"The World Turned Upside-Down" reportedly was the tune the British played when Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown. Perhaps close listeners could have heard the strains of the tune emanating from the Supreme Court last week.
Those who understand that marriage is the union of one man and one woman for purposes of natural procreation, child-rearing, and male-female complementarity were heartbroken by the specious constitutional and moral reasoning captured in the majority's opinion making same-sex unions legal nationwide.
The Court's rulings in Obergefell and the Affordable Care Act case jettisoned the text of the Constitution and institutionalized subjectivism as the only consistent interpretive grid the Supreme Court now applies to the nation’s charter text.
Many of the entries in this week’s Social Conservative Review address these two landmark decisions. Analysis is replete in conservative journals, magazines, and blog sites. Perhaps Justice Antonin Scalia offered the most penetrating summary of the implications of the rulings. Writing of Obergefell, Mr. Justice Scalia said:
Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court … This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves.
Speaking of 1776, FRC hopes you and your family have a glorious Fourth celebrating the many benefits of life in our beloved country. Although some of the foundational freedoms we have long enjoyed are under growing threat, we can look back on our long history with gratitude and our future with the confident knowledge that Jesus Christ remains Lord.
This truth transcends national boundaries, human endeavors, all time and all places. No court, human institution, or leader of any political party can ever change it.
Sincerely,
Rob Schwarzwalder
Senior Vice-President
Family Research Council
P.S. FRC President Tony Perkins and Senior Fellows Ken Blackwell and Peter Sprigg have been making the rounds of places like CBS, ABC, and CNN to discuss last week's rulings. Go to FRC's Newsroom to get their take on these historic events.
P.S.S. The nightmarish shootings South Carolina and the burning of several Black churches in the South have prompted renewed consideration of race among Christians nationwide. In "Taking the Charleston Shooting Personally," writer Hope E. Ferguson (the great-granddaughter and granddaughter of AME ministers) calls on her "brothers and sisters in Christ, be they white, black, brown, or any other color, would put down our differences at the foot of the cross." Amen.
Social Conservative Review
Human Dignity and the Sanctity of Life
Abortion
- States Have Passed 51 Pro-Life Laws This Year Saving Babies From Abortions – Life News
- Capping Off a Shameful Term, the Supreme Court Keeps Texas Abortion Clinics Open – National Review Online
- New Report Finds Abortions on the Rise at Planned Parenthood, While Women's Health Services Plummet- Townhall
- Iowa Supreme Court allows telemedicine abortion program to go on - Reuters
- Planned Parenthood in Washington, D.C. will close this month – Live Action news
- The UK Makes the Morning After Pill Available to Teens Too Young to Legally Have Sex – Life Site News
- WHO: “Sexual Health” Means Governments Must Provide Abortion and Sex Change – C-Fam
- For the First Time in 7 Years, U.S. Birth Rate Rises – Life Site News
Assisted Suicide
- Assisted Suicide Means the End of Medicine – The Federalist
- The Economist Pushes Death on Demand – National Review Online
- Assisted Suicide Bill Delayed as Uneasy Legislators Reconsider – Breitbart News Network
- Euthanasia ‘appropriate’ for woman with suicidal thoughts – Christian Institute
Bioethics
- Princeton Bioethics Professor Faces Calls for Resignation over Infanticide Support – Washington Times
- Leftover People – Ethika Politika
- ‘Souls on Ice’ and the Exploited Women Who Would Be Their Surrogate Mothers – National Review Online
Obamacare
- King v. Burwell pits Rule of Law against Rule by Decree - Claremont
- John Roberts’ Principled Mistake – City Journal
- On Obamacare, John Roberts helps overthrow the Constitution – Washington Post
- Supreme Court Disasters – Spectator
- King v. Burwell: What’s Next? – Galen.org
Marriage & Family
Economy and the family
- The Family: Agent of Economic Development and the Fundamental Safety Net – MARRI
- Our Dismal Economic Stagnation: Diagnosing the Slowest Recovery Since the Great Depression – Center for Vision and Values
- Births: Preliminary Data for 2014 - Center for Disease Control
- The debt is still a major threat – American Enterprise Institute
Fatherhood
- Study: TV depicts working-class fathers less able than middle-class dads - American Thinker
- Fatherhood and Marriage Bring Out the Best in Men – Daily Signal
- Fatherhood Changes Men for the Better -
Homosexuality and Gender Issues
- Why Four Justices Were Against the Supreme Court's Huge Gay-Marriage Decision – National Journal
- Four Reasons for the Supreme Court’s Marriage Decision – Townhall.com
- Mutilating Teenagers, to Thunderous Applause - National Review
- Four Short Observations about Justice Kennedy’s Opinion on Same-Sex Unions – FRC
- Christian Leaders Respond to Obergefell vs. Hodges: A Symposium - Breakpoint
- Some Conservatives Unconvincing Embrace of Same-Sex Marriage – The Atlantic
- A Contentious Final Day at the U.S. Supreme Court – The Atlantic
- How Religious Business Owners Could Protect themselves Against Gay Marriage Decision – Daily Signal
- Marriage at the Supreme Court: Post-Decision Analysis – Heritage Foundation
- Gay Pride, Augustine, and Us – Christian Post
- Transgenderism: A Pathogenic Meme – Public Discourse
- If Race and Gender Are Social Constructs, Why Not Sexual Orientation? – National Review
- Christian farm family penalized in gay wedding refusal decries ‘orchestrated set-up’ – Washington Times
- Number of Children Living In Same-Sex Couple Households, 2013 - National Center for Family and Marriage Research
- Demographic Profile of Same-Sex Couple Households with Minor Children, 2012 - National Center for Family and Marriage Research
- The Role of Same-sex Marriage in the Declining U.S. Marriage Rate - National Center for Family and Marriage Research
- Opening Our Eyes to Obergefell and Its Effects: A Pastoral, Cultural, and Legal Round-Up – David Schrock
- 15 Reasons ‘Marriage Equality’ Is About Neither Marriage Nor Equality- The Federalist
- With ruling on marriage equality, fight for gay families is next- LA Times
- Same-Sex Marriage Ruling is Another Roe v. Wade- Breitbart
- Things Are Going to Get Very Tough, Very Quickly, for the Church and Her Allies- National Catholic Register
- The Supreme Court Ratifies a New Civic Religion That Is Incompatible with Christianity - National Review Online
Marriage
- Four Reasons for the Supreme Court’s Marriage Decision - Townhall.com
- Association Between Divorce and Risks for Acute Myocardial Infarction - Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes
- 144 years of marriage and divorce in 1 chart - Randal S. Olson
Pornography
- A letter to my ex-husband, who preferred pornography to me – The Guardian
- Google Cracks Down on ‘Revenge Porn’ Under New Nudity Policy – New York Post
- One Last Thing: The Christian Porn Secret – Her.meneutics
Religious Liberty: Domestic
- The Supreme Court Ratifies a New Civic Religion That Is Incompatible with Christianity - National Review
- Religious Nonprofits, Plan Now For Tax-Exemption Battles - The Federalist
- Supreme Court Protects Religious Charities from Government Mandate - Becket Fund
- Attorney General Paxton: Religious Liberties of Texas Public Officials Remain Constitutionally Protected After Obergefell v. Hodges - Texas Attorney General’s Office
- Preserving Religious Liberty for All Texans - Texas Governor’s Office
- Sen. Lee and Faith Leaders Act to Defend Religious Liberty, Cite ‘Biblical Revelation' and Millennia of ‘Judeo-Christian Traditions – CNS News
- The Power Elite – First Things
Religious Liberty: International
- Total Depravity: Christian Carnage and Western Indifference – Human Events
- Fighting for the Ruins of Christian Iraq – CNN
- Save Sudan Pastors – Institute on Religion and Democracy
- Christians in Mideast Undergoing Systemic Persecution – Christian Today
Education
- Human Capital 101: Why does college enrollment boom when the economy goes bust? – Hoover Institution
- Are small, private online courses the future of higher education in America? – The Week
- You’ll Never Guess the Latest Victims of the Student Loan Crisis – TIME
Other Stories of Note
- Poverty and Welfare in the American Founding – The Heritage Foundation
- Religion of Peace Spreads its Good News – Spectator
- Peter Drucker’s Theology of Work – Open Biola
