The Social Conservative Review: January 16, 2014

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Next week, America commemorates a grim anniversary: It was on January 22, 1973 that the Supreme Court opened the doors to legalized elective abortion-on-demand with its decision in Roe v. Wade.

The historic teaching of the Christian faith is that personhood begins at the moment of conception. Consider some quotes from a widely diverse group of theologians:

Clement of Alexandria, church father (circa 150 - 215 AD): "Abortion is killing human life that is under God's care, design and providence."

John Calvin, Protestant Reformer: "...the unborn, though enclosed in the womb of his mother, is already a human being, and it is an almost monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy."

Orthodox Church in America: "Because we believe that each of us is willed to be, by God, we cannot accept the belief that the humanity which starts at conception is accidental, or has no value ... Every life is valued infinitely by God. This includes the life of the unborn child."

And last but certainly not least, the media's favorite "liberal," Pope Francis:

Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenseless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases ... the Church cannot be expected to change her position on this question.

Protecting the unborn and their vulnerable mothers has always been, and always will be, essential to Christian faith. The Apostle Peter, in one of the earliest sermons ever given, called Jesus "the Prince of Life" (Acts 3:15). Let's keep working to honor that glorious title as we celebrate and defend the precious lives He creates.

Sincerely,

Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice President
Family Research Council

P.S. Listen to two of America's leading pro-life champions, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and FRC's own Dr. Pat Fagan, discuss some of the latest developments in the pro-life movement here.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• "This Is What Happens When A Kid Leaves Traditional Education," Collective Evolution
• "Committee on the Rights of the Child: More regulations on homeschooling," The Jerusalem Post
• "Major Victory for Homeschool Military Enlistees," Home School Legal Defense Association
• "Don't Destroy This Family," National Review Online

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "Common Core Math Doesn't Add Up," Family Research Council
• "Higher Education's Internet Revolution," The American
• "Let's not underestimate undermatch," American Enterprise Institute
• "The Proven Way to Fight Income Inequality: Education," The Atlantic
• "Cantor Hits Critics of Expanding School Choice," Education Week
• "You know it's been a long time since NCLB reauthorization when...," Thomas B. Fordham Institute
• "Politics versus Education," The American Spectator

College Debt

• "Here's Exactly How Much the Government Would Have to Spend to Make Public College Tuition-Free," The Atlantic
• "Degrees of Value: Making College Pay Off," The Wall Street Journal
• "How I made sure all 12 of my kids could pay for college themselves," Quartz

Government Reform
Regulation

• "Happy 42,014 New Government Regulations*," Townhall.com
• "Happy New Year! Feds list 141 new regulations in only three days," The Daily Caller

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "Oklahoma Senator Coburn Testifies About Government Waste," KGOU
• "Top 10 moments of government waste from 2013," Townhall.com

Health Care
Abstinence

• "Celibacy as Political Resistance," First Things
• "Dems eye abstinence education funding," The Hill
• "Chastity for charity," MercatorNet

Health care reform: ACA/Obamacare

• "The death of Obamacare's death spiral," The Washington Post
• "Living Poor and Uninsured in a Red State," The Atlantic
• "Do the Little Sisters of the Poor Have a Case Against Obamacare?," US News and World Report
• "ObamaCare's Rude Awakening for the Young," The Wall Street Journal
• "Little Sisters of the Poor and Obamacare's contraceptive mandate," MercatorNet
• "Re-Imagining the Doctor," The Hudson Institute
• "At-A-Glance: Public Vs. Private Sector Health Care," The Acton Institute

Homosexuality

• "Quiz: What percentage of Americans live in states where thepeople have voted to redefine marriage?," Family Research Council
• "Scientific Groupthink and Gay Parenting," The American
• "Utah won't recognize 1000+ gay 'marriages' contracted after judge struck down marriage amendment," LifeSiteNews
• "At last, a President who is tough on gay marriage! But in Ecuador?," MercatorNet
• "Supreme Court Stops Utah's Homosexual "Marriage" Imbroglio - For Now ," Touchstone Magazine

Abortion

• "The human population unbound," Current History
• "Shouldn't They Know Better?," DesiringGod
• "When Is an Abortion Not an Abortion? When the Media Says So." American Thinker
• "One-quarter of all women seeking an abortion were abused, new study finds," LifeSiteNews
• "CDC: U.S. Fertility Rate Hits Record Low for 2nd Straight Year; 40.7% of Babies Born to Unmarried Women," CNSNews.com
• "Sugar and Spice and ... Sex-Selective Abortions?," The Public Discourse
• "Washington taxpayer appeals dismissal of case against Planned Parenthood," Live Action News
• "We Need a Real Women's Agenda, Not Government-Funded Abortion," The Public Discourse
• "Actively engaged in the abortion battle," WORLD Magazine
• "Taxpayer-Funded Abortions And Obamacare," The Acton Institute
• "Supreme Court justices question size of buffer zones around Mass. abortion clinics," The Washington Post

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "Gelernter Defends Human Exceptionalism," National Review Online
• "Defending human dignity and democracy in Europe," MercatorNet
• ""Reprotech" Ushers in a New Eugenic Age," Crisis Magazine

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• "A moral 'right' to die?," Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
• "Belgium Protest: Stop the extension of euthanasia to children," National Right to Life News

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC's Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• "Nestle Will Test Health Foods on Human Brain Cells," Time
• "Scientists control cells following transplantation, from the inside out," Phys.org
• "Stem cell replacement for common age-related blindness," MedicalXpress
• "Belgian Clinic Repairs Bones Using Stem Cells From Fatty Tissue," The Huffington Post

Human Trafficking

• "New Jersey cracks down on sex trafficking ahead of Super Bowl," Chicago Tribune
• "Group uses online ads to map sex trafficking," USA Today

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "Couple who are just friends allowed to adopt, judge says in landmark ruling," New York Daily News
• "Adopting families and the Congo," Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

Family Economics

• "50 Years In, War on Poverty Needs New Strategy," The American
• "If You Really Care About Ending Poverty, Stop Talking About Inequality," The Atlantic
• "Out of Work, Out of Money," National Review Online
• "How Rival Is Your Marriage?," Library of Economics and Liberty
• "How to Fight Income Inequality: Get Married," The Wall Street Journal
• "The War on Poverty at Fifty: How to Craft Policy to Help America's Poor," The Public Discourse

Family Structure

• "Fatherless Churches," First Things
• "Marriage Is a Matter of Definition," First Things
• "Why Boys Flounder," The Philantrophy Roundtable
• "Marriage for single mothers no panacea in the war on poverty," American Enterprise Institute
• "The only time Jesus ever failed: Mature conversations about marriage, re-marriage, same-sex marriage," Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
• "Taking outsourced parenting to a whole new level," MercatorNet
• "The State Marriage Defense Act," The Public Discourse
• "Gender-Neutral Dating," National Review Online
• "How Parents can turn Frozen's Big Twist into a Teachable Moment," The Atlantic

Media
Pornography

• "Resources to Help You Fight Pornography," Family Research Council
• "'Deseret News Sunday Edition' looks at adolescents and pornography, getting rid of clutter and the beauty advantage," Deseret News
• "When Women Lust," The Gospel Coalition

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "DOD Reviewing Its 'Equal Opportunity' Training--After Anti-Christian Materials Exposed," CNSNews.com
• "Seeking Accommodation," National Review Online
• "Sex, Drugs, and Religious Liberty," The Public Discourse
• "The First Amendment be Damned: Evolution and the Threat to Religious Liberty," The Christian Post
• "Why Such Hostility About Religious Liberty?," The Acton Institute
• "Religious liberty wins out, sort of, in Georgia school district," OneNewsNow
• "Free Speech Zone: Florida State Capitol Rotunda Hosts Epiphany Cross Display and Ceremony," Thomas More Society
• "Religious Hostilities Reach Six-Year High," Pew Forum

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton's feature on Watchmen Pastors called "The Lost Episodes," featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• "Forgiveness and Spiritual Freedom," First Things
• "A Biblical Exploration of Eternal Life...," The Cripplegate
• "Alone Again?," The Center for Vision and Values
• "Faith and the World," The Catholic Thing

Secularism

• "Does secularism shrink America's religious soul?," VailDaily
• "When Atheists Are Angry at God," The Gospel Coalition
• "The Right Side of History," The New Criterion
• "Abandoning the Christian Values that Make America Exceptional," The Christian Post

International
Israel

• "Why This Boycott Is Not Like the Others," The Weekly Standard
• "Israel and the death of pan-Arabism," CarolineGlick.com
• "Palestinians Move to Breach Process," Commentary Magazine

International Economy and Family

• "Europe in deflation denial," AEIdeas.org
• "Saudi Arabia: Now Slightly Less Terrible for Women," Foreign Policy
• "China Cracks the Whip," The American Interest
• "What is going on in South Sudan?," MercatorNet

Religious Persecution

• "Senate Action on Special Envoy Bill Could Aid Iraq's Religious Minorities," Family Research Council
• "Edict of Milan, Forever?," The Hudson Institute
• "Christians Persecution Deaths Doubled Last Year," The American Interest
• "Christian Courage in Syria," National Review Online
• "Reported Christian 'martyr' deaths double in 2013: report," Reuters

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "Does Obamacare Violate the Constitution?," The FedSoc Blog
• "The Constitution's Structural Limitations On Power Should Be the Focus of the Bill of Rights," The Library of Law and Liberty
• "IRS Needs Strong, Systematic Investigation, Not a Biased Appointee," Thomas More Society
• "A Moment of High Constitutional Candor," Commentary Magazine

Other Issues

• "From a Lost World," First Things
• "Millennials Are Tiring of Liberal Failures," National Review Online
• "Marijuana Legalization: What Would Aquinas Really Say?," Crisis Magazine
• "A Tale of Two Mayors," City Journal

Book reviews

• "The Poisonous Fruit Of The Randian Sexual Paradise," Mere Orthodoxy
• "Book Review: 'The New School' by Glenn Harlan Reynolds," The Acton Institute
• "Land's End," Claremont Review of Books
• "Silence," The Gospel Coalition