alleged inconsistencies in the application and testimony of Planned Parenthood's executives, Aurora city officials announced on Aug. 30 that the clinic's opening would depend on a fresh review of its building permit. "These concerns were raised once this became high-profile, and people began looking back at the process," says Carie Anne Ergo, the city's spokeswoman. Last Wednesday, the city told Planned Parenthood it "had no intention of allowing you to open for business," according to court documents. On Thursday Sept 13, Planned Parenthood responded with a lawsuit in U.S. District Court attempting to block the city's efforts to stop the clinic's opening, saying it was rooted in discrimination because the clinic would perform abortions.

To read entire article:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1662487,00.html

Related Article: States Chip Away at Abortion

CitizenLink, September 10. 2007

State lawmakers will begin pre-filing bills in the next couple of weeks for legislative sessions that open in January, and in most states, pro-life lawmakers will file parental-notification, clinic-regulation and informed-consent legislation.

In South Carolina, senators soon will consider a bill requiring that women seeking an abortion be given and allowed to see ultrasounds of their preborn babies. Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, said the bill has bipartisan support.

“We have a Legislature that’s relatively conservative," he told Family News in Focus, "The vote that was taken by the South Carolina House on the measure back in the spring was overwhelmingly in favor of the bill.”

Because of South Carolina's efforts to restrict and regulate abortion, the state now has only three abortion clinics. The news is even better in Mississippi, where Forest Thigpen of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy said the state’s last abortion clinic is hanging by a thread.

“We’ve required minors to get permission from their parents; we’ve required the clinics to have strong regulations, strong protections for the women who come in," he said. “All of that together has, I think, had a tremendous impact on the number of clinics and the number of abortions.”

Denise Burke, an attorney with Americans United for Life, said there’s a virtual avalanche of incremental abortion restrictions descending on state houses.

To read entire article:

http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000005437.cfm

Related Article: Pregnancy Center Group to Provide Abortion Alternatives in Philadelphia

by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com, September 10, 2007

Philadelphia, PA -- A national pregnancy center organization is teaming up with local charitable groups in Philadelphia to provide women with crisis pregnancies another option besides abortion. The project is part of an effort by Care Net to reach out to minority communities that are heavily targeted by abortion businesses.

Despite the pro-life heritage in African-American communities across the nation, black women account for 13 percent of the American population but 37 percent of all abortions.

The rates appear to correspond with the expansion of Planned Parenthood abortion centers into racial minority communities.

In Philadelphia alone, one part of town features five abortion centers within a two-mile square radius, and that's where Care Net officials hope to team up with former Philadelphia Eagle player and current pastor Herbert Lusk to build a new pregnancy center.

The collaborative effort is part of Care Net's "Touchdown Cities" project, an initiative to bring free pregnancy services to women and men in urban areas

"Without convenient access to the free and compassionate help of pregnancy centers, women in crisis pregnancies often feel that abortion is their only option," Lorey Kelley, Care Net's Director of Urban Center Development, tells LifeNews.com. "As a result, women in urban areas are paying the heavy price."

The statistics, she said, bear that out.

"Currently, 94% of all abortion providers are located in metropolitan areas, with 70% of these in urban communities," Kelley explained.

"As a result, African American and Hispanic women account for a disproportionate number of the more than 1.2 million abortions performed in the United States each year. There's something wrong with this picture," Kelley added.

To read entire article:

http://www.lifenews.com/state2477.html

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3. World Leaders Gather for First International Anti-Euthanasia Conference

by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com, September 10, 2007

Toronto, Canada -- Leaders from organizations across the globe that are dedicated to battling assisted suicide and euthanasia will gather for the first International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide at the end of November. Top speakers and activists will address current issues and the future direction of the movement.

"Euthanasia and assisted suicide have become the social issues of the 21st century," says Alex Schadenburg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Canada.

He tells LifeNews.com that the conference will address what is happening in the battle to stop the spread of these grisly practices, "why is assisted suicide a threat to vulnerable people," and "what we need to do to turn the tide and keep 'mercy' killing illegal."

Internationally-known speakers from as far away as Britain, the Netherlands and Germany will appear at the conference.

The symposium isn't limited to pro-life groups, but will include key disability rights activists such as Alison Davis of the British-based group No Less Human and Diane Coleman, the founder of Not Dead Yet, an American organization for the disabled.

Rita Marker, executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, talked with CitizenLink about the conference.

She said organizers have to be concerned about how legal assisted suicide has spread from Europe to the state of Oregon and now around the world.

To read entire article:

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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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